What would your reaction be as a Town guard(Or Militia commander alternately)

[HoboKnight]

Heyya,

I really don't like to screw my players too much, so sometimes I prefer to ask about reactions of certain NPCs here. Here is the situation, NPC is in:

He is a Town Guard. It was evening like thousand others, settlement was preparing to go to sleep, when there was a massive roar and thunder. An adult dragon flew over the settlement, now shrouded in darkness. Soon after, there were warcries and screams and small groups of humans and kobolds have infiltrated the streets, killing and burning houses. Our Guard tried to gather as many neighbours as he could and would usher them toward village keep at the center of the settlement. it is then, when he saw dragon blast the ramparts with lightning breath. Stones, size of pigs were landing at the bottom of the walls, torn from the structure by blast of lightning. Our Guard zig-zagged among the houses, approaching the keep. He managed to avoid the dragon and make the last run for it into the keep. There, he was faced with the fact, that dragon is hammering upper keep floor with his lightning breath. Thunder, cracking of stone and vailing of women and crying of children filled the night. Outside, raiders were taking the village. Keep commander gathered a group of able-bodied men and organised an attack back into the settlement with goal of freeing villagers, being captured by raiders. Guard was not selected for the team, but was tasked with defending the keep, which mainly consisted of keeping his head down and enduring the fact that dragon was ripping parts of walls apart and was blasting it with lightning.

Soon after, a frightened woman ran to the Guard. She informed him, there was an explosion under the keep cellar. Guard took a few armed vilalgers and ran to the cellar to find a hatch there open and some some men climbing into the cellar. Along with them came a thick cloud of smoke, obscuring vision immensely.

How should guard react?

[Nikushimi]

I assume the men climbing into the cellar are the players?

Does the guard know the players? If so did he get a good look before the smoke obscured them?

If not then the guard should definitely be suspicious and immediately think the keep is under attack and do his job. Defending the keep from intruders. Which means those who are coming in through the cellar.

This guard has every right to believe that the men climbing into the cellar are enemies.

His home is being attacked by raiders and a dragon, not to mention kobolds. All seemingly bent on wrecking havoc, killing, and kidnapping his people. His home.

His commander tasked him to defend the keep, and that is exactly what he should do.

If you don't want to start an all out combat then have the guard and his companions surround the party (which I assume, once again, are the men climbing into the cellar) and order them to stand down or die. Should the party intimidate them, think of how devoted the guard is. This is his home. He may well lay down his life for his home and wouldn't hesitate to attack hostiles.

Should the party try to cooperate and actually talk it out then the guard could, through dialogue, get help from the party in defending the keep. Something that the commander could commend and reward both the guard and the party. Unless the commander is a hardass and the commander thinks taking in these unknowns could be a security risk.

But, the fact remains. Those sneaking into the cellar during an attack are suspicious and the guard should DEFINITELY be suspicious if not down right hostile. Either attacking on sight or surrounding them with weapons and men and ordering them to stand down.

His orders being to defend the keep, this would make sense for him to do.

[HoboKnight]

Neat questions. I'll try to answer them

I assume the men climbing into the cellar are the players?
Yes.


Does the guard know the players?
No.


If so did he get a good look before the smoke obscured them?
No.

Splendid answers, thanks.

[DwarfDM]

Even if the guard has the disipline to hold his attack and ask them to identify themselves, the armed villagers probably wil not. So even if the guard does not attack, the villagers will attack the party.

[Brookshw]

Seems like one of those situations where there are bigger, more immediate, fish to fry. I'd say ignore them for now, report it later.

[Magicspook]

After everything he has been through, the guard has every reason to just start stabbing and ask questions later.

If you want to avoid having the players kill the giard while still playing out a realistic enounter, your job as a DM will be:
-to describe the situation as well as possible to telegraph to the players that this is a misunderstanding (do the players know of the attack?). He will yell 'kills these invaders before they can attack the women and children' or something along those lines. Describe the fear but also the grim determination in his tired eyes. The important bit is to let your players know that these are good guys.
-to know whether your players will be inclined to cease hostilities. Now, this can be difficult if this is the first time you've thrown a 'morally difficult enounter' at your players. If they are not invested in the world, not the brightest players, or flat out murderhobo's, this approach could well go out of hand. In this case, I'd recommend the old surround-and-demand-surrendder trick.
-offer enough breathing room for the players to negotiate. If you immediately jump into heated combat to the death, chances are the players will respond in kind. Instead, the terrified villages stand back a bit and use the ready action to attack when the players get too close.

If the players do decide to murderise the welcome comittee, have the consequences be on them. But if you really don't want the players to be attacked by the entire village population (because they are important to the plot), you can play it out so that as they enter the main hall of the keep, the doors of the keep are breached and enemies start pouring in and attack the players. This'll give em enough good karma to ensure peace.

In summary: know howbyour players will react and tailor the encounter to that. Make sure they know what their options are.

Good luck!

[Nikushimi]

Seems like one of those situations where there are bigger, more immediate, fish to fry. I'd say ignore them for now, report it later.

Except there aren't.

