/tg
Town Guard

Sure at level 1

Many PCs (including freeform) view the law and its arbiters as non-entities, to say nothing of many NPCs as a whole.

>>26003249

You did in up until 3e unless you were Monty Hauling and had +5 Full Plate and loads of spells available to fuck them up.

Also any game that isn't rampy like D&D makes it happen. Harn, for instance. Those guards do not fuck around.

Going to give my crappy vidya opinion but every D&D inspired game the town guard are nasty and scary.

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this town is protected by npc pc's

>>26003302

This.

I still dread hearing I SERVE THE FLAMING FIST

>>26003249
Yeah, plenty.

You know D&D isn't the only RPG ever, right? There are a ton of games out there that don't have its insane power escalation.

One of the PCs in the last game I did was a police detective, working with a team of bounty hunters.
So yes, they did. Because they were the law.

>>26003249

Eh, why not?

Not like city guard aren't either powerful or ballsy as fuck to go around fighting shit.

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My PCs are going to witness next session exactly why they need to fear the city guard.

My players started fearing the guard once they learned of their nickname "sodomy sentries" and they saw that no one ever laughed at the name.
No one except the guards.

>>26003540

The Sodomy Sentinels? Aren't they a splinter cell of the Pussy Pounding Protectors?

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>>26003540

>>26003540

If they didn't sign up immediately I am disappointed.

>>26003444
The guards in Morrowind were scary, determined fuckers, until you get into FUCK EVERYONE levels of skill. I remember I once commited a crime in Balmora, and I tried fighting the guards. I got my ass handed to me, so I started running. The fucker followed me across the fucking land like he was the fucking Terminator or some shit.

Also, the guards and especially the Templars in AC weren't people you took lightly in a straight up fight. But that was back when AC wasn't shit for babbies, back when the guards were prescient, Templars were hard core motherfuckers, and the common unit of currency was the knife.

>>26003249
In one game I'm playing in my character is a member of his country's secret police. He respects the law enforcement, even if he doesn't himself care too much about the rules, and sees to it that anyone who gives them too much trouble disappears in the middle of the night.

>>26004006
I watched someone hack his way through about 300 redcoats, grenadiers, those german dudes, etc in AC3 on the hard mode and I was just embarrassed that someone would make a game so easy.

>>26004006
Morrowind was excellent with the guards in terms of presentation. They were dressed in alien and hostile looking raiments, they spoke with a cruel voice, they insulted you on sight or indicated they watched you, they had boss fucking equipment, and there was a lot of them. Made you nervous to try anything funny, ever.

Though Daggerfall guards win more.

>>26003387
>D&D
>insane escalation
Pick one.
If D&D is your idea of high powered you really haven't gotten around much.

>>26003325
>purple one gets his ears blown out

>>26004242
Are you kidding? A few random dungeon-crawls and I was tanking them at low levels.

>>26003387
But it doesn't have insane power escalation. It's actually pretty tame comparatively speaking.

If you want to protect a town from class leveled people, you need to have guards with class levels.

You can look at it from the Eberron point of view, theres a handful of 12th level or higher supreme badasses through out the world that watchover their towns and put down uppity adventurers, or take the sigil point of view in that every guard is a 20th level fighter/thief/mage.

>>26004514

>It's all okay! Just stack a fuckload of class levels up on everything!

Yeah, in earlier non-shit editions you could make a group of low level guards dangerous into the upper-mid level range, with enough of them able to still fuck up upper level characters who weren't loaded with crazy overpowered shit.

Depending on how you define 'city' and 'city guard', in shadowrun they do.

At the very least everyone treads carefully around knight errant.

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I never had a problem with players trying to pull a fast one on the town guards after they played Dark Heresy on a hive world.

>>26003604
No, they're closer related to the Butt Breaching Brigade.

>>26004642

Oh, Baron Browneye's lot. Good man, though the Ordo Orificius did put out a bit of a smear campaign on him.

No one respects or fears town guards. They're beneath notice until they try some of that "I'm watching you scum." And then you remind them that in the three days you've been in their town you've done more good for it and its people then they ever will in their miserable lives, and you did it without even giving a fuck because that's like everyday for you as a badass adventurer.

Rolled 98

>>26003249
My Pathfinder GM explained that the guards in his setting carried a non-lethal magic stun item worth something like 25K GP.

When my CN bard started hatching a scheme to mug a guard (In a party of 6th level) since it would net us about 33% of our current wealth level in one mugging, he informed me that the city guard were level 10 ex-adventurers. In a city of 800,000 there were supposedly quite a few.

On further questioning, he eventually revealed that 10% of the nation had military experience, meaning 80,000 level 1-3 warriors in this city, I think something like 10,000 level 10 guards or some absurb number, and wizards out the ass, including what was basically Wizard CSI.

My bard, who the GM had ok'd having contacts with the Thieves guild was suddenly under question. A thieves guild operating in a city with thousands of level 10 PC's ready to kick there ass would either be nonexistant or badass as fuck.

