Acceptable behavior in our local tavern is protected by the mere the rumor of a curse, which any violators of the rules are subject to suffering. In particular because "curses" in the campaign are ill-defined -- and thus the cure is uncertain. The locals have all sorts of stories about how that curse has manifested in the past, though of course no one has actually met anyone so afflicted. Thus far, the PCs have avoided testing the rumor.

San Dimas High School football RULES! Wooo!

The standard answer in standard D&D is that only semi-retired or retired adventurers of about 14th level opened taverns. That was why.

In a real medieval-authentic campaign, the answer would be that kingdoms had strict weapon-control laws, and people who performed obvious harmful magic were executed by church authorities.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1055798were executed by church authorities.

Where in Europe could the church authorities execute someone? Holy See? AFAIK most places they never could impose a death penalty, and always handed over people who needed executing to the secular authorities. It was very common for criminals to seek a church trial ("I'm a verger!") because the penalties were much less severe.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1055798The standard answer in standard D&D is that only semi-retired or retired adventurers of about 14th level opened taverns.

Apparently this was actual real emergent player behaviour in Dave Arneson's campaign, though I think ca 5th level was more common. The reason was no Raise Dead, so it could make sense to retire once you got a few levels and some gold. Get a few PCs up to 5th level first, then choose one to play.

Quote from: S'mon;1055800Where in Europe could the church authorities execute someone? Holy See? AFAIK most places they never could impose a death penalty, and always handed over people who needed executing to the secular authorities. It was very common for criminals to seek a church trial ("I'm a verger!") because the penalties were much less severe.

Pretty much, The Catholic Church was brought in to actually tamp down on the violence of the Spanish Inquisition under the Spanish Crown. Some of the Protestants teamed up with the secular authorities to kill suspected witches, but the Catholic Church's policy was that witchcraft wasn't real and you can't punish someone for something they can't do. Does the Catholic Church have its share of problems? Yup. Name me an institution that doesn't. This is just isn't one of them.

Quote from: S'mon;1055800Where in Europe could the church authorities execute someone? Holy See? AFAIK most places they never could impose a death penalty, and always handed over people who needed executing to the secular authorities. It was very common for criminals to seek a church trial ("I'm a verger!") because the penalties were much less severe.

Yes, in the papal states. And in other places, at varying times, it was all but a formality to hand the 'culprit' over to the secular authorities.

Quote from: Chris24601;1055821Pretty much, The Catholic Church was brought in to actually tamp down on the violence of the Spanish Inquisition under the Spanish Crown. Some of the Protestants teamed up with the secular authorities to kill suspected witches, but the Catholic Church's policy was that witchcraft wasn't real and you can't punish someone for something they can't do. Does the Catholic Church have its share of problems? Yup. Name me an institution that doesn't. This is just isn't one of them.

There were witches executed in Catholic countries with the complicity of the local church. Including in Spain.

But moreso, the Church was much more concerned with the execution of heretics.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;1055446I run low-magic campaigns, but whether high or low, a magic-user who casts fireball in a crowded tavern will be regarded the same way someone spraying kerosene around and lighting it would be today - they'll be hunted down, tried and convicted and given a severe sentence.

No, they wouldn't.  They'd be killed outright and their body tossed to the wolves.  Most fantasy towns don't have jails, and most sentences end in DEATH anyway, so why bother with a trial?  I mean seriously, the survivors saw HIM throw a FIREBALL at the tavern.  BURN THE WITCH!

Quote from: Christopher Brady;1056064I mean seriously, the survivors saw HIM throw a FIREBALL at the tavern.  BURN THE WITCH!

I wouldn't want to burn him - he might explode! :eek:

'Pressing' FTW *squish*

Quote from: RPGPundit;1056061There were witches executed in Catholic countries with the complicity of the local church. Including in Spain.

But moreso, the Church was much more concerned with the execution of heretics.

The thing is, the crime of heresy wasn't a Church crime; it was a CIVIL crime. It was enacted and enforced by civil authorities because many heresies had the effect of causing civil unrest and instability and the civil rulers wanted that stamped out as quickly as possible. Many times Church authorities would be tasked with investigating if someone was an actual heretic but, as with the Spanish Inquisition, they were more interested in finding out who WAS NOT guilty than who was because said civil authorities tended to go overboard in the name stamping out sources of opposition to their rule.

The Church never held a policy of capital punishment for heresy. One reason was simply that the kings and princes in whose lands they operated generally kept the power over life and death of their subjects to themselves. Another was the simple pragmatism that the Church benefited more from heretics who recanted than those executed (which was why the typical punishment the Catholic Church enforced for heresy was house arrest until the heretic recanted or died of natural causes).

There are a lot of half-truths and outright lies spread about the Catholic Church. That tactic has been quite popular historically, especially by anti-Catholic organizations like the Freemasons and progressives (for whom the Church represents an alternative to the State as God). The Church has enough genuine problems its trying to deal with (of late, the depredations by the Lavender Mafia and their ally the current "pope" finally coming into the light; note that the loudest voices demanding action are Catholics themselves) without having opportunistic falsehoods heaped on it as well.

The Catholic church engaged in de-facto execution. It's irrelevant if they handed over the condemned to be executed by a civil executioner, it was still their doing.

In fact, Spain legally allowed the execution of heretics condemned by the church until 1834 (though the last person actually executed in Spain after a church trial was in 1826).

The English were still convicting people of witchcraft in the 1940s. Yeah that's a 9, not a 7.

Quote from: Bren;1056518The English were still convicting people of witchcraft in the 1940s. Yeah that's a 9, not a 7.

Yes, though not executing. The last execution for witchcraft in England was in 1684. The last one in Scotland was in 1722.

I always figured that taverns in D&D were like churches in Highlander. They were sacred ground where fights just weren't done.

If someone/something did start something there, they'd get grumpy adventurers from across the land headed their way with vengeance on their mind.