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<blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 5764239" data-attributes="member: 463">The guards at the gate is a classic roleplay encounter.&nbsp; It's classic because the PCs are in a situation where they MUST get in, but they absolutely CANNOT afford to use force, because the entire weight of the city's power is focused at that point.&nbsp; The PCs are there beneath the mighty walls of the city, watchful archers above, heavily armed guardsmen below.&nbsp; Fighting would likely be suicidal, and certainly doom whatever mission the PCs are on.&nbsp; Then, the nature of the interaction - whether the guards are corrupt, brutal, honest, jovial, (in)competent - allows the GM to really set the tone of the city in a very immediate, very effective manner.For that reason, it's an encounter that comes up frequently in adventures, and IME always works very well.&nbsp; It is, for instance, the very first encounter in the classic City of Thieves Fighting Fantasy gamebook.&nbsp; It's inherently exciting - and scary!&nbsp; Much moreso than 5 enemies in an XP-balanced combat encounter.Thus, to me Wyatt's statement came across as gobsmackingly stupid.&nbsp; Maybe it was just a brainfart, but it certainly had me wondering what the Hell he was talking about, and where he was coming from, to say such a thing.<img src="http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lswvxwRV8L1r1g40zo1_500.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Edit: Behold - the Gate Guard of Port Blacksand!! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin&nbsp; &nbsp; :D"&nbsp; data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="S'mon, post: 5764239, member: 463"] The guards at the gate is a classic roleplay encounter. It's classic because the PCs are in a situation where they MUST get in, but they absolutely CANNOT afford to use force, because the entire weight of the city's power is focused at that point. The PCs are there beneath the mighty walls of the city, watchful archers above, heavily armed guardsmen below. Fighting would likely be suicidal, and certainly doom whatever mission the PCs are on. Then, the nature of the interaction - whether the guards are corrupt, brutal, honest, jovial, (in)competent - allows the GM to really set the tone of the city in a very immediate, very effective manner. For that reason, it's an encounter that comes up frequently in adventures, and IME always works very well. It is, for instance, the very first encounter in the classic [I]City of Thieves[/I] Fighting Fantasy gamebook. It's inherently exciting - and scary! Much moreso than 5 enemies in an XP-balanced combat encounter. Thus, to me Wyatt's statement came across as gobsmackingly stupid. Maybe it was just a brainfart, but it certainly had me wondering what the Hell he was talking about, and where he was coming from, to say such a thing. [IMG]http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lswvxwRV8L1r1g40zo1_500.jpg[/IMG] [I]Edit: Behold - the Gate Guard of Port Blacksand!![/I] :D [/QUOTE]

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