Not sure if I'm glad that campaign died before it started or not. One of the players was bitching about me being CN and how it would ruin the game since I admitted I would steal a few apples every now and then, and had a feat that let me pull an item out of nowhere once a day, MacGuyver style (Which I fluffed as minor thievery).

His Exalted Neckbeard John The Brilliant of Wick famously deals with guard killing PC's by having their characters instakilled with no save or explanation.

>>26004711

>Creating an adventurer welfare state

Not even once.

>>26004695
Sounds like they really spread some shit about him. Though it's a known fact that most of the Ordos can be pretty anal, especially if you're not pro-state enough.

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>>26004711
Bullshit. Your ragtag group was the 73rd to try, and they won by luck. They've seen all you murderhobo types. They know the second you could get away with it, you'd slice off their head and fuck the neckstumps while drinking their liquor and forcing their dead spouses to eat gold coins. You're sick fucks, under the bravado.

They're WATCH you, scum.

>>26004752
But this is because John Wick is an insufferable turbofaggot.

>>26004762
Yea, while being pro-state is great, I sphincter're going too far. They really rectum hard.

>>26004208

I know right?

I mean they hyped up the Germans as being this elite unit that you needed special skills to fight.

I used one tool you get halfway through the game and it ALWAYS killed them in one hit EVERY TIME.

This was if somehow you didn't have a fucking gun on you, and they literally leave those lying on the ground.

PC's now on a trip to the colorful metropolis of Ankh Morpork.

My players tried to start shit. He was like "I'm a min maxed awesome dude with a homebrewed class dual wielding greatswords. I can do whatever the fuck I want."

He took down a few of them, but he didn't make it very far.

I forced the entire party to watch as he was hung, drawn, and quartered and his equipment auctioned off for more than they could afford.

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>>26004798
>Ankh Morpork
>attacking watchmen
He'll go spare. Absolutely bloody spare.

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Simple. Have the town guard made of animated and tireless undead in heavy armor.

When they ask why? Oh, well, their ranks swell, with every time someone tries to kill them to loot and murder. They get a LOT of powerful additions that way!

Have them pass a huge contingent of sun-rotted faces glaring at them lifelessly as they scuttle on to some illicit activity.

>>26004711

>Town guards
>Not being able to defeat four to six mercenaries

Maybe a village turnkey or a keep filled with old men, but a squadron of elite guards in a major city should have the ability to take down a group of mercenaries.

>Not having your town guards throwing pots of anti-magic smokes in case the apprentices of the University get drunk and conjure things up
>Not having a scold's mask, cursed manacles, etc. for that crazy wizard who ate those kids
>Not having a big fucker with a bigger weapon to take on the fighter.

>>26003249
The players in my game feared the town sheriff in the town they started in. He was an unusually smart ogre who wielded a bench. Good old Sheriff Borka didn't take no guff from any smartassed adventurers

One of my first CP2020 games

>we're doing EDGY VIOLENCE
>a beat cop gets shot
>we hole up in an abandoned building
>a couple minutes later two police cars arrive, they just sit in front of the building behind cover and don't try to do anything
>we take potshots at them, suddenly WARNING THIS IS A FREE FIRE ZONE blaring at the entire block
>we're still taking potshots, the GM sighs
>an AV lands behind the cops
>THIS IS MAX TAC, YOU HAVE 15 SECONDS TO SURRENDER
>we don't reply, 16 seconds later they level the building with thermobarics.

That was also the last time we've fucked with Max Tac.

>>26004798
Dear god. Won't they be surprised when the nigh indestructible Troll and Golem Riot Suppression Squad arrives.

Or, if they're spectacularly unlucky, Commander Vimes will be on patrol nearby.

>>26003249
I am reminded of that once scene in Durarara! where a Dullahan is scared shitless by a traffic cop.

We didn't, and we knew that we could get away with lots of shit because even if the city guard did try to stop us our abilities would let us easily escape. This knowledge made us do borderline things where ever we went in the world. The DM got tired of our arrogance and decided to teach us to fear the guard.

It was an average day, with us extorting a crime syndicate to pay us a large sum of money when the guard busted into the place and started arresting people. We laughingly told the guard we were in the middle apprehending the criminals ourselves(which we very clearly were not as we were sitting around a table eating/drinking expensive food/drink) and manged to intimidate/magic our way out getting charged with anything.

We laughed about it all in good fun until we arrived at a medium sized settlement a few days off. Posters were plastered all over with our likenesses claiming us to be a roaming band of pedophiles with witnesses in the city guard whom scared us out of town once we were caught in the act.

This is why we now respect the guard, as no one really tends to believe the group of wandering bounty hunters over the respected city guard

>>26004927
>mfw they meet the Piecemaker.

>>26004787
I know, it was a bit of a stretch.

>tfw this is the one and only time I want to post goatse and it's on a work safe board.

