Bob Hayes Online

Following up a comment on Alas:

This is a draft of an alternative alignment system for roleplaying games such as D&D. It is written with D&D in mind, but should in principle be adaptable to any roleplaying system that deals with moral behavior.

Introduction

In D&D, alignment is defined by a person or institution’s position on two axes, law vs. chaos and good vs. evil. As each duality has a neutral point which is established as a node on the divide, there are three times three = nine possible alignments. A person might be neutral good, or lawful evil, or chaotic neutral. This provides instant conflict in the world and great justifications for adventures (”as servants of good, it is our duty to enter the cave and find the wicked dragon that has been eating our livestock and children”) and on the whole has been relatively satisfactory for many gamers. Others, however, have wished for greater nuance in the possibilities of moral behavior. The lawful good paladin can see no way to free the trapped orphans from death other than by using a chaotic method; he chooses the good rather than the law, and violates part of his code to appease another. This produces fantastic dramatic tension in fiction, but in roleplaying it’s kind of a pain. Most of us want to have fun being our character, not undergo tremendous angst. For angst, we have life.

There have been attempts at creating alternative alignment systems before, most in home-brewed systems of the best style. Many of these have been very funny; one of my college chums half-invented a system based on narrow divisions in a particular era of German philosophy. (”OK, as a Schopenhaurian Materialist, I have immunity to that spell effect…”). I won’t promise funny for this one.

The Basic Premise

Characters’ moral systems are defined by their placement along five axes of measurement. The five axes are protection, fairness, solidarity, authority and purity. (I am stealing most of these labels, and the general concept for this system, from an article in some liberal rag.)

A character’s score along each axis ranges from 0 to 5. 0 reflects a complete absence of the axis trait. A 5 means the trait is extremely present in the character. The axis traits are influenced by (and influence) a character’s actions, thoughts, and feelings, with an emphasis on feelings. (An evil overlord with a 0 protection score may nonetheless buy healing potions for his troops. He’s not doing it because he likes them or because he feels he owes them a chance in the upcoming battle, but because giving them the potions will increase his chances of winning the battle, and thus more power for himself.)

The Traits

Protection - The measure of protection and safety the character feels he owes to the world, to strangers in general, and to his friends in particular.

Fairness - The degree to which the character feels she is obliged to show integrity in her dealings with others, and that society should do the same.

Solidarity - The measure of a character’s feeling of membership in a group larger than himself, or perhaps multiple such groups, extending even to favorable feelings for and treatment of fellow members of that group, on the grounds of their shared membership.

Authority - How much importance the character places on acceptance of duly legitimate authority, and on the physical environment of their community being secure from threat and harm.

Purity - The devotion of a character to ideals of proper behavior, virtue, and on a society that reflects those values.

Interpretation

Each axis characteristic is somewhat culture-dependent for each character. For example, an elf who comes from a community where public nakedness is unremarkable might have a Purity score of 4 and be undisturbed by seeing someone unclothed; a dwarf from a rural outpost with strict nudity taboos might have a Purity score of 2 and be somewhat disturbed. The form of Authority, and its duties in regard to public safety, can range from a traditional kingdom to a feudal republic to a tribal autarky run by a religious priesthood - it’s the attitude that is measured by the statistic, not the specific form.

A score of 0 on an axis represents a complete absence of the characteristic. The character with an Authority of 0 is an absolute anarchist at heart. A character with a Purity of 0 has no interest whatsoever in the social-moral norms of the people surrounding him and does as he pleases.

A score of 1 on an axis represents the barest existence of the characteristic in an individual. A character with a Solidarity of 1 dimly realizes that he is part of his tribe, and that if the glacier destroys the village, that includes him. A character with a Fairness of 1 will not steal from you, while you’re looking, if you look like he couldn’t get away with it or outrun you.

A score of 2 on an axis represents an acceptance of the characteristic as a norm. A character with a Protection of 2 would not harm a child of her own species under any normal circumstance. A character with an Authority of 2 tells the watch if he sees a suspicious band of gnolls in the hills outside of town.

A score of 3 on an axis represents an emphasis on the characteristic in the person. A character with a Solidarity of 3 always makes sure that any new members of his species that arrive in his village get a good meal and a warning of the dangerous parts of town. A character with a Fairness of 3 walks four miles back to town when she realizes the innkeeper has undercharged her by two gold pieces.

