Dungeon Master Inspiration
DMI is a podcast made to share the tricks of the trade of DMs with a wide range of experience levels, from fresh, new DMs to wisened masters of the position.
We focus on exploring topics within the world of DnD that consistently pose problems to DMs, such as developing characters, the use of monsters & NPCs, and combat. You'll hear from a variety of DMs speaking on a plethora of intriguing controversial issues in-depth.
No matter where you are in your DnD journey, we've got something worth listening to.
Dungeon Master Inspiration
Unfolding the Mysteries of Alignment in Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition
Ready to tackle the controversial yet fascinating terrain of alignment in Dungeons and Dragons? This episode is your deep-dive ticket into the discussion - Is alignment an absolute law, or a rich tapestry that shapes character development? Buckle up as we dissect the alignment chart, the characters’ intentions versus actions, and the intriguing difference between chaotic characters in the game manual and our interpretation.
The journey continues as we investigate the complex relationship between alignment and divine magic. We question how a character's actions can challenge their patron's desire, yet still wield their magic. Delve into the realm of holy casters, their alignment, and the intriguing consequences of defying a patron's expectations. We also sit down with the intriguing gray area of neutral characters - are they easy or tough to play?
Finally, we zero in on the popular game Baldur's Gate, offering some critical insights into the challenges players might face when transitioning to D&D, especially in character creation without an alignment. We also share a few useful tips for both novices and seasoned players to help navigate these challenges. Join us for a thought-provoking adventure into the world of alignment and magic in RPG. Let’s go beyond the game manual and dive into the depths of character development.
Thank you for listening to our podcast. If you are interested in seeing more content like this check out our YouTube! We also post weekly game articles on our Patreon and have an active Discord community.
Social Links:
Youtube
Discord
Patreon
X
Instagram
All right. So this is going to be episode one of our dungeon master inspiration podcast. What we're going to be doing is we're going to be talking about topics and how we can adjust them to kind of fit games. We're going to be talking with multiple different people. I'm going to be your primary host, Wyatt and I am Jay.
Speaker 1:So our kind of our discussion for today was alignment. We were talking about it and there's there's a lot of controversy, especially with how a lot of people like to play alignment. A big thing that I personally have kind of an issue with is a lot of the time it's treated almost like it's this strict law that has to be followed by every single character and you can never deviate from that. Personally, like I don't think that that fits how normal people act and I want to have more depth than my characters, so like I don't have issues with people breaking what their character would do according to their alignment.
Speaker 2:So to me, the the alignment system is very like, not in depth enough for like an actual character person, like no person is going to be the like lawful, stupid paladin who's like. Ah yes, we can't touch the grass. You touch the grass, I'm going to cut your head off. No one's going to do that. But that's what lawful, good or lawful neutral technically is. But so like to me it needs to be a little more like complicated out of four terms.
Speaker 1:Well, I think that the the like nine terms that you can grab out of the alignment chart isn't a bad way to start a character development. I just think that a big question that, like every DM, has to ask themselves is are we basing alignment on initiative or on the actions of the player?
Speaker 2:So for me, like this is the my always take with, like I always try to go more in depth with alignment for any character I'm making.
Speaker 2:I don't actually like use the lawful. I use that as like the very broad, we're doing lawful, neutral, like they're going to follow a rule set of like the God, of what I, but like I enjoy. There's a net alternate system which is like based on the magic color pie, where you have, like your blue, your blue white characters would be like knowledge and order or like control, and where that's your priority, as opposed to like I'm just following a law and I'm good, and it gives that little extra depth as to how you would actually act for it, as opposed to just, well, I'm a good person. What's my goal?
Speaker 1:Like for me personally, I take almost a different approach of I like when my characters and as a DM, this is really how I enforce alignment I think that intentions are far more important than the actual actions of the player. So because, at the end of the day, for me, if I see a lawful good character and their lawful good is they're going to save as many lives as possible and glorify their God for a paladin, for example, and in order to save 100,000 lives, they have to do something horrible that character is going to do. That it's the intention of the act. Whereas I've heard of a lot of DMs and I've even played in campaigns where we kind of been taken and my alignment's been changed because I did something evil for a good app, for a good intention, and I'm not sure that as a DM, I like that perspective. I don't think it's a wrong one, but it's just not the flavor of table that I want to have. Yeah, like.
