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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Xeviat" data-source="post: 9508846" data-attributes="member: 57494">I'm really happy that the 5.5/2024 DMG describes alignment as descriptive rather than prescriptive. It's a good explanation of alignment for new players, and a good reminder for vets.At the same time, having played in games DMed by other people, I realize I was really bad at giving out inspiration for things. I'm wanting to codify heroic inspiration a little more for my own games, to make sure I use it and to help my players be aware of how to get it.I've long wanted to incorporate something like the World of Darkness virtue and vice system. Each session, if you act toward your virtue in a way that doesn't benefit you, you get all of your willpower back. Each scene, though, if you act on your Vice, you get a point of willpower back. Thus, your vice is always a constant temptation.I want to do something similar for alignment (as well as traits and flaws from 2014). Once per scene, if you act on your alignment or one of your traits or flaws, you get a heroic inspiration. But, I also want a minor penalty for when you act in a way opposed to your alignment.This relates to my alignment explanation: The Warm Fuzzies and the Bad Feels. When a LG character does a lawful or a good deed, they feel good, and if circumstances make them do a chaotic or evil deed, they feel bad. Similarly, a CE person might feel cheated or ripped off if they have to do a good or lawful seed, while doing a chaotic or evil deed feels good.So, I want a little penalty that represents that feeling of guilt or wrongness when you do something opposed to your alignment. If someone regularly acts outside their alignment, this penalty eventually becomes so annoying that they change their alignment to stop receiving those penalties.I don't want the penalty to be big, and I don't want it to be permanent. I also don't want it to be something that gets meta gamed too much.Could it be as simple as "if you perform a deed opposed to your alignment, you lose your heroic inspiration and cannot gain Heroic Inspiration until you complete a short rest"? This way it hurts regardless of if you currently have inspiration or not, and the penalty is similar to the bonus.I would also want to define "deed" in regards to this. A good deed, or chaotic, evil, or lawful seed, is something big, not something minor. It should come at a cost, like donating a fair sum of money or going out of your way to bring a criminal bounty back alive instead of just killing them.The Neutral alignment exists as a place for people who don't get those penalties, but their bonuses are harder to get. That would call for a True Neutral deed.Thoughts?</blockquote>

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