Welcome back to the weekly D&D and Tabletop Gaming thread!  Here’s a place where we can talk about Dungeons & Dragons or any other tabletop games that you nerds might be into.  Tell us about the games you’re playing, speculate about future expansions, recruit your fellow Avocados into new groups, whatever you want.

Based on certain events in our game this week, I thought this would be a good time to talk about alignment in D&D.  I think most everyone is familiar with the classic alignment chart, with 9 possible alignment combinations along the dual axis of Good-to-Evil and Lawful-to-Chaotic.

Alignment functions as a guidepost for a character’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in the game. A lawful good character will defer to an authority figure, even if she doesn’t agree with their decision, as long as the authority figure isn’t overtly evil.  On the other hand, a chaotic good character might be a loose cannon but tries to always do the right thing as they see it.  At the other end of the spectrum, a chaotic evil character just wants to watch the world burn, while a lawful evil character wants to conquer nations and subjugate people.  Neutral characters are somewhere in the middle.

From the perspective game mechanics, alignment doesn’t serve much function.  There may be a handful of items or spells in the game world that react differently to a good creature as opposed to an evil one, but how much effect even that has is determined by the DM.  I like to think of it more as a role-play guide, to help me determine how my chosen character reacts in certain situations.

How would you explain alignment to a new player?  Do you have any go-to examples from pop culture for each of the different possible alignments?  How would you role-play an change in your PC’s alignment while still working with the rest of your group?  Alignment chart memes are a dime a dozen, but feel free to post your favorites here if you so desire.

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Our AvocaD&D group is playing through the Curse of Strahd adventure module.  Our version takes place in a pseudo-historical 19th century Earth, and the group is playing as representatives of a railroad company sent to the tiny Eastern European nation of Barovia (ruled by Count Strahd von Zarovich) to negotiate the expansion of the railway through the country.

[spoiler title=”Dramatis Personae”]Our Dungeon Master is The Hayes Code, and the party consists of:

• Txan Einreique, a Half-Elf Stone Sorcerer; the Company Representative and nominal party leader (Josephus Brown)
• Kissi Farwood, a Human Fighter; a former solider hired as a bodyguard by Txan (forget_it_jake)
• ENGR-23, a Warforged Artificer; a living machine employed as a railway engineer (our only non-Avocado party member)
• Peter Peregrine, a Human Barbarian; a Professor of Antiquities with a rage-filled alter ego called Kragen Tempest (The Wasp)
• Wickerwelt Tanglewood, a Halfling Ranger/Rogue; a Barovian native brought along as a guide (TheCleverGuy)
• Carabelle Longstride, a Halfling Cleric of Lathander; a Southern-accented American on a personal mission of her own (Wafflicious)[/spoiler]

[spoiler title=”Curse of Strahd”]

We started off this week distributing treasure from the haul we’d recovered last time.  ENGR used Detect Magic, only to find that none of the treasure was magical at all. Still, Wick took a silver rapier.  Cara found a trunk full of a half dozen fancy dresses and 10 assorted pieces of jewelry, and ENGR grabbed a gilded skull with garnets in the eye sockets, and a bronze crown decorated with gem-eyed dragons, which she planned on stripping for materials to use on her mechanical lobster.

We debated what to do next for a bit, and eventually decided to rest for awhile then try to heal the amnesiac lich in the hopes that he’d help us unlock the books in the library. This was most assuredly a bad idea, but we were pretty confident having newly leveled up.  Cara touched the lich’s head and cast Greater Restoration.  The lich’s memories cam flooding back and he told us his name, Exethanter.  He very politely thanked us for restoring his memory.  He said he mostly just wanted to be left alone to read in his library, and he was now able to remember the password to make the books legible again.  He even allowed us to read any books in the library, as long we left his spellbook alone.  Kassimir, the dusk elf who had accompanied us to the Amber Temple, had been looking for a way to return his sister from the dead, so we asked for books on that topic.  The lich was actually very helpful–he told us there were some amber sarcophagi in the basement of the temple, that could bestow some dark gifts if we wanted them.

There were 18 sarcophagi in total, and each one would provide a different Dark Gift.  Exethanter told us they could bestow the power to create lightning, spread disease, raise the recently deceased, raise the ancient dead, fly, shield the mind, persuasion, walk on walls, have great presence, generate deadly cold, increase one’s strength, increase one’s resilience, increase one’s abilities at evasion, summon hell hounds, live many lives, divination, true seeing, turn life to undeath, become a vampire, or become a lich.  Exethanter was kind enough to escort us around the temple to accept whatever Dark Gifts we chose.

First, Exethanter brought us downstairs to treasure room below the library.  Kassimir touched the sarcophagus that would give him the power to raise the ancient dead, in order to bring his sister back to life.  Kassimir himself changed appearance to look undead, but didn’t change his personality.  He said he could now raise one person from the dead, which he’d save for his sister.

Next, we went through the main hall, with Exethanter protecting us from the arcanoloth that was hanging out near the large statue, to a room n the southwest corner of the temple.  There were 3 sarcophagi inside–Peter tried touching a sarcophagus that would give him the power to summon a hell hound.  Peter heard a voice offering this power, at a cost, and accepted the Dark Gift.  He was now able to summon 2 Hell Hounds, and command them using the Infernal language.  However, whenever he spoke in Infernal, sulfurous smoke came out of all his pores. And his alignment changed to evil.

Next, Exethanter guided us to the opposite side of the temple, past the stone golem we’d avoided before, through a secret door and back downstairs.  Part of the hall had collapsed, but there was a room with 3 more sarcophagi. Txan touched one that would increase his force of presence.  His CHA score went up to 22, but his personality also changed a bit, becoming more obstinate.  Txan will not take no for an answer on anything.  Fortunately, he was able to resist turning evil though.

Exethanter showed us around the rest of the place safely, since nothing in the temple would attack the lich.  We decided to end the session there, since we had a couple of players missing who may want some Dark Gifts of their own.[/spoiler]