>>26004896
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Fucking with the police? In a Cyberpunk game, where the police are essentially mercenary battalions with better uniforms? Niiiiice.

>>26004927
Or Carrot will politely explain to them why they shouldn't break the law. And they won't. Ever. Again.

>>26004886
If you try to take on a horde of guards of course you'll go down eventually. That doesn't change the fact you're the ones that get called when the important shit needs done and do more for their city in a handful of missions then they ever will. I don't recall the guard or the army saving their city from that dread necromancer invasion/dragon swarm/devil siege/whatever.

>>26004896
You weren't taking potshots big enough. CP2020 was all about the big fucking guns and cyberware. Hell, that coupled with the fact AVs are hilariously unaerodynamic and tend to rely on burning fuel to stay airborne means you could've popped its engines and sent the entire thing to hell as it came in to land.
Not that I am condoning such a course of action upon the good men and women defending Night City, of course

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>>26004951
>You see a tiny monkey like creature holding what looks like a barrel with a hose stuck to the top. He demands you surrender in his most nasal whine.
>"HAH! We'll NEVER su-"
>*FWOOOOOOOOOOOSH*

Nobby's gonna have one hell of a lot of paperwork to fill after this...

>>26004963
I'd say that we've learned, but we didn't. In a one shot game we've basically just ran some combat to have fun. I've had a twinked to shit Assisted Combat Powered Armor and thought I'm the god of the urban sprawl. I was for about an hour.

>>26003335

Mage police in BG2? This is an unsanctioned use of magical energy!

>>26004987
Godsdammit Nobby, what did we tell you about the Epheban fire?

>>26004945
making a note of this

>>26004974
It was the same model that Trauma Team uses [AV-5? AV-7? Something like that] and we didn't even have a .50cal MG. We've had some assorted BIG MANLY REVOLVERS, SMGs and assault rifles, nothing that could put a dent on that. And then a lot of murder happened.

>>26004973

How do you know if they have? The Guard doesn't have to shout its victories like some tarted up sot in a +5 Outfit of Pooftery. The Guard are true men, fighting the battles they must fight. Rape Demon decides to start chewing up nun pussies to make his Cunt Machine? The Guard gets their silvered swords and make that shit go away.

Of course I believe in the idea of Massed Pitchforks > Mystics. A knife from a stew bum can kill Alzharad the Thrice Burned as easy as that ice dragon.

>>26004987
>implying anyone other than a gigantic troll could wield it

>>26004554

Sigil is from 2E.
Also did I mention that it is a city where LoP will just randomly flail you if you do pesky things?

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>>26005056
>He doesn't know about Klatchian Fire Engines!
>>26005013
"Aim away from any important landmarks, Sarge?"

In my campaign, the guards are not particularly high-leveled but very dangerous. You see, this campaign has no magic, only psionics.

I lost count of all the amazing ways you can fuck up a psion; psionic restraints (handcuffs that block casting) and catapsi generators are the least of their worries.

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Don't mind me, just being an epic level Paladin and Town Guard

>>26005042
Also the guy forgets what the Town Guard does. It guards the fucking town. All those orcs, wyverns, televangelists and bandits that you're supposed to clean up have attacked either the town or outlying farmsteads, and were repelled by the Guard.

And why don't they do it? They have a job to do, they simply don't have the time to fuck around in the woods for 2 weeks looking for Bum Leg Jeffrey and his ragamuffins.

>>26004247
Officially, you essentially double in power with every level up. A 19th level rogue will have the steal schooled out of him by a 20th level rogue, and etc.

>>26005098

Yeah. There are plenty of fun ways to do various fuckery regarding magic and psionics. The prisons in my worlds usually keep any mages, psions, etc. under constant sedation. Of course that can lead to some problems with the more enlightened mages, but that is why we have lead lined hot boxes covered in warding magic. Don't even get me started with the witch dunkers. Hard to cast spells when you're in a near constant state of drowning, sleep deprivation, binding, drugs...

>>26003302
I rember that one time when I was playing Skyrim when a Elder Dragon attacked Solitude (yes, dragons can attack within cities, Inwas surprised too). I spent a good while trying to shoot at it to no effect before it decided to land in the middle of Castle Dour. I ran over as quickly as could, hoping that I could save at least some of the guards there, but when I arrived, I found that a dozen-and-a-half guardsmen had swarmed the damn thing and stabed it to death in the thirty seconds it took me to get over there. Not a sustain a single casualty. That day, I learned to respect the town guard.

>>26005163

you never played d&d, have you?

>>26005097
Or anything else! Ever! Even Big Malachite after he's been on the Slab and thinks you look like a dwarf!

>>26003249
I remember there was a HERO system game my friend was in that had a type of meta-human police in it that was pretty terrifying. They answered only to themselves most of the time and they had tech that could counter anyone's abilities. The big clincher was that one of the players thought he was hot shit because he had the desolid power, which makes a player immune to most forms of damage. But, sure enough, the guns they carried had a setting to deal with even him.

