Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="haakon1" data-source="post: 4316957" data-attributes="member: 25619">For what it's worth (nothing):-- I like encounters with guards, both as a DM and a player.  As a DM, it's a chance to ask the player how he/she presents the character to NPC's.  This is important for beginning players, as part of their learning to act in character.For more advanced players, the details of the equipment and heraldry of the guards can provide clues about what's going on.  For example, in the latest tower the PC's visited, the guards have studded leather, crossbows, and daggers -- clearly not elite, well-equiped troops, but not peasant rabble either (crossbows ain't that cheap in my world).  Since their mission was to deal with the local lord's complaint -- orc attacks -- so he would fullfill his feudal obligation to send troops to the front, this was important information about the state of the local forces.They also saw the local heraldry of a black tower (generally the symbol of the Margrave of Bissel) with an blue background with white waves, and an eye above.  This heraldry fit with the info the monk later discovered, that the tower was originally paid for by the Margrave and given to a minor feudal retainer/ancestor of the current Baronet, and its purpose was to intercept river pirates along the Fals River, especially Rhennee slaver gangs kidnapping people up the river to Ket.When they met Rhennee rivermen in the inn, it was a more meaningful encounter . . . a red herring, but more interesting, nevertheless.Details like this can add verissimilitude to D&D and make the "suspension of disbelief" more deep, IMHO.Also, since my days of running RECON, I've been a big believer in the "if it's not on your character sheet, you forgot to bring it" rule.  That can get interesting sometimes . . .</blockquote>

Verification