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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Empirate" data-source="post: 5703334" data-attributes="member: 78958">I think you haven't put enough thought in what strong alignment traits may mean.Take hell, for example. "Here there be only enemies" would result in every non-devil traveling to one of hell's layers to be attacked on sight, and likely destroyed in short order. That's no fun at all, you're right about that.But hell can easily be imagined as a very diverse place with an awful lot of different things going on all the time, with murder plots, love affairs, betrayals, parent-children conflicts, people looking for a good job, court intrigue, and a stroll in the (equivalent of a) park all possible activities. It's just that all these activities and stories take place within a fiendishly complex bureaucratic nightmare of a place where Hitler married Stalin, and their offspring is now the head of state. And everything that happens is slightly skewed to end in such a way that the bank wins, and good and upright people (or what passes for such in hell) lose. All the time.It's a bit like greek tragedy: every story, every activity is bound to come to a bitter, tragic, unfulfilling end, and everybody's just a player on a stage, knowing or guessing what will ultimately happen, but unable to stop it. And everybody accepts it, if they like it or not, because this is hell, and that's just how things are.Enter the heroes. These guys are not from around here, and they have some remarkable ideas about how their story is supposed to end.Can they make it happen? Can they overcome the stooges of the local Bone Devil sheriff, who holds a deep and personal grudge ever since they came into town openly violating regulation 417/B ("eye or other visual perception organ coloration limitations")? Can they woo and beguile (and later escape the clutches of) Baroness Bolton, a petitioner who might remember the BBEG's true name from when she was his paramour, and who is very hungry for male company but very easily offended once one tries to leave? Can they discover who murdered their treacherous last employer, who still hates their guts and plots against them, even though he's dead and in hell now? Can they disprove charges of goodliness and altruism in judicial combat to the death (against an unarmed child)? Can they avoid being drafted into the army to fight (or rather, end as cannon fodder) in the Blood War? Can they successfully blackmail an Ice Devil sergeant major after discovering his secret tryst with the regiment commander's Erinyes confidante? And finally, can they get through the portal for Sigil without paying the outrageous fees involved (two spotless souls, a hope and a dream each, and a measly 10,000 gp)?While it's true that devils will often attack PCs on sight in the material plane, that's only because they're normally summoned or called there to do just that. And you know, devils are men (and women [and other things]) of their word, so they'll massacre you to the best of their ability.However, when you're on their playing field, and you're forced to play after their rules, they have no reason whatsoever to beat you into a red pulp. Unless you slip up, that is, naturally.I think roleplaying in Hell (or any of the outer planes) can easily be two tons of fun in a one-ton barrel!</blockquote>

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