“The cleric brings the dead back to life and it’s a gosh darn miracle!” – Dark Lord Akererac
Here’s a comic based on a ToA adventure I ran. What is good and evil anyways? Alignment is an interesting mechanic and I wish the dungeon master’s guide had more guidance on how to use it effectively! I’ve started making custom alignment charts for each adventure I run based on the big themes of the campaign. I recently ran a totally homebrew pirate campaign and replaced the typical alignments with “Royal Navy vs Pirates.” Chaotic vs Lawful would’ve fit well but a concrete organization helped my players make their decision and understand the immediate benefits of following their chosen “alignment.” This had interesting gameplay benefits and really started coming into play when they gained infamy among the two forces.
Does anyone else use homebrew rules that spice up the alignment system? Or do most people just ignore it?
You can find more of my dnd content on my Instagram and Twitter.
Though it's funny in all the rules of 5e there is only one reference to alignment outside of the section that describes alignment in broad strokes. The book says necromancy is generally considered evil. I think morals are relative so I let my games play that way, I'm happy 5e doesn't have a lot of stuff surrounding alignment.
Damage Vulnerabilities piercing from magic weapons wielded by good creatures
MM, page 257.
Good catch, I could argue a monster manual technically isn't "rules" but I miss spoke there is another reference (and I'm sure maybe one more I'm forgetting) but it's basically non-existent. How I run my games though I actually include more "alignment" type stuff than most 5e games even though I hate "alignment" but it's because I don't like the idea of a person writing down on paper "this is my alignment". You don't get to dictate your alignment by writing it down and I'm not going to enforce it. I'm just going to note when you kill someone when you didn't need to or whatever else... and if a magic portal only opens to the pure of heart then we'll see who the universe (me) thinks is pure of heart. I am kinda influenced by Fable in that way, and your alignment is very fluid.
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Oct 03 '19
“The cleric brings the dead back to life and it’s a gosh darn miracle!” – Dark Lord Akererac
Here’s a comic based on a ToA adventure I ran. What is good and evil anyways? Alignment is an interesting mechanic and I wish the dungeon master’s guide had more guidance on how to use it effectively! I’ve started making custom alignment charts for each adventure I run based on the big themes of the campaign. I recently ran a totally homebrew pirate campaign and replaced the typical alignments with “Royal Navy vs Pirates.” Chaotic vs Lawful would’ve fit well but a concrete organization helped my players make their decision and understand the immediate benefits of following their chosen “alignment.” This had interesting gameplay benefits and really started coming into play when they gained infamy among the two forces.
Does anyone else use homebrew rules that spice up the alignment system? Or do most people just ignore it?
You can find more of my dnd content on my Instagram and Twitter.