Speaker 2:So this is like my big example, for like the intentions and it's kind of a little bit of intention and action is like necromancers. All necromancers are evil. But what if you have a necromancer who's using the death to do something good, like, for instance, you could have a necromancer who's using the dead because, for whatever reason, to take out a greater evil Like this guy has, you know, killed hundreds of like soldiers. They're just sitting there and you might lose without them.
Speaker 2:So sometimes that action of doing this evil act isn't a bad thing in the end, for what you're going to call your goal at the end of the day is and definitely I think that that's a really good Stance to take.
Speaker 1:But I also can see where, if you want your actions to be of the player, I wouldn't really railroad the players into.
Speaker 1:Well, you chose to do a lawful good character, so now I'm gonna make you only do lawful good actions, but rather with an action-based Alignment. I would almost say that I would personally rather tell my player hey, if you're gonna base your alignment on action, I really want to see how your character interacts with everybody and I really want you, thinking about that Beforehand and during session zero, maybe play out a test fight or a test encounter or a puzzle and see how that player Interprets their character and then use those as your foundation for that alignment so that, especially if it's a paladin or a cleric, have them role, play their character and then choose their alignment and Find the God that's gonna best fit them after that kind of test encounter. Now a question that I've been asked and I asked myself oftentimes is how the book describes chaotic is very, very different from how I envision it, and so I oftentimes ask myself Does a chaotic character just resist the rules to resist the rules?
Speaker 2:So for chaotic at least in my mind, always has been the level of you're not necessarily Crazy or doing something like oh well, they say I can't kill people, I'm gonna go murder a hundred different people.
Speaker 2:It's more of the how I'm going to go around my actions to either for good or for evil. So, like you could have a chaotic good character who is Doesn't care about what the rules in the region is, it is just going to do what is good, regardless of Whatever rules are around them, as opposed to somebody who would be like a neutral, who is going to try to kind of hit that middle ground up between being just what, screw the rules are. I'm gonna do my thing is. And then with the like other side of it is the almost like especially with like wild magic. Wild magic, chaotic isn't good or evil, but it I would argue that it would be like a wild magic almost has to be a chaotic alignment because there's a level of Whatever happens is going to happen. For my goal of good or evil or Neutral doesn't fit very well.
Speaker 1:But how I oftentimes find myself interpreting chaotic is almost more in a self-serving fashion. Lawful characters are gonna always do what's right, whereas chaotic they're kind of following their whims. And that's how I interpret chaotic personally, and I like the mention of wild magic.
Speaker 1:With wild magic I almost, if I was to play that character, I would almost want to run a Lawful character who has chaotic magic for the dichotomy and the internal struggle, and I think that's something that's really interesting about the storytelling portion of V&D is the fact that you can't have Characters that innate traits that are given by the class can have that dichotomy against the personality of the character. Like I did play a necromancer who was lawful good and that was really interesting dichotomy for me to experience and to kind of try to have this character grapple with the reality that they are Doing something evil but for the right reasons.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So like with the chaos Parting for like with relation to the rules, the chaos doesn't have to be against specific rules, it's just they have to be more like on their own independent thought and almost that like anti-organizational method. Not like I'm gonna blow up a government building because it's a government building, but the this group is being either for or against my Group. So like if you're, let's say, chaotic, good, and you have an or a government that's just kill everyone who's in the way, we're gonna call it a day. A chaotic character would blow them up, not because, well, the rules say I shouldn't, but because it's to reach their end of goodness, but I do.
