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After we're done with Phandelver, I'm debating with myself whether to bother with FR or just have them fall into a portal into a better setting.
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Jan 23, 2015 00:17
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All doors lead to Sigil.
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Jan 23, 2015 00:24
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Peas and Rice posted:Isn't this how DCC does it? Makes WAY more sense. DCC nothing, that's how OD&D did it. quote:Character Alignment, Including Various Monsters and Creatures: Before the game begins it is not only necessary to select a role, but it is also necessary to determine what stance the character will take - Law, Neutrality, or Chaos. But it doesn't actually say that Alignment means anything with regards to behavior. quote:LANGUAGES: The "common tongue" spoken throughout the "continent" is known by most humans. All other creatures and monsters which can speak have their own language, although some (20%) also know the common one. Law, Chaos and Neutrality also have common languages spoken by each respectively. One can attempt to communicate through the common tongue, language particular to a creature class, or one of the divisional languages (law, etc.). While not understanding the language, creatures who speak a divisional tongue will recognize a hostile one and attack. Characters with an Intelligence above 10 may learn additional languages, one language for every point above 10 intelligence factors. Thus, a man with an intelligence level of 15 could speak 7 languages, i.e. the common tongue, his divisional language, and 5 creature languages. Of course, Magic-Users spells and some magic items will enable the speaking and understanding of languages. quote:Monsters can be lured into service if they are of the same basic alignment as the player-character, or they can be Charmed and thus ordered to serve. Note, however, that the term "monster" includes men found in the dungeons, so in this way some high-level characters can be brought into a character's service, charisma allowing or through a Charm spell. Some reward must be offered to a monster in order to induce it into service (not just sparing its life, for example). The monster will react, with appropriate pluses or minuses, according to the offer, the referee rolling two six-sided dice and adjusting for charisma: quote:SWORDS: Among magic weaponry swords alone possess certain human (and superhuman) attributes, Swords have an alignment (Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic), an Intelligence factor, and an egoism rating (as well as an optional determination of their origin/purpose). So yeah, alignment never really meant anything besides "if you're the same alignment as a monster, you speak the same language, and thus could potentially negotiate". It was only at some later point that it started to imply that you needed to live up to a certain mode of behavior.
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Jan 23, 2015 04:32
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gradenko_2000 posted:So yeah, alignment never really meant anything besides "if you're the same alignment as a monster, you speak the same language, and thus could potentially negotiate". It was only at some later point that it started to imply that you needed to live up to a certain mode of behavior. Oh hey, here's an interesting fact I ran into a month or two ago on the subject of alignments and living up to certain modes of behavior: Matt Sheridan on RPGnet posted:In case anybody's still wondering, Gary talked about adding Good and Evil to the alignment system way back in The Strategic Review Volume 2, Issue 1 (February 1976), even going so far as to include a couple familiar-looking four-directional charts. [source]
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Jan 23, 2015 06:54
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I remember someone in the retroclone thread posting that chart. As you can see thieves are true neutral. Much like pixies. Or zombies. I think the idea of transcending to an alternate plane based on alignment would be more interesting if gary had used the elemental planes though.
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Jan 23, 2015 07:12
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I'm somewhat curious about how large a percentage of D&D games simply house rule alignment out of existence for all practical purposes.
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Jan 23, 2015 13:09
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gradenko_2000 posted:So yeah, alignment never really meant anything besides "if you're the same alignment as a monster, you speak the same language, and thus could potentially negotiate". It was only at some later point that it started to imply that you needed to live up to a certain mode of behavior. When 4e took alignment back to its "team good / team evil" roots instead of the bullshit psychology personality test it had evolved into, the wailing of nerds was doubly hilarious.
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Jan 23, 2015 13:17
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5E making alignment mechanically irrelevant for most purposes is a good step. I mean, yes, nine-point alignment is still back, but spells like Detect Good and Evil doesn't detect alignments any more, just outsiders from good and evil planes which I'm considerably more willing to tolerate. On the other hand, it probably makes the game even more confusing for people new to D&D, who are asked to choose an alignment for their character despite not understanding the system, its relevance, or what it actually does or means.
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Jan 23, 2015 14:59
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Boing posted:On the other hand, it probably makes the game even more confusing for people new to D&D, who are asked to choose an alignment for their character despite not understanding the system, its relevance, or what it actually does or means. Well, neither does WotC
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Jan 23, 2015 15:32
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It determines whether you can equip the good white sword or the evil black one.
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Jan 23, 2015 15:37
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quote:Law, Chaos and Neutrality also have common languages spoken by each respectively. Maths
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Jan 23, 2015 15:41
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Also the language of chaos.
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Jan 23, 2015 15:43
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4th Edition posted:If you choose an alignment, you’re indicating your character’s dedication to a set of moral principles: good, lawful good, evil, or chaotic evil. In a cosmic sense, it’s the team you believe in and fight for most strongly. 5th Edition posted:A typical creature in the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons has an alignment, which broadly describes its moral and personal attitudes. Alignment is a combination o f two factors: one identifies morality (good, evil, or neutral), and the other describes attitudes toward society and order (lawful, chaotic, or neutral). Thus, nine distinct alignments define the possible combinations. I mean, it's nice that they threw in a bit about how "you're probably never going to be able to be Lawful Evil to the letter", but the prior description of alignments it is just so much more practical, and that stuff about "always evil Orcs" is just straight-up grog.
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Jan 23, 2015 15:48
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gradenko_2000 posted:I mean, it's nice that they threw in a bit about how "you're probably never going to be able to be Lawful Evil to the letter", but the prior description of alignments it is just so much more practical, and that stuff about "always evil Orcs" is just straight-up grog. It's not all that grog. If the orcs in that setting were engineered from the ground up to be motherfuckers, then they are just motherfuckers. I think if a DM is gonna run orcs with shades of gray, it's not that difficult to say, "Orcs are a violent warrior culture, but they're not worse than, say, Germany 300 years ago or if you took away electric power and cars from Texas for like a year" and then give them a capital city.
