For years I played in games where the system required you to stick rigidly to a set of morals/guidelines determined by the alignment you chose to play. Unless someone was going a paladin of some sorts almost everyone in my groups started out as either neutral good or neutral evil in out AD&D games. Both of them fitted almost any character we would chose to play and could cover almost any action they might do as long as you stayed away from the extremes. In all those years I have also never found a decent mechanism within D&D to play alignment changes although Dragonlance came close but that was very specific to the setting.

The Rocketeer @ Flickr

In later years we moved on to Vampire:TM where your actions had an impact on your humanity stat. This was the closest we ever came to a system that mirrored real life in that you could in theory do anything you wanted to but for every bad action you had a chance that you would start to spiral down into the abyss and lose touch with everything that made you human. Again though this was very black and white.

I guess what I’m getting at is why should we be relying on mechanics to mimic something that is so complex in real life that very few folk understand it fully anyway. Without being a psychologist do we need the system dumbed down that much that we revert to using lists of sins to judge how far we’ve moved from our original alignment? Why can’t it be roleplayed out? If a player chooses to make that jump it’s going to have a different affect on them than on another player and it should be worked through with the GM. That’s all you need. The repercussions of an evil/good act can range from simple self loathing to something far worse but it should be specific to that that character and not drawn from a table ina rulebook.

These are just a few quick thoughts that I might expand on later once I get back into the swing of things. Hopefully November will be a busy month here at The Dice Bag.

This post was brought to you by the letters N and E and the RPGBN carnival which this month is being hosted by Seamus over at Games of State on the topic of Morality: In-Game and Real Life.

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I’ve been spending a lot of time recently either in hospitals in cardiac clinics or in the Accident and Emergency departments and in front of the television. It’s got me thinking about something I’ve never actually tried before. When you go around the blogs you consistently read about D&D and the need to build skill challenges into your game. I’m still not a fan of the system but the idea has merit for almost every system you’ll come across.

During my Cyberpunk days we would run one off trauma team days. It would be a fun way to spend a few hours and every call out would be have a glut of combat as well as plenty of other things to keep the non-solos happy. From pilots bringing in the team to the medics working their magic under covering fire. I’ve never tried to move this format to any other setting or system with the exception of a Twilight 2000 game where we kitted the team out with every skill on the planet I think.

Plug1 @ Flicker

So is it possible to transfer this format over to a fantasy setting or even have it run successfully in a modern day system? I guess what I’m getting at is without the combat element just how do you keep your players interested in what amounts to constant skill checks in most systems? Is it possible to maintain the players interest in a gaming session without having an in depth knowledge of accidental wounds and a copy of Gray’s Anatomy sitting beside you?

How does a player roleplay first aid? It’s going to get old very quickly if every time someone comes across an injured body they have to run through first aid drills. Checking for dangers before checking the injured person. Checking breathing and circulation. Looking for obvious wounds. Performing CPR. Injecting them with whatever they need and getting in the ambulance. But if they just end up rolling dice and say they ‘perform the usual drills’ then it takes the feel out of the game. I’m actually watching the new TV series Trauma to see just how they keep it fresh week in week out. So far it’s working but I’m not sure how well it would work in game. Do you really need to have a slutty ‘nurse’ in your team to keep the guys interested?

I guess I’ll be writing more on this once I get the idea clearer in my head on how it might work.

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I’ve mentioned before about my inability to got inspiration from anywhere other than films and books with the occasional historical reference thrown in as well. I wasn’t prepared for the my visit to The National History Museum in London.

I’ve been looking for an idea for my next attempt at using the One Page Dungeon template but nothing had been jumping out at me. I’ve got a small list of ideas for my dungeons but without inspiration for something other than a basic location it can be slow going.

Then my son decided he wanted his picture taken beside something and who was I to say no to him especially when he was having an off day and running away if you pointed the camera at him. He picked one of the biggest ammonite fossils I’ve ever seen, at least I think it was an ammonite fossil, and proceeded to be amazed by it.

It wasn’t until I got home and looked through the photos from the trip that I found a close up of the fossil. The cross section just cries out for it to be converted into a one page dungeon. I’m sure many people out there have used this sort of design before for their dungeons but as soon as i seen the photo my mind went into overtime. Just how can I transfer the ever decreasing chamber size into a workable dungeon? Just how far do I take it before it gets too unwieldy? Where can I fit it in to my current world build?

I spent most of my lunch today at work sketching and reworking various ideas to get this working so once I’ve settled on a design I’ll get the finished product up here for you guys to go over, praise and/or destroy.

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