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View Full Version : [3.5]The Song of All (Community project, input valued)



ArcturusV
2013-11-13, 03:47 AM
Short blurb, as I'm putting this down now so I have it bookmarked, can take notes, and keep myself motivated to see this through.

This idea came from a topic in the third edition section of this board. Rather that there are splatbooks for Good (Book of Exalted Deeds), Evil (Book of Vile Darkness) and even Sex (Book of Erotic Fantasy) but there wasn't a book for Neutrality. Well, other than one mention someone had of a minor artifact called the Book of Perfect Balance in Underdark.

But the goal is to create a "book" like the splat books, that is similarly complete in it's content, varied and interesting, highlighting the best of Lawful Neutral, True Neutral, and Chaotic Neutral.

Note that in a similar vein to Exalted Deeds and Vile Darkness, this is a book about Exemplars and Titans of their alignment. So things suggested for content should not feature "I don't give a damn" or "I'm just self interested" sort of Neutrality, but a dedication to something that is Neutral in and of itself, consciously avoiding Good and Evil or embracing ideals beyond Good and Evil (Such as a dedication to pure law or pure chaos untainted by the morality of good and evil).

This project though isn't just about me. The book is called the Song of All, and it's your song too. So I'm always looking for suggestions, submissions, additions, etc, for it. As it's seeking to have the same sort of depth as Vile Darkness and Exalted Deeds, it has the same categories/chapters to submit to.


Table of Contents:

The Nature of Neutrality: Articles on what it means to be truly Neutral in your game, suggestions for how to play an adventurer who can avoid both good and evil, while not disrupting the campaign, etc.

Variant Rules: Simple rules which can add a new dimension to the game, not classes, feats, or items. Gods of Neutrality will also be in here, should any wish to stat up new gods, as well as things like Neutral Templates and neutral races.

Neutral Equipment: To be honest, I don't even THINK that it's possible to really have equipment that extolls the virtues of Neutrality. But I also know that I'm not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer and someone else might have a handle on it. One more chapter in the companion books, so lets try to find out how to make it work. The Artifact "The Song of All" will be at least one item in here however, similar to how Vile Darkness has an artifact called "The Book of Vile Darkness" and Exalted Deeds had the artifact "The Book of Exalted Deeds".

Feats: Feats for those who are champions of Neutrality.

Prestige Classes: Prestige Classes for those who truly embrace the forces of Lawful Neutral, True Neutral, or Chaotic Neutral beings/causes.

Magic: Magic of Neutrality. Spells for all classes (Psionics and other subsystems acceptable as well, though I am not as familiar with them) who embrace Neutrality.

Lords of Neutrality: A chapter for not quite godlike beings who embody Neutral Ideals, and strive for Balance and Restraint rather than being Neutral because they don't care.

Neutral Monsters: A repository of creatures who are Lawful Neutral, True Neutral, and Chaotic Neutral of all stripes.

Neutral Players: Articles about how to run neutral exemplar characters, how to handle them in mixed parties, or run adventures that play into this theme.

inuyasha
2013-11-13, 09:30 AM
I tried doing this with law and chaos a while ago, it promptly died because i didnt nurture it, and i had surgery, one of the warnings I got was to not make the same mistakes that BoVD and BoED did, like dont just flip everything to neutral, don't attempt to make a neutral version of vile damage just because the other book did it, don't make a neutral version of liquid pain/ambrosia or whatever it's called. Try to just stick to new stuff, I might help out though, and I think this is possibly a good (or neutral :tongue:) idea.

I hope i was helpful :smile: and like i said, I will probably contribute at some point

ArcturusV
2013-11-13, 09:39 AM
Well, one thing I'll probably be adding to this actually comes from what I'm doing for Morph Bark's MUHA 2 contest, Primal Magic. The idea behind it being "magic" in a folklore sense rather than a DnD sense. Effects that exist, weaved into the fabric of creation, beyond the concerns of Elemental Forces or the Outer Planes.

As such it would lend well to a "Neutral" effect. So I'll probably throw that out which will add to the Variant Rules section (Primal Rites, which are effects that anyone who has the knowledge/skills can do, regardless of class/stats otherwise). Primal Magic Feats for the feat section, and Primal Magic Rituals.

But thank you. I'll try to avoid making "neutral equivalent" stuff. Doesn't really make sense after all. Good and Evil as a mirror is simple design, but it can at least make some sort of intuitive sense. Evil mocking Good ideals, twisting them while being similar on the surface, etc. Not so much for Neutral concepts.

Aldurin
2013-11-14, 05:38 AM
Neutral equipment would be possible through the line of thought of having material that automatically rejects users for having a polarizing moral alignment, since the idea of items accepting or rejecting alignments applies to good and evil. Just in this case the item functions properly when neither alignment is empathically projected to "imbalance" the weapon.

Problem with neutrality content, though, is that it's simply not easy to write due to its nature. Good and evil are clear in their place, as the people within them have the same philosophy on similar matters such as killing and theft. Neutral people are not one and the same, as this ranges from wise enough to not blindly devote themselves to a single side, being completely apathetic or being completely ignorant. Though if you do manage to get content to work with that then that'll be something worth posting.