So yeah they feared the police.

>>26004787
>>26004762
>>26004695
>>26004642
>>26003604
>>26003540

Never change /tg/

>>26003249
I have learned the hard way that having the strength of a dozen men doesn't mean jack-shit if you get swarmed two dozen men at once.

>>26005263
That happened to a Changeling player of mine that started a bar fight.
He got his shit kicked in by security.

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Pic related, superguard here to fuck your shit up.

>Her ficeBa

In her case, her ficeBa.

>>26003249
When the Grand Cross Holy Knights of God's Sovereign Rule protect the holy city of Vizantiuun the players know to obey the law with in the 50 meter tall white marble walls.

My campaign is silly ad weeaboo.

>>26005290
I had the same experience as the poor sods from the pic. In some homebrew, our party of murderhobos tried to kill its way through a city under daemonic invasion. Everything went more than alright, including killing two daemonic sub-commanders that the GM didn't even thought were killable. With improvised weapons (and by that, I mean a door and a scalpel).

Then we got some REAL weapons and got cocky. We tried to kill a city guard. Lady Luck disapproved.

>>26005190
He's almost right, but only when it comes to casters.
Fighters are, as the saying goes, linear.

>>26005242
On the hole, I'd say /tg/ is best board. Bottoms up, m8.

>>26004987
gif source?

>>26005290
I had a sillier version of that happen in my current campaign. One of the PC's and a city guard came to blows over the theft of an airship. The PC, a psion, and guard gave their verbal threats and then proceeded to roll ones and twos for the next five rounds until they both ended up dead from critfails and minimal damage hits. It's hard to say who won that fight.

The rest of the PC's came upon the end result of that fight and from the broken armor, damaged weapons and blood splatter, assumed some sort of epic battle had occurred.

Sure. I'm a fan of campaigns set in relatively stable times, with the PC's investigating mysterious things and dungeons without the looming threat of either apocalypse or war to sap manpower from the lowly city guard. The same city guard that, because of the setting, is also the army of the city-state they're in at the time.

Breastplates, repeating crossbows, alchemical items. You can make some pretty fun semi-fantastical tactical response units like that.

Like someone else mentioned - if the guards get to crack open their emergency response vault, then it can be fun. Anti-magic dust in jars, silvered longswords for lycantrophes, bolts with red dye to mark them for the minotaur squads,..

Of course, in a few sessions, the PC's were the gruff, bothered city-watch who had to defend the city against a constant influx of brash adventures and barbarians. That was fun.

>>26005827
Looks like "Another."

As a DM who is running a City Watch campaign and sending Adventuring murder-hoboes to mess up their town, I'm getting a kick out of this thread.

>>26004270
his?
looks like hers

>>26003302
That's because town guards who are more powerful than PCs and still can't deal with three goblins exists only in vidya.

>>26004935
to be fair, that was one badass traffic cop.

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>>26005187
That's really just BEGGING for someone who multiclassed a level of monk to meditate until they can punch a hole in your lead lined box and simply open all the other boxes.

Also, there are significantly less energy intensive, less evil ways to contain wizards besides constantly torturing them till they go insane and try to kill everyone who has ever lived because you were mean to them.

>>26008593
I might have to steal this idea.

>>26008712

>Only in vidya
>Large portion of modules have higher level NPCs asking PCs to do this for them.

Sometimes you don't have time to kill rats and goblins. There are only 9600 rounds in a day chum, and I have better things to do.

>>26004554

to be fair, levels in different edtions in D&D mean different things.

a PC at level 5 in 4e becoming a PC at level 25 in 4e is an amount of power increase that 2e or earlier editions didn't really do.

>>26009723
You're ignoring that monsters are scaled up too in 4e. 4e chars are definitely the weakest out of any edition, proportionately. Much weaker than old school.

A first level AD&D elven fighter-mage will beat about 8 orcs. A tenth level one will probably solo great chromatic wyrms successfully.

A first level 4e character will be obliterated by orcs, which are generally level 4. 4e characters don't ever comfortably take out dragons 1:1.

>>26009755
>A first level AD&D elven fighter-mage will beat about 8 orcs.
He really, really won't. Not even close.

>>26008593
I did something like this too.

At first I let my players play the first half of the campaign as adventurers and after a few adventures within the city I got a good idea of how the characters behaved.

Then I told the players to give me their sheets and make a new party of Town Guards. The second half of the campaign was the players as Town Guards dealing with their fucking nightmare PCs. All of their tendencies to kill and torture people they wanted information from? Suddenly they realized how fucking annoying it gets when they're the ones that have to clean it up. It was a really fun mini-campaign.

