Alignments

In the D&D world, there is a concept called character alignment. This basically defines how the character should behave and should guide the character's actions. Here are descriptions of each alignment with a familiar character to help you understand the differences:

1. Lawful good - This type of character follows the letter and spirit of the law. They don't lie, cheat, steal, or leave an injured person behind AND they will make personal sacrifice to help others. Jack (on Lost) and David Boreanaz as ANGEL are Lawful Good.
   
2. Neutral good - These characters will generally do good actions regardless of the law. If the law is oppressive, break it as long as you are doing good work. Ghandi was Neutral Good
   
3. Chaotic Good - He can be a rebel and does the right thing to make social change, no matter what the lay of the land is. Robin Hood is Chaotic Good
   
4. Lawful Neutral - Jack Bauer and Lost's Sayid are soldiers who follow all orders. Good and evil are not their worries, rather, they are bound by honor and order. For this reason, they are Lawful Neutral.
   
5. Neutral - Han Solo is Neutral. Not good or evil. Not Lawful or unlawful. Just neutral on all fronts. He became more lawful good after that whole freezing incident, but who wouldn't?
   
6. Chaotic Neutral - On Lost, Hurley is Chaotic Neutral and so is Cap'n Jack Sparrow. They don't want to cause harm to others nor do they really care about the law. They are free spirits and act out of self-interest.
   
7. Lawful Evil - Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men is chillingly lawful evil. He has his own code based on when or when not to kill. Other people live or die by it, but he keeps his word and kills when his code tells him to kill.
   
8. Neutral Evil - Lost's Sawyer is this alignment. They will only do harmful acts when it benefits them but won't be bothered if they don't. They form temporary alliances and likely to sit out major fights or battles if they have nothing to gain. Keep them at arm's length and know that they will turn on you once they have what they need.
   
9. Chaotic Evil - These crazy bastards will chop your head off just for the hell of it. Only fear keeps them in line and they're too crazy to fear much. Keep one eye on them and move quick if you see them headed toward you. Lex Luthor and David Boreanaz as ANGELOUS are Chaotic Evil.
   

This is why I'm a noob...

Alright, when we last left off in the adventure, my group of 4 was trying to get an unconscious spy back to our ship without drawing attention...

WHAT WE DID
We disguise the person, two of us disguise ourselves, and the we duck in and out of alleys, down streets, and around buildings, etc to try to get her back for interrogation. After all that, we had to get by a guarded tower up to our ship. Well, eventually - after a bunch of really odd behavior which would call attention to ANYONE, we got back to the ship, but lost the unconcious spy...

WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE DONE
Two of us can cast invisibility spells. We should have made the entire party invisible and walked back undetected with no problem. DUH!!!! This occurs to me only AFTER getting back to the ship and lamenting all the errors in our general strategy.

We spent like 2 hours trying to get back to that damn ship and bring the spy with us. We could have walked right in undetected and it would have taken 1/5 of the time if we were invisible. GOOD GRIEF!!!!

I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell.

We'll do better next time.

More ass-kicking to come

This week Daniel was walking around having little adventures by himself and cackling to himself. I have learned that this usually means our group is going to catch some hell. I don't know what we have to do, but its going to be rough. We usually don't discuss D&D too much during the week, other than if my character needs to shop or I need him to tell me where to find stuff in one of his books. His cackling left me uneasy...

Gamers love their books. These books are hard-cover textbooks; the heart and soul of the game. They rely on them for order and logic. When a new rules book surfaces, gamers will make their way to the game store the day its released to the public because they have to plan the next campain adventure arond this new book. Many gamers get the info online before its even sold publicly and then buy the book for future reference because one day someone will ask a question or challenge a rule and they can't get to a computer - but the book will be there. There are discussion boards for groups who discuss these books to debate the nuances of each rule so that there is a "we're all on the same page" understanding. There are volumes and volumes of these books all with necessary information depending on your campaign setting. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TRY TO PLAY THIS GAME WITHOUT THE BOOKS. Without these books, the game goes to hell. Even with them it goes to hell sometimes. Players will try to use the books to rules-rape their way into a character who will in time be more powerful than super culinary/comedy god Anthony Bourdain, or sexy news god Keith Olbermann or hunky actor god Denzel Washington, or young up-and-coming-dancing-cutie god Chris Brown, or teen-alien god Jason Behr (I think I've made my point). Where was I??? Oh yeah, the books. If you don't follow the rules in the books, someone's head will explode. And no one wants that.

