|Words to Live By: an Alignment thread about Codes of Conduct

[haakon1]

In my game, no. In others, sure. Search the board for threads about paladin moral dilemmas, or disagreements about whether a paladin committed an evil act or not, and you'll find quite a few. I've read of a fair number here and elsewhere that have turned into fights about how the game should go.

Perhaps a lot of stuff that gets people torqued here doesn't actually matter in most real games at home?

For example, has anyone ever REALLY had a knock down, drag out fight over editions in a home game? The closest we've come to even debating it is at our 4e game, where I bought our DM a copy of Pathfinder to which he said, "OK, I'll check it out sometime if I get the chance" and one other player each has said they prefer 3e or 4e. The other 3 players don't care at ALL.

Maybe the "paladin debate" flamebait threads are similar -- rare as a real problem, popular as an internet rant topic?

 

[steeldragons]

Ok, we're wavering away from topic here a bit, though I am, of course, interested in hearing what everyone thinks on the topic and the tangents of "whether this is necessary or not".

The thread is working under the assumption that "it is" and/or "it could help minimize disagreements in play" and provide a framework for acceptable [in-character] behavior (personal morals or beliefs of the players are really kind of irrelevant. These codes are for the actions and attitudes of your fictional characters in a fantasy role-playing game) and promote internal world consistency.

Since "good/evil" or more specifically "paladins" are cause for a good bit of debate for many, what about Druids?

In the event you maintain the original concept of Druids being Neutral (whether you insist on True Neutrality, which I do, or allow for other Neutral bents), what would be some items one might find in the secret sacred oaths of a Druidic order?

Someone posted a few good ones back on page 1, I think (apologies, I can't get back to see who it actually was while I'm "replying").

Let's see what else we can do with Druids.

What would be unacceptable/cause the loss of druidic status?

I myself have not ever seen this happen in play. But the possibility that it could is supposed to be an understood risk of playing this class/deviating from alignment.
--SD

 

[Hand of Evil]

In the event you maintain the original concept of Druids being Neutral (whether you insist on True Neutrality, which I do, or allow for other Neutral bents), what would be some items one might find in the secret sacred oaths of a Druidic order?

Someone posted a few good ones back on page 1, I think (apologies, I can't get back to see who it actually was while I'm "replying").

Let's see what else we can do with Druids.

What would be unacceptable/cause the loss of druidic status?

I myself have not ever seen this happen in play. But the possibility that it could is supposed to be an understood risk of playing this class/deviating from alignment.
--SD

Druids and neutral in nature, I think this is more of a Druids and a balance in nature. They make sure the herds (human or beast) stay in check, that forest stay healthy or that the natural flow of a river is not too changed that it drys ups...beavers vs man; beaver dams are small in scale and as the pond expands, nature has the ability to adjust...Man is a larger scale and will flood and displace nature, so there is a not adjustment and things go out of balance, nature will right its self but it is years later and can have issue future down the river.

Druids maintain that balance.

If a human population is too big to be supported by the land, a druid will take action to reduce population, just as they would a deer population.

Wild fires vs control burning - wild fires happen for a number of reasons, nature does it with lightning strikes but man uses controlled burnings. I bring this up because controlled burnings done right helps promote healther lands and is seasonal.

 

[Desdichado]

Huh? Do you mean that you wouldn't play a paladin in such circumstance? If so, then yes, that's no big deal to me. AFAIK it's never stopped anyone from playing a paladin in my game. If that's not what you're saying then I've no idea what you're talking about.

That's PRECISELY what I'm saying. And if I suspect that the problem isn't limited to the weirdness that is the paladin class, then I'd pass on the game completely.