Speaker 1:I do find myself disagreeing a lot of the time with people when they talk about Alignment and it's shifting over time. I don't like to forcibly move players Alignments when they are hard set on having a specific alignment, because that feels like I'm almost railroading players. So what I like to do is I like to see, based on how they act and if their goal is to have an intention inside of themselves for specific actions and towards good or towards evil, I like to let my players kind of play that out. Now, obviously, if I have a lawful, good character who's just running around killing people to kill people, we're gonna have a long conversation about, well, why is that character doing that? Or maybe we should start looking elsewhere For the inspiration for how they should be acting.
Speaker 2:So for that, the for me at least, the biggest spot that comes in is like lawful characters who like, who don't follow the legal laws. So to some degree it depends on how you're interpreting what your lawful good is. Like a good example, I like paladins and clerics might be lawful good because their god has this code, like most paladins should realistically be lawful what. That doesn't necessarily mean they're going to follow their go into town and be like, yes, I'm gonna follow every single rule to the letter, but it means they have this oath and that is their code that they are going to follow no matter what, which. Then you have warlocks also realistically should be Lawful to a degree because they have that same kind of dynamic of they have to do this for whatever their code is from their deal.
Speaker 1:So something that I personally Kind of came up with when I was I was planning through some like general things for us to talk through for this.
Speaker 1:I Really liked the idea that I came up with that you start out every character in a session without an alignment and so over the first three sessions you are playing your character, truly think about where they came from, who they are and really role-playing into it. And then After that third session, we start talking about okay, well, as your character doing this for good reasons, are they doing it for bad reasons? And kind of letting that character have some life Before you just slap a title on it. Because to me I think it's very, very Almost stifling to choose the alignment so early in the character building process, because you can have characters that more for the first one, two, three, four, five sessions you really don't know how that character is gonna play, especially in the group, because you can be a lawful, good character and hand be in a party. That's just all Evil characters and slowly you're gonna morph that character because they're eventually they're gonna become a neutral or an evil, otherwise they're gonna leave the group and you're gonna have to start over again.
Speaker 2:I, yeah, so I Think part of that is also like the discussion at the start what is our like groups overall Idea of what do we want to be? Because otherwise you're gonna have that person wants to play a good character and then basically feel like, well, I can't play because Everyone else wants to go Help the big bad guy. Well, I want to go against them. So you kind of have to have that. There's a bit of that early discussion of what is our group goal going to be. And then, obviously, because you're gonna have to make the put the party together and everyone's gonna have to be a little different, there can still be that difference within, like they're good and evil, but it almost has to be smaller than overall Goals and has to be how they act on the day-to-day or with the people around.
Speaker 1:So I was doing my research to be better educated for this kind of discussion and a big thing that I saw that Was mentioned a lot of times on a lot of DM forms and a lot on player forms, was this idea of holy magic casters and it kind of Resonated with me and brought me back to this question of Should a holy magic caster have to share an alignment with their god, like if I'm a lawful good character and I'm worshiping a lawful evil character a lawful evil god that is, but I don't I'm not aware that they're lawful evil that almost falls into that fiend realm and that like demon realm where they're trying to trick you and take your soul, like you would see a lot in warlocks on occasion. But with other holy magic casters like paladins and clerics, what if a lawful good characters worshiping a god like Taren? If they're worshiping Taren, the god of war, is he actually Gonna bestow any magic upon them because they're so vastly different in goals and ideologies?
Speaker 2:so this is actually a Connection I've seen is there's a character in Baldur's Gate 3 whose name is will. He's the warlock of the party but his like epitaph is the blade of the frontier. He's a hero. He's like a folk hero to, so he's a good person trying to do good things. So he's like neutral good or lawful good or something like that. There's not really hard alignments in the game, but his patron is a demon, so they're going to be evil.
Speaker 2:So for like, especially with like warlocks and clerics can kind of hit the same spot of how they use their magic, like, yes, their god might be evil, but they can be using that evil magic for something good as which, whether or not that means their god doesn't like them or is trying to screw them over at some point. Like, for instance, that character at some point has the option depending on how he acts, he can choose to go against his oath to his patron and then because he's being a decent person by going against his oath.
