alignment alternative

[Beholder Bob]

Does anyone have an alternate alignment system similar to:

Honor, Virtue, Integrity, Piety, and Loyalty, each on a 0-10 scale, with 0 being the complete absence and a 10 being inhuman degree of the above? I know something like this is in the Eldrich (priest) book, but it was for good/evil law/chaos system. I’m hoping to develop these points into something that players earn or lose points in each of the above, with points in excess of 7 sacrificable for some benefit (score would look like “9 (7)”, detects as an 9 but the PC must re-earn the 8th and 9th point in order to progress to 10, and points can be lost due to actions.

The sacrifice of these points would garner a benefit dependent on the alignment value sacrificed: honor giving some combat mod, piety a limited divine intervention, while loyalty (loyalty score followed by the group you are loyal to) could garner benefits from the group you are loyal to. Virtue would allow an attempt to re-roll a save or re-roll any action while risking your life for another. Integrity would act as a benefit in social interaction. No hard system is worked out yet, but a thought.
What ya think?

 

[Aaron2]

Honor, Virtue, Integrity, Piety, and Loyalty, each on a 0-10 scale, with 0 being the complete absence and a 10 being inhuman degree of the above? I know something like this is in the Eldrich (priest) book, but it was for good/evil law/chaos system. I’m hoping to develop these points into something that players earn or lose points in each of the above, with points in excess of 7 sacrificable for some benefit (score would look like “9 (7)”, detects as an 9 but the PC must re-earn the 8th and 9th point in order to progress to 10, and points can be lost due to actions.

Pendragon has a system similar. It tracks various character traits. I worked at converting it to d20 but it ended up being too much work to track it all the time. It tracked 13 trait pairs (forex Pious / Worldly) The values ranged from 0 to 20 with the total value of both pairs equalling 20. So if you had a 18 Piety you had a 2 Worldy. If you acted in a worldly manner and your Wordly value went to 3, you Piety would be lowered to 17. Each religion had five traits that it valued and a bonus if you had high scores in all of them. Forex: Chritianity valued Chaste, Forgiving, Merciful, Modest, and Temperate and gave bonus hit points. Pagans valued Lustful, Energetic, Generous, Honest and Proud and have a healing bonus. Wotans valued Generous, Proud, Worldly, Indulgent, and Reckless and gave a damage bonus. There was also a base bonus for Chivaly (Energetic, Generous, Just, Merciful, Modest, and Valorous). Pendragon characters also had Passion; forex Loyalty (King) or Hatred (Saxons). You could roll against your Passion to get a bonus to help you fulfill them. So, if you Hate (Saxons) as 18, you could roll 18 or less and get a +10 bonus to fight a Saxon. Etc. I have the d20 rules partially written up, I'll send them to you if you wish.

Also, Riddle of Steel has a fairly neat passion system. Each character picks several beliefs (protect women) or quests (kill the six-fingered man). These start out as 1-3 and gain whenever you do something about them. You can use the number as a bonus to complete your quest or uphold your belief or you can cash them in for experience. Its not worth buying the book just for these rules, however.


Aaron

 

[Beholder Bob]

Pendragon has a system similar....I have the d20 rules partially written up, I'll send them to you if you wish....Also, Riddle of Steel has a fairly neat passion system.. ...Aaron

Yes please, I would love to see it. I hadn't been planning on something quite so large (I though keeping track of 5 alignment vectors for each PC would be challenging enough), but I'm intrigued by the opposites/balancing factor these seem to have. Cool, thank you very much!

 

[Aaron2]

Yes please, I would love to see it.

I posted it here:

http://jtjaguar.home.texas.net/Personality.doc

I originally wrote it assuming you knew the Pendragon rules. I tried to go back and explain some stuff but it may be confusing. Email me at akkala@cyberramp.net if you have any questions.


Aaron

 

[Beholder Bob]

In order to keep the amount down, I was thinking of these 5 aspects to track alignment. What do you think, would it cover enough to describe PC's? (Yes! Detect Greed, Honor, Cruelty, etc). Add to this would be (optionally) 1-4 traits as determined by your religion, allegiance, etc.

Forgiving/Vengeful
Generous/Greedy
Honorable/Treacherous
Merciful/Cruel
Brave/Cowardly​

 

[Aaron2]

In order to keep the amount down, I was thinking of these 5 aspects to track alignment. What do you think, would it cover enough to describe PC's?

There is nothing magical about the 13 traits that they chose for Pendragon. You can always add more later one. I'd look at the Passions if you wish to replace alignment. The d20 rules need a little work (the bonuses are probably too high).


Aaron

 

[Beholder Bob]

There is nothing magical about the 13 traits that they chose for Pendragon....Aaron

True, but I'm using these factors to replace alignment, but it adds complication to the base game, so I'm hoping to balance the benefit vs bookeeping. I've decided to drop Merciful/Cruel and Forgiving/Vengeful and replace it with merciful/vengeful. That leaves 4 alignment factors that range from high, medium, to low. 4 factors with 3 positions gives 144 alignment possibilities (16 if only concern is high/low). I wasn't thinking bonuses to rolls so much as exemplary playing of an alignment earns a 1 shot bonus and becomes a detectable quantity (you detect overwhelming treachery from the duke). Additional factors that players add (loyalty to the king) would earn one shot bonuses as well, and or exp bonuses.