Understanding What We Play: Paladin

I love the Paladin. I think it's one of the coolest classes, the flavorful combination of Warrior/Monk (in the non-Eastern sense), and the Holy Eradicator of Evil team up to make the coolest class in the game, in my opinon.

So why am I in the minority? If you believe the intra-webs (I know! Who does that!?), Paladin is one of the most reviled classes in D&D. Now having never played a Paladin with true "old-school gamers" I cant' say if this is universally true, but it seems the problem isn't with the paladin, but the sterotypical player of the Paladin.

So why do players seem to play the Paladin in a way that engenders hatred? Why is this Holiest of Swordbearers universally detested? Is it because those pernicious and pretentious players presume to pick and poke and plague our poor platonic-ally placated personalities, so people posit that perchance, this is perforce the only possible path? I say to you, perhaps, but I think not.

I would put forth, that the reason the Paladin is so maligned is because players do not comprehend the goal and design behind the original Paladin, nor how the Lawful Good alignment plays into it. So if you'll bear with me, let's discuss this further, eh?

Let's start with the concept behind the Paladin: A Chivalric Knight, clad in shining armor, astride a mighty white steed, his longsword in hand, and holy prayers on his lips.

If you read information on the Paladin, you'll see that it was heavily inspired by the 12 Paladins of Roland (you can wiki them if you need) and the novel "Three Hearts and A Lion" (highly recommended). Now, the thing to take away from these sources is that the "paladin" in all of them, attempted to live up to a higher standard.

"I do not mean a saint, but a warrior whom God gave more than common gifts and then put under a more than common burden." -- Martinus, in Three Hearts and Three Lions, by Poul Anderson.

This then, is the concept at the core of the Paladin. A warrior with immense powers, who is under a burden, only a God can give or lift.

Paladin's are not zealots, they are not fanatics in the frothing, foaming, sense. They are devoted like priests or clerics, trained and honed to an edge like a military man or fighter, and an impregnable defense morally, and religiously. They are, in the strongest sense, the most dedicated and focused of the classes.

I think a lot of the problem is that players see Paladins as a "kill 'em all, let the Gods sort 'em out" type of class. Evil is not always to be slain. Evil isn't how you act, but it's your innate moral focus. The farmer who registers as evil in the tavern, might not have murdered or raped, or pillaged, or burned, but if his back was pushed to the wall, he would. He's evil at heart, but not in action.

The Paladin code says a Paladin will not associate with evil characters knowingly. Fair enough, however, it says no where that a Paladin is required to put everyone on the straight and narrow. Example is the best teacher, not words, and enforcing "good" among your party will mightly anger them.

Easy enough. This all seems simple, but it's hard to put in to practice. It takes a DM and a Player who are willing ot sit down and make sure you are both on the same page as to what a Paladin mean.s

The Lawful part is the part where it gets tricky. A Paladin becomes tedious when the LAW becomes more important then the Good. The Paladin is lawful as long as he adheres to his inner law, his code of conduct, the law that is higher then Mans. Think of the Good as his outward face, and let that determine how you interact with people and social situations. Think of the lawful as his inner focus, his determination to abide by his code of conduct, regardless of the situation.

That, is the LG Paladin we all need to see played.

This idea, goes for all the classes of course. You can break them all down to their roots, see where they come from, and try to see how they were designed to be played.

It's always fun to play against type, but playing with type is why the classes were built. If we weren't supposed to play them, they wouldn't have them.

Thanks for joining me on my rambles through my RPG thoughts. Until next time.

Problem-Solving Plots

After a merry session of Spelljammer spent assembling a crew, getting said crew out of various legal issues, and harassing the local order of stuck-up paladins with a wild boar from a Bag of Tricks, our pirate crew was ready to be on its way. There was just one small problem: we had a full ton of contraband on board our little interplanetary schooner, and the world we were trying to leave had one heck of a blockade waiting to inspect any passing ships. We could try to run the blockade and take considerable damage to the ship, try to sneak around the blockade and possibly get horribly lost in the aether, or try to sabotage the blockade somehow and sneak through in the chaos. Also, the captain was under a geas that inflicted physical harm every day he didn't make sufficient effort to get the contraband to its destination.

