How would you play this situation out while being a <Good> guy?

Hi folks, my DM told me about a deleted scene from new Star Wars movie, and asked me what will your character do. I couldn't answer his question, and would like to ask your opinion.

Well, the situation is:

You, a adventurer, visited a certain town. While staying there for a short while, you saw some thugs/bandits threatening the locals. They demand 'protection fee' from town merchants and even take away townspeople's belongings when they can't pay the 'tribute.' Townsguards are either helpless, or turn blind eyes to them.

You know you can't stay here forever, or protect every townspeople all the time. Should you intervene, the bad guys might become even more violent when you're gone or while you're not watching. You can't be sure where they live or how many are they. (=you don't know if you got every last of them and they'll not be able to take revenge upon people)

What will you do?

Hard mode: You're a paladin.

Kill all of the bandits except two. Question them, first seperately, then together, regarding any other bandits in their band.
Kill them. Go to their base, and kill the rest of them.
Probably kill the townsguard for being incompetent.

>What will you do?

Depends on how strong/capable my character is, simply being good doesnt obligues you to intervene, basic self-preservation comes first. This includes paladins, its just stupid to put yourself in an obvious losing situation, you will do more good in the long run if you stay alive.

Now, assuming my character is up to the challenge there are some things to consider
1) Are things really the way they seem?, the bandits could have a reasonable motive for their crimes and ultimately be the ones that actually need your help
2) Do you have a higher priority?, if you are in a quest to save the world then stopping to take care of a group of smalltime bandits just for the sake of doing justice is negligent and no matter what Paladin oath you have, chances are you are doing more justice to your cause by keeping those priorities in order
3) Will removing the bandits actually change anything?, you are supposed to attack the root of a problem in order to fix it, if the bandits are members of a bigger guild or political corruption is a bigger issue than them then you are doing jackshit to help

Probably depends on how the character/party in question normally likes to go about things.
Those who don't think too far ahead, or consider every minor injustice intolerable, would likely intervene there and then, probably attempting to question and apprehend them if possible (since just walking up and caving their skulls in is arguably a pretty Lawful Evil way of dishing out justice).
A group who favours a more thorough approach and is willing to overlook this one incident might linger and tail the guys to wherever they're going, hopefully to a base of operations, to interrogate them and from there begin to crack down on the (probable) crime syndicate vigilante-style (since the town guard are probably bought off).
If it turns out that this syndicate is bigger than we originally imagined, that sounds like a plot hook to me.

My Oath of Conquest Paladin would conscribe all the town guards, cripple a bandit expedition and send them back to their camp to discourage the others. Force them to care for their wounded rather than making martyrs out of them, let them deliver a message. Break their spirits. Draw the bandits to me, away from the townspeople.

Theres no reason for the bandits to retalliate against the people if they didnt ask you for your help first, thats not how organized crime works, senselessly terrorizing the population will only weaken the infrastructure of the town and fuck your business

As far as the thughs know you are just a trigger-happy traveling vigilante

Ask yourself "what would an evil character do".

The answer is to deliver the tribute yourself, meet their boss, and then basically him off his fancy throne so you can collect from this racket instead.

As a good character, basically do the same thing, but dismantle the ring instead of ruling it.

>Hard mode: You're a paladin
That's baby tier for a hard mode. Because I'm a paladin I would kill and interrogate them, then murder and interrogate the bandits at the camp and continue to do so until they're all dealt with.
Then, get the town to set up a local militia, so even if two dudes somehow survive my slaughter and return to the town the local militia will make quick work of them.

Stuff like that is a cultural problem, killing people is completely useless since once the thugs are dead the vacuum will just be filled by new thugs.
The party is not really in a position to solve this situation by themselves, that's like asking the players what they would do to solve the poverty problem in a big city full of slums.
The only thing that can actually solve stuff like that is a competent government.
Remember the second Batman movie with Christian Bale? Batman knows that going out at night to beat thugs up is like trying to put out a fire by blowing on it, so he decides on supporting a good politician who is willing to deal with the crime problem.
That's exactly what the party should do in that situation.

ask people if you are to kill the bandits. If they say yes kill them. if they say no go your own way.