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Jan 23, 2015 15:53
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Alignment seems like the poster child for a mechanic that should have been a DMG module. That way you could have OD&D Law vs. Chaos, AD&D 9 point alignment, in-game factional allegiances, etc. all available for people to choose from. There's no reason to bake it into the baseline game aside from nostalgia.
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Jan 23, 2015 16:17
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I like how alignment is core, but flanking is optional.
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Jan 23, 2015 16:22
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It removes a lot of the moral dilemmas that can get in the way of more killing and XP accumulation.
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Jan 23, 2015 16:25
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Some news coming from WOTC * Warforged and Kender races to be released via online articles * material that was slated to be on the Adventurer's Guide will be split up between a free PDF download and the Princes of the Apocalypse book * errata documents for the main books are slated for release by "before the spring" * "Does the D&D tabletop RPG have one official setting? The answer is yes. That setting is the multiverse, which includes all D&D worlds."
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Jan 23, 2015 16:33
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I spend roughly five seconds thinking about a character's alignment, since it has almost no purpose in the game system and can't be rationally explained as a mechanic even if it did. 4E only gently encourages you to take a side, so to speak, by walling off some themes/paragon paths/epic destinies, some of which are even worth considering, behind alignments. I don't think my friends can tell the difference between my lawful good and chaotic evil characters, but generally it's "lawful good likes the sociopolitical situation D&D is in and will kill people to uphold it. Chaotic evil will kill people to tear it down." Even in 4E there's too many alignments, there's no useful distinction between Chaotic Evil and Evil. Now that we're back to the nine-point system it's all a wash.
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Jan 23, 2015 16:36
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gradenko_2000 posted:* "Does the D&D tabletop RPG have one official setting? The answer is yes. That setting is the multiverse, which includes all D&D worlds." What an odd way of saying "no".
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Jan 23, 2015 16:38
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goatface posted:What an odd way of saying "no". No, you see, this makes my Sliders campaign DOUBLE CANON
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Jan 23, 2015 16:40
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gradenko_2000 posted:* "Does the D&D tabletop RPG have one official setting? The answer is yes. That setting is the multiverse, which includes all D&D worlds."
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Jan 23, 2015 17:02
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:I don't think my friends can tell the difference between my lawful good and chaotic evil characters, but generally it's "lawful good likes the sociopolitical situation D&D is in and will kill people to uphold it.
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Jan 23, 2015 17:14
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dwarf74 posted:Every color is my favorite color. My favourite color is the visible spectrum. gently caress ultraviolet.
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Jan 23, 2015 19:09
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gradenko_2000 posted:Some news coming from WOTC You forgot to post that their publishing schedule was severely strained by somebody on the team getting jury duty.
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Jan 23, 2015 19:11
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gradenko_2000 posted:Kender For gently caress's sake, why. Who wants this.
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Jan 23, 2015 19:36
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Peas and Rice posted:For gently caress's sake, why. Who wants this. Evil men, Peas. Evil men from a dimension of pure evil.
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Jan 23, 2015 19:45
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That guy who starts every new campaign trying to pickpocket the rest of the party.
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Jan 23, 2015 19:47
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Peas and Rice posted:For gently caress's sake, why. Who wants this. I can point you toward like three different people I went to high school with, and one guy from college 
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Jan 23, 2015 19:47
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goatface posted:Also the language of chaos.
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Jan 23, 2015 20:55
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:You forgot to post that their publishing schedule was severely strained by somebody on the team getting jury duty. I honestly thought that was a joke.
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Jan 23, 2015 21:06
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:You forgot to post that their publishing schedule was severely strained by somebody on the team getting jury duty. Fortunately, he was quickly disqualified when he answered all questions by shrugging and saying, "That's up to the judge."
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Jan 23, 2015 21:08
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Selachian posted:Fortunately, he was quickly disqualified when he answered all questions by shrugging and saying, "That's up to the judge."
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Jan 23, 2015 21:18
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:You forgot to post that their publishing schedule was severely strained by somebody on the team getting jury duty. I hadn't actually heard about this, link?
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Jan 23, 2015 21:20
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:You forgot to post that their publishing schedule was severely strained by somebody on the team getting jury duty. Are you goddamn serious.
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Jan 23, 2015 21:28
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Night10194 posted:Are you goddamn serious. You can always have one writer cover another writer's stuff. If you lost your layout person for a month, though, that could really mess things up.
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Jan 23, 2015 21:30
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Selachian posted:Fortunately, he was quickly disqualified when he answered all questions by shrugging and saying, "That's up to the judge." Rulings, not rules!
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Jan 23, 2015 21:34
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:You forgot to post that their publishing schedule was severely strained by somebody on the team getting jury duty. Remember back in 2012 when Ryan Dancey posted that bullshit about D&D needing to be a core brand that made $50 million a year? I thought he was full of poo poo, but . . . Ryan goddam Dancey of all loving people posted:Best case would have been a very small staff dedicated to just managing the brand and maybe handling some freelance pool doing minimal adventure content. Maybe he was on to something.
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Jan 23, 2015 22:55
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How the hell is that "best case" for the brand? "Yeah we basically don't do poo poo" is great for getting a paycheck when you're a lazy piece of poo poo but you don't say that in public for gently caress's sake.
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Jan 24, 2015 00:45
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Hey, it worked for White Wolf and their World of Darkness publishing model. wait
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Jan 24, 2015 00:52
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