The players spent probably the next hour debating which option to take, along with the pros, cons, and possible body count of each. Long party deliberations are usually about the point when I slip out of the room to brew up a mug of cocoa, because my own problem-solving skills end somewhere around the point of solving hunger with food. But this time, we actually managed to come to a decent conclusion - and to our GM's credit, he actually helped with the deliberations, offering critiques and suggestions as necessary. I'm actually looking forward to seeing if we pull this off.

I use this as an example of "problem-solving plots," moments in the story arc that confront the players, not with a clear-cut villain and a spree of hilarious violence, but with a sticky situation that they have to reason their way out of. These can be immensely satisfying to pull off properly . . . but they're immensely frustrating otherwise. Done improperly, problem-solving plots are a bit like trying to defuse a bomb by solving a Rubik's cube in the dark with half of the stickers removed. My own experience has been that what makes or breaks these sorts of plots is how much the GM and players cooperate with each other.

One of my favorite examples of this comes from a Werewolf: the Apocalypse session several years ago, when the party encountered a bizarre gelatinous acid-creature discovered very quickly that conventional weapons and violence weren't going to work. The storyteller for the session, whom I will call Bob because that was his nickname, had essentially reconfigured our old friend the gelatinous cube into World of Darkness terms and wanted to see how the players would deal with something that couldn't be bitten to death. He figured someone would think to pull down some power lines and electrocute it.

Imagine his surprise, then, when I looked over to one of the other players and stated, "It's a creature made of acid, so . . . baking soda! We can neutralize it!" Five minutes later, our characters had raided the local 7-Eleven and the day was saved shortly thereafter. I've played a lot of campaigns since then, but the baking soda plot remains as a reminder of how fun it can be to cut a Gordian Knot.

The problems come when the cooperation breaks down. Sometimes the players just don't want to deal with the problem presented. Sometimes they go so far as to reject the plot hook entirely, just to keep from having to deal with the layers of intrigue and favor-currying needed to advance the story. Heck, in one campaign I participated in, the GM finally created an NPC party out of whole cloth to save the world, because the systematic murder of the entire Thieves' Guild held more allure to the players than any attempt at solving puzzles.

On the other hand, I've taken part in role-playing groups where the GMs essentially sat on valuable information and refused to divulge it until the players did exactly what their plot idea required.* Any solution ideas that were advanced received a "No, that won't work." If an idea was particularly creative, it would receive a "No, that won't work, and you're obviously metagaming, you awful cheater." Afterward, the GMs would complain about the players not putting in enough effort to solve the puzzle; the players would complain about the GMs not rewarding the effort they did put in; the GMs would then tell the players that maybe if they played better, they would get rewarded . . . the whole thing devolved into a situation not unlike when a significant other declares, "Well if you don't know what's wrong, then I'm certainly not going to tell you."

Like most gaming issues, it comes down to a matter of balance and group chemistry. Some groups are more comfortable with riding the railroad all the way to the climactic battle; others want to spend time scheming and getting every detail just right.** The trick is in actually paying attention to which group your players are, because otherwise you're just writing a novel and forcing them to roll dice to keep watching.

* In other words, let's take a few more stickers off of the Rubik's cube, and now your old math teacher is yelling at you for not solving it faster.
** Let's face it, some groups just want to see if they can make the GM cry by the end of the session.

Noir

So, we're on the final copy edit of Noir. As soon as the final edits are done, we'll be up on Lulu for you to look at! How awesome is that?

Religion in Gallant

Clerics, Paladins, and Crusaders draw their divine power from the Deities of Ghost Moon. So the first question this raises, is how and for what purpose, do the "Deities" of Ghost Moon exist. I've decided to make this as comprehensive a guide to religion in Ghost Moon as possible.

