My PCs have come into a small village, harassed by a group of bandits. At night...

My PCs have come into a small village, harassed by a group of bandits. At night, bandits attacked PCs and after a long fight, PCs have prevailed.

Previous to this, bandits were rather nasty to villagers. They killed some people who stood up to them, have taken a few females "for fun" into their lair and have extorted pretty much everyone.

I wonder how to properly roleplay the gratitude of villagers to PCs? A Dozen apple pies at their doorstep? A celebration in their honor? I'd like to make something interesting.

thanks

free room and board
discounts on all goods
small gifts

I think I'd have the shopkeeper and/or innkeeper say something like
>"your moneys no good here, one o those bastards killed my son/daughter/mother"
so freebies (with in reason)

maybe a party

The real reward would come a season or two later, when they stop off at an inn and find a puppet show/play (song?)
depicting caricatures of them saving a village from a thousand bandits

ya see, the village yokel's remembered them and told the storey, each time with slightly more exaggerations. to anyone passing though who'd listen.

could even become a plot line if someone watching the play recognises them

...

They let them each stay the night in one of their homes with full bed and breakfast treatment and a lot of hospitality. A feast is throne in their honor.

Optional twist:
The villagers were actually in cahoots with the bandits and were splitting the loot in return they fed the bandits info on marks and supplies. The share of the loot was more than the villagers could make by themselves in this hostile land, not to mention the protection of the bandits made life a lot more peaceful. The "kidnapped" women were actually in consensual relationships with the bandits, some of whom had rather charming personalities, dreams and aspirations despite their line of work. And those women are quite angry at hearing about their beloved get slaughtered by a bunch of upstart adventurers. Maybe angry enough to pose a risk to the unwary PCs safety

Yeah I know it's stupid, there's a reason I'm not a GM.

It's a decent twist actually, I wouldn't use it personally but I like it

A feast wouldn't be out of question, with the PCs as quests of honor - everyone likes a good party, so there should be no problem having one if they have an excuse. Maybe some girls(or young men) in the village will take interest in the PCs(and their parents are unlikely to disapprove too much). Free beds and food, obviously. And hey, the town elders probably have an interesting tale or two to tell - maybe there was, say, a former hero who also defended the village and his equipment is all in his tomb. Since the PCs are clearly worthy heroes, his spirit wouldn't mind them borrowing it as long as they swear an oath to return it once they no longer need it.

Agreed with these suggestions.

You could also work in a harvest festival or something like that, agrarian societies love those things and they make a good excuse for partying and coupling. Have some bonfires, traditional dancing, feasts, all the fun things. On top of that you get to flesh out some of their religious practices/beliefs for the player's immersion if they enjoy that sort of thing.

You can also throw in some plot hooks if you have an idea of where you want the PCs to start thinking about heading next. Can be in the form of rumors, or other NPC interaction. An example of an excuse I liked when my GM pulled for an early game is one of the NPCs wanting to be a hero when they were young, the tell how they bought/inherited a partially complete treasure/local/world landmarked map and were going to set off on a quest, but then reality set in and they never ended up anything more than a farmer, but now they want the party to have it. He'd then make a little rough map with a few potential places for the party to explore on it.

OP here.

Thanks for all answers so far.

I forgot tomention, it is winter at the time. Also, everyone and their grandmothers came to PCs to offer quests.

You are too kind user, truly.

>It's winter
Winter solstice festival then maybe? Peasants have a festival for everything.

>Do a good deed
>Get fucked
Twists like these are what encourage people to make murderhobos.

I like this

If there are any prostitutes, send them to the PCs

user, a setting isn't always black and white. Just because they were antagonists doesn't mean they were objectively evil and deserving death, or that they didn't have people who cared about them and valued their existence.

a mix of the two ideas would allow for some intrigue, Some of the town was 'crooked' or cooperative with he bandits, some of their sons were part of the gang, While the other parts of town that did not cooperate was getting pushed around and controlled by fear

You can give the party a lil run down house to have them do whatever they want with it. Give it to a nice street urchin/homeless npc or add on to it and make it the grandest brothel in the continent

user has a point. Players are going to quickly see a pattern where they get fucked over for trying to be nice to people or showing vulnerability.

At some point the players might just get up and say "no we're not going to the tavern. We'll just take the reward and free rations, and sleep in our armor at tents near the outskirts of town while we take watches like it's a warzone". After that it's a question of how good you are at goading them into vulnerable positions, versus the extent of their justified paranoia.

One incident is not really a pattern.

Though you are right about players eventually turtling if you pull that shit constantly but I wasn't really meaning to dick them around like that. I just thought it might be a nice change of pace from the sort of standard early quest that ends with "you defeated the nameless bandits and the villagers love you" and then you walk off into the sunset. A little more roleplaying drama, rather than battle drama.

Sounds like a good recipe for a descent from a good or nuetral campaign into an evil one. Treachery is not a crime players take lightly, and trying to murder them in their sleep sounds plenty treacherous.

OP here.

I'm not fucking them over.

>A Dozen apple pies at their doorstep?
That would be lovely!

It sounds like you know what you're doing, so I'm not terribly worried about it.

Reminds me of part of the reveal in the Seven Samurai.

Possible options:
>A feast
>Free guides for the area
>Offers of marriage
>A fine ass house/small mansion, built by the townsfolk in a decent spot in town (Perfect to keep the PCs coming back and protecting the place)
>Pies and other baked goods from tiny old grandmothers
>The villagers report it to their Duke/Lord, who calls the PCs to his castle and rewards them

That last one is a fun one since it'd show both the gratitude of the people (While allowing a reward they can't afford) and give you a decent plot hook in the future in the form of the Duke NPC.

>Roll a D100 whenever the PCs visit somewhere new/meet someone new, on a roll of 50-miles from the village, the person knows of the deed or is related to someone from that village and helps the PCs as best they can (Not necessarily free shit, but a decent discount)