>PCs bad mouth the Guard captain who warns them of criminal elements operating in the docks
>PCs give no fucks and get in a fight at the docks
>fling spells and explosives about
>blow up a 3rd Rate Ship of the Line preparing to set off
>The town guard show up to arrest them
>oh it's cool we'll fight through them they're just guards
>the 15 guards shoot the shit out of them with muskets

I'm currently running a character in Rogue Trader who not only respects the local guard, but works along side them when they require his resources. He's the head of a state sponsored gang, essentially, or privateers if you want a more favorable word, called the Adeptus Reposesiary. Being organized as they are, they get things "back" for the State/Nobility/Ordos Hereticus as per need, and are afforded a level of autonomy in return. He's a Rogue Trader who's elected to bind himself to a single system, rather than dragging a fleet with him through deep space or that kind of stuff.

Recently finished a 10-hour WFRP2e campaign, as Player. We had 4 people, 3 of whom had played before. Boatman, Fisherman, Smuggler and newbie Militia. At one point we're ambushed by the city guard. Immediately you see who's new to the game. Everyone except the militia just leg it immediately, while he 'stands his ground', calling us cowards for fleeing from THE CITY GUARD with flippin' HALBERDS.

We did actually take them all out in the end, when we were surrounded. Except for the sergeant, who knocked all 4 of us out alone.

What if the PCs are the city guard?

Archived.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/26003249/

How does one update the archive to include later posts?

What annoys me about the "super guard" cliche is that if the rank and file town guards are so fucking strong then why aren't they the ones solving whatever problem your players are out to solve?
It seems like the only reason you have super strong guards is because you think your players are sociopaths that will "mess up" your game by going rogue.

>>26011282
Because Town Guards... get this... GUARD the TOWN.

It's not their job to run around the woods/mountains/caves for days/weeks hunting down goblins and bandits and monsters. They have crimes to stop and patrols to keep.

Adventurers and mercenaries are the ones who get paid to kill shit, not them.

>>26003540
sexecutioners

>>26011282

Or they want a nice cozy job after their time in the trenches. In the analogous period, after a war, you could go be a peasant again, maybe grab a nice cozy gig on the town guard if available, be a household knight if you were born lucky, or go fight /sail as a mercenary.

Same thing happens now after a conscription war. Some guys decide to go into the workforce, some decide to be the 'town guard' (police and security), some stay in as a household knight (soldier), and some decide to merc up. Even now you can, with combat training and relevant skills, make 10x as much as you would make doing whatever you want to do if you go with some defense contractor. Have a few friends who drive trucks and doing security in shitholes around the world saving up hundreds of thousands of dollars as mercenaries. Some others are cops, some decided to stay in full time. I took my GI Bill and went into STEM because I didn't want to deal with the shit.

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I know I sould like a broken record... But Warhammer Fantasy.

In the Empire, town guard are all retired or veteran soldiers, or the sons of minor nobels/merchants to give them expierence before they gain a commission. (Pic related. You wanna fuck with there guys?)

In Bretonia, the Lord of the land, and his men at arms are the law enforcement.

In Tilea, the city militia, and the various "family security" forces keep the piece, with most of these being retired/off season mercenaries.

Pretty much, you keep your nose clean, or you keep hearty bribes. Or else.

>>26003249
of course they do. My paladin respects the fuck out of them.

Though, he'll also turn and run a rebellion if they're being fuckwits.

>>26011404
>you wanna fuck with these guys?

The one in the middle, sure.

He just SCREAMS "Soft noble's son who has not had actual combat experience"

yes, the bigger the city or town, the higher level the town guard are
you dont fuck with the guys who guard major cities, they may be a lower level then you, but you are on their turf, and they work together and use tactics

>>26011463

This. My 3rd Level Fighter instincts say that that boy is about to be my bitch.

>>26011463
>>26011481
...You DO notice that Herr Flecher's son is between "Mangler" Muglio and Sergeant Ansheim, who are in no mood for your piddly shit.

They just got back from the front line in the Storm of Chaos, and got stuck baby sitting a rich boy. Last thing they want is for you to kill their bonus pay.

>>26011550

Yes, but we have a dwarf who can drink them both under the table and a changeling of questionable gender identity to keep them occupied.

Pathfinder

>political intrigue in metropolis
>party gets set up while pretending to do mercenary work for a noble house
>noble house sent the city guard after them
>20 well armed guards with spears
>6 level 1 characters
>2 casters. Summoner without his Eidolon and a Wizard who is a begginer player
>Social Rogue tries to bluff his way out of it, fails

To surrender is the most logical path and most of us decide on it. But another relatively new player (who stubbornly decided he wanted to play Lawful Evil) says he's tired of being yanked around by people in RPGs.
"I SHOOT THE CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD IN THE FACE". Critical hit. Confirm. Dead in one shot. Diplomacy time is over.

It wasn't a TPK just because the DM kindly made the guards focus their attacks on the beefiest melee characters (Barbarian and Fighter). And even then only the Fighter (with a lucky shield cast despite receiving damage) and Summoner (who lost all other spells but managed to Summon a trusty eagle to rape a guard's face) survived... and had to run away because one guard left to summon reinforcements.

