Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Carrying weapons around (was Re: META:  Swords, etc)
From: seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp)
Date: 21 Nov 92 15:19:01 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Originator: seawasp@unixd2.cis.pitt.edu

In article <1992Nov21.022823.8132@news2.cis.umn.edu> thornley@pico.cs.umn.edu (David H. Thornley) writes:


>4.  The adventurers go armed, are attacked.  A fight ensues.  Innocent
>    bystanders can get seriously hurt.  Probably the worst outcome for
>    the bystanders is if the opponents do a lot of damage and get killed.
>    (Justiciar:  "Yes, we're sorry about your inn and your husband, but
>    the guilty party is here <nudge with toe>, is only carrying about
>    3 coppers worth of stuff, and is certainly in no position to recompense
>    you in any way.")

	Well, that isn't JUSTICE, is it?
	Justiciars dispense JUSTICE, not technicalities. If the parties can't
pay for it (or if all they can pay has already been taken), then recompense
will come from the Justiciars' funds or resources, or from others who may 
volunteer their resources; if, of course, the opponents were employed or
in the service of someone else (and acting with their overt or tacit approval),
then the employer will have to pay the piper.
	In the worst-case scenario, where the damage was so immense that even
the funds of the Justiciars and all the philanthropists couldn't cover it,
then of course it's such a major-league thing that the patron deities (Elbon
of the Diamonds and the Sixteen) step in and fix it up. (To give you an idea,
the resources of the Justiciars and associate groups [at this point, anyway]
are large enough that only a disaster on a citywide scale could be that bad.)

>Now, what does the innkeeper think when seeing armed adventurers coming into
>the inn?  These guys are either thinking of starting something (and the
>Justiciars can't stop them, they can only avenge), or they think somebody
>is thinking of starting something.  If the party is tough-looking, their
>possible opponents are likely to attack by surprise, and are certainly
>not going to be fussy about collateral damage.
>
>In any case, fighting is likely to break out, and there is no guarantee that
>anybody causing damage will be able to pay for it.
>
>Therefore, I still don't understand how, in Zarathanton, adventurers are
>well-advised to go around armed, and nobody shuns them for it.

	I'm afraid you totally lost me with your assumption that going armed
means you don't trust the Justiciars' justice.

	If you make your living with weapons and wits, it becomes pretty
inconvenient to keep packing/unpacking those two swords, six daggers,
and suit of armor. It's also advertising: "Adventurer here!"

	Some adventurers prefer the bother of packing away the hardware
and thus keeping a bit of anonymity (and trust the Justiciars to be
enough of a deterrent that the Bad Guys won't try anything in the city).
Others would rather take the chance of being hassled.

	Moreover, the Inns themselves (as I mentioned previously) usually
have their own arrangements with guards and safeguards. If you walk into
an inn with weapons, fine. Draw a weapon on a patron, and you're likely
to find that not only has your opponent drawn HIS, but so have all the
guards (and the guard-mage's hands are glowing in a VERY unpleasant
way.)

	Some of the best Inns even have contingency-based defenses, which
prevent hostile magic from operating within/on them. Thus combat becomes
limited to the HTH variety, and the house mage (who is, of course, immune
to the defenses and has specially-chosen lists of spells to deal with
hostiles without damaging bystanders...) will deal with the combat fast!


                                 Sea Wasp
                                   /^\
                                   ;;;
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