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Message: <blockquote data-quote="robertliguori" data-source="post: 3895915" data-attributes="member: 47776">Yo!Yes, that's me.  And it's not the only sane form, especially if you lack certain essential kinds of superbeings.  It is not the case in D&D, for instance; you don't have a class of beings that default to super-powerful, super-knowledgeable, and super-benevolent.However, you do have something similar in D&D.  It's not government; it's crisis management.  In times of crisis, in a D&D or comparable universe, if you are a commoner, you do what the adventurers tell you.  They know more than you.  They are more experienced than you.  They might be callous SOBs sacrificing you for the good of all, or heck, even just for kicks, but there are relatively few actively malevolent adventurers.  There are lots of crises.Again, look at this specific case.  The guards made the best call they could given their limited information.  Their call was wrong.  Their call was very wrong.  Their call was the polar opposite of right.And that's alright.  They don't have knowledge(religion) as a class skill; no one expects them to know that Wind Walk is one of the preferred methods of adventurer travel.  It was a perfectly rational response, given their knowledge at the time, which was incomplete.But the guards are obligated to take responsibility for their ignorance.  The guards are obligated to know that when someone who knows more than them tells them to stop, they better damn well stop, because when it comes to clerical magic, the guards are not competent to make military decisions.Now, here's where things get a bit complicated.  In an egalitarian society, in which all men are equal in potential and opportunity, the arrogant stranger who comes onto the scene, demands respect and obedience, and responds with physical force when he is not immediately granted it is in the wrong.D&D is not that society, and said stranger is not in the wrong.  In fact, in the general case in a D&D universe, the bunch of random arrogant strangers showing up and making pronouncements are your best hope for survival.  Ignoring them or being hostile towards them is like starting a political revolution in our world; the local power may suck, but you should think long and hard about what will replace it before you decide to try to get rid of it.  Sure, the milita are welcome to be abrasive to the PCs.  The PCs are likewise welcome to leave, wait for the vampires to acquire a scroll of unhallow, storm the keep, and horribly murder the guards.  When the guards are rude to the PCs, they are increasing the odds of this happening.  There is no circumstance in which pissing off the PCs is a win condition for the guards.Is this necessarily poor roleplaying on the DMs part?  Of course not! In reality, people, especially people under stress, take actions that are objectively foolish and not in their best interests.  This was one of them.</blockquote>

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