Seriously, though, how do you handle the notion of "arms control" in urban areas in your fantasy world/games?  Can PCs just waltz through the cities of your setting armed to the teeth and dressed in full plate? What about the populated rural regions?
Or are they stuck having to hand over their weapons at the city gate, or something in between?

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;621239Seriously, though, how do you handle the notion of "arms control" in urban areas in your fantasy world/games?  Can PCs just waltz through the cities of your setting armed to the teeth and dressed in full plate? What about the populated rural regions?
Or are they stuck having to hand over their weapons at the city gate, or something in between?

RPGPundit

Depends on the city.

Generally the more "civilized" the more restrictions there will be and the more PCs will be looked askance at if they openly carry weapons around.

Generally the city guard/watch will hover around heavily armed folks expecting trouble.

The local strongmen always have sufficient force on hand to compel compliance.

This does not translate into sufficient force to project outside that stronghold; this is the gap wherein PCs find their niche.  Despite all appearances, practical policy is always the same: so long as you play nice and don't cause trouble, no one will come around wanting to deal with you.  Good and evil administrations alike, with variations of interpretation, follow this rule because it's easier that way and they have more important things to do.

Quote from: Bradford C. Walker;621251Good and evil administrations alike, with variations of interpretation, follow this rule because it's easier that way and they have more important things to do.

And adventurers are notoriously violence-prone. It's better to keep them happy in-town, so as to encourage the violence to happen elsewhere.

Quote from: RPGPundit;621239Seriously, though, how do you handle the notion of "arms control" in urban areas in your fantasy world/games?  Can PCs just waltz through the cities of your setting armed to the teeth and dressed in full plate? What about the populated rural regions?
Or are they stuck having to hand over their weapons at the city gate, or something in between?

RPGPundit

Depends on the setting, and the city in that setting. Each is going to have it's own particular laws.

Of course Pundit's title is suggestive, since in the Forgotten Realms, Cormyr is one of the more law-abiding (and law-enforcing) realms.  This assumes both that government forces are capable of overpowering most adventurers who flout the law, and that there are in any case social consequences for doing so.  If people in general (not just the King) don't like you walking around with swords and armor in public, you may find it hard to get everyday business done.

JG

Follow historical logic, and tune it to the level of weapon control.

3 classes of armaments:

1/ Military. These include polearms, lances, double handed swords, shields (maybe excepting bucklers) and any form of metal armour.
2/ Civillian. A dagger or poniard, ballock knife, side sword, rapier, basket hilt or arming sword. Something that doesn't look out of place at court. Leather or cloth armour*
3/ Tools. Billhooks, threshals, sickles etc.

Forbid #1 and ask questions of anyone carrying, exercise control over #2, don't bother #3 unless they look out of place. Tune according to city's ability (or economic drivers) to control, the century you emulate, local fashion.

Works for pseudo-European, same principles can no doubt be applied to other cultures.

* good luck walking into anywhere in your stinky, never-been-washed cloth under-armour.

Quote from: RPGPundit;621239Seriously, though, how do you handle the notion of "arms control" in urban areas in your fantasy world/games?  Can PCs just waltz through the cities of your setting armed to the teeth and dressed in full plate? What about the populated rural regions?
Or are they stuck having to hand over their weapons at the city gate, or something in between?

I don't bother with it. As the basic assumption goes, someone who can afford expensive weapons and armour must be an important and powerful person, and they will be treated that way. Naturally, many city states also employ spies to keep track of suspicious visitors, thieves and bandits also target travellers if they think they can get away with it*, merchants automatically tend to adjust prices upwards, and con artists try to get into their confidence.

There is also visibility. Someone in plate mail with a bigass sword on the back will stand out like a sore thumb, while someone in a nondescript chain shirt and a scimitar will be taken for a random mercenary, and not bothered much. Looking rich and powerful means you'd better be ready to play that game.
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* It is pretty cool though when a random encounter with robbers goes like "You spot about a dozen shadowy individuals lurking in a side alley. They size you up, then melt away into the shadows." That's what being powerful is like.

Pretty much social conformity. If a stranger comes waltzing into town armed to the teeth and dressed for battle, then the inhabitants themselves will make it a very unfriendly place - starting with hostile stares and progressing to refusal of service. Towns and cities historically policed themselves for thousands of years quite successfully without the need for a professional guard.  

As always it depends on the culture and the current political situation, but anyone who thinks a small group of heavily armed mercs can run rough-shod over the local populace has no concept of the furious urban tribalism their actions will spark. It doesn't matter how much armour you have once a mob forms and starts hurling cobblestones and roof tiles at you.

Quote from: smiorgan;621262Follow historical logic, and tune it to the level of weapon control.

3 classes of armaments:

1/ Military. These include polearms, lances, double handed swords, shields (maybe excepting bucklers) and any form of metal armour.
2/ Civillian. A dagger or poniard, ballock knife, side sword, rapier, basket hilt or arming sword. Something that doesn't look out of place at court. Leather or cloth armour*
3/ Tools. Billhooks, threshals, sickles etc.

Forbid #1 and ask questions of anyone carrying, exercise control over #2, don't bother #3 unless they look out of place. Tune according to city's ability (or economic drivers) to control, the century you emulate, local fashion.

Works for pseudo-European, same principles can no doubt be applied to other cultures.

* good luck walking into anywhere in your stinky, never-been-washed cloth under-armour.

Quote from: Melan;621263I don't bother with it. As the basic assumption goes, someone who can afford expensive weapons and armour must be an important and powerful person, and they will be treated that way. Naturally, many city states also employ spies to keep track of suspicious visitors, thieves and bandits also target travellers if they think they can get away with it*, merchants automatically tend to adjust prices upwards, and con artists try to get into their confidence.

