Alignments of Monvesia 2: Codifying Perception

Last year, I posted an overview of Monvesia's alternate alignment system.  In this setting, alignment is more about public perception than it is about personality or creed--a character is not a good person, but is believed to be a good person.  The actions one chooses to perform and vocations one chooses to pursue will color the way a character is perceived.  Using the Temperaments of Monvesia, I am going to outline how alignment can be treated as a mechanical property of the game, instead of an arbitrary description of character.

As a game mechanic, player characters will earn alignment points (AP).  Characters earn these points in all temperaments simultaneously.  Generally, the temperament with the highest score will be a character's perceived alignment--and this is the alignment that the character is "bound" to when dealing with spells such as detect evil.

The Seal of Mohas
representing the Six Temperaments of his philosophy

Starting Alignment Points

The first APs that a character receives are based on their race, initial ability scores, starting class, and birth season.  These associations are detailed in the previous post about alignment.

Homebrews for Monvesia - The Wayfarers Guild

"Official" sources are fine and dandy ... but what about all that fun stuff out there that isn't from Wizards of the Coast?  The Dungeon Masters Guild opens up options  for getting homebrew content out to others--but it has very specific setting requirements.  I follow several gaming blogs that include a lot of great options for 5th Edition D&D--and I've already incorporated (and adapted) a few of these into my Monvesia campaign.  But there is so much more out there. 

Earlier this year, I posted an index of [mostly] official 5th Edition character options.  On this list, I included components I believe are missing from the official, core rules.  Some of these have links to homebrew content, others do not.  As I seek out what others have done to fill these gaps, I run into some great options that I would like to share.

Today, I have chosen to share some options from The Wayfarer's Guild.  Ian Burns has created some great archetypes here--and there is more to come.  I look forward to seeing the Strength and Fortune domains.

All of this information has also be added to the appropriate, existing posts--revising and/or replacing information in those posts as necessary.

I'm DMing Without XP, and my Players aren't B*%@#ing about It

I have received some ... dissenting opinions in response to my post "Eliminating XP."  The general theme of these responses is that XP are a good way to reward characters not only for the typical reasons, but also for ingenuity and playing in-character.  I attempted to advance the idea that these could be rewarded using game mechanics other than XP.  However, my initial post doesn't really go into this--it glosses over it with links to another post wherein Hero Points are discussed in an epilogue.  I have since made an effort to gain some experience with this type of play, and will share with your my experience and insight.

As most of you should be aware, I have been running a Pathfinder campaign since last fall. In this campaign, I have chosen to avoid experience points.  My regular players include two D&D veterans, two players with only a couple of years experience, and two brand new initiates into RPGs.  When I informed them that I would be awarding experience levels based on attendance and participation instead of combat, no one complained.  When I told them they would receive Hero Points as rewards for special actions, they didn't really know what I was talking about.