First time DM and I've been running a campaign for a little over a year now and the party has never had a real run-in with the law in any regard. Last session, however, ended with a PC attacking a local gang leader publicly at a tavern which was not only filled with his henchman, but also townsfolk and witnesses. We did some brief RP as I wanted to be sure this is what he wanted to do and gave him a potential out, but the PC was seeing red and wanted to do this here. A brief combat took place in which the PC and henchman exchanged some blows until the town guard ultimately arrived in force to quell the fight. My PC's then incited a bar fight and began resisting the town guard and we left the session as all hell broke loose as I needed some time to work out how I should proceed. Should I make this a combat were they fight the town guard and henchman? Should I gave the players the opportunity to RP their way out/sneak out? If they choose to resist how do I go about apprehension and prison? Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I now realize I am woefully underprepared for situations like this.
This totally depends on the creative narrative you want to create - the guards can be a lot stronger than the group subdue them toss them in jail for a night - fine them then let them out in a day and the group can go deal with the gang - or you could have the guards put a beating on the group for "drunk and disorderly" and let it go at that with the conflict with the gang to be resumed after a long rest. (If I have guards I tend to make them very strong so if a group starts acting silly - I in turn have a silly hammer to swing right back)
Or you can let a 3 way brawl play out and see what happens if the group kills a guard they will likely be hunted for a time. Lots of options It just depends ----is your campaign more sandbox or more linear will the players enjoy a session with nothing but this or is it detracting from the overall story?
How determined are the town guards to arrest anyone involved in this bar fight could depends on a variety of factors such as the laws in place regarding violence (with weapons), their willingness to make some arrest, how frequently they intervene at this place, if the tavern is reputed to have any affiliations etc as well as what you the DM want this to go down. For example
- They could attempt to arrest the party resulting in a quick fight, where they escape or get taken into custody.
- The party could immediately escape upon hearing guards call for reinforcement.
- The guards could simply not want to bother and inexplicably let everyone scatter before they can make any arrest.
If you're interested in the narrative, you can have the town guard incapacitate them (or try to, leave the outcome open) and whichever members they do incapacitate, they lock up. Ideally, whoever threw the first punch gets a dusting up from the guard, and then the chief of the guard dismisses them and tells them he's got paperwork to do, so the guards can go to the inn for a few hours before they take over the watch.
The chief then talks to the party and tells them that the entire guard is in the employ of the local gang, and that he can't do anything about it - but they can. He basically offers them the chance to have revenge on the gang and get out of jail. Think of them like a commissioner Gordon character, from Batman. Alternatively, maybe the plucky new guard is the one who wants to change things.
If you like intrigue, you can make it a two-parter. Main objective is to get revenge on the gang leader, but they could also seek evidence of the buying of the guards. If they just hurt the gang, it's petty revenge which may bite them back. If they get the evidence, then they can get the guard changed and improve the town, and definitely become the target of retribution from the gang.
All of which could be moot as it might only be the druid who get's caught, and they might just turn into a mouse and escape. But it could be cool to have available!
How you run this will set a precedent and tone for the rest of the campaign - by which I mean it will colour the perceptions of the players of how easy/hard it is to do crime and how much they should/shouldn't respect the guards.
If you want your party to respect the guards then any attempt to attack the guards should fail and the guards should easily be able to subdue the party, and throw them in a jail they cannot easily escape from using magic. However, this should be followed by basically a hearing where the PCs can explain themselves and earn some kind of pardon or probation to allow them to go back to adventuring.
If you want your party to engage in criminality and not worry too much about the authorities, then the guards should be confused and a bit bumbling and the party can easily get away to knock out a guard if they need to in order to escape. The party doesn't need to be law abiding to be the good guys, and doesn't need to strictly be good in order to be heroes. But an outlaw/criminal-style campaign is different from most heroic fantasy so it's up to you what kind of campaign you want.
Or you can do something in between, and basically do a chase-scene where the players get a turn to act, then the guards get a turn to act as the party tries to escape and hide / lose the guards before the guards catch up to them. Note that guards aren't likely to run off into the alleys after every person fleeing the tavern if all that has happened is a few punches were thrown, so if the players can escape the tavern before the guards can incapacitate them they should be able to get away.