* The General Populace
In the primary Gallant campaign world, Lillinor, the general populace ultimately worships the same religion. There are the 10 moons, and each moon as a portfolio of domains and influences. Now, the populace has names for each moon, and each moon does indeed seem to grant powers to those who worship it. However, the Sanctified Church has released over the years a series of documents called The Theses of Divinity in which they laid out and established the natures of the Deities of Gallant. According to the Sanctified Church, (which does consist of priests and clerics of all of the Portfolios), the Moons are not homes of Gods or Gods themselves, but physical manifestations of the divine power that clerics draw from themselves and the faith of those around them. The Gods are metaphorical representations of ideas and concepts that are commonplace and widely accepted.

The only notable divergence is the human Velkiryie religions, in which, they believe that the 10th, smallest moon, is the physical home, of their gods, which have a physical form. None-humans who worship Velkiryie are rare, but tend to follow the Sanctified Churchs beliefs in the matter and view the Velkiryie moon as a manifestation of human-kinds potential and willpower and defining characteristics.

* The Sanctified Church
The Sanctified Church is the first and only religion throughout the Elven, Halfling, Gnome and any civilized people. (Note that this does not include the Highlander Humans, nor the men of Northreach who worship the Velkiryie Pantheon or The Black One, respectively. The Dwaves have their own Sanctified Church which closely follows that of the Elven version, but is as close-lipped as the Dwaves who make it up). The Sanctified Church is as old as any elf is, and has been the source of education through out the elven kingdoms for centuries. The Sanctified Church runs all the universities within the Elven kingdom, and several notable institutions of learning inside the Gnome City-States. The church's populace consists primarily of Elves, Gnomes, and Essendil (enslaved humans). The Dwaven Sanctified Church is not a separate institution, but instead an off-shoot of the main Church in the Elven nations. The Dwarven Sanctified Church follows all of the laws, and codes established by the church and does participate in the yearly Council of Archpriests, but generally remains closed off and out of any political fray or mess.

* The Velkiryie Religion
The Sanctified Church does indeed recognize the 10th moon, Velkiryie as the moon that humans are the most closely related to. However, the Highlanders and Men of Northreach, view their pantheon specific moon as something different. The Humans believe that their gods do indeed have a physical form and actually reside on the 10th moon as their home, Valhalla. The human pantheon will be outlined below.

* The Portfolios as the Sanctified Church views them.

ELSHAN THE FIRST MOON or THE MAGE'S MOON
– Followers of Elshan and those born under it's influence tend to be scholarly, knowledgeable types. They lean more towards bookkeeping, learning, and magic then anything else.
DOMAINS: Magic, Knowledge, Rune, and Law

DARSHAN THE SECOND MOON or THE UNLUCKY
– Followers of Darhsan are considered unlucky and unsavory types, but they claim their god gives them the best luck of all. Gambler's, ne'er-do-wells, and other similar types all seem to gravitate towards the Second moon.
DOMAINS: Luck, Chaos, Destruction

LORSTHIN THE THIRD MOON or THE LOVER'S MOON
– Those who follow Lorsthin, live life to the fullest, enjoying everymoment. Those born under it's influence are destined for great, epic loves, the kind stories are made of. Lorsthin also rules over scorned lovers, cheating spouses, and abused children, but in considered a kindly influence. DOMAINS: Protection, Community, Creation, Good

GRUNDHAN THE FOURTH MOON or THE DWARVEN MOON
– As much as Elfmoon belongs to the Elves, Grundhan belongs to the dwarves. Creation, crafting, runesmiths, the power of Grundhan lies in his bones of Granite, his Blade of Obsidian, and his steel armor.
DOMAINS: Creation,. Rune, Artifice, Earth

DUINTHIN THE FIFTH MOON or THE ELVEN MOON
– Elves exclusively pay homage to Duinthin, and worship it above all other moons. They acknowledge the existance of the other moons and pay the appropriate homage when due, but it is clear that they favor this moon above all others.
DOMAINS: Nobility, War, Magic

KARSHAN THE SIXTH MOON or THE WARRIOR'S MOON
– Those born under Karshan's sphere find themselves destined for warrior, glory and death in battle. Great generals, blademasters, fighters, and gladiators all pay homage to the Warmoon.
DOMAINS: Death, Strength, War.