The best part? I know it's gonna happen again. Either because the players are experienced and think they can manage the challenge of a City Guard or because they're inexperienced and don't care.
It's just so hard to create a convincing threat that doesn't feel too forced.

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>>26011594
>"Boy, less than two months back, I saw a gibbering rape-beast the size of an ox cart tear through a full score of the finest knights the Empire can provide. This rape-beast exploded out of the head of one of the finest wizards to come from the colleges of magic after the very stuff of chaos ripped through his body.

>I killed it with a spear. A fucking spear.

>This whelp of a rich man is the money in my pocket to drink those memories away.

>Your move."

I had a city guard filled with Jesters once.

And knowing how painful is to fight even only a single Jester (trickery ahoy, with puns and taunting all the way) in my games....

Yeah, they didn't fuck with that kind of stuff.

>>26011702

>Being intimidated
>Not producing a contract and a sack of gold with a promise of a magical spear, all the drink you could desire, and dibs on fucking the whore changeling

You haven't played with our dwarf son.

Yes.

But only because our railroading douchecanoe of a DM told us we were intimidated.

The city itself was actually a pretty interesting setting and the DM was usually pretty genial and friendly, but he had this insufferable tendency of reminding us that we were small fish, that this or that NPC could kill us with a breath and so on and so forth.

>>26011789
>told us we were intimidated

do those guards have a fucking AURA OF FEAR?
are the guards DRAGONS?
Then shut up!

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>>26011745
>Sack of gold
Probably stolen, taken in for questioning.

>Magic spear
Unless you have papers, its unlawful, and probably chaos tainted. Get on the ground.

>Changling.
Here comes the witch hunters.

You obviously don't know Warhammer, or what fighting the very hoards of chaos can do to a man.

>>26011791
You would not believe how many times I had to ask him to kindly allow me to play my fucking character.

He wasn't a bad guy, but some dudes just should just stay away from DMing.

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I tend to have my major cities Town Guard be led by at least a level 20 BAMF, at the very highest level at least.
Or if im feeling really fucking mean, have the city's Wizard college send their neophytes to serve with the guard for a period in order to get them first hand combat experience, even if it is just bar brawls and such
The main reason being that my main city is an incredibly militaristic place, and the people that comprise the guard are either fledgeling war-wizards in training, or recently retired veteran soldiers looking to make a little more money before they go in to retirement.
Groups of roaming adventurers are a common thing in the city, and as such, the city moves to take precautions where if the guard are brought down on you in force, its run or die, because they are essentially a magically reinforced paramilitary force.

>>26011791

I'll have to start giving my guards an ability to enact a fear aura based on the amount of guards present. Be a hell of a riot control system.

>>26011789
However to be fair, said Guards were also ridiculously disciplined, like trained for this job from Birth. And they always moved in packs and were the most heavily armed group in the entire goddamned city.

Which in of itself was a very interesting setting.

>>26011830
because old decrepit fighters and 16 year old level 2 wizards are going to stop PCs?

>>26011839
Guard Waaagh?

I can dig it. One cop is an obstacle . A half dozen of them are a deterrent.

A squad of them is a problem.

>>26011950
The entire force makes you shit yourself and run in terror.

>>26011975
/r/ >>26011702 with "you came to the wrong Burg, motherfucker"

>>26011928
because 25 sleep spells one will work and then the retired rogues and moderate level fighters make us of the opportunity.

>>26011950

Figure some benevolent cleric order gives 100 helms to the city watch that have a psychic repulsion/fear aura that strengthens when any member is within 30' of another member wearing the helm and radiates out at a range of 30' plus 10' per every 5 members, with the total aura having the chance to spawn a slightly weaker set of fields.

When not used in that form it serves as a nice tin foiler (stops psychic attacks and charms from affecting the guard). Not a cheap helm, but a gran d gift to be given.

>>26012007
This, basically
They'll get debuffed, dogpiled and arrested
Not to mention, these fighters are the very few that survived to the age of 30 in the armies of the nation
They regularly go and fight in hellholes that would make an Imperial Guardsman's like from 40k look like living in a spa
They are some hard mother fuckers
Most of them have character levels

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>>26012184

Yeah, but I find that dumb luck scares players more. I had an Illusionist in an old D&D game who tried to scare a group of household guards into catatonia while they sat smoking pipes, drinking, and dicing. Everyone failed but one guy I had marked down as 2nd level Fighter, Old, Missing leg.

I winged it, had the guy get up with a leg that looked to be shaped from a broken Staff of some sort, and give the following speech (player wrote it down and gave me a copy of his remembrance:


"Put down your flicking fingers boy. I was on the walls at Bastard's Cross when the drakes came down to burn my comrades. I was at Red River when the sorcerers turned the sky to razors and saw my squadron broken by the Knights of the Black Rose. I slew Sir Loren of the Ordo Arcanis with a lucky spear, and slaughtered his wolf familiar as it cried like a human babe over his corpse.

