What Dungeons & Dragons is and can be

I’ve sometimes found it difficult to explain exactly what D&D means to me to quote-unquote “normal” people, but I decided recently that I want to try to find the words. Many people don’t really understand what it is, or how people can form such strong attachments to their characters. Even my parents, who are open and understanding people by nearly any standard, had trouble understanding just what it meant to us.

I vividly remember losing my first ever character when I was in my late teens. I came home looking despondent and distant, and my mother asked what was wrong. When I told her my character had died, she smiled and responded that “it’s just a game, you can always play again.” I just shook my head at the time, knowing that she didn’t get it. Couldn’t get it. But I’m going to make an attempt to help the rest of you get it now.

With the recent shift in modern television towards more dark and gritty content, I think I am in a better position to make the attempt. Do you remember when your favourite character died in Game of Thrones, or The Walking Dead, or some other television or novel series? That sinking feeling you get when you watch a character you’ve grown attached to and spent a dozen hours of your life watching leave you forever? Multiply that feeling by ten. That’s what it feels like to lose a D&D character, and for good reason. A D&D character isn’t just a fictional character that you become attached to. A D&D character is your character; a character you have guided, controlled, spoken for and cultivated relationships with for a hundred hours of your life or more. Your own tremendous effort, ingenuity, strategy and luck saw that character through innumerable trials and tribulations. That alone would be enough to make them more meaningful than most fictional characters for an individual player, but there’s more to it than that, too. These characters, when they’re done right, when they’re created a certain way, are a reflection of the player who created them. It’s not “them” exactly, but it could be a part of them. It could be the embodiment of their passions or convictions. It could be an exploration of their own morality, or a moral view that troubles them and bears study. It could be a part of themselves they struggle to express, but long to. We speak for them, we decide what they do, and how they feel. For all intents and purposes, they are us. In short, a character in D&D, or in any role-playing game for that matter, can have deep, personal significance to a player.

The relationships cultivated with friends in D&D are unlike anything I have ever experienced, before or since. How many times in your life have you risked yourself to save a friend? How many times have you stood with them against impossible odds, knowing that death is practically assured, because you refused to leave them behind? These sorts of things don’t often happen in our day-to-day lives, but they do in D&D. I know some people might scoff at that; it is just a game after all. Nobody is really losing anything. That’s where you’re very wrong. The average D&D session for us was about 6 hours in length, and we tried to meet every weekend. In high school, we met even more frequently for play sessions, and for longer periods of time. I have probably spent more time with my first D&D character than you have with any fictional character, ever (that campaign ran for over four years). Since characters can have such deeply personal roots and such a long history with us, their sacrifices are genuinely painful for us too. Characters very dear to me have stood between friends and certain death. I knew that I might be trading my character for theirs, and the thought of losing my character hurt profoundly, but it was worth it because theirs meant just as much to them. I had touching arguments with players out-of-game, telling them they had to go, that my own character was a lost cause and there was no point losing everyone, only to have them adamantly refuse.

“I‘m not leaving you behind.”

It’s amazing how much those five words can solidify and strengthen a friendship, even in this context. We refer to characters in those terms: I, you, we, us. Those moments, fictional or not, are meaningful. I knew my friend wasn’t just saying he wouldn’t leave my character behind, he was saying he wouldn’t leave me behind. He was saying he had my back, even when it would be easier for him not to have it, here or in the every-day world.

Of course, not everyone plays for that sort of emotional experience. Some people prefer to keep things light, and engage in some cooperative monster slaying, loot some bodies, and call it a day. There’s nothing wrong with that. My own home group has been moving more in that direction lately, possibly because we have a couple of new people who aren’t entirely comfortable with role-playing yet. That does sadden me, a little bit. But I can, without shame or reservation, say that playing D&D with my best friends in high school helped shape who I am and the relationships I cultivated, and helped me find my confidence. My friends and I stood together against insurmountable odds, carried each other, stuck together through thick and thin. We were more than friends; we were a team.

We should all be so lucky as to be D&D nerds growing up.

– Wes Rowley

On Alignment

Hello all,

Alignment is the subject of much debate among players of Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder, and a subject I find quite fascinating. The idea of a non-subjective morality is a challenging one to grasp, as morality itself can be so complex an idea. Is a character who makes sacrifices for the greater good truly good, or are they monstrously evil? Does it depend on the degree of sacrifice? Where does one draw the line? In my games, alignments are guidelines in place for the purpose of certain mechanics, not hard and fast restrictions. That way, if you or another player is having trouble picking an alignment,you can ask questions about what kinds of creatures he or she would be diametrically opposed to, and make a decision accordingly. A crusading zealot who takes their beliefs a step too far isn’t necessarily good, nor necessarily evil, but would probably still be an implacable enemy of all things evil. That being the case, it is logical to assign them a good alignment; that way, an evil creature could smite them, the spells that harm evil would be freely accessible to the player, and weapons or abilities that break evil damage reduction could be wielded without penalty.

