Rich Baker Blog on Monsters

[Nahat Anoj]

First it's WoW's influencing corrupting the game, *now* it's Harry Potter (*skips* "All Unicorns are Good!" *prances*). 4e is going to be some unholy spawn of MMOs and Hogwarts.

 

[Baby Samurai]

First it's WoW's influencing corrupting the game, *now* it's Harry Potter. 4e is going to be some unholy spawn of MMOs and Hogwarts.

Well good thing I've never played a MMORPG or read/watched a Harry Potter film, so ignorance is massively blissful for me!

 

[The Merciful]

First it's WoW's influencing corrupting the game, *now* it's Harry Potter (*skips* "All Unicorns are Good!" *prances*). 4e is going to be some unholy spawn of MMOs and Hogwarts.

So, we have shielded off the anime threat?

 

[the Jester]

Unlike evil characters, most good ones see good as something more important than law/chaos.

...in YOUR campaign.

Not in mine, or necessarily in those run by others.

The rules don't support your position.

 

[Wyrmshadows]

I have to agree, I have never seen any D&D campaigns or fantasy stories based on actual Law and Chaos as opposed to good and evil. Even in Moorcock's Elric saga, Chaos was nothing more than a different way of saying evil.

Good and Evil are what you do morally.

Law and Chaos are how you do it.

A paladin isn't going to team up with a devil to beat up on elves just because he is lawful and the elves are chaotic. A human paladin might find elves flighty, confusing or strange, but he isn't going to find a devil to be better company just because they share a similar lawful outlook. The evil in a devil makes it a paladin's enemy and trumps any law/chaos considerations.



Wyrmshadows

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

BTW, anyone who thinks that Chaotic = Evil should the Jester's Story Hour "Cydra: Great Conflicts", which is all about a Chaos aligned party taking down the forces of Law.

It's an interesting twist on an adventuring party - by taking out Good vs Evil and substituting Chaos vs Law it puts a whole different spin on the game. And Good and Evil PC's try to get along and provide great roleplay moments in a way that most Lawful and Chaotic PC's don't (in the games I've experienced, anyway).

 

[Nahat Anoj]

So, we have shielded off the anime threat?

Oh man, I forgot about that. I remember that Dragon's Tail Cut fiasco. And I guess we know they're thinking anime because they're using Bo9S as inspiration. So now we know that:

Harry Potter + MMO + Naruto = 4e.

 

[Merlin the Tuna]

Oh man, I forgot about that. I remember that Dragon's Tail Cut fiasco. And I guess we know they're thinking anime because they're using Bo9S as inspiration. So now we know that:

Harry Potter + MMO + Naruto = 4e.

You missed a couple.

 

[Oldtimer]

By that argument, though, Basic D&D wasn't D&D, and neither was the original D&D that predated AD&D 1E.

The former only had Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic. The latter had (IIRC) Lawful Good, Lawful Evil, Chaotic Good, Chaotic Evil, and Neutral.

OD&D only had Law, Neutrality, and Chaos - same as Basic D&D - but Eldritch Wizardry (supplement III) actually noted for Mind Flayers "highly evil but otherwise lawful". However, Good and Evil weren't turned into alignments until AD&D Monster Manual came out in 1977.

(You actually got me to open up my crumbling OD&D box to make sure.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You're probably right, if I recall, at this point in 3rd edition's pending release, we had a lot more juice to go on.

Despite Eric Noah and everyone else actually collecting and reprinting the data back then saying otherwise?

We didn't know more back then. It's a trick of memory. Three months since the announcement of 3E, we knew pretty much squat.