A score of 4 on an axis represents a very strong part of the character’s persona. A character with a Purity of 4 would not dream of breaking a norm of sexual behavior in his community. A character with an Authority of 4 organized the gnoll watch patrol and personally lights the warning beacons every night.

A score of 5 on an axis is the absolute maximum strength possible for a character trait. A character with a Fairness of 5 would not tell a lie to save her own life. A character with a Protection of 5 is a paladin of steadfast virtue and service - whether that is his character class or not.

Applicability

Like the two-axis system, this five-axis system can be used as a quick guide to an NPC’s behavior. The system can also be used by a PC to help figure out “what Olaf would do in this situation”, especially in cases where their own personal values are very different.

If a decision is to be made or an attitude needs to be determined, the DM decides which characteristics are most applicable to the situation. Sometimes, relevant characteristics self-veto: if a characteristic applies equally well to each possible choice in a situation, that stat drops out of contention since it cannot resolve the conflict. The highest relevant score controls.

For example, a paladin (one with actual paladin levels) must choose between saving the life of a small commoner child being swept away by a river, or saving a wealthy noble maiden about to be killed by an orc. The paladin’s Protection score of 5 is vetoed, as it is equally strong for either option. The DM decides that the most relevant other stats are Solidarity and Purity (she does this without considering what the paladin’s scores are; she is concerned only with what is relevant to the situation.) The paladin’s Solidarity is 4 and his Purity is only 3 (naughty, by paladin standards; he only actually follows the rules, instead of living them), so Solidarity controls. The paladin was born poor, and so decides to save the commoner child (and then come back and try to rescue or avenge the maiden). If the paladin had been of noble birth himself, he would have chosen the maiden.

Note that the DM does the job of applying and interpreting up to the point of deciding on the relevant stats; after that, when applied to PCs, the interpretation becomes the player’s. The paladin might have decided that his Solidarity score applied more to gender than to class, and so rescue the (male) commoner child, or that he felt more commonality with the social role of the nobility now that he was a powerful 10th level paladin and so chose the maiden despite his own humble origin. (The DM should enforce consistency; a character can’t decide that they’ve always believed in class solidarity after ten years of game time spent robbing their neighbors.) The system (like the old two-axis system) helps the DM or the player simplify the decision and find out what’s most relevant to it; the actual decision remains, as always, in the hands of the player controlling the character.

Good vs. Evil

How does this work in relation to the old system? That is, are recognizable alignment groups still useful? It maps pretty well, I think. As a general principle, the more evil and chaotic a monster or character is, the lower their stat total across the five axes. The maximum stats possible are straight-5s (and that would be a person who would be awfully hard to get along with on a Saturday), totaling 25. Here are some examples of the various old-system alignment creatures.

The Good…

Chaotic Good - Unicorn

Protection 4, Fairness 2, Solidarity 3, Authority 1, Purity 5

Neutral Good - Sprite

Protection 3, Fairness 3, Solidarity 3, Authority 3, Purity 3

Lawful Good - Guardian Naga

Protection 4, Fairness 3, Solidarity 4, Authority 4, Purity 3

…The Bad…

Chaotic Evil - Orc

Protection 0, Fairness 1, Solidarity 2, Authority 3, Purity 0.

Neutral Evil - Goblin

Protection 1, Fairness 2, Solidarity 2, Authority 3, Purity 1.

Lawful Evil - Devil

Protection 0, Fairness 2, Solidarity 3, Authority 4 or 5, Purity 0.

…And The Neutral

Chaotic Neutral - Wood Elf

Protection 2, Fairness 2, Solidarity 5, Authority 1, Purity 1.

True Neutral - Doppelganger

Protection 2, Fairness 1, Solidarity 4, Authority 2, Purity 1.

Lawful Neutral - Deep Dwarf

Protection 3, Fairness 2, Solidarity 5, Authority 3, Purity 4.

Correlations I notice in guesstimating stats for various races:

Neutral races tend to be high-solidarity

Lawful races tend to be prudes unless they’re really evil.