N-G Follow-Up

• Campaign - no, its not like politics. A role-playing campaign is a connected series of adventures played with the same characters. Its like a soap opera where the writers keep kicking people's asses on a regular basis. Only in the game, the GM is the writer and we get our asses kicked by NPCs.
• Rules-rape - yes, that is an overly harsh way of saying that someone is outrageously violating the rules to develop a super-powerful character. This does not make GMs happy and they will continue to kick everyone's characters' asses until the violator gets it in gear. This can be an agonizingly long time since the violators never think they're the problem and will usually argue with the GM, thus inviting more ass kickings.
  

More on People

OK, so more people...

Erin-this is me. In my spare time I enjoy pondering the big, important questions in life like, "What is my true purpose on Earth", "If Daniel married me, would we kill each other after a year?" or "I wonder if that drag queen's breasts are real?"
Justin - the asshole. He wants to be "Mr. Funtime", witty and quick, but he's more of an annoyance than he realizes. I don't know what he does for a living and I'm fine with that.
Kathy - She's a database specialist and the only other girl in our group. She's been playing for about two years, I think and she's pretty cool. She keeps me honest and she'll probably try to break my OCD, but that won't happen soon. Our characters work together as an assassin team - we kick ass.
Michael - He's an engineer who is a recent newlywed. He's very quick-witted and always has a smile or a laugh AND his wife is always sending something she baked. If I hang around him long enough, I'll gain all my weight back...
Paul - Paul hosts our game each week and I think he's an engineer, too. Paul is a very thoughtful person and is VERY helpful for some like me who hasn't played long. He's also the best with one-liners.

We game again tomorrow and I don't think Justin will be there. Should be a productive game session.

Back in action

So, I have been absent for about 2 weeks and here's the scoop... So, remember how I said there was a jerky kinda guy in our gamer group right now? Well, things came to a head for me about two weeks ago. Its not that this kid is bad, its just that he REALLY NEEDS attention and well, I am the gamer diva with the GM boyfriend. Who would really think that could fly with me? This kid is perfectly aggravating with his attempts to be the "funny, cool guy". So I completely lost my cool and had to skip a week to get my act together. The skipped week was good for me because I got a pedicure AND went shoe shopping!!! Also, a couple of people said that they wanted me to come back and it felt good to know I was at least missed and that they weren't just putting up with me because I was the GM's girlfriend.

I returned on Sunday and helped my group catch a spy who was following us. I ROCKED - I faded into shadow, climbed up a building, ambushed the spy and beat her with with my sap. I was able to subdue her long enough for the rest of my group to get to us and get her tied up. We now have to figure out some way to get her back to our boat. The best part is, the kid who was so disruptive has to be in character the whole time. The game went so much better and I really felt like I did something for once. Also, rather than stand around talking, I took my own car and was able to leave when it was over. I love talking, but not at 10 PM on a work night... (yes, I am old. what of it?)

OK, so its about time you hear about some of the people in our group.
Clay - he was the GM for the last game this group played (before Daniel and I joined). He does IT something or other and is basically a repository for any kind of information you need. Its really uncanny all the info he's got in his head from chemistry to anime. He is my new go-to guy when I need to prove I am right.
Daniel - he's my boyfriend and the GM. He accidentally glued a skeleton to his finger once. I laughed, he got mad, I took a picture.
Doug - Doug is an engineer and is running a game before Daniel's. He hurt his knee and a few weeks ago and got high on pain pills. He's normally pretty funny and VERY quick-witted. He was even funnier high. I hope he's in pain again soon.