Peacebonding?

[VirgilCaine]

But thinking from a pragmatic perspective, if you're the Captain of the Guard then why wouldn't you make a law forbidding the carrying of weapons in the street? Sure it's good for when the monster crawls out of the sewer, but barring that it just sets up bloodshed in the city. I could see swords being an exception (at least from a Medieval standpoint) due to the status that a sword held. Maybe allow daggers but, if it were me, I'd ban most weapons from city streets.

It's hard to have a Captain of the Guard when there's no guard...but wait! The guard would be a militia...so normal people would have to have weapons...darn.

I'd love to tell you how you are wrong, but because I'm so uncharitable towards this website, I can't private message you. Darn.

But anyway.

In the Christmas special WotC had a few years ago, there was a Sanctuary field that prevented attacks in and around Nicholas the Gift-Giver's Palace.

I use a similar idea in the giant floating city of wizards in my homebrew.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Who said there is no guard? Not the original poster (someone skipped English class!). Let's say there wasn't but instead there was a militia. The militia aren't taking the weapons home silly! If they were, they'd need a HECK of a lot of weapons (basically one per person). No, instead the weapons would be stored in an armoury/garrison from which the active militia could draw their weapons. Out in the country or in a small community, militia might maintain their own weaponry. But not in a city; there's simply too many people.

(hint: instead of being so pissy and self-righteous, maybe you should open up your mind a little bit. Who knows, you might learn something )

 

[David Howery]

hmm... IIRC, peacebonding wouldn't apply to knives, which were an all purpose tool everyone had. So, the PCs could get away with those. That would NOT include daggers, which are designed for nothing but killing.
Way back when, I wrote an article for Dragon that presented some new magical sheaths. One of them was called 'Bondbreaker'.... you could peacebond the weapon as normal, but when the command word was spoken, the bond magically came undone instantly and fell away, so the sword could be drawn normally without loss of initiative. If you have any nefarious PCs in your campaign, they might like that....

 

[Felon]

Peace-bonding a monk is tough, but in cities IMC where violent force is restricted, monks are very unwelcome. Anyone with training in weaponless combat (i.e., Improved Unarmed Strike or equivalent) must wear a scarlet headband at all times within the city limits. Folks with the headband are considered dangerous and unstable, and most citizens won't deal with them. Going without the headband, or failing to reveal ones' martial abilities at the gate, results in a mandatory sentence of mark of judgement and permanent banishment from the city.

Geez, I have to agree with the other posters; this is rather contrived in its heavy-handedness, unless hordes of rabid chaotic evil ex-monks swarmed the world at some time or other.

Monks are paragons of discipline. They have skills like Diplomacy and Sense Motive so they can interact with people peacefully. But in this campaign they're branded like lunatics. Sounds like a barbarian gets along more amiably with the townsfolk than the ascetic. The fact that monks are tough to peacebond is a good indication that peacebonding just doesn't work in their case, rather than an indication that extreme measures are in order. Heck, even a mail gauntlet or kitchen knife does lethal damage.

The real bottom line is that a town guard either has the capability to subdue PC's or they don't. If they do, then the PC's probably know better than to act out of line. If they don't, then peacebonding or not, the PC's are on the honor system.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

It brought up some interesting things:

1) A few in the group decided to carry staves as "walking sticks" (and this was pre-"The Two Towers" movie!) to be used as quick make-shift weapons.

2) A "treasure" becomes a paper from the magistrate that will deputize the group, allowing them to carry unbonded weapons for purposes of protecting the citizens.

3) Don't forget to bond/secure the spell-components of any spellcasters. They should have similar restrictions put on them as fighter-types.

I ran a group through a city where I found similar situations. My players also tried to undo the knots and retie them so that it would be a move action to get a weapon out of the knot. One of the few instances where Use Rope became useful! IIRC, it was a DC 25 check to make a "disguised knot". I also had the guards do periodic spot checks.

What wound up happening was that fights on the streets became brawls, with few lethal weapons out. But the PCs often looked for back alleys or sewers in which to confront bad guys. In those areas they just cut the peace bonding and said to heck with the consequences.

