Currently there are a number of mobs that "block" PCs from going in a given direction. Guild guards, cabal outer guardians, and the Inn of the Eternal Star guardians. In order to get past them the PC must attack and kill them.

It seems unrealistic that a mob (which is often much less powerful than the PC) can "block" him/her without resorting to blows. So I propose the following:

The first time a PC tries to move in a direction being blocked the mob does the standard "block" thing but with a warning. Maybe it frowns threateningly at you or says a verbal warning. The second time the PC tries to walk in that direction (without having first left the room) the guardian mob attacks him/her (while still blocking movement and fleeing in the given direction).

One consequence of this is that a good-aligned PC would gain the ability to get past a neutral guardian mob without having to actually attack it. The mob would attack the PC instead. Same result as if the PC had attacked the mob, but different RP implications.

>Currently there are a number of mobs that "block" PCs from
>going in a given direction. Guild guards, cabal outer
>guardians, and the Inn of the Eternal Star guardians. In
>order to get past them the PC must attack and kill them.
>
>It seems unrealistic that a mob (which is often much less
>powerful than the PC) can "block" him/her without resorting to
>blows.

And here is where game balance trumps reality. The guilds are protected for a reason. You have the ability to circumvent that by attacking. You can make the roleplay call on what you want to do. Newbies don't need to die repeatedly in a "protected" zone so you can feel better about your choice.

I don't know if you go far enough back as a player to remember, but guildguards originally worked kind of like this -- if you tried to walk past them they would attack you.

The result was tons of people fleeing around blind or just spamming the wrong directions and getting wanted for it. This seriously happened several times per hour.

Seems like I should have been around back then, but I can't recall them working like that. Maybe I never got high enough to actually try to enter someone else's guild.

From a realism p.o.v. it wouldn't be so far-fetched to keep the current behavior when the PC is blind but have it work like I suggested when the PC can see. The explanation being that if you can't see then even a low-level guardian mob is able to head you off without it coming to blows.

Would probably want to make it so "fleeing from combat" gets you the current behavior (i.e. block w/o attack) too.

So...yeah. Not worth the effort I guess. I suppose good-aligned characters can just say to the mob "Step aside and stop protecting evil dude right now or I'll be forced to attack you," before attacking.