Shattered Kingdoms

First of all, let's not get rid of something that is fun just because it may break realism.

Second of all, I've always thought that GM PCs were sort of legendary figures in the SK world, so for me, the deadliest GM PCs could totally kick down the gate to a city without breaking realism. I mean, come on, imagine Knightlord Turon walking up with his entourage to fight some assortment of lowly gate guards. Or Ealuriel. These are the big baddies in the world that everyone has heard of because of their battle prowess. There's no way cities would just have natural defenses that could repel mofos like that easily. And don't get me started on what Rorey would do against a perfectly realistic city defense.

I like the idea of a stalwart guard formation at primary gate entrances.
No problem there, except I strongly disagree with the true sight idea.
Those cabals have those skills for infiltration and tactical reasons, best not to nullify some of their best applications.

Do not make an entire city no gate/summon zone, but do heavily increase or make it impossible to open a gate to NPCs within the city.
Kaiyle-Jemm/Hatim/Gusgil/owl-like/Freydah being the primary offenders here. (Disregarding Teron npc gate targets for obvious reasons.)
One should still be able to gate to and or summon a PC in a city provided they have the arts. This would then become an even more viable tactic.
Have one of your own or a spy infiltrate the city to allow a warparty to enter, thus avoiding the gate guards and alerting the enemy.

I like the idea of having a portal "zone" in the city. The guards and people understand that this site is used for transit by the
realm's adventurers and maybe rich merchants who can hire sorcerers etc etc. Therefore a guard equivalent to or less than
the gate formations is placed at these gate-grounds. Hell you could even allow people to purchase gates to other stones.

As for the response unit, you are correct Edoras that should be the PC's job, I just like being lazy.

Note that the guards I have in mind are intended to stall and inform, not rout an enemy attack. High health, low damage, and multiple guards in the formation
intended to allow PC responders time to rally and intercept.

I don't have what I would consider an optimal solution to bounty NPCs. All I can think of is - reduce how many are spawned,
or at least put a cap on it (considering the impossibly immense crimes people stack up), and at least arm them. Why would
a bounty NPC come at an infamous criminal unarmed?
"This dangerous criminal has slaughtered hundreds of our brethren without breaking a sweat and having never been caught, I'll have at the bloke with fisticuffs!"- Bounty NPC probably

If said tribunal does not have the currency to send out a bounty NPC with at least a weapon, then don't send them.
Can even have the tribunal inform you somehow if it is in the midst of a conflict. "We lack the funds to dispatch
more soldiers, send aid!" While it would be nice, this had a few drawbacks, as it would inform the tribunal of
an enemy presence (though not where) without expending coin, could be abused by those confident in their ability to defend.

No, I think we actually agree on this point. The keyword that I meant to emphasize there was easily. It should require good gear and/or consumables used if you want to get past the gate guards safely as a single PC.

Oh yeah, it looks like we agree 100% on that.

So the last time I made a poll about bounty NPCs, 50 people voted. I realize this thread has not been around that long, but seriously, only 6 votes, and 2 for Wert? Has the pbase declined that much, or has it shifted that dramatically away from players who participate in pvp, or are there just enough newbies that they don't feel they know enough to vote, or do people just not look at the forums now that General Discussion is gone?

The playerbase has declined, but the forums are tremendously quiet comparatively.

I miss favorite quotes the most.

Very much so.

I miss opportunities for satire the most.

There were straight-up masterpieces in General Discussion. There were beautifully crafted flames, clever retorts, and subtle trolling, but some of the best satire I've ever read came from those forums. Forum warriors imitated and hyperbolized each other's styles and positions. They juxtaposed past statements with current ones made by the same forum presence, exposing hypocrisy and drawing more than a few chuckles from the audience. Occasionally, things got out of hand, and were more vulgar than clever, but it was not uncommon for the verbal sparring to be nothing short of genius. It is a legitimate crime against art that General Discussion was removed. It is pretty much on par with the Nazi's stealing all that art in WWII.

If General Discussion opened up again, I would so enjoy poring over old threads and finding gems from the forum warriors of yore.

For all the fun I had recently on this last character, I really miss the days of the internet tough guy.