Speaker 1:He gets punished for it, and it's almost that level of they should be able to be whatever they want to be, but there's some piece of their patron or god that's going to affect them because of their choices see, and and while that has an interesting like attitude and perspective on it, I myself, as a DM and inclined to say, if you're a lawful Like, let's say you're a lawful evil character worshipping the lawful good god of life, I'd almost want to say that, because of your actions, that lawful good god Isn't going to bestow magic upon you to let you do evil things in their name. And that's where I kind of I kind of have this challenge in my mind about it, because, especially like, evil gods a lot of times will still bestow power because they want to corrupt, but that's not always true with good gods.
Speaker 2:It's a difference between what type of class they are, because I would art, I would put the argument of warlocks are also, in their own way, a holy caster.
Speaker 2:For warlocks it should be whatever they want to be.
Speaker 2:Their patron is going to punish them for going against what their whims are, whereas with the cleric you almost have to make sure whatever you're wanting to do and your god have to align, because if I want to play a chaotic evil character and I'm worshiping Bahama Bahama, it's not gonna give me anything if I'm going out and just doing whatever I want, killing everyone in my path. So, like for clerics, I think you have to be aligned with your god in some way. Like you could be a chaotic good character with a lawful good god and the god might still give you something because you're doing good. Or If you're a lawful evil, you might be doing something if you're doing something beneficial. So if you're a lawful evil cleric and you're like a good example is like the like Law sector you could be a lawful evil character in that area, like dynamic of area, but your lawful good god might still give you something because you are still executing the law in this Order of. This is what needs to be done, even if the intent is to harm.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, and I think that that really just comes down to like after talking about it, I really am starting to think that kind of comes down to the situation Because if you are worshiping Bahama, for example, and you You're a lawful, evil character that wants to kill all human race or all dragons let's say all dragons, because he's a god of dragons I Don't think he would bestow matter on you to do that. But if you are inherently causing good through your evil actions, I think that God might still choose to give it to you. I Think it's a choice on the perspective of the god more than the player, whereas with a paladin, I mean, you could have an oath to anything.
Speaker 2:Paladins oath could just be to their partner or to their spirit of their like.
Speaker 1:If their parents died, they could be making an oath, and the I'm going to do right by you and so this, this kind of discussion, really does lean on clerics and Warlocks almost exclusively, and, like you said, warlocks, you're just gonna get punished by your patron, like that's gonna be a miserable experience. But with a cleric I would almost be so interested to see a lawful evil character who tries to cast a spell for evil means from a good God and it just fizzles because it doesn't work. I think that would be a really interesting relationship. I do think, though, that has.
Speaker 2:That would have to be a conversation before they pick their class. Absolutely in that like session zero stage of, because otherwise somebody might be wanting to play a lawful evil character who's worshiping a god of life, who's lawful good or neutral good and then Be told later if it's not a good DM will be.
Speaker 1:It would be like oh well, your magic fails, yeah, and now suddenly they're out of a character's actual like capability very true, and I think that comes down to that earlier discussion of your tensions versus your actions, because you could have an evil character if you're coining it just based on what they do, but they're lawful, good on their intentions and the gods align with their intentions, not with their actions. Um, neutrals, probably what I consider to be the trickiest though, to play, because, unlike lawful and chaotic or good and evil, which are very black and white neutrals, kind of everything in between, and a big question I find myself asking when I create NPCs and or my own character sheets, when I do get to play on those rare occasions, I Asked myself all the time of like, am I really neutral? At what breaking point am I no longer an evil character or a good character, or a lawful and chaotic, like what? What level of gray do I have to be to truly be neutral?
Speaker 2:So, that one, I think, depends with the level of what part of your alignment is neutral. Like, if you're a lawful neutral, what that's going to mean is going to be different than if you're like neutral good. Lawful neutral is going to be for following the laws Okay, that's it. But then, like a neutral good is going to do the well, I'm going to do whatever I can to do the best for everyone around me, which could either fall into lawful or chaotic, depending on.
