At the PAX DW panel, Adam Koebel brought up the idea of using racial moves in a world without multiple races to represent things like what clan or nation you belong to.
Which got me thinking; how about using alignment moves to represent something besides alignment? For instance, instead of picking an alignment, what if you had to pick a deity? I think it’d be an interesting way of setting up the gods of a setting, since you’d have to look at the gods from the point of view of “what kinds of champions do they pick” and “which gods support which classes”.
Fighter Gods
Pelor: Stand in defense of the innocent.
Kord: Defeat an opponent stronger than yourself.
Iuz: Lose half your hit points and keep fighting without healing.
Nerull: Kill someone weaker than yourself.
Brad Trnavsky Most of the time it seems like “Deity” is just a line to fill in on your sheet with no further thought put to things. If you exist in a world where the gods are real and can interact with you directly, then I’d imagine there’d be more to worship than simple lip service.
Paging Jim DelRosso …
I dig it. You’d want to write a bunch of deity moves that weren’t tied to a class, too, to give players the same sort of flex they have in DW. And switching between gods could carry a lot more heft than switching between alignments, but I think that’s one of those good problems.
The Raven Queen: End the life of one who would end yours.
Avandra: Win advantage by leaping boldly into battle.
I’ve taken to writing alignment moves that use less “morality-centric” adjectives as names, such as “Unflinching: Make the hard decision that no-one else can” or “Martyrous: Abandon the support of your friends and allies for their own good.”
Oh this! I very like this!
I’m all about the alternatives to alignments!
Keep them coming, and if I manage to poop some out of my head, I’ll share them, too.
I have been leaning toward letting players write their own versions, in the spirit of the examples given, with the idea of “reveal what drives your character”. And allowing players to change them in the End of Session move like Bonds, or Keys from Shadow of Yesterday.