>Hard mode: You're a paladin.

Brutally slaughter the thugs, hoping that they will take revenge upon people so that people will rise up against the opression like cornered rats. If they die, they die a heroic death and go to heaven, if they succeed they wipe out the thugs and live peacefully. Win-win situation.

>if they say
How, by majority vote?

Seven samurai that shit!
Give the townsfolk agency by training them to defend themselves.
If they can fire harden a branch then they can make spears.
If you train them in what a good line looks like and how to form one then they can teach themselves to be better.
You teach them to learn for themselves and give them some guidance to set em on the right track.
Then you lead them in their defiant stand to strengthen their resolve and embolden them to hold against future attacks.

Done

Why is this hard? Beat the shit out of the bandits in town, kill all except one, and get the location of the others from him. Raise up a posse, track the bandits to their headquarters, and kill them all.

This isn't difficult! Even if you don't get them all, having 99% of their guys wiped them out will scare them shitless, especially if you threaten to come back later.

Where's the fucking moral quandry here? We kill all the bandits in the town currently, read the last one's mind and bring him hogtied to the camp. Toss him in and kill the rest of the fuckers. Then we bring their weapons back to the town and train some of the idle peasants on how to use spears and axes for the means of defending themselves.

This sounds like a systemic problem. I rally the townspeople in an insurrection against the town guard who can't do their jobs correctly and establish a rotating shift of any ablebodied townspeople serving as lookouts. Next I help establish a town armory, right now it's mostly the weapons of the overthrown town guard. When the lookout sees bandits on the horizon, the town takes up arms. Finally, if I'm a Paladin the next time I see my order I convince them that the town needs help setting up walls to complete the task, if they'd like to do more to help.

>You know you can't stay here forever, or protect every townspeople all the time.
>You see a woman getting raped as you driving to work one day. You know you can't go out and help her, because you'll be late for work and the rapist might hurt you.

I think this is an arbitrary rule but also demonstrates why 'good' is common and easy when you have stories set up to facilitate it but uncommon in reality.

If you're a paladin you pay what price you need to achieve the right thing.

>not conquering the bandits
>not asserting your will as the new ruler
>not transforming a protection ring into an actual guild of guards for hire
>not taking over the obviously incompetent town guard and their money
>not using this power to rule the village supported by a fiercly loyal guard
>not using your new village as a base to conquer the neighbouring bandits
>not ruling as the leader of many villages whose town guards are completely made by your men
>not turning your villages in an economic force able to stand for themselves and support the infrastructure needed to create all you need as an adventurer

i don't know where i am one the alignment spectrum but you guys are doing it wrong

Textbook Lawful Evil.

well, shit.

>Probably kill the townsguard for being incompetent.
YES ! YES ! YES !
GIVE THAT MEN A POINT , so next question in our Question for a Champion....

Kill or capture the brigands and free the captive locals, should they still live. They're brigands and bandits! They prey upon the weak and starve out the innocent! Sure, you can't stay for long, but crippling the bandit's organization should give the town some breathing room.

Also maybe consider reporting that shit to whatever larger government or feudal lord the town falls over, because those fuckers probably aren't cool with having that sort of thing happen in the long run.

Bet this wouldnt be happening if said town had a lord.

>Ask yourself "what would an evil character do".
Burn the town down.
Can't collect tribute from dead people. Ruin the lives of two groups of people for the price of one.

None of those actions are evil though, except in an extreme libertarian sense because he's formed his own protection racket in the form of bandit turned "guards".

My approach would be to infiltrate the enemy or have an ally within enemy ranks that I can gather information on and then start picking off the heads of the organization from within, one by one, murdering all the enemies in the most brutal fashion that I can in order to strike fear and anger in the heart of the remaining bosses of the organization and in their associates, so that no one will even think about helping or joining them.

Of course, trying to crush the head of the organization will take top priority, but if I can find some key members of the organization, those responsible for gathering information or those who are responsible for organizing the resources and the gathered data, if I can take out the ones who keep the organization relatively "secret" or protected from a bigger fish, I will take them out first.

