Redemption Rules in Dragon 306

[Zappo]

"welcome to rollplaying"

I agree. There's nothing I hate more than having dice rolls tell me what my character thinks. That's what the player is for.

Granted, one can take the roll and make something exciting and dramatic out of it... but I just despise dice randomness forced on human feelings.

Then again, White Wolf games work exactly like that, and they say they're deep roleplaying games, so I figure I'm in the minority.

*shrug*

 

[Sirius_Black]

Also its rollplaying were actions became more and more the result of dice roll, next thing we see is "potty rolling" with we having to roll a wis check followed by a con check to see if the PC needs to go to the little boys/girls room because of a "call of nature" ...

Actually, I think that's in the upcoming 3.5 E of D&D. Of course, you must roll dice to determine if it's number one or number two as well but I'm sure all the wise rollplayers out there now this already.

 

[Darrin Drader]

You should ask him to stop by and post his opinions and to possible give some more insight into the whole thing.

As promised, I spoke with Eric on this issue. I don't normally like to ask another game designer to justify their articles, but he runs a playtest I'm in so we're on less formal terms. Basically his points were the following:

As with anything in Dragon, these rules are optional (which, of course, we already knew).

In an ordinary campaign there is usually no reason to use these rules to adjudicate alignment shifts. However, they may be useful if the game is focused on good versus evil. A campaign where the party is fighting fiends or is trying to resist fiendish influences is one example. Another example would be where the character is trying to get into or maintain a prestige class that has an alignment requirement. The Diablo D&D game is an example that might benefit from these rules.

These are also suggestions for handling a character whose actions border on an alignment other than their own, and the DM isn't sure whether an alignment shift is in order.

He also said that in an ordinary game that doesn't fit the above scenarios (or if the DM prefers not to use these rules), this is a matter that should normally remain under the DM's direct control.