Moral grey areas are quite common in modern entertainment, and with interest in fantasy settings on the rise, people are becoming more drawn to realistic, rounded characters that are difficult to pin down to a hard and fast objective moral stance. Terms like “good” and “evil” are used sparsely in such settings, because in our own modern lives we find little occasion to use them. By avoiding them, the setting feels more believable and engaging.

Another important thing to keep in mind with respect to character alignment is that an alignment does not necessarily govern how a character will react to every given situation. For example, Raistlin Majere from the Dragonlance book series shows great compassion and kindness to the physically disadvantaged and weak despite his evil nature, as he relates to their situation on a personal level. The Phantom of the Opera is a murderer who extorts money from the owners of his theatre home to survive, and yet he loves Christine with all his heart and soul, and would surely die to protect her. Evil does not mean that a character is incapable of love or having meaningful relationships. Even evil party members can develop camaraderie and / or affection for each other over time if under the right conditions. On the other side of the coin, a good character may be cowardly and fail to protect people who rely on them, despite their fervent desire to do so. A good character may be prejudiced against certain groups of people or hopelessly self-centered, despite being a force for good.

Below are some examples of MY INTERPRETATION of the alignments of some characters from popular culture, along with quotes that illustrate the core of their beliefs and / or the attitudes they embody. I highly recommend the source material for all of these characters, if you’re old enough. Keep in mind that alignment is subjective, and there are people who will disagree with me on these. That being said, these should give you an idea how to play a character of a given alignment, or what alignment best suits the character you’re picturing.

Lawful Good:

Batman

Batman: “People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy and I can’t do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man I’m flesh and blood, I can be ignored, I can be destroyed, but as a symbol, as a symbol I can be incorruptible. I can be everlasting.”

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The Joker: This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You truly are incorruptible, aren’t you? You won’t kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness.

Superman

Superman: I am Superman. I stand for truth, for justice, and for the future.

Ned Stark (Game of Thrones)

Eddard Stark: The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.

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Robert Baratheon: The whore is pregnant.

Eddard Stark: You’re speaking of murdering a child.

Robert Baratheon: I warned you this would happen, back in the North. I warned you, but you didn’t care to hear. Well, hear it now: I want them dead. Mother and child both, and that fool Viserys as well. Is that plain enough for you? I want them both dead.

Eddard Stark: You’ll dishonor yourself forever if you do this.

Robert Baratheon: Honor? I’ve got Seven Kingdoms to rule! One king, Seven Kingdoms! Do you think honor keeps them in line? Do you think it’s honor that’s keeping the peace? It’s fear! Fear and blood!

Eddard Stark: Then we’re no better than the Mad King!

Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Star Trek)

Captain Picard: “The Prime Directive is not just a set of rules; it is a philosophy … and a very correct one. History has proven again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilization, no matter how well intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous.”

Neutral Good:

Spiderman

Green Goblin: In spite of everything you’ve done for them, eventually they will hate you. Why bother?

Spider-Man: Because it’s right.

Sam Gamgee (Lord of the Rings)

Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.

Luke Skywalker (Star Wars)

Luke Skywalker: So. You got your reward and you’re just leaving, then?

Han Solo: That’s right, yeah. Got some old debts I gotta pay off with this stuff. Even if I didn’t, you don’t think I’d be fool enough to stick around here, do you? Why don’t you come with us? You’re pretty good in a fight. We could use you.

Luke Skywalker: Come on. Why don’t you take a look around. You know what’s about to happen, what they’re up against. They could use a good pilot like you, you’re turning your back on them.

Chaotic Good:

Robin Hood

Robin Longstride: Rise and rise again until lambs become lions.

Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Firefly)

Sir Warwick: You have to finish it, lad. You have to finish it. For a man to lay beaten… and yet breathing? It makes him a coward.

Inara: It’s humiliation.

Mal: Sure. It would be humiliating. Having to lie there while the better man refuses to spill your blood. Mercy is the mark of a great man.

[superficially pokes Atherton with the sword]

Mal: Guess I’m just a good man.

