The Alignment System as it stands

[Steampunkette]

Currently we're planning to allow a player character to start as a member of any class at level 1. The character will have no faction and will be considered 'Neutral'

Over the course of leveling a player can choose to do Heroic or Villainous missions. The more of a particular type he or she does, the more one leans to the side of Do-Gooder or Dastard.

As your level of Heroism or Villainy increases you will open up access to new factions. Whether they are hunting guilds who take trips to Africa to seek out wild game or Business cartels strangling the market for coal for the most profit. You might even join a noble religious order who fight against the alteration of Man's Divine Form and hunt retrofits, or perhaps you'll become a friend of a nearby tribe of Ohlone Native Americans. As your reputation with a given faction increases they'll offer you greater help or even trophies, weapons, and equipment.

However there is always another path. A Person who rises through the levels while balancing his nefarious deeds against his helpful ones will likely find himself allying with bounty-hunters and explorers, cartographers and bandits. As well as many other groups with whom you can only gain faction while neutrally aligned. Again, however, once your reputation amongst them is high, you'll be offered special items and honors, just as much as any Dastard or Do-Gooder.

This allows players the freedom to be heroes, villains, or something in between.

[Conquerer Worm]

While I love this in theory, so often 'alignment' translates in RPGs as 'take the SNARKY dialogue choice, and do the quest anyway, with no real aftereffects.' Sounds like you're already on the right track with opening different contacts; will there be an actual game 'arc', for lack of a better term, especially endgame content, for those of us who really loathe our fellow man?  or at least, love him/her- in chains?

In simpler terms, aside from available contacts, will your alignment actually affect your interaction w/the world?

[Steampunkette]

Well first things first. Being a Dastard does not mean Puppy-Kicking Set-the Church-on-Fire Evil.

It means being a bad guy or a bad man. So most of the "Evil" path will be, for lack of a better term, Lawful-Evil. Doing the wrong thing for money or personal gain, not because you're a sadistic jerk who just enjoys inflicting pain on people. Some games that tout Good and Evil alignments presume either Sainthood or Full on EVIL.

We plan to have various factions in game. Some might be mercantile, others criminal or corrective such as Bandit Gangs and Posses.

Any person can gain faction points in any faction as long as their alignment matches the group and they are not members of opposing factions.

For now let's assume a simple -100 to 100 scale of alignment with negatives being "Dastardly". You want to join a posse of do-gooder cattle-rustler hunters. So you need an Alignment of Good (20) or better. So long as you have an alignment of 20 or more you can gain faction with that group by aiding them in their goals. If you perform some Dastardly acts and lose your alignment you can still -help- the Posse, but you'll gain no more faction with them until your alignment is 20 or better.

And the reverse is true for Dastardly alignments. Let's say you go to Peru on a Dastardly Pulp quest to help a corrupt government official protect his claim on a Copper mine by attacking the freedom fighters trying to take him down and free their relatives from supposed slavery. You'll gain faction points or reputation with the corrupt official's group. But only so long as you don't perform a series of good deeds, enough to cause the Official to question your loyalties.

So heroic characters and Villainous characters will ally themselves with different groups and perform different quests. To give a more direct answer I'll tell you about a currently planned area and how the different groups interact.

We plan to have a small community with a sudden population boom due to a gold strike in the area. Do-Gooders will try to stop bar-fights from getting deadly, fend of bandits, and eventually do their best to stop a group of villains from flooding the town by breaking a dam. Dastards will start bar-fights, fend the bandits off from -their- claims, and possibly go into a long instanced mission where they attempt to flood the town to destroy all the other claimants, taking the whole of the area for themselves.

So yes, Sometimes quests will overlap and simply have a different intro or enemy group involved. But sometimes they will be totally different.

-Rachel-

[Profit]

coal for the most profit

But...

but...

I don't work for coal...

[CabbyHat]

coal for the most profit

But...

but...

I don't work for coal...

XD

I've been watching way too much shoujo anime lately; I could see your lip wobbling cutely while I read that.

[Duralumin]

Anything, along these lines.
  
Adventurer/Indiana Jones type - Professional by day, grave robber on the weekends
Vigilante/Zorro/Robin Hood/Punisher/Batman^v/Wolverine^vv type - Very popular with the people, Very unpopular with the Sherriff
Hiding In Plain Site - Someone risking their life at both ends. eg. *Notorious bank robbers henchman who, lets the law know where the next bank robberys will be.
*Sherriff in who lets the train robbers know which payroll/gold trains will be heavily guarded.
*The honest politician who can't be bribed or keeps promises. < (I forgot no magical mythical entities.)

