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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lonely Tylenol" data-source="post: 4053679" data-attributes="member: 18549">Being familiar with the unity and community structure of rural villages, I actually feel very strongly that the allegiances of the villagers are going to lie primarily with their community, and those who are in it for themselves will probably be quickly noticed and either corrected or ostracised.  Of course, PCs aren't normal people with normal motivations, being controlled by players, and all.  Given that this is the case, it makes no sense to question the believability of the social situation.  If the players aren't going to make characters who fit the background, then they've already broken the ice for suspension of disbelief.  Besides, in this case, the hook isn't "do it for the village" except in the case of the hypothetical cleric who gets handed an ancient ritual and a hatful of responsibility.  But that was presented as a roleplaying hook, in which the cleric may or may not want to be straight up about what he really wants to do in the ruins.  The others think they're spending the night out by the old haunted crevasse (being youngsters, they're unaware of its true nature), and are either coaxed in by the cleric, or by some curious activity going on in one of the caves...edit: I also wanted to express my distaste for anyone who uses alignment as a reason to avoid participating in the plot, especially in the first adventure, and especially in a game that doesn't even really have alignment anymore!  That is not a believability issue.  That is an issue concerning combative players.  There's a certain amount of "playing along" that goes along with dumping the responsibility for the plot onto the DM.  If a player is not willing to play along, perhaps he should be playing a single-player game. Because it's friggin' dangerous out there, and if someone in the village knows how to use a sword, they'd better damn well have one.  Not that it is likely that you'll be able to buy a sword in Podunk Village #12, but your starting wealth indicates net worth, which includes a sword that you earned from the local smith in trade for whatever it is you're good at.  Or from your uncle.  Or from your temple.  However, somewhere down the road is a city, and in a city there will be places to buy decent weapons once you've earned enough loot and gained enough XP that the starting area is starting to feel small and poor.I don't see any great task in justifying how the PCs got their gear.  Simple weapons are easy enough to make or buy from a blacksmith, and more complex weapons probably represent some special circumstance.  Owning a sword might just be what makes your character a PC, rather than just another NPC who ends up being a turnip farmer rather than a rogue.</blockquote>

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