Alignment change, character development, and curse

ninja_ardith · **Joined:** Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:21 pm **Posts:** 4452

Meissa wrote:

In fact, Gedyarf IS aberrant.

It's dishonorable to keep something from a superior officer.

Cordance · **Posted:** Fri Dec 19, 2014 12:33 pm

The changed help file to aberrant is interesting when compared to the Hellion code help file now. It has been a while since I have read them however I can not help but feel they need some clarification as they seem to contradict each other as I've noted.

Code:

Aberrant characters, ****quite literally, value honor above all else***.  They
are perfectly willing to use force and intimidation to reach their goals,
and they are capable of backing up their threats with action when necessary.
They do not enjoy the act of killing in itself, but do find pleasure in
killing for the sake of revenge or honor.  Aberrant people tend to be
very fair and loyal friends, but are swift and harsh when dealing with those
who are against them.  They make the greatest allies, and the worst enemies.

The Hellion's Code of Knighthood

Strength:
***Above all else the Hellion respects STRENGTH.*** Only power commands respect.
Anyone who can be defeated is worthy of contempt and exploitation.  Anyone
who can not is worthy of respect and obedience until he can be defeated.
Strength can be found in many places: wealth, politics, allies, the sword,
and the spell.  Thus shall the Hellion seek superiority in all, and by
strength, command respect.

Honor:
***The Hellion shall value honor second only to strength.***  Lies and theft are
for those too weak to take what they want or to force their opponent to
submit.  For this reason, the word of a Hellion is sacred.  To break your
word shows weakness.  To attack without issuing a challenge shows weakness,
in that the target must be overcome unawares (like a thief or assassin) and
could not be beaten fairly.  The Hellion challenges the opponent so that
the opponent will cede victory due to the Hellion's reputation alone,
compelling obedience.  A Hellion should prefer death to dishonor.

grep · **Joined:** Fri Apr 17, 2009 9:50 pm **Posts:** 5522

Value and respect are two distinct verbs with distinguishing characteristics. For example, we might consider the valuation of honor to be an internal locus of control while the respect of strength is an external locus of control. In another way, we might consider the valuation of honor to represent a passive behavior while the respect of strength is an active one. It's really pretty simple: the goal of your roleplay is to clarify, not to contradict, guidelines and base materials.

Personally, I find it ironic that Gedyarf's aberrant punishment for killing guards draws criticisms when Chronis' lack of aberrant punishment for breaking vows also drew criticism. The staff really does seem to be damned if they do and damned if they don't at times.

skweeky · **Joined:** Thu Sep 04, 2014 4:30 pm **Posts:** 132

Darkies killing their own guards, aberrant or otherwise, has been happening ever since I can remember and has never been punished before, to my knowledge.

Yed · **Posted:** Fri Dec 19, 2014 6:15 pm

woahboy wrote:

Edit : Would be interesting to see more IC punishments for IC actions, rather than 'bam you lose five levels' which is a really ooc punishment for ic actions, like maybe a misbehaving lightie loses access to request because people have heard about his dirty reputation.

I don't disagree with you. Personally, I dislike handing out EXP/level punishments. Although I don't feel nearly as bad about them as I did 10+ years ago when it was significantly more difficult to reach GM, but it would be nice to have more opportunity to enact in-character punishments for people making odd/punishable choices, and to turn those into roleplay opportunities rather than a conceivably OOC method of punishment.

One example that comes to mind is when Valkyrion's sprite dubbed himself the "King of Elisair" and I "punished" him by having him virtually banished from Elisair until he made amends with the elders and fellow sprites there.

Another is way back when I transformed Eliro into a griffon for his disrespectful behavior toward Achernar. Ahhhh, good times.

Unfortunately, as often as not, creative punishments exist on a sliding scale that's really hard to regulate, and is just as likely to result in player-rage-bombs as a typical level-curse. Meh.

skweeky · **Joined:** Thu Sep 04, 2014 4:30 pm **Posts:** 132

Dabi wrote:

Another is way back when I transformed Eliro into a griffon for his disrespectful behavior toward Achernar. Ahhhh, good times.

<333333333333333333333333333

ninja_ardith · **Joined:** Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:21 pm **Posts:** 4452

grep wrote:

Value and respect are two distinct verbs with distinguishing characteristics. For example, we might consider the valuation of honor to be an internal locus of control while the respect of strength is an external locus of control. In another way, we might consider the valuation of honor to represent a passive behavior while the respect of strength is an active one. It's really pretty simple: the goal of your roleplay is to clarify, not to contradict, guidelines and base materials.

Personally, I find it ironic that Gedyarf's aberrant punishment for killing guards draws criticisms when Chronis' lack of aberrant punishment for breaking vows also drew criticism. The staff really does seem to be damned if they do and damned if they don't at times.

Honor means whatever you want it to mean so long as you are consistent with it.

e.g. it's dishonorable to die to Adroan.

There's usually a western bias when talking about the concept of honor, but when you go to different cultures, honor will mean something completely different. There is going to be an obvious difference between what lighties and darkies consider honorable. A lightie may consider charity, decency, and chivalry as honorable qualities, while a darkie will value kicking in the door and murdering you during your sleep if you wrong them as being honorable.

FinneyOwnzU · **Joined:** Wed Apr 24, 2002 11:51 am **Posts:** 1500

ninja_ardith wrote:

e.g. it's dishonorable to die to Adroan.

well faught

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Alignment change, character development, and curse

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