URTHTHIN THE SEVENTH MOON or THE NATURE MOON
– Those who worship and are born under the influence of Urththin tend to gravitate towards natural settings. Rangers, Feral Warriors, and those who enjoy time with animals tend to end up in the worship of Urth. Urth embodies nature's pure power, the good, the bad, the destructive, the creationary.
DOMAINS: Animal, Destruction, Fire, Plant, Sun, Water, Creation, Weather.

MORGSHAN THE EIGHTH MOON or THE THIEVING MOON
– Thieves, assassins, and those who find night suits their work best, are those who worship Morgshan. He watches over madmen, guides their ramblings, keeps his hand under the works of the scheming and corrupt and balances the forces of the universe against each other.
DOMAINS: Evil, Trickery, Charm, Darkness, Madness

LYSHAN THE NINTH MOON or THE LYCANTOUCHED MOON
– Almost exclusively the Lycantouched pay homage to Lyshan. Seen once a month, Wolf's Moon is
greeted by howls and hunts among his followers.
DOMAINS: Animal, Air, Earth, Healing, Glory

VELKIRYIE THE TENTH MOON or THE LEAST MOON
– Humans in particular pay homage to Velkiryie. Considered the weakest and least of the moons, human belief holds that their Gods live on the moon Velkiryie and no other moonworship is to be found amoung the humans.
DOMAINS: Travel, Liberation, Healing, War, Strength

Now when a cleric decides which of these portfolios he tends to venerate over the others, his divine power that is drawn from his faith tends to shape itself in nature to reflect the aspects of his portfolio.

The general populace does not tend to take a specific moon and venerate it over others, instead offering up prayers and rituals when it is appropriate.

* The Human Pantheon

Velkir: Called, the Father, as he is the father of all deities of the Velkryie Panteon and according to the Velkryie faith, the creator of the world, Velkir is a powerful deity. Impartial, Velkir is the final judge after the death of mortals, determining whether they go to Valhalla or are sent to Grathor. Wielding "Valnor" (The Thunderspear), Velkir watches his creations and considers their fates without bias or compassion
DOMAINS: Law, War, Strength, Protection, Creation

Ordan: The Bladelord, Ordan is the firstborn of Velkir. The patron deity of warriors and those who ride against the Velkryie enemies, Ordan weighs the warriors and those who are about to die on his scale and if they weigh heavy, their time is cut short. None can turn aside his destiny, except for those,
whose lifeweights are touched by Eileen. Fickle and tempermental, Ordan often counsels with his father for advice. Favoring his massive scythe, he rides to collect the souls on his mighty warhorse.
DOMAINS: Destruction, Strength, Death

Eileen: The Defender, Eileen seeks to preserve the lives of the Velkryie. Touching the lifeweights, she chooses the heroes of the Velkryie and takes them under her patronage until they've served the Velkryie as best needed. The youngest of Velkir and the most prayed too deity of the Velkryie, she visits their leaders often and guides them in their fierce fight for survival. She defends her
people with the Hethromace tho she reluctantly takes life.
DOMAINS: Healing, Good, Protection

Maltrim: The Lawgiver, Maltrim stands above the world...holding it in his hand as he judges the fate of every inhabitant in it. With his massive greatsword, Maltrim opposes those who would end the times before appropriate and welcomes the Velkyrie heroes to Valhalla, his kingdom. The husband of Eileen and the only god to not be born by Melassa or Tyirie, Maltrim weeps daily for the great evil that has been spread by his brother in law across the earth. Maltrim is the first creation of the Twin Gods.
DOMAINS: Law, Strength, War