Speaker 2:You kind of need a little bit of both, or that room to well. Just because I touch lawful Doesn't mean I'm a lawful character and that's and that's really true.
Speaker 1:Um, a big challenge that I have always come with is like I've played Neutral good characters and neutral evil characters, and those are challenging in themselves, but the one that I've never been able to really wrap my head around has been true neutral, because to me it's very hard to play true neutral. I would say it is either the hardest class of the second I'm sorry, the hardest alignment of the second hardest alignment to play because of the fact that there's really no Neutral ground, like a lot of the times when you have to make those polarizing decisions in a campaign, you're gonna make a good or an evil one.
Speaker 2:I don't think like this is might be a little bit of like a spicy take, but I don't think true neutral should really be an option Because of how that just kind of for most players what it ends up being is you can do whatever you want for whatever reason you want and it's fine. Which is a chaotic, like innately that is chaotic of I'm going to do what I want because I want to and that would be chaotic, neutral, and I truly believe that.
Speaker 2:I feel like, if you're gonna run a true neutral character, it almost has to be like a deity or something, where they're just watching, they don't participate, they just observe like I could see for true neutral I think it should could be a deity who's just sitting back and watching, and even then sometimes it's a little iffy because you have stuff like the like time gods who they're neutral but they're preserving order, so they're law, really lawful neutral, even though they aren't really actually at the end of they interacting with anything. But for like players, unless you're, it's like a Animal, like a wolf, you're somehow playing just like a straight monster manual wolf.
Speaker 1:You can't really be true neutral like true neutral would be is the only doing things for Whatever reason because even if you're following the law of survival, the fittest, that's not being neutral, that's that is inherently a lawful thing, and I think the only god that I have found that is really a true neutral. And he's not even classified as that would be Ayo the creator of the universe, because Ayo literally made everything and then said all right, I'm not going to touch anything, no time, no nothing, I'm just going to sit back and vibe and we have no idea what he's doing. So like that character, I would say, is a true neutral character, because he made everything good and evil, but now he's not doing anything at all.
Speaker 2:So like that goes kind of to my like players can't really be true neutral, because to be truly neutral in every aspect would mean you'd have to not actually be involved and like only For combat, for instance, you would only be Like realistically able to attack things that are threatening you at some point, like I. To me, survival of the fittest is like a natural law, but because it's simply Surviving it goes down to you're not doing something because it's good or bad or lawful, chaotic, you're doing it so you don't die. So like animals for the most part, other than like dragons who actually have some level of sentience, are going to be be, for the most part, true neutral.
Speaker 1:They're just going to be where they are and they're going to be chilling there until something comes into their space and a thing that I I really do agree with you on that, and and neutral, like I said, is probably the hardest thing to play, because you have to really have no dichotomy, you have to have no wrong choice. Um Would kind of be in this chaotic evil realm, which I really wanted to talk about, because Chaotic evil is very challenging to play, especially for most new players, because what they do is they just slap the title chaotic neutral on a character that all they want to do is kill everything in sight, and that's not really what chaotic evil is, to me at least. And and you're free to, you're free to correct me if you think differently, but I definitely have that perspective.
Speaker 2:For chaotic, neutral. I would almost say like, if you're just murder hobo hoboing, that's chaotic, you're just killing things to kill. There's no like oh, it's because it's good or because it's bad, it's just it was there. Whereas like to do, go towards chaotic evil would be Almost your like. Chaotic evil would have to be contextual.
Speaker 1:I almost feel like the, the, the child that flips over one specific stone because they know that the, that the road builder, has OCD and he's gonna freak out about it. I would say that's like chaotic evil, just for like examples.
Speaker 2:So it would be somebody like Kind of, if you're going because lawful versus chaotic right, your government is your lawful, your chaotic evil would be somebody who wants to overthrow a government because it's going to cause pain yeah and You're not gonna really do that. It's not gonna be. You're like well, this government's bad. I'm gonna beat it and get rid of it or this government's good and I'm evil, dark lord, I'm gonna get rid of it and be in charge now and definitely I.