Captain James Tiberius Kirk (Star Trek)

Spock: [stuck in a volcano] We must maintain the Prime Directive…

James T. Kirk: Nobody knows the rules better than you, Spock, but sometimes exceptions have to be made!

Wolverine (X-Men)

Bobby: This is Cyclops’ car.

Wolverine: Oh, yeah?

[pops his middle claw, and uses it to turn the ignition]

Lawful Neutral:

Robocop

RoboCop: Let the woman go, you are under arrest. [Draws his gun]

Creep’s Buddy: You better back-up, pal! ‘Cuz… He’s gonna kill her… He’s gonna kill her!

[RoboCop tries to subdue the suspect without hurting the woman, aiming his gun around them both]

Creep’s Buddy: He’s gonna kill her, man! He, he’s gonna kill her!

[RoboCop shoots through the woman’s skirt and the Creep’s crotch, who then crumples to the ground screaming in pain]

RoboCop: Your move, Creep.

Creep: Oooow! Ooow! Ooooow!

[Lies on the ground wincing in pain and holding his groin]

Creep’s Buddy: Okay, okay, it’s okay! [surrenders]

Victim: Oh God. Thank you. Oh, thank you.

RoboCop: Madam, you have suffered an emotional shock. I will notify a rape crisis center.

Stereotypical Samurai

Takamasa Saegusa: ‘It is the way of the samurai to take the head of the defeated enemy on the battleground. Do not hesitate! If you are a samurai, you must carry out the duty of a samurai!’

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Yoshikawa: “Fighting isn’t all there is to the Art of War. The men who think that way, and
are satisfied to have food to eat and a place to sleep, are mere vagabonds. A
serious student is much more concerned with training his mind and disciplining
his spirit than with developing martial skills.”

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Hagakure: Life is not so important when forced to choose between life and integrity.

Stannis Baratheon (Game of Thrones)

Matthos Seaworth: …and I declare upon the honor of my House, that my beloved brother Robert left…

Stannis Baratheon: He wasn’t “my beloved brother”. I didn’t love him. He didn’t love me.

Ser Davos Seaworth: A harmless courtesy, your Grace.

Stannis Baratheon: A lie. Take it out.

[Matthos erases the word “beloved”]

Matthos Seaworth: …that my brother Robert left no trueborn heirs, the boy Joffrey, the boy Tommen, and the girl Myrcella, being born of incest between Cersi Lannister and her brother Jaime Lannister. By right of birth…

Stannis Baratheon: Jaime Lannister, the Kingslayer. Call him what he is.

[Matthos adds the words “the Kingslayer”.]

Matthos Seaworth: …and her brother Jaime Lannister, the Kingslayer. By right of birth and blood, I do this day lay claim…

Stannis Baratheon: Make it SER Jaime Lannister the Kingslayer. Whatever else he is, the man’s still a knight.

[Matthos adds the word “Ser”]

Matthos Seaworth: …Ser Jaime Lannister the Kingslayer. By right of birth and blood, I do this day lay claim to the Iron Throne of Westeros. Let all true men declare their loyalty.

Stannis Baratheon: When Eddard Stark learnt the truth, he told only me. I’ll not make the same mistake. Send copies of that letter to every corner of the realm, from the Arbor to the Wall. The time has come to choose. Let no man claim ignorance as an excuse.

Ser Davos Seaworth: Your Grace, the Lannisters are the true enemy. If, for the time being, you could make peace with your brother…

Stannis Baratheon: I’ll not make peace with Renly while he calls himself king.

True Neutral:

Treebeard (Lord of the Rings)

Treebeard: We Ents cannot hold back this storm. We must weather such things as we have always done.

Elrond (Lord of the Rings)

Elrond: This evil cannot be concealed by the power of the Elves. We do not have the strength to withstand both Mordor and Isengard. Gandalf, the Ring cannot stay here. This evil belongs to all of Middle-Earth. They must decide now how to end it. The time of the Elves is over, my people are leaving these shores.

Dr. Manhattan (Watchmen)

Dr. Manhattan: [remembering Janey while on Mars] Janey accuses me of chasing jailbait. She bursts into angry tears, asking if it’s because she’s getting older. It’s true. She’s aging more noticeably every day – while I am standing still. I prefer the stillness here. I am tired of Earth. These people. I am tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives.

Chaotic Neutral:

Rocket (Guardians of the Galaxy)

Rocket Raccoon: That’s for if things get really hardcore. Or if you wanna blow up moons.

Gamora: No one’s blowing up moons.

Rocket Raccoon: You just wanna suck the joy out of everything.