Illior: The Smith, Illior is worshipped by blacksmiths and metalworkers everywhere. Illior is the giver of the Godforged, magically enchanted weaponry that the gods give to their champions. Illior does not demand praise, worship or thanks for these blades, but instead asks that they only be used for good. With the Hammer of Smiths, Illior stands above his forge and it is said that somedays you can hear the thunder of his hammer working the metal from the heavens.
DOMAINS: Creation, Runes, Strength, Good, Sun

Melassa: The Mother, Melassa is the wife of Velkir and the sister of Illior.It was she that asked for the earth to be created that she might watch her children learn and grow. But once she saw how her childrens creations behaved, she wept. For her foolishness, Velkir allowed the youngest son to place his touch upon the world, but didn't not allow it's destruction due to his wife's pleading. Blessing the world, she is the deity of Farmers and those who love the life abundent. Her warriors strive to destroy Helgrim's creations and wield her favored weapon, the Bow.
DOMAINS: Animal, Earth, Healing, Good, Protection, Water

Helgrim: The Youngest, Helgrim touched the world after it's creation and unleased the evil that men call the Deatheaters. Favoring the flail, it is Helgrim that guards the passage to Valhalla that those not worthy may enter. He scourges the world with disease and culls those who are unworthy from it, tho the Gods do not favor his judgment, as he is fickle and fleeting.
DOMAINS: Destruction, Evil, Trickery, Fire, Chaos

Nurn: The Undergod, Nurn sits below the world, watching those whose deeds do not earn them right to Valhalla. After they have been destroyed he summons their spirits to The Black One's kingdom. Favoring those who kill for killing's sake and those who oppress the weak, Nurn is the patron of murderers, travelers who require safety, those who seek knowledge, and the dead. His weapon is a massive falchion wreathed in green flames.
DOMAINS: Death, Travel, Evil, Knowledge

Tyirie: Called The Blind, Tyirie is the sister of Illior and Melassa. Velkir's first consort, she was replaced when she opposed his plan to create the mortal world. Tyirie's only goal is the destruction of the world and the death of the Gods, whose end she plans to come by the hands of the Mortals. Few
worship her, nor does she care, instead she walks the world once a year on the Night of Tricksters and kill indiscriminatly any mortals outside on that horrid night.
DOMAINS: Destruction, Death, Evil, Chaos.

The Black One: The Black One, the bastard child of Tyirie and Helgrim, forsook the Velkryie Gods and found his own worshipers among the Shas'nor, who he drives to constant war against the Highlander's. Favoring unarmed combat, his followers acknowledge the fact that he doesn't concern himself with mortals as long as souls come to him in The Void.
DOMAINS: War, Strength, Evil, Law

Human clerics will select one of these gods to worship or the Velkiryie moon itself.

*GAME MECHANICS

So the above was mostly fluff, with a bit of mechanical in it. Here's the mechanical.

Each Deity/Portfolio has a "ban" or a code of conduct their followers are required to follow. If the follower breaks the ban, they have to atone as per the spell. True Clerics are rarer then you would think. A majority of the priests and clerics in the Churches tend to be just bookkeepers without any magical power. The Archpriests and the higher levels almost always have cleric levels though.

A cleric selects his ban at character creation, or in game terms, upon joining his priesthood or being called.

Paladins must maintain a certain Honor score or lose their paladinhood, and Crusaders must maintain the code of conduct laid out in the class description.

Bans:
Bans can be rather unspecified. As a rule of thumb, they need to promote some aspect of the Portfolio, and need to also apply some sort of restriction to the cleric.

For example, a Cleric of Grundhan maybe be required to craft at least 3 magical items a year, and be banned from destroying magical, rare, or valuable items.