Your parlor tricks are meaningless to me hedge wizard. Now you and your mates, and I know they're behind ya right now, best get to stepping before my fellows awaken."

Players did pic related to fight another day, then accused me of putting in a DMPC to railroad them. Shame, I liked that guard.

>>26004242
HALT
HALT
HALT
HALT

>>26012343
SEEN ANY ELVES?

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In every game I run I have a list of Law Enforcement NPC's based on the following:

Marshal Rooster Cogburn
Inspector Harry Callahan
Tango and Cash
Starsky and Hutch
Detective John McClane
Jackie Chan in Supercop
Murtaugh and Riggs (Lethal Weapon)
Axel Foley
Marion Cobretti
Danny Butterman and Nicholas Angel

>>26012474
Are they all still as badass as they should be?

>>26012303
Did you point out to them that all he did was make a scary speech, and then they pussied out?

>>26012517

Oh yeah. I showed my notes to them on the guy as soon as the scene was completed and we went on break. I could trust they wouldn't metagame, and they got a good chuckle. I do enjoy a good 'holy fuck I made it' response, especially if it is followed up by a spectacular failure.

If the guard and the army were actually capable of doing their job (i.e. protecting the people and countryside) then adventurers would be unnecessary.

>>26012574
Except that isnt true?
Adventurers adventure, they aren't meant to be the town guard or look after the cities
They should be off in mystical far off lands looking for magical artifacts and slaying vile monsters, finding new lands and fucking exotic bitches
Its pretty important that the guard be competent really
Hell, if they arent, you could just derail a campaign by playing a 5 wizard group, getting to like level 15, and steamrolling the entire city with magical bullshit shenanigans and conquering it all for yourselves

>>26012574

What kind of gaurd would they be if they just left the town to fight evil? Do you know what kind of shit would go down if they just abandoned their posts?

>>26012602
Level 15?
You dont need to be even near level 15 for that
Just do the shade apocalypse trick

>>26012574

Adventurers are unreliable for the protection of a city. Most 'adventurers', outside of PCs of course, ply their trade just as the PCs do, moving from town to town, city to city, country to country.

That isn't a very reliable force for protecting the local yokels from themselves and outside threats. Yes, you may hire adventurers for the occasional gig, but they're not going to be useful for long term defense.

Am I really the only guy who has most of my groups filled with nouveau riche adventurers that act like modern day contractors, blowing all their money on toys and bitches then having to pick up work guarding caravans and pulling guard duty until the next Demon Invasion comes along?

Am I the only DM who makes his town guards REALLY SCARY motherfuckers?
My entire town guard is comprised of orphan children raised in warrior convents by the priestesses of the god of death
They're called the Mortisans, and essentially every one of them is either a cleric of hers or a Blackguard with magical armour fused to their skin
The worst sentence for a crime in the city is to be made in to one of the Bound
Wretched, almost ghoul like monsters that the Mortisans use like sniffer / attack dogs
Your average patrol consists of a Mortisan Blackguard, a Cleric of Mephilia (the god) and a Boundsman, holding 3 or 4 of the bound on chains, which they release in to the fray and use the chains as weapons afterwards

>>26012574
well take a look at real life situations

people in first world countries are kept perfectly safe by the countless layers of police, coast guard, customs and military etc but that still doesn't mean developing countries or rival countries pose a threat

however, the first world countries can't openly send forces into developing countries or rival countries to negate any threats without consequences

this is where adventurers might come in

totally deniable agents paid in coin and used en masse against other countries

maybe groups of adventurers with secret military or materiel support from a country wage proxy wars in a developing country in lieu of an actual war

all sorts of possibilities, friend

>>26012766
That sounds more like an underworld city rather than a average earthwalker city.

>>26012830

We played a Cold War Fantasy RPG once. It got a little weird when the players, a hardened group of mercenaries, were forced to destroy a whole human village to hide the fact that their VIP hostage, a local rebel and known NotCommunist sympathizer, had been spotted being mind wiped and put under control of the NotAmerican mercenary troop's head shrinker psychic.

It was great fun.

>>26012834
Its a Lawful Evil aligned city of Warlords and Scholar Kings
For the most part, its not too bad a place for players, because they are neither
1) Poor
2) The wrong colour
3) Overly vocal about their distaste for the city
They're a nation of conquerors, a bit like the Charr from GW2

>>26012903
>>26012834
Think Commorragh, actually
Minus the delighting in pain thing, and largely tolerated by the other nations under a current peace, because they supply the majority of the world trade in iron ore and coal

>>26011795
we get it, empire guard are bad asses, now you and me under the table, how much gold to fuck the boy

>>26013221
Now you get it.

Last one to the three-legged Halfling buys the beer.

Praise Slaanesh

>>26004270
I'd make a joke about there being a purple Ranger, but Gekiranger exists.
IC, she's just surprised that there's an explosion behind them when they do the roll call.