Speaker 1:I almost enjoy the kind of like naive, chaotic evil character where they're like, well, I'm evil and this guy, he's gonna go insane if he notices this one little change. So I'm gonna go flip it for no other reason than to mess with him. And I think that character is enjoyable and fun to play. And it's probably the best way to play chaotic evil, because when you're playing a chaotic Evil character, a big thing you have to consider is the rest of the party. You can't have a game where everyone hates you or the, or your character is gonna die.
Speaker 2:As soon as you have a game where you have the party member who everyone hates, that party member is going to be the first to be oh well, I'm out of healing, I can't heal you right now, or those like I'm going to be less helpful towards you. And then that person, even if they're like great person ever in every other aspect and they're just trying to play something different, they're going to start getting frustrated and then start taking it out on the rest of the party because they can't play their character when they're, you know, at two hit points under clerics while I'm helping somebody else over here and I think that's so true is like when you're playing a chaotic evil, the almost the hardest challenge is getting everybody else to be okay with the fact that you're playing chaotic evil.
Speaker 1:I mean, I've had that issue myself. The last time I played a chaotic evil character I played a nine-year-old human because and that was just like, oh my god, I'm going to steal the torch and then I'm going to accidentally trip it and and, just like inconvenience, the party, half the party had night vision.
Speaker 2:But the other half was like oh well, now I don't have light people could laugh about it and like that's how I like to play.
Speaker 1:It is where it's like the mischievous kind of evil for a chaotic evil character, because then you're not making enemies with the rest of the party.
Speaker 2:I think that's the only like reasonable way to do it in a normal game. The one exception to that being is if you and your party decide you want to do an evil campaign.
Speaker 2:And you want to be the villains then that chaotic evil somebody can do it and they can be truly chaotic evil of I'm going to destroy things to destroy them because it's bad. But if you're in like a party with you have neutral good or anything other than like evil, realistically you would have to be in a party with no lawful or good to really play a chaotic evil, because if you have a lawful, they're not gonna be like lawful. Evil is going to be your well, I'm gonna do this law thing to it, cause as much pain as possible. It's gonna be your well, you don't have the permit to do that. You don't have the permit to apply for that permit. You don't have the permit to apply for that one either and go down this train of ha ha, you don't get to do what you want. And even with that, they're not gonna want the chaotic person in the party, because the chaotic person is just gonna be like Burning yeah, and like that's not.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes like I see people using chaotic evil as an excuse to just kill everything in sight and unfortunately, that's really not what the it's not what it is meant to be. I do, at least in my eyes, because other DMs can have their opinions and I'd love to see people in Our groups kind of talk about this, because it's a very complex Area to play and I I hate when I see new players jump in and have that horrible experience where they're like I'm gonna play this chaotic evil character. They spend all this time coming up with it and how they're gonna fight and there's really like demon-like essence and they're playing in an all-good campaign and then everybody hates it and they have a miserable time. I really think that chaotic evil is almost for more veteran players and I Would almost like to see the system changed a little bit for D&D Kind of leads me in.
Speaker 1:My next point is like this is like you said, there's there's this little block of nine things and everything doesn't really fit in it and I think if they were gonna change the whole system, I would take out true neutral, because it is so challenging to play, if even possible, and I would really love to see Changes at most people's tables and I've already started to implement this myself, where we as DMs go out of our way to write new descriptions for these different effects, because the descriptions that are out there are kind of challenging, especially for new players, to really understand what it means to be lawful or chaotic, what means to be good or evil and where that gray zone is so for, like if we were to change the system right?
Speaker 1:I.
