CHABLIS ROLEPLAYING PRODUCTIONS Present... Copyright (c) 1995 by Gawain Emrys Ap Geoffrey DEFINING LAWFUL GOOD (An Alignmentless Alignment System) "...and so I don't see why me Paladin isn't allowed poison. It's made by his temple and is totally painless, allowing him to punish lawbreakers by killing them neatly and quickly without all that pain and anguish. So in his case, it's actually a Lawful Good act to use poison. Right?" In my own games of AD&D, I have alway left alignment interpretation largely up to the player. Thus if he wants a Paladin who mercilessly cuts down peasnants when in a bad mood, he can have one - as long as it is explained why this action is deemed Lawful Good. The example above, which most Dms would throw out as rubbish, would actually stand in one of my games provided that the poisoned blade is used only for the stated purpose - to carry out executions. Taking this a step further, I have devised the following alignmentness alignment system, inspired by an "improved" method for interpreting alignments given in Dragon Magazine. This system is not specifically for AD&D and can be used above and beyond an existing alignment system in any RPG. NB: The male pronoun is used throughout for convenience (and to annoy a friend of mine). LOYALTIES AND BELIEFS All characters are defined in terms of their loyalties and beliefs; these are collectively termed values. While these are fairly straightforward, a few things should be said about them. Beliefs are defined, quite simply, as the philosophies that a given character believes in. While important to the character these beliefs may be overruled by circumstance and necessity. Loyalties, on the other manipulator, are by definition unswayable. If a character who is supposedly loyal to her church commits an act forbidden by the strictures of that church, then he is not being loyal. Characters who constantly break their lyalties restrictions may well find those loyalties being forcibly changedby the GM and will probably suffer experience penalties as a result., since this is effectively a change in alignment. It should be noted that under certain circumstances, however, a volountary change of loyalties or beliefs could warrant a Role-Playing award. ASSIGNING THE CHARACTER'S VALUES Each character has ten values, which are split between his loyalties and beliefs. At three of each group must be present, giving a maximum possible result of seven in any values group. Insane (especially Chaotically Insane) characters may, at the GM's option, be allowed to break this rule. Described below are eleven loyalties and twelve beliefs. The way in which these factors are assigned defines the character's personality. Obviously, there are more values than any character may have, thirteen more to be precise. This is because different characters have different values. To enforce a loyalty to RELIGIOUS LAW on an athiest would not make much sense. The values available are dscribed below the list. The values are laid out in order of importance in each list, with loyalties always counting higher than beliefs. LOYALTIES BELIEFS Blood Ties Blood loyalties Comradeship Chivalry Cultural Morals Deitic Authority Honour Destiny Patriotism Friendship Personal Preference Heirarchical Authority Personal Respect Individual Rights Religious Law Justice Religious Morals Materialism Self Preservation Morality State Law Survival Truth LOYALTY DESCRIPTIONS BLOOD TIES : This represents the character's loyalty to his family. It goes hand in hand with the Blood Loyalties belief and will ensure that a character will aid his family in all things not contradictory to higher loyalties, whether she believes they are right or not. This often produces Moral Dilemmas. COMRADESHIP : Characters siffering from comradeship will perform any action not proscribed by higher loyalties should her comrades need it. Be it a daring rescue from the prison of a tyrant, to rescuing the evil assassin who became a part of the character's little group shortly before being arrested for murdering the king. The circumstances under which aid will be refused are those involving higher ranked loyalties. Anything else will result in a relucted assistance and possibly a Moral Dilemma. CULTURAL MORALS : If the people say that it is wrong, then it is. A loyalty to Cultural Morals will mean that the charcater will the break the moral codes suited to the area in which she was raised unless a higher ranked loyalty demands it. Most characters with this as their primary loyalty would last around five minutes as adventurers, but it can be fun placed lower down or used for adventurers from odd cultures. HONOUR : The character has a code of honour, strong or otherwise. Knights, Samurai and suchlike all have this loyalty fairly high on their list. The higher the Honour's rank, the less willing and able the character is to break it - this being done only in cases of higher ranking loyalties overruling it. The specific code of honour followed may vary according to culture and individual, but should generally be more restricting for higher ranked loyalties. PATRIOTISM : This has virtually nothing to do with countries, instead it deals with the people within those countries. Exactly what the character is patriotic towards has little to do with these rules. Suffice it to say that whether it be his countrymen, his fellow humans/elves/dwarves/betelguesians/etc or something totally different, the positioning of this loyalty determines the importance of his patriotism. This afects any new, or changed, patriotisms, only the focus has changed and not the strength of the character's loyalty. PERSONAL PREFERENCE : This is similar in some ways to Comradeship. However, that gives loyalty to all those within the character's adventuring party, army unit or whatever. This applies only to people he likes. This loyalty forces the character to aid her friends even when she does not believe in what they are doing. PERSONAL RESPECT : This is the regard in which the PC holds a friend OR an opponent. The respect need not be based simnply on who or what he is, it can be on nearly anything that the PC holds in high esteem - utter professionalism, extreme martial proficiency, deep moral conviction or even ruthless cunning. RELIGIOUS LAW: This represents adherence to the rules of conduct laid out by the charcater's religion. The higher the ranking, the less situations will arise where the rules and laws written in the scriptures and set out by the church may be contradicted. If a PC wishes to be religious without actually taking notice fo the church's laws - which aren't necessarily written by the deity - Religious Morals might be more appropriate (see below). RELIGIOUS MORALS : This is the flip side of the Religious Law loyalty and represents an adherence to the beliefs behind the religion, not the laws laid out by the church. In some ways it is less restrivtive, as the character may disobey a priest, but in others it is more restrictive, since it fills in the loopholes left by the letter of the law. SELF PRESERVATION : This is quite simple. Don't let yourself get killed unless it is for a loyalty higher than this one. This should be thought about carefully before it is