One neat roleplaying element though were locals who had bribed certain guards to look the other way when their weapons weren't bonded. It made for some interesting situations with PCs trying to figure out how much the bribe would cost, while trying to avoid getting clapped in jail for accusing the guards of taking bribes!

 

[AuraSeer]

Geez, I have to agree with the other posters; this is rather contrived in its heavy-handedness, unless hordes of rabid chaotic evil ex-monks swarmed the world at some time or other.

It's supposed to be heavy-handed; this particular nation IMC is run as a police state. It is governed by the militaristic followers of a lawful evil deity, who have complete control over the lives of normal citizens.

Since the leaders is greatly outnumbered by normal citizens, it lives in fear of a popular uprising. Speech and gatherings are regulated, magic is heavily restricted, and all education is laced with propaganda. Violence toward another human is considered the worst of all sins, and weapons are tainted things to be viewed with fear. Only the hereditary upper class, made up of the LE cultists, is above these rules.

The cult fears that if the general population ever started learning monk abilities, continued control of them would become impossible. (In the gameworld history, this happened to a tyrant several hundred years ago, and the rebellion was successful.) So the propaganda teaches that monks, in turning their very bodies into weapons, can become possessed by a spirit of chaos and destruction and everything that's wrong with the world. Most adventurers know this is pure nonsense, but good luck convincing the population of that.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

It would almost certainly depend upon the city, its environment, and the training of the people.

Early-modern Nuremberg and other German city states maintained a fairly large arsenel of crossbows in order to equip their citizen levies in time of war. This implies that they expected at least part of the citizenry to need equipment. On the other hand, my documentation on this is well into the gunpowder age and I get the impression that they were never really willing to cover the cost of upgrading those to guns. (Though such cities frequently bought canons for use in the defense of their cities). This may imply that there was no longer as serious a need for personal weapons since citizens would most likely bring their own. On the other hand, it could just mean that such cities got more bang for their buck with artillery. (FWIW, the peasant armies in the revolution of 1525 had similar equipment to the nobles' armies, except for their lack of canons. What canons they had came from the towns who supported them. This may be further evidence that non-artillery equipment was widely available in the early modern era.)

On the other hand, the ancient Greeks, Israelites (even the post-exile people of Jerusalem), etc appear to have kept their own weapons. IIRC, it was customary for greek soldiers to provide their own shield, spear, and breastplate when reporting for duty and the Israelites made a habit of beating their plowshares into swords and spears when they were invaded. Those who rebuilt Jerusalem under Nehemiah appear to have had enough swords for every workman to carry one. Similarly, it appears to have been common practice for colonial American militia members to provide their own small arms. The official militia would provide any canons, however. The development of weapons like the bill, etc from farming implements indicates that at least a good amount of citizen conscripts and militias in Europe were required to provide their own equipment.

I think it's more likely that, in typical D&D-land, a militia would provide their own melee weapons but that the militia commander would stockpile ammunition and expensive weapons that would be used in time of war but not ordinarily in the armory. So, an armory would most likely contain expensive weapons like crossbows (35gp for a light crossbow) and maybe some heavier armors (50gp for scale mail, 25 gp for studded leather) and tower shields (50gp each), but guards would bring their own clubs (free), and longspears (5gp), spears (2gp), or morning stars (8gp). The armory would also have LOTS of bolts for the crossbows since their cost adds up quickly and most people would probably not have enough to last long in a siege in their personal supply.

In frontier areas or wealthier areas where private ownership of crossbows, etc could be assumed, the armory might be stocked almost entirely with ammunition.

Who said there is no guard? Not the original poster (someone skipped English class!). Let's say there wasn't but instead there was a militia. The militia aren't taking the weapons home silly! If they were, they'd need a HECK of a lot of weapons (basically one per person). No, instead the weapons would be stored in an armoury/garrison from which the active militia could draw their weapons. Out in the country or in a small community, militia might maintain their own weaponry. But not in a city; there's simply too many people.