Enough of demons and devils; celestials and paladins next flavor of the day?

[dreamthief]

Now that we're over the Book of VD hump, it seems that the next wave are books about Celestials, Paladins and other do gooders. We're already seeing a couple of Paladin books (The Malladin's Gate one is excellent, btw), and next up is The Avatar's Handbook from Green Ronin and The Book of Hallowed Might from Malhavoc Press. Interesting trend... Will a series of books for neutral-themed characters follow?

So goodbye nastiness, hello niceness? Piffany will be ecstatic!

 

[Crothian]

It'll be nice. We always seem to have more evil stuff then good. AEG is coming out with a book called Good as well.

 

[JoeGKushner]

My favorite book of this type is the old Mayfair Role Aids Sentinels. The Book of the Righteous currently out by Green Ronin does a nice job of providing a 'good' pantheon as well.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

... Will a series of books for neutral-themed characters follow?

Nah, they're just not interesting.

(IMO, of course)

But I'm a BIG fan of all the Good-themed books. Bring on the Celestial Host!

The question for me is... Is this a natural progression? Or a backlash from all the "Evil" stuff on the market?

 

[William Ronald]

I think there is a lot of demand for products for people to create interesting characters for their games. This includes villains, as well as heroes. (The number of gamers seems to be growing, so there may be a trend for products to help fairly new players and DMs -- as well as the veterans.)

Good can be presented in a number of ways. Everything from pacifism to people fighting the good fight. So, I hope these products will show ways to help make the good guys as interesting as the bad guys.

 

[I'm A Banana]

The next trend will be Chaos. just watch it.

And then Law.

But Chaos is kewler, because who wants to be a conformist?

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

...
But Chaos is kewler, because who wants to be a conformist?

Don't make me Smite you with my +3 Holy, Lawful, Smart-ass Bane Warhammer.

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

The next trend will be Chaos. just watch it.

And then Law.

But Chaos is kewler, because who wants to be a conformist?

Definitely kewler. But much more difficult to describe in detail, as those details no doubt change often.

Imagine creating a punishment table for a city in the Outer Plane of Limbo:

Random penalty generator for common infractions:

Punishement Table P2: ( d100) :

1-9 Death ( Roll on Table P3 "Death Methods" )
10-17 Lose a limb ( roll d6 - or whatever dice appropriate for creature type/sex )
18-36 Exile
37-43 1 year confinement
44-50 1 month confinement
51-56 1 year slavery
57-70 500 gp fine or 1 month hard labour
71-86 Tattoo of shame
87-93 Must "sleep" with a Green Slaadi
94-100 Infraction is not a crime today - a festival is thown in your honor

 

[I'm A Banana]

Hehee. I was just sayin' it's probably a similar reason as to why Evil was done before Good. Evil is kewler 'cuz it's edgy. Chaos is edgier than Law.

I'd love to see Law stuff. But Chaos stuff is kewler.

I'm a hardcore Planescape fan. I know first hand how much more appealing the Xaositects are than the Guvners, per se. And that Slaad are more fun than Formians.

Blah, I say. They've all got their merits and downfalls. But no one wants to be known as the obedient, respectful, orderly type when they can be RAW UNFETTERED RANDOMNESS WOOT!

I mean, is there any wonder that there's a demand for Wild magic, but no similar demand for Tame magic?

Pet peeve of mine.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Hehee. I was just sayin' it's probably a similar reason as to why Evil was done before Good. Evil is kewler 'cuz it's edgy. Chaos is edgier than Law.

I'd love to find the guy who first decided to perpetuate the notion that Edgy automatically = Good, irrespective of any other qualities.

I'd immerse him in "edginess" until his head exploded.

I mean, imagine a world without pseudo-Goth and that guy in your Freshman dorm who slept his way through half the women in the building with his "edgy-artist" schtick. That alone would be worth it.