D&D General Adventurers a distasteful necessity

[tetrasodium]

It's goo for a world to kinda have a healthy mistrust and be uncomfortable with adventures as a kid whole but it also says something very weird about the world if not.

The average party of adventures is rarely fer from this:

Spoiler

You've in a gas station getting some coffee nid road Trip when a military grade attack helicopter lands but pump 3 and three drones that look straight out of Hollywood's the wildest special effects on either side of the door... Oh wow those are big guns pointing at you the clerk and... Why is it following the spinny mixing thing on the slurpee machine. Six heavily armed guys make their way back n from the helicopter to the same gas station you are in where they actually try to hide their rocket launchers sniper rifles and machine guns behind their back while trying to negotiate a discount on their hot dig/slurpee combos. Sure they are decked out in full kevlar... Why does the kevlar have neon lighting on the riot shield and why did he think you could help him find some hellfire missiles? Why did he think waving that knife around would "jog your memory!?!? Is that other one bragging about dealing with corruption at the mayor's house for why the slurpee should be 50cents cheaper?

 

[el-remmen]

I have run games where what the OP describes is very much the case in many places, but at the same time the history and culture of a place can change the degree or the specifics of the dislike/distrust - and I try to keep that in mind.

In my current setting, in urban areas where adventurers are less seldomly needed but where bards make their name off embellishing the tales of various famous adventurers, they might be lauded and treated like celebrities - but out in the more frontier areas and borderlands the shades of gray in many adventurers' behavior and outlook makes reactions to them a lot murkier and varied.

 

[el-remmen]

Oh and back when I used to run all my games "living world" style in Aquerra, there was one town (Nikar) where in one of the earliest campaigns I ran there, the PCs got into a fight with a rival adventuring party, leading to some serious property destruction and loss of life. Later, when during my "Out of the Frying Pan" campaign, a different party of PCs visited there, they not only noticed the recent new construction and repairs on some building, they received the cold shoulder from a lot of residents, and a stern warning from the captain of the townguard about being expected to not walk around with weapons or to use a peaceknot if they must, and the harsh and immediate consequences for those who bring "adventuring troubles" into town with them or tries to use charming magic, etc. ..

 

[aco175]

Fear is always a great motivator. The peasants fear both the monsters and the PCs ever since the farmer's uncle Jim went off and never came back. Must have been trolls that ate his bones and him poor ma never got over it. Oh look, here are some mean men with big swords that just killed that troll that got poor Jimbo, they must be dangerous. I wonder when they are leaving so I can go back to not being afraid.

Are adventurers more like local police, boy scouts, a biker gang, a drug gang, an army squad, Nazis, take your pick. They could be a lot of things depending on the make up and day.

 

[Bill Zebub]

They bring trouble with them: Monsters, curses, bandits, and dark forces often follow adventurers. A village might think: “If these people show up, something terrible must be nearby. ”Even if the adventurers solve the problem, the collateral damage can be enormous.

"Everywhere Doctors Without Borders go, trouble just seems to follow."
--The Onion

 

[Reynard]

I'm reminded of the article on The Alexandrian about "Calibrating Your Expectations". I think that, in Session 0, there ought to be a discussion about what the Players are expecting to get out of the adventures and what they want to see. If you want a world where things are more "realistic" then consideration to how Classes have, and do, play a part in the world as a whole needs to be there.

The PCs can never be the only people with Classes; this isn't just bad world building it makes literally no sense. Wizard Academies tend to exist. There are surely other Clerics out there (not to mention Fighters, Rogues, Bards, and so on). With the realities of magic and the Classes, societies would have adapted around them. There could be a lot of expectations--but there are also likely contingency plans.

While the PC wizard is likely not the only wizard in the world, that doesn't mean that you have to build your NPC wizards using the class. NPC statblocks should be different than PC character sheets, both because of real world practicality and in-fiction reasons.

 

[TheSword]

if everyone hates them and never changes to the players who act reasonably towards them then there is a problem and it just makes people apathetic. Better to mix it up as realistically, not everyone is terminally unpleasant to be near.

I think this is key. The big benefit to this approach is that the NPCs that have genuine warmth and understanding towards the party become beacons that the party will really appreciate.

Also worth saying that I don’t think adventurers to be hated for this approach to work. Feared, mistrusted or distasteful is enough for it to work. It’s also worth remembering that necessity, the desire to make money and self interest would obviously trump this.

 

[TheSword]

I doubt that all of the locals are going to see an adventurer as a threat to their wellbeing. Some of them might look up at their adventurer and see them as an inspiration or as a source of information about the world beyond their point of light.

Besides, if everyone hated and feared them, why would some individuals become an adventurer in the first place?

Well the truth is that other outsiders and the marginalized would be more likely to
Identify with them.

 

[Tonguez]

Adventurers are mercenaries and while they are great to have available when Dark Lords begin gathering minions or the monsters are marauding, nobody wants to keep having to pay them once the threats are past. Especially as mercenaries left idle and unpaid can quickly turn to brigands - there's a fine line between grateful shopkeepers giving free stuff and wary shopkeepers feeling extorted

 

[Indagare Nogitsune]

While the PC wizard is likely not the only wizard in the world, that doesn't mean that you have to build your NPC wizards using the class. NPC statblocks should be different than PC character sheets, both because of real world practicality and in-fiction reasons.

Yes, but this is also my point. People seem to be treating Adventurers as if they're something the world hasn't had before or as if they have to be outsiders. There's genuinely no reason Bob the Farmer can't be a Fighter of some level and just much prefers being at his farm to going out in the world.