tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4999500110309022298.post7309165126455307825..comments2024-02-27T07:06:23.481-06:00Comments on Tower of Zenopus: Overreaction TuesdayBlacksteelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16289298640828309072noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4999500110309022298.post-35512200831345896352012-03-15T17:50:41.738-05:002012-03-15T17:50:41.738-05:00Aaron: Yeah fun is pretty nebulous.
Richard: Alig...Aaron: Yeah fun is pretty nebulous.<br /><br />Richard: Alignment can be a problem and I've definitely seen it used as an excuse for dickish behavior, but I don't see it as being quite as limiting as you do. I don't see good as being "won't kill" and I do see chaotic as doing fine in small groups. There are degrees within each alignment.<br /><br />Also, try looking at this: Alignment is defined by character actions. You can claim whatever alignment you want at the start of the game, but if you start killing good NPC's I'm probably going to move you over to evil. If you claim lawful evil but start helping strangers and asking for nothing in return I'm probably moving you to good. Alignment is the speedometer, not the engine. <br /><br />Plus I never really saw D&D as a game for complex moral questions. D&D has always been more about deeds than words in my experience. Alignment makes for a handy label for a fantasy gaming world (these guys are evil, so it's OK for good types to kill them), not an accurate reflection of real-world philosophy. Mechanically if you have whole planes of existence tied to an alignment and deities that exemplify those alignments and empower agents in the world then it makes sense to have them in the game, if for nothing else than to let people choose sides.<br /><br />Finally, if 'Next' is supposed to be an edition uniter then it has to have something about alignment because every other edition of the game has had them. It's part of the "thing" that is D&D - classes, races, levels, hit points, saving throws, alignment, armor class, longswords, maces, wands, etc.Blacksteelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16289298640828309072noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4999500110309022298.post-46812791759159137812012-03-15T04:45:51.807-05:002012-03-15T04:45:51.807-05:00I'm agnostic about Vancian magic but militantl...I'm agnostic about Vancian magic but militantly opposed to alignment, and not for any of the reasons you cite: I simply don't know what archaic or outdated mean in a game of swords and goblins and restrictive/confining might be just what you need to prompt creativity. I also don't know what realism could possibly mean here.<br /><br />No, I hate alignment because it's incoherent, incomprehensible (at least in early editions - I haven't read 3 or 4), and in various ways actively hostile both to the core activity of the game (murderhoboing) and the social contract of play (of not being a dick to your fellow players). Not being a dick is already hard to reconcile with murderhoboing - it requires a fairly specific and twisted kind of gentleman-pirate ethical code - and it is not helped by a 9-point ethical compass on which at least 4 points actively tell you to be a dick (cn and all the evils) and 3 points almost certainly tell you not to murderhobo (xg), and of the remaining points, one will tend toward dickishness through unenlightened self interest (nn). For practical purposes, to survive an adventure, pcs pretty much have to behave as ln or lg among themselves, reducing their self-conscious alignment-driven behaviour to the occasional bit of theatrical showmanship (see me rescue these children/torture this waggoner!); I can think of no more effective way to trivialize moral questions in the game. <br /><br />tl:dr - if you don't really want to deal with something, writing a system for it is usually a good way to kill interest in it. Especially if that system dictates how pcs should behave.richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13517340075234811323noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4999500110309022298.post-90125321210585796952012-03-13T23:15:19.816-05:002012-03-13T23:15:19.816-05:00You missed the most important criticism from the a...You missed the most important criticism from the anointed and all-knowing modernists: that (name of cherished DnD mechanic) is not "fun".<br /><br />Blerg.Aaron E. Steelehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07789462075611254929noreply@blogger.com