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Maryring
2010-11-04, 09:29 PM
Time to put a gender and alignment switch on an old... favourite? The person in question this time is from M&M, so alignment isn't strictly neccessary, but it's fun, so for fun it goes.

The character in question is an immigrant to America from Eastern Europe. She lost her father at an early age, so she grew up with only her mother and little brother as family. Since the influence of her old culture is prevalent in her household, she is a bit of an oddball out in her childhood.

"Today" (the game takes place in modern times), she's a rather famous author, lives in a large house along with her maid and best friend (who is herself another immigrant from Georgia) and has a rather good life. She, along with her mother and brother who she enjoys a very close relationship with, lives in a relatively small town in USA, where she enjoys fame in her local community due to her work as an author. She's also very much a nerd.

Her mother, a historian, in her youth discovered one of the original tarot cards. Indestructible magic items whose purpose is unknown, but allows the one that possesses the cards to break the rules of reality. The card she found, the Priestess, was in turn handed over to the character for her to use. She uses the card to be a hero. The card gives her the abilities of precognition, postcognition and insight, and the ability to give people headaches. She also has flight, teleport and healing. Thus, this reflects in her heroism. She is very peaceful. She does not enjoy the use of violence, but the alternative, to not use her powers, does not sit well with her. That's why she created her hero persona.

However, she is willfully "breaking the masquerade". By using her powers, she's introducing the world to the idea that magic exists. Her methods are based around fear, confusion and trickery, and if that does not work, and she is forced into a fight, she is very much a combat pragmatist, willing to use every potential dirty trick in the book if it can help her win. There's also those who critique her for being a hero because she finds the concept of being a hero fun, not because of any inborn altruism. Yet it is undeniable that she's saved lives and captured "bad guys".

And I'm tired now. I'll leave this for you to mull over, and see if I can't add more later.

Sucrose
2010-11-04, 09:39 PM
Her methods are on the chaotic end, her goals are uncertain, beyond having fun and helping people. 'Breaking the masquerade' may lead to chaotic effects, but it doesn't seem to be a priority of hers.

Put me down for CN with good leanings, or possibly CG.

Galsiah
2010-11-04, 09:43 PM
Seems like it's either TN or CN, depending on why she's "breaking the masquerade." Not really motivated by good or evil, and depending whether the "masquerade" is an establishment of law or not, and whether or not she breaks it on purpose or just as collateral damage, she's either neutral on the L-C axis or chaotic.

Blue Ghost
2010-11-04, 09:52 PM
It sounds as if she is strongly chaotic, as she's breaking the masquerade without any thought to the consequences. (Note that I know nothing about the masquerade or M&M.)
The G/E axis is a bit trickier. It would depend on her motivation for being a hero, I think. You say that she does what she does because she finds being a hero fun? What exactly does that mean? Does she just enjoy helping people? If so, she's probably Good. Does she do it for the glory? Then Neutral. Or if she does it for the thrill of adventure, it can go either way, as good is not her primary motivation, but then she has chosen to use her powers for a good end. I'd say she's probably CG, though it would depend on your interpretation of Good.

golentan
2010-11-04, 09:54 PM
Insufficient data. "Pragmatism" is neither lawful nor chaotic, good nor evil. The same goes for combat trickery and fear: The goal is to wind up alive, and to do so in the most provenly functional way isn't particularly chaotic.

As for good and evil, we lack enough insight into her head to make such a call. "She gets along with her family" is not a moral choice. And her reasons and methods for fighting crime could be (at least as you described them) anything from altruism to a sense of duty, or something else entirely. Is she a vigilante or does she work with the police? Does she give to charity, or volunteer her time to good works? Will she spare someone even if doing so is risky, and why?

I'd say the distaste for violence probably rules out evil, if nothing else.

Burner28
2010-11-05, 03:37 AM
As for good and evil, I'd say she is either Good or Neutral depending on why she actually fights evil. The whole "break the masquerade" seems to imply that she is Chaotic, depending on whether she actually broke any actual rules or whether the society her mother comes from simply morally dissaproves of introducing magic to the world. There really is nor real reasons tom think that she is Lawful or Evil so I'd say either Neutral Good, Chaotic Good, True Neutral or Chaotic Neutral

hamishspence
2010-11-05, 03:43 AM
The PHB, on Law vs Chaos, states Neutral characters "feel neither a compulsion to obey nor to rebel".

So people with a compulsion to rebel (even if they try to suppress it most of the time) might be more likely to be Chaotic.

So, if she's got a compulsion to rebel, and this is part of why she breaks the masquerade, she's more likely to be Chaotic than Neutral on that axis.

"Pragmatism" can be Evil or a sign of approaching alignment shift away from Good, if it goes so far as to involve committing evil acts because it's the easiest way to get what you want.

If not, it may not make a difference to alignment.

If she protects the innocent, and makes personal sacrifices to help strangers, even if she does so "because it's fun" a case can be made for Good alignment rather than Neutral.

Grogmir
2010-11-05, 06:06 AM
She is very peaceful. She does not enjoy the use of violence, but the alternative, to not use her powers, does not sit well with her

True Neutral / Unalligned.

Sir Swindle89
2010-11-05, 06:31 AM
CG She breaks traditions and uses un orthodox tactics (Chaotic). She is a hero because she feels bad not useing them to help others (Good).

Burner28
2010-11-05, 10:13 AM
CG She breaks traditions and uses un orthodox tactics (Chaotic). She is a hero because she feels bad not useing them to help others (Good).

There really is nothing that really says she is breaking traditions, although if I now think about it your conclusion may be correct seeing as, logically speaking as the setting is in America, she would be an vigilante, breaking the rules to do Good for whatever reason. I would have said she is not necessarily Chaotic but I changed my mind.