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<blockquote data-quote="John Dallman" data-source="post: 9137325" data-attributes="member: 6999616">In the city where I run a campaign that's creating proper policing, as opposed to &quot;guards&quot; or &quot;the watch&quot;, the thieves guild is actually the city's day-to-day government. It happened like this:Predictable, organised magic is only about 150 years old. Before then magic was a matter of individual talent, and magicians were all very different. As modern magic and modern magic item enchantment developed, the previous government, which was basically a military dictatorship, became increasingly unable to control the activities of magicians and thieves with magic items. Eventually, the army that had been the government gave up and pulled out, seeking another city to dominate. The magicians, thieves and priests made a three-way deal:<ul>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">The priests have influence over the mass of the population, and what they consider acceptable.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">The magicians have the power to devastate the city, but aren't all that interested in ruling people on a day-to-day basis. </li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">The thieves are interested in that, and collect taxes in place of stealing. They come down hard on outside or freelance thieves. They employ the police force. </li>
</ul>This seems to work, and the city has become very prosperous. I'd like to point out that I'd developed this by 1983, before Terry Pratchett started publishing the Discworld series, which uses quite similar ideas.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="John Dallman, post: 9137325, member: 6999616"] In the city where I run a campaign that's creating proper policing, as opposed to "guards" or "the watch", the thieves guild is actually the city's day-to-day government. It happened like this: Predictable, organised magic is only about 150 years old. Before then magic was a matter of individual talent, and magicians were all very different. As modern magic and modern magic item enchantment developed, the previous government, which was basically a military dictatorship, became increasingly unable to control the activities of magicians and thieves with magic items. Eventually, the army that had been the government gave up and pulled out, seeking another city to dominate. The magicians, thieves and priests made a three-way deal: [LIST] [*]The priests have influence over the mass of the population, and what they consider acceptable. [*]The magicians have the power to devastate the city, but aren't all that interested in ruling people on a day-to-day basis. [*]The thieves are interested in that, and collect taxes in place of stealing. They come down hard on outside or freelance thieves. They employ the police force. [/LIST] This seems to work, and the city has become very prosperous. I'd like to point out that I'd developed this by 1983, before Terry Pratchett started publishing the [I]Discworld[/I] series, which uses quite similar ideas. [/QUOTE]

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