Post by Crimhthan The Great on Apr 9, 2015 10:13:20 GMT -5
In your campaign how do you define Law (Order) and Chaos. How does it effect the whole of your campaign.
For instance the Tolkien view of elves is very Lawful; however, the elves of myth, legend and folklore tend very strongly to be represented as belonging to the side of Chaos. So as one example, I have mulitiple races of elves IMC, some of which belong to Law and some of which belong to Chaos.
I have also read that in Arneson's campaign, while the players started out playing both good guys and bad guys, the bad guys regularly got their butts kicked so after a while the players were only taking the good guys and Arneson (the ref) started playing all of the bad guys by default. When we started playing we didn't know any of that (this is in the pre-D&D days, we just assumed that the ref would play the bad guys.
I think that most war-gamers would have initially at least, have viewed the ref as a judge not a participant, again as I have heard Arneson's players started out that way and moved to playing all good guys so Arneson had to start playing the bad guys, we did that as an assumed (on our part) default. But there is no reason that you couldn't run the game again as all bad guys (not our cup of tea) or with two competing groups of players with the ref as just a judge and maybe running all noncombatants.
As an example I am quoting Sieg's statement from DF (from years ago) here but replacing Fairy or Fay with Elven, Elves or Elf. This is pretty close to the way I do elves, I don't have drow, I just have Seelie and Unseelie, Lawful & Chaotic with a few Neutrals. In the below quote my changes are in bold.
Like I say, this is pretty much how I run elves IMC and if I had written down my own definition, I could not have done it better than this or as good for that matter. I think this is good example of how to apply Law and Chaos to the game and to allow for Elves as PCs while being able to run the darker Chaotic type elves that tend to the common example in folklore.
For instance the Tolkien view of elves is very Lawful; however, the elves of myth, legend and folklore tend very strongly to be represented as belonging to the side of Chaos. So as one example, I have mulitiple races of elves IMC, some of which belong to Law and some of which belong to Chaos.
I have also read that in Arneson's campaign, while the players started out playing both good guys and bad guys, the bad guys regularly got their butts kicked so after a while the players were only taking the good guys and Arneson (the ref) started playing all of the bad guys by default. When we started playing we didn't know any of that (this is in the pre-D&D days, we just assumed that the ref would play the bad guys.
I think that most war-gamers would have initially at least, have viewed the ref as a judge not a participant, again as I have heard Arneson's players started out that way and moved to playing all good guys so Arneson had to start playing the bad guys, we did that as an assumed (on our part) default. But there is no reason that you couldn't run the game again as all bad guys (not our cup of tea) or with two competing groups of players with the ref as just a judge and maybe running all noncombatants.
As an example I am quoting Sieg's statement from DF (from years ago) here but replacing Fairy or Fay with Elven, Elves or Elf. This is pretty close to the way I do elves, I don't have drow, I just have Seelie and Unseelie, Lawful & Chaotic with a few Neutrals. In the below quote my changes are in bold.
"Elven society is divided into two camps, the Seelie and Unseelie courts. These courts exist in pocket dimensions that have access to the Prime Material Plane but are not part of it. Elves owing fealty to the Seelie court are mostly Lawful in alignment, while those choosing to be part of the Unseelie court are usually Chaotic. There are Neutral Elves in each court, but they are few as the gnossis of the courts tend to draw most Elves to either Law or Chaos. A very small number of Elves wander the Prime Material Plane, seeking new experiences and comrades in the world."
Like I say, this is pretty much how I run elves IMC and if I had written down my own definition, I could not have done it better than this or as good for that matter. I think this is good example of how to apply Law and Chaos to the game and to allow for Elves as PCs while being able to run the darker Chaotic type elves that tend to the common example in folklore.