I think to ASSUME there are over 50 guards present in or near the plaza, when there are in fact only a few physical ones scattered around the plaza, is a big as in any IC RPing that i would take part in. Im all for IC RP, but to just make things up out of thin air, is not IC as far as I see it. Most of the comments made about the numerous guards, were also implying that the bad deed done, was a single handed murder, not a WAR.
Now, OOC, i don't know of a single war in history, that when it entered a city, everyone stopped fighting when they got to the centre of town because people were smithing nearby. A WAR will go were it wills, and clear a path in its wake. So it would have been extremely OOC for me to chase my enemy (the other army) all the way to the plaza, to just stop and not slay them, or defend myself, whichever the case at the time may have been.
IC, my character has not ONCE, seen a guard patrolling the plaza itself, nor seen a sign prohibiting fighting, so why would he not fight there in a time of war? Why would he think to himself that 50 guards will surround me if i slay this person here, when he has never seen ONE guard in that plaza itself, nor ever been warned by a guard, or a resident of Hydlaa, that it is not acceptable. It would also be OOC for him to take a message from the guilds MOTD that says dont fight there. So if we want things IC, lets truly be IC.
I agree with those that have said that a GM should take over a guards NPC to stop the fighting, the best idea that has come from this thread IMO. But, back to the numbers. If we are truly expected to pretend that 1 guard is to simulate 50, then how many were in fact in our army of 10 or so characters, by my calculations, that would have made our army 500 strong, an impossible task for any guard 50 strong. If we go higher to lets say 1000 guards, lets make the same assumption, that makes our army 10000 strong, that would wipe out the entire city.
I also agree with the OOC DR spawn killing, i didnt like the idea from the start, but given game mechanics, how else are we to imprison our enemy and make them yield? I suggested in another thread, that we perhaps should have a spell, that makes the mage able to hold a person, even if only for 10secs (gotta make the mage work for it), this would then allow us to take prisoners of war, and keep the fight out of the DR, and furthermore the city. Also if character spawn points were not within the city walls, this would then also make it more possible to keep the war outside the city. But the way things are set up, you spawn in the city, so to keep it out of the DR, the fighting would be in the city. It would be ridiculous to expect an enemy to respond to "/me takes so and so hostage" it just wouldnt happen, and i would be extremely disappointed if it did.
So lets face the facts, WAR within the city will happen, and to keep it out of one area, would be extremely OOC. Why is it that if fighting in the plaza is against the law, fighting anywhere else within the city walls isnt? If 1 person was to commit a murder, then yes, if the murder was pre-meditated, that would be crazy, especially if you stayed there and not ran. But if in the case of my character, if I were to kill 1 person, it would be because of provocation, and I wouldnt say, come to arena so I can kill you, again, OOC.
But I ask this.... If so many are against fighting a WAR in the plaza, why did no one step up to stop it? The war was fun, you should try it sometime, and it was a 1 day event, if you dont like it, step up to stop it IC, or run for your life, but if I am to stay IC, in future WARS, I will not stop at the plaza, I will chase down my enemy and kill him, wherever he stands, that is what a WAR is.
Killian Therin (Lost Souls)