Medieval Riots.

[NCSUCodeMonkey]

I've actually used a riot in my campaign. Essentially the gates to a major city were closed during the night (a rare event for this particular city) in an attempt to stop an escaped fugitive from skipping town. In the wee hours of the morning, an outbreak of what appeared to be a plauge began sweeping through the slums. As the news spread, the citizens became convinced that the gates had been shut to contain the plauge and, depending on their alignment, began to alternatively assault the gates in an attempt to escape and to go on random sprees of violence in an attempt to go out with a bang.

Of course, the fugitive had poisoned a well and spread a few juicy rumors in order to get the entire chaos started in order to create a diversion for his escape, but that's merely an exercise in plot twists.

This is all (extremely loosely) based on riots against jewish people during the black plauge in which they were forced to confess that they had poisoned wells and then summarily burnt at the stake. Of course they did no such thing, whereas my villan was essentially evil incarnate.

NCSUCodeMonkey

 

[El Ravager]

Cool, another Ames EN Worlder. I too felt the sting of some of that tear gas. I didn't get it too bad though since I saw it coming and was already on my way out of the scene.

I think that for the most part, medieval riots would be much more bloody. I am not sure if they would have used tear gas or a scroll of stinking cloud even if they had access to them. As someone said, rioters often got slaughtered. On the other hand, the rioters in that time were a lot more brutal too.

D&D is different from historical medieval times in a lot of ways so stinking cloud spells would probably be a viable option. A riot could be a very interesting scenario for a D&D game.

Rant Mode

As for the VIESHEA riot, trouble has been brewing over the years. I think that there was the perceived notion by many students that they were being treated like they were rioting by the police before they were rioting. The response?

Rioting.

I certainly don't condone any of the vandalism that was done. The best FLGS I have ever encountered, Mayhem Collectibles, had a large window busted. This made me sad - Mayhem loves the student population they serve and are certainly not The Man that people often try to stick it to. I do think that the police should take a share of the blame for handling the situation very badly and escalating it with needless show of force, however, that in no way excuses the individuals who committed act of violence - especially against a small friendly store like Mayhem.

Anyway, thats my VIESHEA rant.

/Rant Mode

 

[Sarigar]

What would cause peasants to riot?
Abuse from the local lord. Even if they killed him the other lords might look away if he was abusive to them.

Back in the day, the avg peasant was fearful of his lord or lady.
Which is a good reason to kill him if they did riot.

To riot might bring ex-communication.
Only if they messed with the church.

How would a good church (say of Pelor) address the situation?
Depends on what the riot is about, and if the church supports who/what they are rioting against.

If the peasants were serfs, would their lord get upset for having to destroy his "property?"
Again, not if he's dead.

I think they had a better idea of what they were rioting against and had a specific, attainable goal. Of course it would get out of hand, and some used the opportunity to advance some motive they had.