Bonded mark (new spell/item/tradition)

[El Jefe]

Individual DMs would then have to figure out how to deal with these unusual adventurers. Perhaps this is no big deal.

I think the DMs are doing a great job with this, also with putting up with psionic characters and such.

But also, you have a city which allows evil humanoids to wander the streets with evident freedom. I have a hard time coming to grips with this. It would be OK in a pirate or bandit city, perhaps, but I have a hard time seeing it in a typical DnD city. I think this would make Orussus a seedy and dangerous place to live. A city on the edge of civilization perhaps, although by the map, it is clearly not.

Well, some thoughts I've had on this from earlier posts in this thread:

I think we established that Orussus is a pretty lawful city, but that it seems to tolerate visitors of all alignments. Maybe the guards might let a orc or two pass, but close the gates at the approach of a couple of dozen orcs bearing weapons.

I'd also think that a (for example) gnoll PC would be sufficiently different from others of his own kind to make adventuring plausible. Meaning that he might still be rotten to the core, but that he would tone it down and at least act responsible around humans, or at least the humans that could spoil his plans (like town guards, officials who could deny him rights, Joe, party members, etc.) I mean, most gnolls wouldn't dream of just strolling into a human city in broad daylight...what would be the point of that? Only an exceptional gnoll would have a reason to be there in the first place.

My apologies, the rest of this may be lengthy.

I just finished Burning Tower, a Niven and Pournelle novel set in, well never mind where it is set. One of the locations is Tep's Town, which has social structure that's worth mentioning in this thread. Tep's Town has three castes, Lords, Lordkin, and Kinless. Kinless were the original inhabitants, peaceful but hardworking. The Lords were hardworking and aggressive, but never had the numbers to conquer the Kinless. The Lordkin were agressive and had the numbers, but far to disorganized to mount an effective attack. Together, the Lords and Lordkin allied to overcome and enslave the Kinless. Social order is preserved through a set of agreements, which have the effect of keeping the Lordkin out of the Lords section of town, and giving the Lordkin permission to "gather" whatever they want from the Kinless. What this means is that theft and rape are an ingrained part of the Lordkin way of life. In that respect, all Lordkin are "evil", or at least presumed so until proven otherwise.

The reason I bring this all up is that in Burning Tower, a pair of Lordkin leave Tep's Town and have to deal with other cultures. There are several lords to watch over them and keep them in line, but they still "forget" that they're not allowed to "gather" in other lands, and they end up reminding themselves over and over that they have to watch their step or they'll end up as galley slaves (if the Lords bust them) or worse (if the locals bust them). The locals in the various towns they pass through regard them with great suspicion, at least if they've ever heard of Lordkin before.

I think it would be similar for members of evil races in Orussus. It's too big a trading community to shut them out completely. And, although the laws protect anyone let in the city gates, those same laws punish harshly anyone who doesn't act like an Orussian while in Orussus. I'd suppose members of evil races would get a lot of stares behind their backs, and some people would refuse to deal with them, but as long as they didn't appear to pose a threat to the city, they'd be allowed in. I guess a corollary to that would be that "other" races would never form a sizeable minority of the city dwellers, and the explanation for that, as above, is that "only an exceptional gnoll would ever concieve of just showing up at the gates of a human city in the first place".

We opened the gates to non-standard races before we went through the logic of it.

Yup, we sure did!

Do we all agree that good-aligned orcs, goblins and kobolts are EXTREMELY rare?

I would hope so. But I would also propose that good- and neutral-aligned orcs, goblins, and kobolds are disproportionately represented in adventuring bands. I mean, if you're a good orc, what are you going to do? Hang around with the rest of the guys and raid, loot and murder, or go off adventuring?

And that these races are generally considered enemies on sight to core races?

Well, if Immortality Awakens is any guide, maybe not. Besides, not all enemies are Kill On Sight. So long as most of the "bad" races get a thorough going-over at the city gates (one that makes the security check to board an airliner seem mild in comparison), I'm satisfied that the various antipathies between the races are properly represented in-game.

 

[Knight Otu]

Any more votes or notes on this? It needs one more vote. Also, I'd like to hear if the guild mark stuff that I added is ok or not, especially from Kahuna Burger.

 

[El Jefe]

Since it was my addendum that Patlin voted yes on, I guess I'd better vote YES on the proposal with my addendum.

 

[Manzanita]

I'll vote Yes, as well. I have some reservations about it, obviously, but given that these PCs exist, this seems to be the best way to deal with things. Thank you, KB, KO & El Jefe, in particular, for putting so much work into this. I think it will enrich our world.

 

[Patlin]

The measure has passed then. Personally, I don't have a conceptual problem with Orcs and other evil humanoids walking the streets of a lawfull city, but I may be overexposed to the evil (or at least lawless) elements of my own real life lawfull city.

I fight kobolds all the time in real life, they just don't *look* like kobolds.

 

[Knight Otu]

Well, spell and item seem to be approved now, without the requirements for good characters of evil races. I'm not sure if the Guild Mark stuff should be counted as approved yet, though, since I haven't heard anything in that regard.

 

[El Jefe]

Couldn't that be done on a "guild-by-guild" basis? Each organization would likely have different requirements for bonding someone, although there might be some similarities.