Or will these be the stuff of missions/quests that we would have to solve etc.?
^EDIT
v - he just beeeeeeend the rules while the police look the other way.
^vvhe kills people, and everyone look the other way

[Thrice Xandvii]

Very much liking the alignment system.  I especially like the fact that Neutral will be a valid alignment with factions.  So often you have Good and Bad and anything less than totally one way or the other is basically pointless.  You go about being excessively violent and snarky (and growing your goatee) in order to be Bad, or donate your services to the nearest Church and pet kitties until you are "virtuous" enough to get quests.  Either extreme, to me, is a bit unrealistic, so having the gray area actually mean something is awesome!

[Steampunkette]

Anything, along these lines.
  
Adventurer/Indiana Jones type - Professional by day, grave robber on the weekends
Vigilante/Zorro/Robin Hood/Punisher/Batman^v/Wolverine^vv type - Very popular with the people, Very unpopular with the Sherriff
Hiding In Plain Site - Someone risking their life at both ends. eg. *Notorious bank robbers henchman who, lets the law know where the next bank robberys will be.
*Sherriff in who lets the train robbers know which payroll/gold trains will be heavily guarded.
*The honest politician who can't be bribed or keeps promises. < (I forgot no magical mythical entities.)

Or will these be the stuff of missions/quests that we would have to solve etc.?
^EDIT
v - he just beeeeeeend the rules while the police look the other way.
^vvhe kills people, and everyone look the other way

You could play these personality archetypes, if you like. And the game's questing system will (more or less) accomodate them.

-Rachel-

[Ashe]

Will there be potential for double crossing?  For instance, going to Peru for the coal dude and then joining the rebels?

[Miyamoto]

I'm loving the alignment idea. The call for Neutrality will probably be where I go a Lone Wolf Bounty Hunter who shoots his target on site, and doesn't ask questions from either side Kinda like the new alien teammate on Mass Effect 2. I'd go in, take down the target, take down anyone pursuing me, get my reward, and probably eventually take down the guy who just paid me

Hm... that might actually make an interesting story... something like that, mixed with a steampunk scene.... man, I dunno if I'm gunna sleep unless I get on this D:< Thanks! xD

[Rattletrap]

-I quite enjoy faction mechanics in games when done correctly. ALignment, however, rarely is done good enough to warrant inclusion. It typically provides unrealistic limits for a player character that limits the options for the player. I hate having less options. While your system sounds good so far, let me give a bit more detail in what i would like to see.

Jacob "Rattletrap" Jones is a wandering mechanic. He goes from town to town, doing the jobs that keep him fed and his flask full. In the hillside town of Fen Hollow on the outskirts of San Fran, that means working for the mayor. Mayor Rothschild owns everything in that town. No one likes him, some have felt the harsh sting of his anger, but if you want paid you must work with the mayor. The mayor is a Dastard. More faction points with him = more work, so naturally Rattletrap wants to please the mayor to stay employed.

Rattletrap also visits the Redwire District of San Fran. Redwire is the street word for the newly-developed copper lacing that many a mad scientist uses in their experiments. This District is under the rule of law and order. A Do-Gooder by the name of Scott Redcloud keeps things quiet in this part of town. To get the good jobs from Redcloud, Rattletrap will need to be in his good graces and get all the faction points he can for continued employment.

In the above scenario, would your faction system prevent me from doing jobs/quests for rewards in both Fen Hollow and the Redwire District? Or does the faction system prevent me from playing my character in the way i prefer i.e. supporting certain groups that may not match my alignment? More options or less?

Good Journey

Rattletrap

[Steampunkette]

At the moment your alignment interferes with social groups and factions which support you.

In the example given both areas would also have work through alternate groups (we'd prefer not to limit anyone to specific areas, you see) and the ability to work with the leader within a specific range. As I offered up the 100 point and -100 point scale, some Do gooders might require a kinder soul than your character has in order to work with them. Meanwhile some dastards will require you to have a reputation before they'll accept your aid.

So Yes and No. Yes, being a Dastard can block you out of some content and the reverse is true. But also No, there will not be any place where you must be a Dastard or Do-Gooder to receive any missions whatsoever.

Now by the same token you could, if you so chose, run some Neutrally aligned tasks on your way through to Redwire, and some Good aligned ones offered by other patrons in the zone or other zones to build your alignment back up into the "Good" spectrum so that you can do Redcloud's tasks.

The system does have some limitations, but it also allows for more variety of character and storyline throughout your character's career.

-Rachel-