Also, Detect Good/Evil are being replaced with Detect Zodiac, Detect Deity, and Detect Honor.

Protection from Good/Evil, Magic Circle against Good/Evil will be replaced with Protection from Foe, Magic Circle against Foe.


*Up next: The Nature of Magic and how it is drawn upon*

Dying, Death and the Bad Stuff that isn't so bad anymore. (Variant Rules for Dying in D&D 3.5)

So basically, here's how it works. When a character hits 0, he automatically stabilizes and any damage in excess of 0 is discarded. To keep acting, he has to make a Fortitude save. If he is successful, he may act as normal for one round. If he fails he drops to -1 and starts to die with standard 10% stabilization rolls. The DC is calculated as follows. DC 10 + ¾ party's effective level (ECL). Alternatively, you could do it by DC 10 + ECL to make it more challenging to stay alive. Every round in which a character wishes to act, he must make that Fort save or die. The DC increases by 1 for each round thereafter (again, to make it more deadly, you could change the increase to +2 or more).
It's a pretty simple fix but more heroic and effective I think.

This is the new Ghost Moon system. In addition, we've got at least 1 new class and 2 new monk variants (replacing the old one)

Internal Ghost Moon Playtest Version 1.3 Released!

Hey loyal readers!

It's Alan again. I'm just popping in to announce that as of 45 minutes ago, I have finished the final revise in the Ghost Moon Pre-Alpha playtest. As of Tuesday's upcoming session, Ghost Moon will have entered the Alpha Playtest. What that means for you, is that Ghost Moon will officially in true playtesting. The past few sessions have been warm up. Now, as the DM and lead designer, I will be doing my best to stretch the rules, break the players will, destroy the classes, and ruin the world.

So stay tuned, because I've got a bit of a spoiler for ya. It's a list of all the current base classes in the Ghost Moon setting.

Exciting!

Arcane Blade
Assassin
Blademaster
Bounty Hunter
Cleric
Commander
Crusader
Dark Apotheosis
Elementalist
Feral Warrior
Mage Hunter
Monk
Mystic
Noble
Packrunner
Paladin
Pirate
Ranger
Sniper
Sorcerer
Storm Knight
Stormwing Thrower
Thief

Playtest Notes: Session 3

When last we left our heroes, they were given the divine duty to be the champions of their respective gods and moons - no small task, given their enemy was a fallen deity intent on crushing the world with a dark ritual. Having defended a town from an oncoming mass of orcs and goblins, they set out to find a route into the Shadowlands.

Wanderer, a man from a nearby village, was able to show them the way to Rukhad-Kazm, an abandoned dwarf city that went through the mountain range that separated the Shadowlands from civilized places. A side passage proved to be of interest to X, however, and after a battle with dragons and a wyvern (plus a couple of adamantine golems), his curiosity was rewarded with a captive bear who became his companion out of gratitude.

I should pause here to explain: in Ghost Moon, anyone can have an animal companion. It's a feat that anyone can take, mostly because druids don't exist in this world. Also, dragons are a bit tougher this time around, with their magical natures coming more into the forefront.

Exploration of the dwarf city revealed that the place had been cleaned out of all its treasures ... but not its traps. The party was grateful for Silnarath's healing aura by the time they'd dealt with all of the hidden sawblades and poison darts. But the dwarves had left a city wide open for infiltration by more orcs, goblins, trolls ... and the dread Cthulhrog, a demon that they were only able to defeat with the greatest of luck and the force of their prayers.

That's another thing I should mention: prayer works in Ghost Moon. Not always to the character's advantage, of course (the moons might show displeasure to those who beg for their aid too often), but it does work.

The heroes managed to seal themselves into the Throne Room of Rukhad-Kazm, where they found a hidden door that led out - but one of them would have to stay behind to keep the door open. Gilead chose to remain and fight the pursuing orcs and goblins ...

End Session 3.