Ever since playing Farnsworth I have wondered why virtually all cityguards in all cities are good aligned. Having given it some thought I think the guards should reflect the city.

As a first matter though, the question is why shouldn't they all be good? The answer I think is the same answer as why all Tribunals are not good aligned. Guards are paid to keep order, not to fight for a particular alignment. There can therefore be good guards, evil guards, or morally indifferent/balanced/whateveryouwanttocallneutral guards. There is nothing inherently alignment specific about doing the job of a city guard.

The second question then is how to decide what a city guard's align would be in any given instance. I think in that regard there are two steps, the ooc game balancing issue and the ic roleplay issue.

Game balancing. Ok, we all used to kill cityguards in galadon to practice disarm. That has changed with the advent of the kick ass guards now. Clearly that denotes a change in balancing representing an imm decision that city guards are not just for kids anymore. Frankly, you really don't see many people ranking or practicing on guards anymore, in any of the major cities. So I don't think there is much of a game balance issue in changing alignment in that regard. Also, few goodies now use their request power on guards, at least not so far as I can tell. There is only one instance of importance - the hamsah city guard with the key to the locked gate tower. But other than that, pretty much never. Changing alignment means that instead of requesting a goodie would have to kill the mob for what they want. It also means that an evil character wouldn't be getting as good exp for killing the now neutral or evil mob. I don't see this as a problem.

Roleplay. I think this is the strongest point. Fact is, I think it makes the most sense for guards to represent the flavor, the atmosphere, of a city. Tar Valon guards should be good aligned. Arkham guards should be evil or neutral. Galadon should almost certainly be neutral. Hamsah, well, I'd actually make a mix. I recognize that it would become a bit of an exercise to the area writer, if that person is still around, or to the rest of the immstaff, but I don't think it's too big an exercise and I think it makes a lot of sense. As things stand now, it really does not make sense that arkham guards are good aligned, that all galadon guards are good aligned, etc.

Just something I've been thinking about for a while.

Back to work.

-Mark