"Defend the keep." that was this guards orders. For all this guard knows the players may be a part of the Dragons group of kobolds and humanoid raiders come to kill and kidnap the townspeople within the keep that this guard was just ordered to defend.

That means that this issue is an immediate and bigger issue than even the dragon outside. The Dragon after all isn't inside yet. The party is, and for all this guard knows the party could be working for the Dragon. Therefore a reasonable reaction would be to either attack or surround and demand the surrender of.

The townspeople may not be as disciplined and may attack the party immediately, only stopping should the guard have the good sense to determine the parties intentions. Though, that is up to the party. If the party immediately retaliates then the guard signals a breach in the Keep, alerting any nearby forces.

Whatever happens then is just going to be a mess.

Like another person said above, it is also dependent on how well you know your players to plan an encounter around.

If you know your players not to attack my suggestion is to have the high strung townspeople attack out of panic, but have the guard tell them to hold and for the party to state their business. This should let the players know that tensions are high and it is best to proceed peacefully or a full scale panic and fight is on their hands with not only the guards and townspeople fighting them, but the minions of the dragons too. It is best then for them to try to quell the tension as best they can.

Of course, as they always say.

1. Make the plan.
2. Execute the plan.
3. Expect the plan to go off the rails.
4. Throw away the plan.

[Brookshw]

Except there aren't.



Ya know, your right. I quickly skimmed the initial post and missed some details. I retract my comment.

[Yakk]

So there is a classic thing called "my guy syndrome". That is where a player makes their character do something that disrupts the game because "that is what my character would do".

The problem is that "what my character would do" is one of the things the player has completely under the player's control. The player can make "my guy" make different decisions, draw different concusions, have new motivations, etc. If that is worth it to the player.

There is a related one I call "my world syndrome", where a DM says "given this situation, this must happen". But similar to "my guy", it is the DM's world. They get to pick how fast the dust settles, how quick the guard force reacts, if they charge in or set up a defensive position, if they scout or not, if they see a holy symbol of a friendly god or not, etc.

Part of what the DM does is decide the situation that "my world" ends up reacting to. So the actions of the world are not really out of the DM's hands, even if the DM wants things to logically follow.

There are a million variables that you, the DM, have complete and utter freedom to manipulate without the players seeing what you are doing (as yet). The players will experience what happens next. You are nearly completely unconstrained asto how the residents of the keep react, respind, or behave. You can set it up so that they almost certainly attack in a suicide charge, they cautiously ambush, they set up a defensive line, they scout, attempt to parlay, call out, run in terror, be enslaved by raiders, be dead...

Whichever is the story you want to tell.

[Demonslayer666]

I would base my decision on the appearance of the party and the competence of the guard.

He saw the people entering the cellar before the smoke obscured them, so he could see how they were dressed and if they looked like raiders. If he sees a cleric of Helm, a wizard with a pointy hat, and someone in plate armor, he not going to think "raiders!" and attack.

Are the party members strangers to town? Maybe someone recognizes them, if not.

"You there! Stop! In the name of the king! you are not allowed in there!" seems most likely. And if they don't comply, he would probably go in cautiously after them to find out what they are doing, considering the cellar is part of the keep.

What caused the smoke? Did a player cast a spell after they entered the hatch?

[NecessaryWeevil]

I read it as the players emerging from the hatch into the cellar. Is that correct?

Depending on how familiar these villagers are with combat, I'm not sure they'd necessarily attack immediately even if they think the players are hostile.

They're not professional soldiers.

[Keravath]

Unfortunately, not enough information has been provided to offer a good idea of what the NPC would do.

How smart is the NPC?
How observant is the NPC?
Does the NPC just follow orders or do they think for themselves?
Are they just a guard or are they a corporal or slightly higher rank?

These things would affect the decision by the NPC given the circumstances.

---

Did the group entering through the dungeon look like raiders? Did they see and call out to the guard? Did they pull their weapons when they saw the guard? Does the group have any identifiable symbols or other aspects that might make the guard trust them?

Why does the room get filled with smoke? If the tunnel the group was in was so full of smoke then they were dead from smoke inhalation before they could open the hatch. Even if they do open the hatch the smoke would come from the hatch and would not instantly or even quickly fill the room. In addition, it takes a lot of dense smoke to effectively obscure vision over short distances. This would appear to be a DM plot device intended to cause confusion and set the scene for the NPC to attack the group entering the dungeon.

Given the circumstances of the keep being attacked by a dragon, raiders in the village, and a group sneaking into the dungeon of the keep .. the first conclusion would be that these creatures are more likely part of the problem or at the very least here for their own purposes unrelated to the protection of the keep. If they were there to help, they would likely say so as soon as they see the defenders, and even then the group entering the dungeon would be treated with suspicion.

Is a fight a foregone conclusion? Not at all, but WE can't help with figuring out how an NPC would react in this circumstance without knowing far more about the circumstances and the NPC involved .. and by the time you did that, you would also know how the NPC was most likely to react.

[da newt]

The simple answer:

The guard yells "friend or foe?!?!" - unless they respond with something reasonable, the guard and his allies attack - if they respond with something reasonable, he/they should be suspicious but give them a chance to convince them of their good intent. Proceed from there.