In pre-modern societies strangers can be very dangerous*.  Add in fantasy elements like dangerous cults, powerful warriors forged in battle deep beneath the earth and the like and I can totally see why a given town might not want to let anyone in that's armed or armoured.  If there's a wall, the point is to keep potentially dangerous known and unknown elements out.  I could see a town allowing known individuals, especially if they are of an appropriate station or work directly for such an individual, to keep their arms and armour.  But an average armed and armoured stranger?  That's a terrible idea.  That said, if someone wants a characteristic of their town to be that it takes needless risks with unknown armed strangers, their more than welcome to run their game any wat they want.

* for example in some areas of Paupa New Guinea if you meet a stranger and they can't explain how they are either related to you or a proven ally, you would be duty bound to kill them on the spot.  Anthropologists who want to go into those areas often have to spend a lot of time living near them and making themselves known to anyone who comes out of the area to trade so when they finally go in they'll be proceeded by a positive reputation as a friend of the people and be able to cite who they know by name until they can hopefully list someone the person they are talking to knows before they are potentially killed as dangerous strangers.

We don't really live in a society where people rarely travel more than a few miles from their place of birth and where anything or anyone you haven't heard of by word of mouth could easily be a dire threat to entire communities.  Larger towns and cities would have less of an issue in terms of considering all strangers to be an immediate threat, but it would still be very foolish to just open your gates to armed strangers or armed foreigners (be they other human peoples, demihumans or something else).

Quote from: Kiero;853390Nope, unless they are sidearms, those are stowed in the baggage too.

Because it increases the relative power of the local authorities, when strangers don't have the advantage of body armour if they get into trouble. And consequently, tends to discourage said strangers from doing stupid stuff.

1: You specifically said armour, not all gear. Hence the comment.

2: Which means exactly what in a fantasy setting where a totally unarmoured person can have better AC than the guy in full chain? Or my own character who can make a weapon appear out of thin air? What about the poor sod who happens to have a talking sword that does not want to be stowed and might just be able to do something about it?

Hence some of the arguments by others in this thread.

Indeed that fellow in plate armour with a two handed sword is of much less concern to me than the lady over there who can summon lightning bolts with a snap of her finger

At least the guy in armour is an obvious threat. Mages could look like any civilian, as could monks (how do you guard against the "quivering palm"?).

Or the ancient dragon who has shapeshifted into human form?

In a fantasy world anyone is a potential danger. And I haven't even gotten to Invisible Stalkers and their ilk, or psionics...

Quote from: DavetheLost;853468Indeed that fellow in plate armour with a two handed sword is of much less concern to me than the lady over there who can summon lightning bolts with a snap of her finger

At least the guy in armour is an obvious threat. Mages could look like any civilian, as could monks (how do you guard against the "quivering palm"?).

Or the ancient dragon who has shapeshifted into human form?

In a fantasy world anyone is a potential danger. And I haven't even gotten to Invisible Stalkers and their ilk, or psionics...

Aaaargh! I'm never taking my armour off ever again!

Quote from: soltakss;853525Aaaargh! I'm never taking my armour off ever again!

Good luck with that. If lightning is being tossed around, I don't want to be anywhere near the lightning rod in the plate armor.

Quote from: soltakss;853525Aaaargh! I'm never taking my armour off ever again!

You play a Tortle?

Give that guy a shotgun and he looks just like my old Metamorphosis Alpha character. He never took of his armour either.

:cool: I'm stealing that picture for Star Wars.

Quote from: DavetheLost;853468Indeed that fellow in plate armour with a two handed sword is of much less concern to me than the lady over there who can summon lightning bolts with a snap of her finger

At least the guy in armour is an obvious threat. Mages could look like any civilian, as could monks (how do you guard against the "quivering palm"?).

The same way societies have dealt with witches, unsanctioned religious leaders (like heretical priests), and unlicensed magic workers (like a community's magicians and sorcerers). The second you show your power without previously garnering the OK by the powers that be in the area you are immediately set upon by the entire community. You will likely be killed, never have rest until you flee beyond the borders, and lucky if you get even a mock trial formality.

