Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad goes to Greyhawk

[Olgar Shiverstone]

This could be a fun encounter ... PCs face down crowd bent on a riot because of an offensive speaker. They could:

- Be diplomatic and try and talk the crowd down
- Be stealthy and sneak the offender out
- Charge the crowd axes swinging
- Use magic to beguile or distract the crowd
- Join the crowd and lynch the offending speaker
etc ...

The trick is getting it set up to be realistic. It's probably even more fun if the PCs are the reason for the riot!

 

[Thunderfoot]

I tried once in a 2eAD&D game, but a wizard with a Wand of Sleep can play havoc with a riot of 0-level commoners... :\

 

[Celebrim]

Peacable protest is a relatively new phenomenom. I have a very hard time thinking of a successful instance of it in history before modern times.

Typically, in the ancient world, no one really thought to try peaceful protest because the knew the responce would be crucifying 50,000 or so along the Apian way.

I have seen riots and revolutions in D&D games. I was even involved as a PC in formenting a few. But, I've never really had a culture where peaceful protest would actually have worked. Maybe in one of my elfish cultures, but then - they don't tend to have a government to protest against. And besides, have you ever tried to get two three elfs to agree to do anything at the same time? It's worse than herding cats.

 

[Ashy]

IMC, there are lots of protests against the current leadership of the Church of the One; they're corrupted and no longer following the "true scriptures", so the party is leading a revolt against them that's spreading across the world...

 

[Mishihari Lord]

I had fun with this in a short lived campaign where everyone played silver dragons. The PCs were on a mission in a kingdom ruled by red dragons, and the reds got wind that there were infiltrators in the city. The reds cracked down on the population in an effort to try to find the PCs, and the population, pushed beyond endurance, revolted. There were riots in the street, mobs of commoners trying to take on red dragons and the town guard. About a quarter of the city ended up burned to the ground with the same proportion of the population dead. And the PCs were caught in the middle of it all, which drastically interfered with their mission. It was beautiful.

 

[Whimsical]

If you want to run a riot, check out the mob rules in the Dungeon Master's Guide II. And yes, the Demonscar adventure in Shackled City is an example of a mob encounter. As mobs attack the town hall and the town guards.

BTW, the ability to create a mob would be something that a mid level bard should be able to do with his social skills and bardic music. Maybe there should be a spell that does this....

 

[green slime]

I've used it a lot.

I think its a great way to show PCs the limits of their power, and the benefit of having invested in a few of the social skills.

 

[dmccoy1693]

BTW, the ability to create a mob would be something that a mid level bard should be able to do with his social skills and bardic music. Maybe there should be a spell that does this....

Fear works great. Get a cone of people to be afraid and they run away. The ensuing panic that follows from those afraid trying to run through those not afraid will do some serious damage to the entire group's morale and may end it.

 

[DMH]

Not one person mention Splintered Peace from Atlas? It is all about racial tension and riots happen several times (depending on how the PCs react to events).

 

[Anti-Sean]

In addition to the aforementioned Brelish antimonarchists, Sharn: City of Towers has the following image, which I absolutely adore (and which seems to reflect the mood of quite a few posters, albeit in a different way):

IMC, High Walls, a district in Sharn filled with Cyran refugees exploded into riots after their ambassador was murdered (by one of the PCs - oops!) Deneith mercenaries were called in, and the entire district was essentially walled off from the rest of the city for days as High Walls tore itself apart. The party had to negotiate their way past Deneith to get into the district to extract the beloved mentor of one of the PCs... unfortunately, he died in the PC's arms (oops again!) as some of the players manipulating events from the shadows revealed themselves for the first time.

So yeah, I've had fun with protesters and rioters in D&D.