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[Quill has just retrieved the prosthetic leg Rocket asked for in order to break out of prison]

Rocket Raccoon: You actually got it? I was just kidding about the leg, I just thought it’d be funny!

Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Carribean)

Jack Sparrow: Me? I’m dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It’s the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they’re going to do something incredibly… stupid.

Tyler Durden (Fight Club)

Tyler Durden: Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let… lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.

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Tyler Durden: Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who’ve ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.

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Tyler Durden: Reject the basic assumptions of civilization, especially the importance of material possessions.

Early Han Solo (Star Wars)

Princess Leia Organa: It’s not over yet.

Han Solo: It is for me, sister. Look, I ain’t in this for your revolution, and I’m not in it for you, Princess. I expect to be well paid. I’m in it for the money.

Lawful Evil:

Darth Vader (Star Wars)

Darth Vader: Luke, you do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy.

Alexander Pierce, Hydra Leader (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

Alexander Pierce: I can bring order to the lives of seven billion people by sacrificing twenty million. It’s the next step, Nick. If you have the courage to take it.

Predator (Predator, Predator 2, Alien vs Predator, etc)

Sebastian de Rosa: Thousands of years ago, these hunters found a backwater planet. They taught humans how to build, and were worshiped as gods. Every hundred years, the gods would return. And when they did, they would expect a sacrifice. Humans were used to breed the ultimate prey. The hunters would battle with these great serpents to prove themselves worthy to carry the mark. But if the hunters lost, they made sure nothing survived. An entire civilization wiped out overnight.

Neutral Evil:

Riddick (The Chronicles of Riddick, Pitch Black)

Riddick: Don’t bother. Guards ain’t there. They figured out the Necros are comin’ for me. Plan was to clean the bank, ghost the mercs, break wide for the tunnel. And then somebody got a lucky shot off with this rocket launcher here… and took out the sled. Guards took off on foot but rigged the door so no one could follow. They’ll take the one ship in the hangar and leave everyone else to die.

Toombs: How come you know all this shit? You weren’t even here.

Riddick: Cause it was my plan.

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Richard B. Riddick: Remember that favorite game of yours?

Kyra: “Who’s the Better Killer?”

Richard B. Riddick: Let’s play.

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Johns: Battlefield doctors decide who lives and dies. It’s called ‘triage’.

Riddick: They kept calling it ‘murder’ when I did it.

Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish (Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire)

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS*

Petyr: So many men, they risk so little. They spend their whole lives avoiding danger, and then they die. I’d risk everything to get what I want.

Sansa Stark: And what do you want?

Petyr ‘Littlefinger’ Baelish: [pauses] Everything.

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Petyr ‘Littlefinger’ Baelish: I have only loved one woman, only one, my entire life.

[Lysa stops whimpering and smiles]

Petyr ‘Littlefinger’ Baelish: Your sister.

[Lysa’s smile fades and she stares at Littlfinger in horror, only now realizing he has been using her all along. Before she can react, he pushes her backwards. She falls screaming through the Moon Door to her death]

Jayne (Firefly)

Jayne Cobb: Ain’t logical. Cuttin’ on his own face, rapin’ and murdering – Hell, I’ll kill a man in a fair fight… or if I think he’s gonna start a fair fight, or if he bothers me, or if there’s a woman, or if I’m gettin’ paid – mostly only when I’m gettin’ paid. But these Reavers… last ten years they show up like the bogeyman from stories. Eating people alive? Where’s that get fun?

Chaotic Evil:

The Joker (Batman, the Dark Knight)

Alfred Pennyworth: some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

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The Joker: [to Det. Stephens] Do you want to know why I use a knife? Guns are too quick. You can’t savor all the… little emotions. In… you see, in their last moments, people show you who they really are. So in a way, I know your friends better than you ever did. Would you like to know which of them were cowards?

Alex (Clockwork Orange)

Alex: “And, my brothers, it was real satisfaction to me to waltz-left two three, right two three-and carve left cheeky and right cheeky, so that like two curtains of blood seemed to pour out at the same time, one on either side of his fat filthy oily snout in the winter starlight.”

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Alex: “To devastate is easier and more spectacular than to create.”

Patrick Bateman (American Psycho)

Patrick Bateman: I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust. Something horrible is happening inside of me and I don’t know why. My nightly bloodlust has overflown into my days. I feel lethal, on the verge of frenzy. I think my mask of sanity is about to slip.

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Patrick Bateman: My need to engage in homicidal behaviour on a massive scale cannot be corrected but, uh, I have no other way to fulfill my needs.