The Importance of Alignment

Though the first character I ever rolled was a Shadowrun character, the first system I actually played with AD&D 2e. To this day, if I'm going to play Dungeons & Dragons, I prefer the 2e rule set--in other words, screw Wizards of the Coast. One of the biggest problems I've had, though, is alignment. Namely, there are a few I just can't pull off.

Chaotic Evil and Lawful Good come to mind.

No matter what I do, I can't seem to stick to them. Inevitably, if I roll them, I end up with an alignment change for lack of attention to the restrictions of my alignment. In turn, I suck at playing Paladins and any character who's too self-interested. Particularly those who are violently self-interested, or, violently reckless.

On the other hand, my best alignments are Neutral Good and. . . erm, Neutral Good. I'm pretty steady like that. Probably because I tend to be Neutral Good in my real life. I adhere to the laws, but am not overly concerned by them.

My husband, though, is a master at playing to his alignment. He's also really the only gamer I've played with who is, with one possible exception. Most of them tend to be more like me, with alignments that work for them and those that they can't manage. Or, as one player we used to play with, had alignment bipolar disorder and was changing alignments like the wind. That guy's wizard never made it past level 12 because he couldn't hold steady to one alignment. That dude was also the master of friendly fire, but he's really a story for another time.

But I wonder, do players really pay attention to alignment when they're in the brunt of the game? You know, when they're hacking and slashing, solving puzzles, or seducing the blacksmith's wife. Are they really thinking, "Hmm, I'm chaotic evil, so I think I'll just kill the blacksmith and take his wife as my concubine, because that's what chaotic evil would do"? Or, as a character progresses does their alignment become embedded as a part of who they are? Or is it just one inconsequential element of character write-up to be ignored at our earliest convenience?

I like to think that alignment is one element that helps us define who our characters are. When you've been playing for 14+ years and have hundreds of characters (not an exaggeration) for a dozen different systems, systems with alignment can help players for a basis for their character's personality and motivations. Because let's be real for a just a sec, how many unique character personalities can one person really devise before they're recycling a little bit? So, alignment becomes important to being the most interesting character possible.

Particularly when the characters in the group have alignments that challenge them to work together. It can create an interesting dynamic and shouldn't be forgotten. How does a Chaotic Evil vampire priest of love and war get alone with a Lawful Good paladin of "the one god"? Not easily, but as one game my husband was in a long time ago in a land far, far away can attest, it's possible, but not without some strife.

Alignment is important and playing to a character's alignment can make a character better than they might have otherwise been. Think about it.

So You Saved an Orphan. . . Now What?

Okay, so your heroine has saved the dashing prince from captivity by a fierce dragon (ha!) or your heroes are responsible for freeing a passel of orphans taken captive by an evil lich. Ideally, you've done something heroic, saved lives, gotten a parade, had a statue built in your honor, and you ride off into the sunset. Ideally.

But even if all of that stuff happens, you still have to figure out what to do with your newly saved subject. Exactly what do you do with the fifteen orphans you just rescued? It isn't as though they have a home to go back to. What about the prince who now feels honor bound to marry your heroine? Or heck, your heroes save a bunch of foreign slave girls who can't go home because it was their father's who sold them to the evil pirates, what do you do with that?

Here's the thing: I don't know.

This is where I get hung up, as a player, in taking the next step and my GM is merciless about this. He's the "oh, you just did something awesome and saved a kid? So what do you do with him?" kind of GM. Victims don't just go away because my heroine's heroic moment has passed. They stick around and I have to figure out what's to be done with them. This has, in fact, been the subject of several games wherein I struggle to find a place for these wayward NPCs.

And I'm often given to wonder how other groups deal with this particular issue. What others do with these NPCs in need of further saving. So help me out here.

• What do you do with those your hero has just saved? 
• Is it an issue in your game?

I'd love to hear how you resolve these issues so that next time I can be prepared, rather than shuffling them off on some church or whatever. Or worse yet, adopting them. My characters are terrible about taking in the wayward, homeless child. The absolute worst!

Player Responsibility?

While trying to strike a balance between myself and what may someday be my players, in terms of responsibility, I asked my GM--who also happens to be my husband--what responsibility he felt players have in terms of pushing the game forward? I'm trying to feel my way through campaign design and it's tough to know when to stop planning.

Though I've been gaming with him for 14 years, and the answer should be obvious to me, it just isn't. It's never really come up. We work together to create a gaming experience we can both enjoy. He's the GM, but the weight has never been completely on his shoulders when I'm playing. I actively try to do things that make the game go.

But do all players?

The obvious answer here is no. Some players are content to be lead by the hand down the dark and scary path into the dark and scary dungeon. Some players are happy to work inside the confines of a completely linear story--which most modules happen to provide, step-by-step, no imagination required on the part of anyone. While I'm not one of them, I know plenty.

But what happens when you, as a GM, get a group that's part player's with initiative and part players who look for the linear path? He says, and I tend to agree, that the players with initiative will rise to the top and lead the group for everyone. But then my question becomes this: how much time can a player spend carrying his group along in terms of imagination? Well, there are certainly moments when any player has to think for themselves.