Civilization should terrify anyone with lone wolf pretensions. The sentient masses will destroy you if you step out of line, and quickly tell any nearby friends to do the same. Shapechanging creatures would only ramp up the paranoia and harsh reactions, as such real world beliefs testify. Focused large numbers have always been a check upon powerful individuals.

These are the same masses who oft rely on those lone wolf groups to go out and save the land from whatever whatsits is causing trouble this time. Or these are the lone wolf groups that just did.

Said masses possibly living in towns and cities that could maybee use some lone wolves to clean things up.

Context helps.

A safe town I expect safe laws weapons sheathed or stowed once settled. Armour is problematic as it can be a hassled when not worn, depending on the type. And getting people to disarm outside the walls where it may not be 100% safe might get called out. But if its a known safe town with known rules then the group should know this going in and have time to prep.

Like my Shadowrun example previously. Keep your battle gear concealed when in the more normal areas. OR ELSE. Outside those safe streets though and youd sure as heck better be fully loaded, OR ELSE.

Of course, expendable outsider is always worth pitting against another unwanted expendable outsider. Very familiar trope and explains the rise of mercenaries. Up until the point that the mercenary gains friends, becomes a mercenary company, and is strong enough to challenge authority itself. And then we go back to "slaughter the dangerous outsiders, until we need 'em" as the new boss tries to defend himself in the same way as the old boss.

And thus we cycle endlessly.

Quote from: Omega;853723These are the same masses who oft rely on those lone wolf groups to go out and save the land from whatever whatsits is causing trouble this time. Or these are the lone wolf groups that just did.

They may be true if that's how the game plays out. But sending some hired thugs to go take care of trouble outside of town is a very different proposition to allowing those same thugs to wander around inside your town. The reason the PCs were sent may be because no one in the town was available to deal with the threat, because no one in the town wanted to deal with the threat, or because no one in the town was able to deal with the threat. Which reasons apply make a big difference in how a confrontation would play out.

The treatment of armies by citizenry in the early modern and enlightenment period and later is illustrative in this case. Trained soldiers possessed a skill  ("the ability to fire three rounds a minute in any weather" R. Sharpe) that the citizenry lacked. So they paid soldiers to go and do their fighting for them. Not unlike the PCs in some games. But the citizenry's lack of gratitude towards, fear of, and outright ostracization of the soldiers they employed is well known and attested. Indeed it is one of Kipling's major themes. So the town wanting to prevent the PCs from wandering about armed and unsupervised makes a lot of sense.

Whether the town is able to stop the PCs depends on just how powerful the PCs are. If they are a mercenary regiment that's one thing, a company another, and a small war band, a third. Especially in the last situation, which is the more frequent RPG situation, it depends on just how over the top the PCs are compared to the townsfolk.

• In Runequest, the townspeople will probably win (if their morale holds) since numbers make such a huge difference in RQ.
• In Call of Cthuhlu the authorities are always more powerful than the PCs.
• In Star Trek the PCs are supposed to be the guys and gals who stop the wandering mercenary band from terrorizing the townsfolk.
• In Westerns, it's often a genre convention that the townsfolk are always a bunch of frightened sheep. (Ignoring the reality that many townsfolk fought and faced death in the bloody battles of the Civil War; the Northfield Raid shows how townsfolk against outlaws play out for real).
• In Star Wars D6, combined fire can bring down even highly powered PCs.
• Honor+Intrigue is similar.
• But in a level based game like D&D...well that is possibly a very different kettle of old fish. Where the outcome depends on how high level the PCs are and on whether anyone in the town even has levels and levels of comparability to the PCs.

QuoteContext helps.

It certainly does.

We're, for the most part, all agreeing. Those with power to threaten the status quo are on notice until they show consistent behavior indicating otherwise. Same as it ever was, and one of the most coherent ways to structure cooperating sentient creatures. As a group behavior its presence doesn't even really change that much as you go down the food chain.

Then the PCs are all killed by a random pack of wererats because they were in their civvies. And  the next time the DM tells them the local law says "no armor" they tell him and the local law to go to hell.

So that's what my last Mechwarrior game needed... wererat packs.