GWLlosa
2006-08-11, 03:16 PM
Has anyone run or played in a campaign using the Heroes of Horror rules, especially as they pertain to 'taint'? I'm getting ready to start running one myself, and was hoping for some advice/critiques on the house rules I've got so far, as well as possible suggestions for additional ones. I'll post what I've got so far:
-Alignment
I'm removing the lawful/chaotic aspect of alignment. Too frequently, it serves as an excuse for "I'm chaotic, so I hose a random person" type behavior, and/or serves to 'straightjacket' players into a mindset of 'lawful people never do anything random and chaotic people never follow directions'. I'm also modifying the evil/good aspect, thusly:
All players start out as 'good' by default. Good, for rules purposes, is defined as having no or mild taint. Neutral, for this system, represents the state of mind one reaches after being slightly jaded and rendered cynical about the world, which corresponds to 'moderate' taint. Evil, finally, is when one becomes a degenerate bad guy, is represented by 'severe' taint. Players will be allowed to, at any time, for any reason, 'acquire' taint for free, but removing it will be difficult.
-Taint
The intended atmosphere of this campaign is sort of a 'end of days' (meant in general, not a specific work of fiction) type of feel, wherein existing structures are breaking down, old authorities seem powerless, and the forces of the 'night' are encroaching upon all that is valued and precious. Therefore, the 'taint' system from Heroes of Horror will be leveraged. Inherently, taint is meant to be equivalent to 'evil' and/or 'corruption'. So players gain taint whenever they commit evil, witness evil and fail to stop it (note this means that trying to stop evil and failing provides some taint; this is because the failure of the forces of good to halt those of evil causes additional weariness/cynicality/fatigue/demoralization among the forces of good), and kill any creature with less taint then they have. There will be methods available to reduce taint, but they will be 'harder' the more taint you have.
That's all I've really been able to come up with; anyone have any advice/criticisms/suggestions they want to send my way?
<edit> fixed accidentally hitting 'save' earlier.
-Alignment
I'm removing the lawful/chaotic aspect of alignment. Too frequently, it serves as an excuse for "I'm chaotic, so I hose a random person" type behavior, and/or serves to 'straightjacket' players into a mindset of 'lawful people never do anything random and chaotic people never follow directions'. I'm also modifying the evil/good aspect, thusly:
All players start out as 'good' by default. Good, for rules purposes, is defined as having no or mild taint. Neutral, for this system, represents the state of mind one reaches after being slightly jaded and rendered cynical about the world, which corresponds to 'moderate' taint. Evil, finally, is when one becomes a degenerate bad guy, is represented by 'severe' taint. Players will be allowed to, at any time, for any reason, 'acquire' taint for free, but removing it will be difficult.
-Taint
The intended atmosphere of this campaign is sort of a 'end of days' (meant in general, not a specific work of fiction) type of feel, wherein existing structures are breaking down, old authorities seem powerless, and the forces of the 'night' are encroaching upon all that is valued and precious. Therefore, the 'taint' system from Heroes of Horror will be leveraged. Inherently, taint is meant to be equivalent to 'evil' and/or 'corruption'. So players gain taint whenever they commit evil, witness evil and fail to stop it (note this means that trying to stop evil and failing provides some taint; this is because the failure of the forces of good to halt those of evil causes additional weariness/cynicality/fatigue/demoralization among the forces of good), and kill any creature with less taint then they have. There will be methods available to reduce taint, but they will be 'harder' the more taint you have.
That's all I've really been able to come up with; anyone have any advice/criticisms/suggestions they want to send my way?
<edit> fixed accidentally hitting 'save' earlier.