Take this for example:

I was GMing a classic-style "D&D evil campaign" that I had inherited--for a session or two--from another GM (my husband had begun it years ago, but had handed it off to me). Some of the players were imaginative in terms of playing to their alignments while other's had more trouble.

During the course of the game, the players were lead by some bad information to an abandoned Elven village high in the treetop canopy. They were way, way up off the ground when they realized that this place was not only empty, but that it was rigged to blow! Someone was trying to kill them all, which makes perfect sense because these are the kind of characters that have been making everyone's life a living hell. And who no one, not even the local guard can manage to get rid of.

So, I give them one action after making this realization to tell me what they intend to do to get away before they're rendered to ash or take so much falling damage that their "friends" will be scraping them up off the forest floor. I go clockwise around the room, because this really isn't an initiative situation, and give them about ten seconds to cough up an answer before I move on to the next player and they're opportunity is lost.

Every player in a group of four is able to give me a creative answer that will save their lives, and only their lives (most of the time abandoning their "friends" to save their own skin), except for one player. Rather than coming up with an answer, she used her life saving 10 seconds to ask me questions. They were mechanics questions, not really anything having to do with the setting, and eventually she lost her action and, subsequently, her character.

She simply couldn't come to a creative solution when she wasn't being lead by the other players, who were all in it for themselves at that point, as was befitting evil characters. In that case, it was her responsibility to help push her character forward, because there wasn't really any easy answer, and she didn't do it.

So then, we're back to my original point.

• What responsibility should players have to the game? 
• Should it be the GM's responsibility, solely, to come up with solutions and push the game forward? 
• When players do need to be lead, how can a GM show them--nicely--that they need to take the initiative (pun intended ) and help so that everyone can have the best time possible?

What do you think? Weight in on this one and let me know. I'm new to this whole GMing gig. :)

Technology & the Pen and Paper RPG

Lately, I've begun integrating more technology into my gaming experience. I've always been a pen & paper note-taker, but when I got my iPad, I realized that there were a whole host of possibilities I'd been ignoring. I really think an iPad is something that no one really realizes how much they need until they have one. I know that's how it was with me. I have a PC desktop, a Macbook, a Kindle Keyboard, and my cell phone, so I couldn't figure out why on earth I'd need an iPad, too. Then I broke down and bought one, and now I can't remember what I did before I had it. It's my new best friend, technologically speaking.

It's also quickly becoming one of my favorite, must-have gaming tools. Character sheets, dice, my stylus and iPad, and I'm ready to go. Well, that plus drinks and sometimes snacks, you know, gaming staples. But more specifically, we're talking about Penultimate by Evernote. It is one of the most awesome apps available and it's completely free. There's really nothing like it. It allows me, along with my stylus, to make hand written notes and sync them to Evernote so I can see them on my other gadgets later.

Frankly, it's freaking awesome. I'm saving paper, so I don't have dozens of sheets of paper laying around everywhere with notes all over them, and all of my notes stay in one place. It makes everything incredibly organized because I can make multiple notebooks inside the program that keep my D&D notes separate from my, say, 7th Sea notes, etc., all of which I can keep separate from my GM notes and book brainstorming (I'm also an author).

Otherwise, my iPad's iBooks apps allows me to keep my eBooks on hand, all in one place, for handy reference that means I don't have to cart around a ton of books. With gaming books becoming more and more electronically accessible, particularly with such sites as Drive-Thur RPG, I love that I can keep my books on my iPad in full color, something my Kindle doesn't have.

Matt has even started integrating some technology--something he use to be annoyed by, to be sure. Some of the apps he uses include Penultimate for his iPad and an app on his phone that generates names. He's always struggled to come up with names on the fly, so having an electronic name generator has been a life saver for him. Although, I think we need to look for another one because I don't much like many of the names the app he uses summon up.

And frankly, being able to summon up the net via Safari or small bits of information via apps like Wikipanion make reference so much quicker than it was before. Particularly when we're playing 7th Sea because we regularly use my 7th Sea website for quick reference. So having an iPad is helpful for gaming and I'm starting to get to the place where I don't leave my house without it, whether we're gaming or not. It's invaluable and has an amazing battery life, which is helpful because we tend to game for hours and hours on end.

Right now, I'm also thinking that Pintrest (and the Pintrest iPad app, of course) might be a good way to set up props. Boards could be created for each game system, or even every game in particular, that includes images, maps, and the like that will help set the stage. Particularly with a game system like Wolsung, where players may not be completely immersed in the steampunk feel of the game. Giving props and steampunk images, game maps, and gadgets, could make things much easier. It could also make referencing game materials easier to put them all in one place like that.

I'm still always looking for even new ways to use my gadgets for gaming, so how do you use yours? Or do you use yours at all? Is your gaming pretty old school or have you given in to the wave of modern technology and integrated these conveniences into your gaming experience?