If someone has less than eight to ten points, they’re probably fairly evil. Some species have ten points, because they have a Solidarity of 5 and an Authority of 5, and 0s in everything else. Those are not generally good neighbors. Small differences in points (like SAT scores) don’t indicate much; a person can have 22 points in the stats and be a bully and a jerk who has high standards, while another can have 19 and be a genuinely nice person who’s trying their best. Differences of more than ten points probably do reflect a pretty big divide in terms of moral responsibility.

Changing Alignment

If you find a character regularly overriding the decisions that the alignment system is guiding her too, it is clear that the character’s scores are probably not correct. Alignment stats, unlike regular stats, are freely changeable. DMs should impose XP penalties on players who change alignments opportunistically or too frequently; for most players this should not be a problem, as adjustments will be reasonable. (”I thought my wizard was going to be a big power-seeker in the city, but you know, I’m finding she really just wants to crusade for justice for the poor. My Protection score should be 3 instead of 1, and my Authority score should be a point lower.” versus “If my stupid Purity score is 4, it’s going to be hard for me to justify engineering a coup by seducing the wife of the king. I want it to be 0, at least until I finish my betrayal of my values and need to be respectable again.”)

Using This With D&D

In D&D, not only creatures have alignment - so do many spells, magical items, and even governments. Although the powerful and attractive people at Wizards of the Coast ought to license this alignment system and pay me huge sums of money, they haven’t done that yet. So if you use this system, you’ll need to do one of two things:

1) Use the systems in tandem, and have each character pick a conventional alignment for use within the D&D ruleset. Although it sounds awkward, there’s no reason this wouldn’t work. There are a million political opinions in the US, versus only 7,776 alignment combinations; we get by with two big and two or three little parties. Characters can be neutral good, and have a more nuanced five-axis alignment as well.

2) Translate the conventional alignments into the new system, one by one or with a template (see below). For ordinary objects or NPCs who are relatively unimportant, you can use the following quick approximations:

Chaotic Evil - Protection 0, Fairness 0, Solidarity 2, Authority 2, Purity 0

Neutral Evil - Protection 0, Fairness 1, Solidarity 3, Authority 3, Purity 0

Lawful Evil - Protection 0, Fairness 2, Solidarity 3, Authority 4, Purity 0

Chaotic Neutral - Protection 1, Fairness 2, Solidarity 2, Authority 0, Purity 1

True Neutral - Protection 1, Fairness 3, Solidarity 3, Authority 2, Purity 1

Lawful Neutral - Protection 2, Fairness 3, Solidarity 3, Authority 4, Purity 2

Chaotic Good - Protection 4, Fairness 3, Solidarity 2, Authority 0, Purity 2

Neutral Good - Protection 4, Fairness 3, Solidarity 3, Authority 2, Purity 3

Lawful Good - Protection 4, Fairness 4, Solidarity 3, Authority 4, Purity 4

There will be many special cases, and DMs will have to rule on them. One specific suggestion: for paladins, who are constrained against associating with people of loose characters, I would say that the character is barred from associating with anyone who has less than 5 + the paladin’s level points fewer than the paladin. A 3rd level paladin with 20 points cannot associate with someone with 11 or fewer. DMs should adjust this for their own campaigns.

Conclusion

This is a first draft and as such I am sure I have missed contradictions or left out interpretations that should be clarified. If you find any such, please feel free to let me know, by registering here and commenting.

My stepkids were here visiting over the Christmas break, and we took the opportunity to play some D&D with them. Some notes on the experience.

Son A is 12, daughter J is 11. Neighbor boy X is friends with A and J (mostly A) and has been over most days during their visit. Before Christmas, A and I headed to the game store to find some kind of intro-level game that the kids could enjoy; I was hoping for “Dungeon” or some other intro delver.

Instead, we found the Dungeons and Dragons “basic game” - a boxed set with (extremely) abbreviated rules, several nice solid mapboards, a sheet of punchout counters of doors, treasure chests, treasure items, etc., six polyhedral dice (d4 through d20), and a nice selection of painted plastic miniatures, including one quite impressive blue dragon figurine. It was only $25 so we bought it. More extensive reviews can be read at the Geek, but short review: it’s good value for the money and is a decent way to start non-gamers in D&D without having to hassle through all the complexities of 3.5. The adventures included are short but enough to get characters into 2nd level; anyone who starts to have a good time, however, is likely to want to move to the real game, which I recommend.

