Quote from: RPGPundit;850769Yes, that was the reference.

mind if i ask what to?

Quote from: kosmos1214;850782mind if i ask what to?

Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

The irony of Gronan of Simmerya quoting that movie should not be lost.

Quote from: jeff37923;850787Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

The irony of Gronan of Simmerya quoting that movie should not be lost.

ah ok iv never seen the whole picture only a few clips friend have shown me

and yes i do see the irony

I fail to see where one could find any irony at all.

This was a long, long, long standing point of contention between me and my players which I finally lost in my longest-running game.  I decided that since my PCs were famous heroes they could technically get away with wearing whatever they wanted; also because once they got to level 8 there was pretty much no small-town watch or magistrate in the world who was going to stand up to them.   But I kept pointedly making references to people staring at them or cautiously backing away whenever they entered a new town in full harness with weapons strapped.... and they kept very pointedly ignoring me, if not actively enjoying the fear they caused.  

I still remember one player I had wanting to go into town and specifically "start a bar fight."   I asked him how he did it and he said his Fighter would look for the biggest, toughest customer she could find and throw something at him.  I said okay first, look, you're level 10 you're basically Hercules; there is literally no meaningful way these guys can challenge you.  Secondly you're dressed head to foot in fitted steel and you have six feet of broadsword on your back; even if you found a guy stupid enough to think he could take you, nobody is gonna see you're in the equivalent of like $70,000 worth of fighting gear and think they could assault you with zero repercussions.  So what happens is you bean a guy in the face with a mug of ale and he just kind of glowers at you helplessly and walks out dripping with his head down and his friends rushing up to console him.   And that guy was like JEEZ HARIME I JUST WANTED TO HAVE FUN and I was like FUCK YOU, DIE, haha good times.

AD&D towns and cities though were populated with some pretty rough citizens. City guard could have one or more 2-5th level fighters leading the 2-16 guardsmen, that ruffian might be a level 8 assassin, that guy in the bar might be a level 7-10 monk.

Pick your fights carefully when in anything larger than a village.

Meh, personal preference I know but I always hated that.  A fifth level fighter should be commanding ridiculous prices as captain of a mercenary company, or living sumptuously as a king's bodyguard.  An eighth level assassin should be a major underworld figure, if not running his own little operation.  You're not likely to run into these guys at the bar.  If you want to go be a big stink in a small town and you're a sixth level adventurer, have at it, probably nobody will be able to stop you until you've made a nuisance of yourself for a good long time.  Then some enterprising adventurers might hear tell and think to make a name off you!

In a world where there is no level cap on most classes for humans?

I think of it like (and I'm showing which edition I grew up here) you have to go through thirteen fights with a moderate chance of being killed to go up a level, more or less.  How many people do you know put their life on the line that many times?  Like even out of guys who've been to war and stuff, most of them spent most of it keeping their heads down trying not to get killed.  Even the local gangsters, generally those guys don't fight fair and they don't target people who look tough.  The guy who's like fuck yeah I'm gonna go into this cave and antagonize the hell out of the local otyugh, he's a rare bird.  

It's a playstyle but yeah, I don't like "if you foul up Elminster will teleport in to save you" type campaigns and I see the reverse of that as, even from level 1 you are a tough dude you are not just some average jerk and if you want to fight Brom the farmboy for some reason you will probably win.  You bully!

In Dave Arneson's original BLACKMOOR there was no Raise Dead spell.

So player characters did stuff like get up to 5th level and be made captain of the town guard and retire, or hit third level and buy a tavern, etc.

AD&D reflects how the game was actually being played, in that respect.

In most towns, I don't allow it or, at least, it's against the law. Some towns allow it. I don't think it's that hard to come up with logical in-world reasons why a town may have restrictions on arms and armour, nor why some (frontier towns, places with little or no ability to actually enforce laws, etc) wouldn't have rules on it. It doesn't have to be "this happened historically" justification; the reason it happened historically is the same sort of reason it might happen in a game world, because having magic and monsters doesn't change logic, it just changes some of the constraints (maybe extra restrictions on magic users, too, of course, or maybe there aren't but using magic will mean you are set upon by midgets and kicked to death. For example. Hope none of my players are reading this).

I think that not spending the whole game completely tooled up makes things more interesting, particularly if challenges are scoped accordingly. In any case,the same laws often apply to others in the town, so it makes breaking the law a potentially good idea for certain purposes (although not without risk).

One thing I remember from an otherwise forgettable old Magic: The Gathering novel that was pretty cool was wizards who wanted to get a drink in a public house had to wear something called "peace bonds" which basically was a leather loop that cinched their right thumb up to their finger, making it impossible for them to cast.

Yet another reason to love ACKS: carefully considered level demographics.

Quote from: Harime Nui;851579One thing I remember from an otherwise forgettable old Magic: The Gathering novel that was pretty cool was wizards who wanted to get a drink in a public house had to wear something called "peace bonds" which basically was a leather loop that cinched their right thumb up to their finger, making it impossible for them to cast.

Seems like it would make it rather difficult to pick their drinks up, too, unless the glasses have handles.  And don't even think about trying to use a fork...

Pfffft, thumbs.  Who needs em!