>>26003249
they didn't give me time to present them the city guard.
They're all palestrangers/gunslingers skeletons.
yay for necropolis

>>26011345
I have an NPC named this in my campaign

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I'd have my Guards look like this. Except the cross would be replaced by whatever the Cities' coat of arms is.

>>26003249
Let's see. How about playing L5R as a character carting around an officious crane clan moron in Crab clan terrritory? I was praying they didn't notice us.

>>26003249
Maybe not the average town guard-dude, but even in something like D&D they sure should respect the ones who show up after you've messed around with a few of the regular town guards, and demonstrated that you require a more serious response than the average troublemaker.

Unless you're dealing with a small independent town or something (which would call surrounding towns/kingdoms for aid anyway), it seems reasonable that they'd have higher level response teams for situations similar to what's happening when PCs go amok, that force PCs to eventually flee the area or get destroyed by response teams designed to handle the level of threat they pose. The sorts of teams that wouldn't be out patrolling as much as they'd be sitting in a room somewhere, waiting to be called into action to beat your ass into pulp.

For really powerful entities, like entire kingdoms, it's easy to dream up some magical response team that sits in a barracks in the capital somewhere, waiting to teleport to any given population center should they be needed there, to rape the PCs into submission for their arrogance.

>>26004247
I think the focus was on the escalation bit - D&D isn't really high-powered, but you grow in power ridiculously fast.
>>26004514
Compared to what? Most groups in my experience level up like once every one or two sessions. What game has faster power growth than that?

>>26009755
>>26008510
>A first level 4e character will be obliterated by orcs, which are generally level 4.

The orc minions in 4e are the equivalent of the old generic orcs.

A single PC can take those out in droves.

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>>26016803
>teleporting magical response team
In the comic I'm working on they are the Ros-Giliath, titans in shining red armor. The horns adorning their helmet double as magical telecomm units, and the word used to switch from speaking outward to inward- Gatha- is used in some small villages as a greeting, the peasants never knowing what it means. They are the elite combination of the military's best men and the court mages' best skills. They're more shock troops used in battles with warring kingdoms, however.
The rebel army has amassed, their old swords and spears glinting along with the pitchforks and sickles. Today is the day, the day the king finally listens to their demands. The taxes placed upon them are too many, and the nobility seems only to take note of the poor only to sneer at them. With courage and blood, this will change.
The army--more a mob than anything--begins to march. The king's blockade grows closer and closer, and as it comes more into view so too do the rebels.
A horn blares, and the king's men begin to mobilize. They are in formation when the rebels are close enough to make out faces.
A single voice yells, echoing across the field, and a mob screams in return.
The rebels advance, quickly. Pole weapons go from vertical stances to horizontal, the king's men in their armor well equipped, but outnumbered.
The lines clash.
Man skewers and slashes at man, the screams of the fallen and the roars of the triumphant. The rebels seem fit to wash over the blockade like a writhing sea.
Then, a flash of lightning from the center of the mob, a rumble of thunder shaking the earth. A shockwave spreads, anyone within ten feet of the flash is thrown into the air. From the source of the light is seen a circular formation of beetlelike knights. They carry evil-looking polearms in one hand, and though they carry no shield, the air around their other arm seems to shimmer.
(cont)

>>26024687
A rebel near the end of the now-clear radius around the strange warriors helps his shaken comrade to his feet. He hears something. A chanting, coming from the Giliath. They speak in unison, in a slow, rhythmic tone using words that sound alien and strange. As the young soldier listens, he feels a tugging at his feet. It grows stronger, until he, and many other men around him, are being dragged forcefully--towards the Ros-Giliath, who continue their chanting, and lower their weapons. With a cry a fellow rebel charges at the warriors, and it rallies the others to follow. They run, brandishing weapons, and then all goes to hell. Those who strike the shimmering air suffer strange symptoms--their weapons sag and melt, or bend like a U towards their wielder until they drop it in terror and are cut down. A few men manage to strike the gleaming armor. Sparks fly, and they fall to the ground shuddering. The Giliath on the outside of the formation swing their weapons in large swaths, cutting those unfortunate enough to be in range, while the soldier in center chant words at their own pace, apart from the main dirge. From these words, beams of light reduce lines of men to cinders, or strike fear into the hearts of entire sections of the mob. A few archers attempt to cut them down with longbows. After the first rounds clatter uselessly off of their plate armor, one Giliath looks towards the hillside rangers and utters an incantation. The longbowmen pull as one, and when they release their arrows, they fly not into the air, but backwards into the bodies of their would-be wielders.
Within ten minutes the rebel mob is routed, and those that survive run for their lives, weapons and shields forgotten and scattered with the dead and dying. A young knight walks up to thank them, but is only told gruffly, 'Hold the line', before the titans stamp the butts of their polearms on the ground and disappear in another flash of light.

>>26024693
Miles away, in the king's castle, a bolt of lightning strikes and the Ros-Giliath appear on a circular rune-space. They set their weapons in stands and allow attendants to help remove their armor, joking and looking forward to the night's feast.