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Hey all,
First time DM and I've been running a campaign for a little over a year now and the party has never had a real run-in with the law in any regard. Last session, however, ended with a PC attacking a local gang leader publicly at a tavern which was not only filled with his henchman, but also townsfolk and witnesses. We did some brief RP as I wanted to be sure this is what he wanted to do and gave him a potential out, but the PC was seeing red and wanted to do this here. A brief combat took place in which the PC and henchman exchanged some blows until the town guard ultimately arrived in force to quell the fight. My PC's then incited a bar fight and began resisting the town guard and we left the session as all hell broke loose as I needed some time to work out how I should proceed. Should I make this a combat were they fight the town guard and henchman? Should I gave the players the opportunity to RP their way out/sneak out? If they choose to resist how do I go about apprehension and prison? Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I now realize I am woefully underprepared for situations like this.
This totally depends on the creative narrative you want to create - the guards can be a lot stronger than the group subdue them toss them in jail for a night - fine them then let them out in a day and the group can go deal with the gang - or you could have the guards put a beating on the group for "drunk and disorderly" and let it go at that with the conflict with the gang to be resumed after a long rest. (If I have guards I tend to make them very strong so if a group starts acting silly - I in turn have a silly hammer to swing right back)
Or you can let a 3 way brawl play out and see what happens if the group kills a guard they will likely be hunted for a time. Lots of options It just depends ----is your campaign more sandbox or more linear will the players enjoy a session with nothing but this or is it detracting from the overall story?
How determined are the town guards to arrest anyone involved in this bar fight could depends on a variety of factors such as the laws in place regarding violence (with weapons), their willingness to make some arrest, how frequently they intervene at this place, if the tavern is reputed to have any affiliations etc as well as what you the DM want this to go down. For example
- They could attempt to arrest the party resulting in a quick fight, where they escape or get taken into custody.
- The party could immediately escape upon hearing guards call for reinforcement.
- The guards could simply not want to bother and inexplicably let everyone scatter before they can make any arrest.
If you're interested in the narrative, you can have the town guard incapacitate them (or try to, leave the outcome open) and whichever members they do incapacitate, they lock up. Ideally, whoever threw the first punch gets a dusting up from the guard, and then the chief of the guard dismisses them and tells them he's got paperwork to do, so the guards can go to the inn for a few hours before they take over the watch.
The chief then talks to the party and tells them that the entire guard is in the employ of the local gang, and that he can't do anything about it - but they can. He basically offers them the chance to have revenge on the gang and get out of jail. Think of them like a commissioner Gordon character, from Batman. Alternatively, maybe the plucky new guard is the one who wants to change things.
If you like intrigue, you can make it a two-parter. Main objective is to get revenge on the gang leader, but they could also seek evidence of the buying of the guards. If they just hurt the gang, it's petty revenge which may bite them back. If they get the evidence, then they can get the guard changed and improve the town, and definitely become the target of retribution from the gang.
All of which could be moot as it might only be the druid who get's caught, and they might just turn into a mouse and escape. But it could be cool to have available!
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A couple of thoughts:
How you run this will set a precedent and tone for the rest of the campaign - by which I mean it will colour the perceptions of the players of how easy/hard it is to do crime and how much they should/shouldn't respect the guards.
If you want your party to respect the guards then any attempt to attack the guards should fail and the guards should easily be able to subdue the party, and throw them in a jail they cannot easily escape from using magic. However, this should be followed by basically a hearing where the PCs can explain themselves and earn some kind of pardon or probation to allow them to go back to adventuring.
If you want your party to engage in criminality and not worry too much about the authorities, then the guards should be confused and a bit bumbling and the party can easily get away to knock out a guard if they need to in order to escape. The party doesn't need to be law abiding to be the good guys, and doesn't need to strictly be good in order to be heroes. But an outlaw/criminal-style campaign is different from most heroic fantasy so it's up to you what kind of campaign you want.
Or you can do something in between, and basically do a chase-scene where the players get a turn to act, then the guards get a turn to act as the party tries to escape and hide / lose the guards before the guards catch up to them. Note that guards aren't likely to run off into the alleys after every person fleeing the tavern if all that has happened is a few punches were thrown, so if the players can escape the tavern before the guards can incapacitate them they should be able to get away.