Speaker 2:These I mentioned earlier the system where it's like you have your color chart for magic, so you're, and you pick two colors or three colors or four colors, and you Take those aspects of like I'm, if I'm pure blue, for magic is like knowledge and magic and that's all what the goal is is you aspire to be magical and smart and you can add that to something like which usually, like knowledge, is an order-based thing, but you can add red, which is the chaos and emotion, and you like that, your inventors and your like chaotic magic of I'm going to cast a big thing and see what it does, and you kind of get that like level of you can have these different aspects to your personality, as opposed to I'm a chaotic, good person, which means I do crazy stuff for good and it's a little too vague and bland, whereas if you go with like, it's five colors and you can combine them, that there's tons of options there where you can have this super diversified system, but it's a little complicated, it's a little weird, so it's harder to get into.
Speaker 1:I think that's where that that kind of a system really struggles and where I do kind of like how D&D does it. I just wish it was almost more like a plus sign than an actual square, because there's just there's these Outliers that don't feel natural and especially they're not easy to play, especially for new characters and Like the issues I see, implementing the system you're talking about is it's got this huge barrier for entry and especially Right now, the time we're recording this, boulder's gate is still very, very new and it's bringing a lot of people into the tabletop RPG, and I really especially, since Boulder gate didn't really touch on Alignment yeah, like it has a little bit in there.
Speaker 2:I know you haven't played it, but I've. I've only made it a little bit, but there's no like you can be good, you can be evil.
Speaker 1:You could be a good one second and evil the next where it's like you don't have it doesn't matter what your alignment yeah and I think with D&D, because of the fact that it's more of a creativity game and we're creating our own stories, I I feel like our characters have to come to life a little bit more to make the stories engaging.
Speaker 1:I mean, if we think about it, half of this game is just people sitting around a table and playing with their imaginations, and in a video game you've got graphics and other things to keep you involved. In order to keep that same level of retention and really enjoy it, I feel like we have to put so much more creativity and effort into it and have these complex characters and unfortunately, I think a lot of that is missed in the alignment. And I'm very, very concerned and well, I'm concerned and interested to see how people who are coming from Baldur's Gate are going to handle alignment and creating these depth, these high depth, nuanced characters. And I don't know you've played the game more than I have what are kind of your thoughts of people transitioning over with alignment?
Speaker 2:So, I don't think there's a, there's not a transition for alignment. You just don't have it. And now you do. So, like, the people coming over are going to understand how combat works. They're going to understand how, like rolling to succeed on a persuasion works. They won't have, like physically rolled the dice because it's a game and it has as a mechanic, but they're going to kind of get those base ideas. All of the role play and the like actual character they will need to is going to be a full new. That's all they're going to need to learn.
Speaker 1:So it's like you're moving that technical barrier but not the like social barrier of the game and for me, a tool that I would love to see built again would just be I wish we had like two paragraph little blurbs for each and every different alignment, so that new players could kind of get a grasp on, like, what different ideas for characters are, so that we can have people go out of their way to kind of try those new things and branch out, rather than these short little blurbs of like, well, if you're lawful, you follow a set of rules that's not as nuanced to me and I feel like that's something that's going to make it hard for these new players transferring over versus something where it's like, if you are a lawful character, whether it's good or evil, there is this set of boundaries that you're not willing to cross.
Speaker 1:That could be, and then give us examples and like explain different ways that they can be applied and that those resources really aren't out there right now Like the only resources you have for that is other people and if you're brand new, you're not going to know where to look for those people.
Speaker 2:You're not going to know the person who understands that alignment. Like a lawful, good character could be a like lone soul fighter who is following a code of like chivalry or something, as opposed to following what the laws of the land are Like. You can have these different ideas of what lawful is within the sphere, but those new players aren't going to have the person who's going to be Okay. So for your lawful character, you don't have to just follow every single law to the letter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's kind of a good place for us to cut off, because new players are definitely going to have their set of challenges, as those older players are going to have the same time teaching them. That's going to be our challenge. If you guys are interested in any of the discussions that we have, if you're a new player looking to get into and find some resources, we do have a discord and as well as a website, feel free to check out our website. Our other podcasts will be linked on there and you can find out some more information about us. We have a group up on there and we do have a discord, so if you have questions, feel free to reach out to us through those means and kind of collaborate and work together. Thank you, you, you, you, you, you.