Assassinate the repellent of bigger fish, or whoever gives the illusion that they are a group to be feared, so that either bigger fish come to devour them or smaller, vicious schools of fish find to them and tear into them while I wait for the opportunity to go for the killing blow.

That's what my Good guy would do.

Track the bandits back to their lair, and use psionic powers to tweak their moral values ever so slightly to desire to be sexually dominated by the townsfolk instead of money, loot and material wealth.

While they are on their way back to the town, suggest to them as a hapless traveller that they would be able to get what they want if they were protecting the town while living in it, instead of having to travel so far.

Also, polymorph them into cute maids, and switch about... half of their genders.

That should solve the problems; by making the bandits into much more wholesome people who don't need to be slaughtered, and giving them to the townsfolk so that they can defend the town instead of the incompetent guardsmen.
Might as well polymorph the guardsmen too for being incompetent, too.

The first thing I do is realize that I am a stranger in this town. I recognize that I may not be 100% familiar with the situation and why it's happening. Perhaps there is a legitimate service being provided here and the hapless merchants are refusing to pay for what they've received. Unlikely, perhaps, but not impossible.

The second step is to learn more about what's going on and why. Talk to the merchants and ask them why people are aggressively harrying them for money and why the town guard won't stop it. Next, talk with the thugs in a neutral manner. I don't want just one side of this story. Finally, I talk with the guards to get the reason for their indifference.

Now, assuming I do all of that and still find that injustice is being done here I'd go back to the merchants and ask how I can help them. If killing the thugs would only make the situation worse I'd trust them to tell me that, but if the problem is small and isolated enough a little violence may be all it takes.

If the problem is more systemic then it needs a systemic solution. Someone will need to figure out how the guard can be converted into a functioning unit to defend the town's merchants. Assuming corruption doesn't go all the way to the top of the food chain then its seriousness needs to be brought up with the highest uncorrupted authority. Assuming it does go to the top you need to work out a way to peacefully introduce trustworthy elements into the system, perhaps by marrying good men into powerful families and creating tangible incentives to integrity and justice.

If the place is basically Mexico then fuck. Just tell everyone to get out of the pool and nuke it from orbit.

Attempt to reason with them, figure out the root of the problem, is it lack of money, work or something else? If there is go about solving it to the best of my groups abilities, along the way help and encourage the towns folk to stand up for themselves, figure out if the towns guard is incompetent or corrupt and solve that issue as well. If they are blood thirsty and there is no reasoning with them or an attempt to change their ways then we will protect the people by removing the threat by force. No one is above using solid tactics to gain the upper hand, plan out how best to ambush and then track them back to their base. My group may not be able to solve everything but so long as we give the towns people the best chance possible, then I can rest easy at night in knowing that we did all we could.

Is it that bad in Mexico?

Currently playing an Oath of Ancients Paladin.

Introduce the bandits to why they need to pay me a protection fee, equalling exactly as much as they steal from the villagers, and train said villagers in the art of fucking up yon fuckboi bandits if any of them get away. Make sure at least a handful of them are proper good at it, and then talk them into making an offering to the local spirits of the environment in exchange for them cursing the everloving shit out of anyone who crosses the village that gives them food and festival each year.

Depends on tech and magic level of setting and character.
Kick bandits out of town by fighting them and destroy their bases of operation, teach locals how to fight and defend themselves(via shooting, magic, tech, etc depending on setting) and overthrow incompetent local govt by finding an honorable nearby man and establishing him as Governor and have him swear his allegiance to me.
If Tech allowed: Build Protection robots in addition to help populace
If High Level Magic allowed:

Those aren't bandits,
That's the Kings men,
That's just taxation my dude

Actually, this could create a fear mechanims that forces people to shun anyone who could try to subvert the regime for fear of retaliation, report the subversive or even actively oppose the them in hope of rising their own status. It's the old say "dividi et impera" (divide and rule). This way people are actually supporting the regime, even unwillingly.

This is the real answer.

>Seven samurai that shit!
This is the game answer that I would do.

Pretend I don't notice what's going on. Deal with temporary business in town, and get ready to leave, making it clear that I don't care about these people and have no association with them.