There is also visibility. Someone in plate mail with a bigass sword on the back will stand out like a sore thumb, while someone in a nondescript chain shirt and a scimitar will be taken for a random mercenary, and not bothered much. Looking rich and powerful means you'd better be ready to play that game.
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* It is pretty cool though when a random encounter with robbers goes like "You spot about a dozen shadowy individuals lurking in a side alley. They size you up, then melt away into the shadows." That's what being powerful is like.

This and this. I roll things in my games this way.

Some civilized areas are comprised of strong centralization and representative authorities. These authorities have a monopoly on the use of force/violence. Those who contest this first face the civil "peace officers." Then the heavy guns of the military are brought to put down any menace. This does make the locale a bit reactive to trouble, yet cosmopolitan to differences.

Other civilized areas are comprised of strong de-centralization and rely upon the authority of community mores. This empowers the populace with the use of force/violence. Accepted custom supersedes during escalation, but otherwise like-mindedness makes uncomfortable those who contest. This does make it a bit pro-active to trouble, although provincial to differences.

TL,DL

High "law" areas publicly tell you to put your weapon away, or bind it with a peace-cord, etc. Flare ups will lead you into the hands of authorities pretty fast. But otherwise you'll be unmolested until you do something bad. Rules are generally given top down and has a large corpus on judging restitution & punishment.

High "chaos" areas expect you to learn custom quickly, because everyone is armed & expected to enforce peace. Flare ups will lead you into the hands of the community eventually. But otherwise those who don't fit in are made unwelcome. Custom is generally grown from bottom up interpretation and has a long tradition on mediating restitution & punishment.

Quote from: Opaopajr;621271Some civilized areas are comprised of strong centralization and representative authorities. These authorities have a monopoly on the use of force/violence. Those who contest this first face the civil "peace officers." Then the heavy guns of the military are brought to put down any menace. This does make the locale a bit reactive to trouble, yet cosmopolitan to differences.

Other civilized areas are comprised of strong de-centralization and rely upon the authority of community mores. This empowers the populace with the use of force/violence. Accepted custom supersedes during escalation, but otherwise like-mindedness makes uncomfortable those who contest. This does make it a bit pro-active to trouble, although provincial to differences.

TL,DL

High "law" areas publicly tell you to put your weapon away, or bind it with a peace-cord, etc. Flare ups will lead you into the hands of authorities pretty fast. But otherwise you'll be unmolested until you do something bad. Rules are generally given top down and has a large corpus on judging restitution & punishment.

High "chaos" areas expect you to learn custom quickly, because everyone is armed & expected to enforce peace. Flare ups will lead you into the hands of the community eventually. But otherwise those who don't fit in are made unwelcome. Custom is generally grown from bottom up interpretation and has a long tradition on mediating restitution & punishment.

So a matrix of traveller style law level and D&D style alignment.

Quote from: RPGPundit;621239Seriously, though, how do you handle the notion of "arms control" in urban areas in your fantasy world/games?  Can PCs just waltz through the cities of your setting armed to the teeth and dressed in full plate? What about the populated rural regions?
Or are they stuck having to hand over their weapons at the city gate, or something in between?

If you were a noble retainer and displayed their badge/livery then you would be OK. If you were known to the local lords/officials you were OK. If you were some podunk  adventurer wandering into a settlement armed to the gills then expect some hard questions and a warning to conclude your business and leave by dawn the next day.

The problem is for D&D style RPGs is that the adventuring party is generally part of the milieu.  You could run a D&D campaign with a more realistic orientation but by and large players expect that if they don't cause trouble they will not be hassled for being a small armed band.

In my Majestic Wilderlands campaign I generally uphold that expectation for the main campaign areas like City-State.  That there is a heroic tradition in various cultures that assumes that a well equipped well supplied SMALL group is out questing for some good purpose.  Now there are cultures that don't assume that, however it generally wrapped up with even more noxious traits so it is rare that a player group does not know about it when they go into the regions where these cultures are dominant.

For example the Sarnic city-states to the far south of City-State have an accurate reputation of being theocracies that controlled by death religion that practices human sacrifice.

What I recommend is that if your campaign setting features a lot of weapon and magic control that you explain this up front. Otherwise just go with the default assumption I outlined above.

Quote from: James Gillen;621259Of course Pundit's title is suggestive, since in the Forgotten Realms, Cormyr is one of the more law-abiding (and law-enforcing) realms.  This assumes both that government forces are capable of overpowering most adventurers who flout the law, and that there are in any case social consequences for doing so.  If people in general (not just the King) don't like you walking around with swords and armor in public, you may find it hard to get everyday business done.

Over 20 years ago after reading the grey box I explained one of the appealing aspect of the Forgotten Realms to my friends like this.

The Forgotten Realms is kinda of cool. From reading it looks like that the whenever a place, like a village, has a problem they either wait a short time for somebody to show up or send somebody to find one of the many adventuring groups. They explain their predicament and hope the group will accept the job. When the day is saved the party are reward to the best of the village's ability and everybody goes on their merry way.

If for some reason the adventuring party, that just saved the day, turns out to be a bunch of thugs why then some plucky villagers will just go and find ANOTHER adventuring party, explain their plight, and ..... well you get the idea.

To me that in the Grey box Forgotten Realms that adventuring parties were a major part of the social fabric of the realms.

Quote from: estar;621312To me that in the Grey box Forgotten Realms that adventuring parties were a major part of the social fabric of the realms.

There's a lot of things the FR does wrong, but a lot it does right. The place of adventurers, as you've described it is one. The plethora of fallen civilizations (and hence tombs, towers of mystery, and subterranean complexes) is another. A third is the slightly-off weather, which drives some of the background to the previous two.