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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Back in the days of AD&D 2e they dealt with cantrips in a completely different way from all of the other editions. I loved it but it took a long while to work out just how powerful a spell it was.
photo by jenasa@flickr
The spell Cantrip was a 1st level spell that allowed you to do almost anything as long as it was small and didn’t cause any damage to anything and anything created only lasted something like an hour. On the face of it you might think it was useless for anything other than a full on roleplay session. You couldn’t be further from the truth however.
Before we realised just how useful this spell was our mages tooled up with blatant offensive or defensive spells and that was it. Occasionally they would get their books out when they had to research some magic items for the group but usually it was ‘how many fireballs and hastes are we going to need today?’
Then one day one of our clerics died and the player decided completely against character to bring in a mage. His daily allowance of 1st level spells were always completely taken up by cantrips. It took us around an hour to work out what he was up to.
In our first encounter upon entering a hamlet was a crowd of young kids. We had asked for directions from everyone passing by but as we were armed to the back teeth and strangers to boot noone would talk to us. Our new mage wandered over to the gang of street kids and got talking to them. He ended up casting cantrips to allow him to perform a brilliant card trick and then finished it off with some mini-fireworks from his wand. The kids loved it and after a few moments we were on our way armed with the information we needed.
Now you might think that is exactly what cantrip was for but it gets better.
We arrived at the tavern we were looking for in order to track down a certain rogue that could help us fence some stolen art work. He didn’t want to deal with us and decided to hit our remaining cleric out of the way and make a run for it. One cantrip later and just as the NPC goes to barge through the cleric the holy symbol around his neck shines like it had caught the sun at high noon. Blinded by this the NPC stumbled and was easily caught by the hands of the warriors.
From that moment on I loved that spell. From pretending to burn treasure maps to get other interested parties off of our tails to magically tying the shoelaces of the guards together to aid in our escape. Every single thing the spell done was minor but it had a huge impact on the game and on our party.
I really wish they had kept the spell like that rather than find ways to limit it. I understand why they did that but it’s nowhere near as much fun now.
This months Blog Carnival is hosted by 6d6 Fireball on the topic of D&D. He has picked out 4 specific topics to write about so head on over and see what he has to say.
You can check the archives here
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And so the good Rev Mike seems to have disappeared off of the face of the Earth these last few months which is a shame. It has also meant that we have been without a roundup for that months carnival and so without further ado I present to you the March roundup on Mike’s behalf.
During March he hosted the RPG Bloggers Network’s carnival which was on the topic of war. Obviously we discussed what was it good for but as you can see from the list below many of you did more than just that.
My personal favourites this time around are Greywulf’s Megadungeon Wars which sound like a blast. I’ve no idea why but it reminds me of a subterranean version of Bloodbowl that I recall White Dwarf publishing back in the mists of time and Mike Bourke’s work over at Campaign Mastery
Yet again it was a busy month but have a good read of as many as you can as each one is worth it’s weight in gold.
An Undisciplined Oaf Quartet
Keeping it Together: How To Keep War Compelling – The Basics
Critical Hits
War in Low Level Campaigns
A Butterfly Dreaming
War and How to Wage It
War Week: A Harvest of Men
A Harvest of Men II
A Harvest of Men III
Questing GM
Races at War – Dragonborn
Races at War – Dwarf
Races at War – Eladrin
Races at War – Elf
Races at War – Halfling
The Gamer Traveller
The Roads of War – Rome, Italy
Exchange of Realities
Why Must War Be Inevitable
The Supporters of War
Ten War Options for a Non-Warlike Character, Part 1
Ten War Options for a Non-Warlike Character, Part 2
The Six Year Old Child Principle of War and International Relations
Greywulf’s Lair
Megadungeon War
RPG Blog II
Guide To War By Levels
Dungeon’s Master
The Spoils of War
6d6Fireball
5 Adventure Hooks for Time of War
Alea Lacta Est
The Origin of United We Stand
Cultivation of War
Fame & Fortune
Orc Gate
Upon a Red Horse and Bearing a Sword
Save vs Pointy Stick
Social Intrigue part II – Inciting And Stopping Wars
Vulcan Steve’s Database
War! Is it really game-able in an RPG?
Compromise and Conceit
Chosen
Infernal Weapons of War
Ten Letter
The God of War
Stargazer’s World
Wars in Your Fantasy Campaign
The Dice Bag
Keeping it Irregular
Cogito, ergo ludo
War is Boring
Campaign Mastery
This Mean War – Part 1
This Mean War – Part 2
This Mean War – Part 3
This Mean War – Part 4
This Mean War – Part 5
This Mean War – Part 6
Next months carnival will beheld by A Butterfly Dreaming on the topic of Humour and Gami… oh wait that was the follow up to this carnival. The carnival for June is actually being held at Mad Brew Labs with the topic of Steampunk and Klokwerks.
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