On the way out, break into their camp, and steal as much from their treasury that I can carry. Make sure to either be caught or leave enough obvious clues that it was the punk outsiders who came into THEIR town, who did this.

If the gangsters are anything like PCs, killing half of them is forgivable, but stealing their money, means they'll be chasing us across the country forever.

If I'm a Paladin, like, that, but I'm the face man in the plan.

Join the bandits, find out where they all are (double check using divine scrying magic and/or asking my deity or my Cleric's deity), bide my time until as many of them are in the same place as possible, then go on a true righteous rampage.

I like to play a wizard who believes in the "teach a man to fish" kind of help. I would investigate the guards and see if they need help or are corrupt. If corrupt, I'll find the good guards, or honest townsfolk and make them the guard, arresting of banishing the corrupt ones. If the guards are incompetent, then I'll find a good trainer and hire him to teach the guards what to do. Assuming these options aren't available, I'll try to work on the town's defenses and lend aid to the villagers in any way I can, such as by providing training, weapons, or magic items. Finally, I won't go about fighting or killing unless provoked, because the real problem here is the weak townspeople not the bandits. There are always bandits, and killing some of them accomplishes little to nothing. Kill a thug, save the day, teach a man to kill his tormentors, empower him for life.

Laius and his massive Jew nose are cute! CUTE!

That said.
>Hard mode: You're a paladin.
Challenge accepted motherfucker.
I don't have time to treat every individual tooth, I just have to make sure the dentist isn't a quack. I figure out who's in charge of the city guard, give him a solid beating, have him replaced with the next most likely candidate and tell him that if I come back within a year and the situation hasn't gotten better I'll shove my armored foot up his ass so hard he'll be tasting metal for the rest of his life.

Lawful Good, not Lawful Nice.

>What will you do?

From time to time I pass people on the interstate with cars that have broken down.

I know my strengths and limitations. I know what I can and cannot do. I work in IT. I don't know the first thing about fixing cars. my "help" would be more "hinderance" than anything else.

I keep driving.

What if we kill everyone?
If there's no people, there are no criminals.
You know very well this is a possibility for the average PC.

We did this in a short two session arc once, it was pretty fun. Sad when some of the townspeople we trained and got to know died in the raid though.

Are you retarded? Training peaceful villagers to defend themselves from the bandits/a robber baron is a standard western and samurai movie plot.

It happened in the Seven Samurai, the Magnifient Seven, High Plains Drifter and even fucking Blazing Saddles. If it's good enough for Clint Eastwood, it's good enough for you.

>Are you retarded?
Are you? The OP stated that you're in a short visit there and can't stay forever, implying there are more pressing matters. How long do you think it takes to train a bunch of peasants? You can teach them to put the pointy end of the stick into the baddie in a few days, but you can't teach them discipline, how to work together or not run away like a bunch of scared... well, peasants when the bandits start swinging around their sharp metal sticks.

Do you think Clint Eastwood was running a boot camp for half a year?

Do you think Clint Eastwood had to deal with melee combat where morale and personal skill as well as the ability to manouver in concert win the day? Maybe if you can somehow bring in revolvers and shotguns from the future we're dealing with a different bag of potatoes.

>Training people to poke people with spears is more difficulting than teaching people to use guns
?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

What's easier to accomplish for a child, killing a bodybuilder with a gun or with a pointy stick? As the Americans say: God created man, Colt made them equal.

Train the peasants to defend themselves, then put the bandits to the sword in their camp on my way out. As a force of good you have to understand that some situations aren't perfect. The new town militia might fall apart a week after you leave, but that isn't your fault. Some would argue that they might just be safer if you never did a thing, but good men don't sit idly by and allow evil. They must do something. Whether the people can fix themselves after a push in the right direction is really on them though.

What do you not understand? A gun is point and squeeze trigger, a 10 year old can do it. Its easy to learn, easy to be good at, hard to master.

A spear is hard to learn, hard to master. Requires strength and hours of training, well unless you could literal peasants taken from the field and given a stick to die in the front line while the real soldiers do the work.

