So today they showed us some examples of the alignment system and I was thinking, these are good standard tropes, but how would you subvert them or play with them?
We've got:
Law Abiding, Law-breaking, Merciful, Violent, Honorable, Dishonorable, Heroic, Villianous, Scoundrel, Rogue, Weird and Mundane.
To me half of those look villainous and half look heroic so how might I do those in a different fashion.
Now to me, Law Abiding and Law-Breaking seem the obvious ones to subvert.
A villain can follow laws. They may not be the laws of the city. They may be laws of nature or another civilization. Or they could be utter rules lawyers, in that they obey the rules, but only after they've twisted them into a pretzel they can abuse. Doctor Doom could be an example as I don't believe he breaks Latvian laws, even if he breaks many others. (Being a dictator however, makes that a bit blurry)
The law-breaking hero is fairly simple. Someone who thinks the law and justice don't always meet. The vigilante, the hero who takes it into his own hands to stop someone. An example of this might be Jessica Jones in her recent Netflix incarnation.
A merciful villain is also an interesting concept. It could be a pragmatic villain, cause if you kill innocent people or heroes, you just paint a target on your back, or it could be something resembling nobility, targeting corrupt organizations, robbing from the rich to give to yourself, avoiding conflict where possible.
A violent hero is...well...also fairly obvious. Batman when badly written, the punisher when he chooses not to kill, etc.
Honorable villains are also fairly obvious. This can tie over into merciful villains I guess, but I think it is more interesting to have someone dedicated more to the code than pragmatism like that.
A dishonorable hero is far more interesting in my opinion. There are so many ways you can do it. A hero who fights dirty. One who doesn't always play fair. Goes back on his word. Cheats. Lies. And is the goal always worth dragging their image through the mud that way? Can their allies trust them knowing how they are?
A heroic villain and a villainous hero are probably gonna be the most interesting and most complex.
Watchmen had some good examples in that you had people who were utter scum as the "heroes" only because the people they fought were worse or they had governmental approval. A villainous hero could be a hero with a terrible image or reputation or something much larger, a target that brings the world together, someone who uses evil methods to achieve good goals. Of course there is the question of a what point does harm out way the good and do you actually become a villain.
Now I'll be honest, that is a fairly simple play around with the concept but how might you guys do it?
Law Abiding, Law-breaking, Merciful, Violent, Honorable, Dishonorable, Heroic, Villianous, Scoundrel, Rogue, Weird and Mundane
For me the appeal isn't the six (one presumes) sliders, but as you pointed out how they interact. Can one be Merciful, but Dishonorable and Villainous? Who determines WHICH honor code is "Honorable?" Vikings and Samurai and Musketeers each followed a code of honor, and each would have considered the other two dishonorable dogs.
Or, do we pull from a menu of Must/Must Not options and make our own code?
But the main potential I see with the Alignment system is that it needs to be doubled - to have an Actual and a Reputation value for each slider. So - do I take the covert mission pretending to be a villain, knowing that my reputation will be shot for months? If my dishonor is only in private, how far can it slip before it becomes public knowledge?
But mostly, I want to know that it begins flexible (when I'm setting just who my hero is), but later has the resilience that I can leave my computer unlocked, and not worry that my cat is going to attack the entire street and make villainy the only remaining employment for my character.
I like this better than the single axis of determination, specifically because it allows for Batman and Nightwing to be different in spite of similar methods. Nick Fury and the Punisher use similar tools, but they aren't even close to the same person. As for blurring the lines between hero and villain? I can live with that.
But yes, this will only aggrevate my case of alt-itis, I'll need about four dozen character slots...
I just explained this in another thread, but I'll repeat this here as well:
Alignment basically sets the default way the 'world' views your character. Faction Reputation can then be affected through actions based on gameplay.
So stuff like Law Abiding would be in context of how certain factions in the game view how well the character follows the letter of the law.
If you have a Dishonrable character, certain NPCs may not speak with you due to fear of mistrust, while others may be more willing to speak with someone who is willing to do risky things even if it means being betrayed because the NPC identifies with dishonorable dealins in some manner.
You will get to set your initial Alignment. After that, any changes to alignment occurs throughout play when certain specific choices are presented. And the system will be lenient in that one step to the left or right of where you want to be won't suddenly have a drastic effect on the character, it will take multiple decisions to cause a shift.
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I meant more how will you play around with it in a story sense in relation to your characters. In a roleplaying character sense as opposed to a mechanical sense.