selected, since a character with this as her highest loyalty would never go adventuring. If present at all, the character would never endanger himself for money, some other reason must be present as well. This is a surprisingly rare loyalty, most people possessing the Survival belief instead. STATE LAW : This is the governmental equivalent of Religous Law. The character will not break any of the laws made by the local authorities, unless a higher loyalty requies it of him. BELIEF DESCRIPTIONS BLOOD LOYALTIES : This value represents the belief that blood is thicker than water. The character believes that family members should be helped if it does not interfere with the character's loyalties or any higher beliefs. Some circumstances involving family will produce Moral Dilemmas, as family members oppose the values to which the characters is loyal. CHIVALRY : The character with this value does not believe that chivalry is either dead or dying, but is very much a force in his life. It is usually found in nobles and takes a slightly different form in members of different sexes. In the weaker sex (whichever that may be in the charcater's culture) it is a belief that the courtesies associatied with chivalry should be accorded them.; in the stronger sex it results in a belief that they shoudl give these courtesies. Interesting role playing can come about when a Swashbuckling hero meets a Chivalrous Amazon fightress. DEITIC AUTHORITY : The character believes that his God is ultimate and should be obeyed under all circumstances. Whether this belief springs from fear, love or respect for the deity it has te same effect - obedience. The higher up the list of beliefs a character places this, the more fanatical he is The obedience mentioned is to the curch and scriptures of the God. No priest should be ignored by this character, however lowly, and no commandment broken. To do so is to risk bringing down the wrath of his God. This must be so since it says so in the scriptures. DESTINY : Whatever will be, will be. The (N)PC believes that fate guides all that happens. The more prominent this belief, the more he thinks it influences. Starting with only major events up to complete fatalism, where everything that happens is predestined. This belief colours all the (N)PC does and may be played upon by unscrupulous characters. FRIENDSHIP : Friendship, and all that goes with it, is important to this character. The higher up the list this belief is, the more he values it and the lesslikely he is to do anything to ruin a friendship. HEIRARCHICAL AUTHORITY :The character believes that the King/ Church/ Town militia/ Town Council/ etc are in charge because they have a right to be. When they make laws, people should obey them - after all, they do have authority. The higher up the list this belief is, the less he'll go against the local authorities. Of course, the heirarchy she believes in may well be one tat was recently overthrown by the current one, bringing about a fight to restore the original authority. However in areas other then his home, he will respect the current authority. INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS : This represents the character's belief in the rights of an individual to his own freedom. The needs of the many definately DO NOT outweight the needs of the few, or the one. This is a character fighting to stop the little people from being swallowed up by the system (especially if he aslso has Patriotism towards Hobbits). JUSTICE : This represents the character's belief in justice (surprise, surprise). Very little more remains to be said about this, except to point out that it may be interpreted in many different ways, according to what other beliefs are present. MATERIALISM : This is the belief that money, power and fame are all important things. The exact importance of each of these - and any other suitable factors - is up to the player, while their importance with regards to everything else is indicated by the position of the belief. Unless they have no interest in the material world, such as some monks or mages may have, then all characters should feature Materialism on their list somewhere. MORALITY : This isn't necessarily adherence to any particular set of morals, merely the belief that they have a place and a useful function in the world. The actual morals themselves vary from area to area and according to circumstance. SURVIVAL : This is the belief that staying alive and uninjured is a good thing. Pretty common and most characters will have this to some degree unless they are fanatical, and often even then. TRUTH : This is the belief that the truth is important. A character with such a belief will not respect a liar and won't lie if he can help. As with all beliefs, it becomes more restricting higher up the ranking. MORAL DILEMMAS These occur whenever a character's values indicate a contradictory response. This is impossible to avoid, both in games and in real life. Whenever a Moral Dilemma occurs, one of two things will happen: the character will either overcome it (earning experience) or succumb to it (earning penalties for as long as the dilemma is in force). Moral Dilemmas are overcome in a manner relatively rare in many RPGs, by Role Playing. When the situation occurs (and the GM is advised to keep a note of each PC's values to determine for himself when this happens), the player must try to decide for her PC the best way to act to minimise the effect of the dilemma. According to the way he role-plays the situation, situation may or may not decide that he has oversome the dilemma. A particularly nasty dilemma may be impossible to overcome, but an attempt must be made to at least partially resolve the situation. PENALTIES Penalties incurred from a Moral Dilemma affect all Hit Probabilities, skill/proficiency and intiative rolls. In addition the character's Armour Class/Defence is worsened by one for every two penalty points. The penalty is also subtracted from the (N)PC's level when calculating level based abilities in games where these are used. As a rough guide to calculating penalties, the GM may use the following system: for every value involved in the contradiction he should impose a penalty of 1 or 5 (thus there is a minimum penalty of 2/10). For extremely serious contradictions the GM may wish to count a value twice, the primary value in the character's most populous group (values or beliefs) should ALWAYS be counted twice. While the maximum possible penalty is far greater, this should usually give a penalty of between2/10 and 4/20. EXPERIENCE Experience bonuses for overcoming a Moral Dilemma should be based on the penalty associated with it. The lower penalty value (2,etc) should be added to five and used as a percentage of the number of Xps needed for the next level (DIFFERENCE in level costs, not total level cost for next level). Thus a PC with level 1 at 10,000Xps would gain a percentage of 10,000Xps if he needed a total os 20,000Xps for level 2. When used with a non-level-based system, a Role-Playing Award should be given to the PC for successfully overcoming the Dilemma. Since the very act of doing so will have probably earned him an award anyway, this can be a lucrative business.