Reason crossbows replaced bows, same shit, crossbows are easy to use, a bow requires years of training.

>Paladin
Slay the bandits in as grand a fashion you can manage to deter retribution. Then do your best to establish some form of defense for the town. By ignoring the evil you're knowingly aiding it which, while probably not severe enough to immediately fall, is good cause for your god to be decidedly irritated at you

Consider crucifying or otherwise dismembering and displaying the remains of the bandits around town as a warning to any others who would follow their path.

well yeah gotta question people find those responsible and put a stop it permanently. Come back a few months later and make sure you got it by the roots.

First, how long have I got? If I'm busy with great evils, this one can wait. People get by and live through tyranny all the time. People don't live through Demon Princes being summoned in full force and panoply to the mortal realms. So if I don't have time, save it for later.
>(Hard mode: Same. Greater evils take precedence.)

Next, assuming I have time, how much skill do I have? If I will just get myself killed and make things worse for a time, then I move on and fight the battles I can. If a band of 400 bandits hit the town every harvest and an my horse and armor are all I have, then it's gonna have to wait.
>(Hard mode: Try to inspire the people to work together and lure the bandits into a trap. Full fledged A-Team this bitch and try our best. If the villagers wont' help, even a paladin has to realize some battles can not be won alone. If the villagers have the strength, but just not the final impetus to do the deed, and I have no other duty calling, martyrdom is an option.)

Finally, assuming I have time and skill, what is the likelihood of collateral damage assuming I can accomplish the mission? Village just going to get roughed up? Sure, try it. Village going to get burnt to the ground, all males killed, all females raped and enslaved? I might wait for better odds, or a more sure plan. Do some recon and get more info. Think long term as the stakes are too high to gamble without a good plan. The more likely, and more devastating, the collateral is, the longer I take to prepare.
>(Hard mode: Measure twice; Cut once. So basically all I said, but with even more dedication to detail and good solid work. Innocent lives are not to be risked without all effort taken to save them. I am the shining example; I will not tarnish the name of my cause, the honor of my god, nor the reputations of my teachers and family. Do all the work to make it perfect as possible.)

If you have a police incident you cannot be penalized for it at your workplace (>being a wageslave). At least in the civilized world it is this way.
What kind of little bitch would be scared of a rapist, there's a reason they target women.

Kill them all.


Hard mode:
Detect evil, then kill them all.

Be careful of charity and kindness, lest you do more harm with open hands than with a clenched fist.

Taxation is theft, I kill the tax collectors and sell their dependents to the McBrothel.

I make an example of the thugs. Brutally punish the ring leader and thin out their numbers.

I train the town guards and show them how to better keep the peace.

Before I leave, I give my clothes and armour to the town guards. I tell them to give the armour to a different guard each day.

I give some beggars and street children a few coins to spread a rumor about the new guard captain,the immortal hero who never sleeps.

It depends... I would feel like I should do something, but I also would most likely get told to not get involved by the rest of my party because they usually play idiots or dicks. If I was a paladin I would with out a doubt kill as many as I could or die trying.

Aaaaaand you made more bandits. Good job.

It's an organized militia, dad, not bandits

>Probably kill the townsguard for being incompetent.
Rather than that, use that massive paladin charisma and social status to beat some hope and motivation into these people; now that the thugs and their base have been thoroughly dealt with, the guards have a much-needed head start and a real hope in turning this the fortunes of this town around. You will show them through example that there is always the opportunity to draw strength from pain, and undo the misery of the world.

Everyone knows that the first task of the paladin is to Smite Evil Good and Proper. You must remember that the second task is to use your deeds to inspire hope and optimism in the people that you will leave behind in your travels. When you arrived, there was but one pair of hands working good in the town - yours. When you leave, there will be dozens to nurture the seed of Good you left behind.

>tfw every time you want to Seven Samurai the party and GM go:
>"But we're the super powerful good guys, it's a dick move to shunt the people's problems onto the people!"

WE TRAINED /GOOD PEOPLE/, DANIEL, NOT ORC BABIES

>You know you can't stay here forever
I guess I'll just have to kill all the thugs today then