We did that, after playing through about half of the included adventures in a couple of enjoyable session; the kids were ready for the real deal and I decided they could handle the complexities if I made some executive decisions for them. (Mainly, picking spells, skills and feats for kids who didn’t have the four hours to read through the PHB.) A rolled up a nice human barbarian with lucky stats and an unspellable name (hey - if you can’t read it anyway, what difference does it make?). J rolled a sneaky and skilled elven rogue, while X created an elven mage. That concluded our first session, as is pretty typical for new D&D players; “now we’re ready to play, and it’s time for bed.”

Today we managed to finish character creation and to move on to the actual adventure. J decided she would rather watch TV with Mom on her last night here, so A and X ventured boldly forth into the unknown without any healing, sneakiness, or trap detection. After spending a cold night in an alley shivering and fending off attacks from roving kobold bands, our adventurers decided that finding paying work would put an end to THAT character-building exercise, and found a job with the local weapons merchant. A rust monster had discovered his out-of-town junk metal warehouse, and was eating him out of his inventory. More experienced adventurers had refused the job, fearing for their equipment; A and X strode boldly into action with fearlessness born of complete and utter ignorance.

After discovering the warehouse door was both wooden and securely barred, our heroes realized (successful INT checks) that the rust monster must be getting into the building from some other entrance. A little searching revealed a gap in the stone walls that the creature had widened, and X managed to wriggle through and (unmolested by the rust monster inside, who cared little for the crossbow points that were X’s only metal) unbar the door from inside, allowing A to enter. Unfortunately for A, his shiny new great-axe WAS of considerable interest, and the rust monster leapt to the attack.

Long story short: acid orbs do a little bit of damage to rust monsters, while sleep spells are completely ineffective. (Five hit dice FTW!) Rust monsters with poor attack rolls do a bad job of de-metallicizing heroes, but full-damage hits from perhaps incautious barbarians do a pretty good job of negating themselves. (The look on my son’s face as I described his greataxe dissolving into corruption and dust was worth the two hour character creation process, right there.) However, a well-timed rage (”You melted my axe! And my dagger!”) and a base strength of 17 brought A’s punch attack to a fairly impressive 1d3+5, which turned out to be enough to send Mrs. Rust Monster to an untimely end. Her egg sac followed soon thereafter, and XP and crummy treasure (but good stuff for firsties) were soon distributed to all and sundry.

Some observations, in no particular order:

• Rust monsters are good opponents for low level parties. The harm they can cause is mostly restricted to equipment, which is all non-magical to begin with; they only have a 1d3 bite and that only with a full attack. So nobody dies - but people are worried for their gear, even wizards who only have some crossbow bolts. This creates enough tension, especially for kids, without having to fiddle dice rolls or weight encounters. Plus, at CR3, rust monsters provide nice XP for the newbies.
• New people are reluctant to play healers, but quickly recognize their importance after a stupid kobold hits them with a stupid spear for 5 points of damage. Luckily, it was the barbarian with 13 hit points and not the wizard with 5.
• Tormenting players with information that their skills could have been useful, except for an environmental condition or a situational problem, is fun for the DM, and also gets the players thinking about what they could do in other circumstances. (”The gloom of the warehouse would be ideally suited for your darkvision, if only there wasn’t just enough sunlight to make it completely ineffective.”)
• DMs should remember that kobolds are weak and puny but to small groups of first-level characters, more than one or two can pose a deadly risk. Spears do 1d6-1, even in the hands of a kobold, and they can use sling three times a round for a theoretical 3d3.  OUCH, said the character with an AC of 12 and 5 hit points. Or would have if his sleep spell hadn’t taken them out in the nick of time.
• Want to explain attacks of opportunity to a newbie in a way that short-circuits fourteen pages of badly-written rules and Bog only knows how many dropped-in references scattered through the other books? Easy: “If you do something stupid while someone can hit you, they will get a chance to hit you.” A and X had no difficulty whatsoever understanding and interpreting this rule through two combats.

Alas, A and J now return to their full-time home, but they will return this summer, and I suspect that the epic quest to rid the friendly town of Hillsboro of beasties and monsters will continue. With any luck, I’ve managed to create two or three new gamers. Now I can die, without reducing the net potential geekery level of the universe. I am content.