I have decided to write a book on running a single-class paladin campaign for OSR type games. Here is the introduction and opening section.
Introduction
The ‘old school’ playstyle imagines its protagonists as rogues: adventurers, tomb robbers, dungeoneers, vagabonds, vagrants, thieves. They gain power, fame and glory through the ill-gotten wealth they accrue. And they think it entirely appropriate to deploy murderous violence in pursuit of their ambitions. We are all familiar with their ilk; and, by and large, we love them.
This book, however, provides a means by which ‘old school’ gaming can be reconfigured, with the protagonists imagined not as rogues, but as the reverse: paladins, defined as those for whom their honour is more important than their lives. Whether or not they gain power, fame and glory is immaterial to them; whether they accrue wealth is a matter beneath contempt. What matters to them is virtue: pursuing truthfulness, justice, protection of the weak. And in that pursuit they ask not the number or size of their enemies, the distance they must travel, or the hardships they must endure. They ask only what is right.
This book
provides you with the basic building blocks for running such a reconfigured
‘old school’ campaign – with rules for creating paladin PCs and running
single-class paladin campaigns, tools for creating settings and sandboxes, and lists
of foes. It provides you with a complete overhaul of the basic conceptions of
‘old school’ play – but in a manner which will be instantly recognisable to
those who prefer the methods of gaming associated with the ‘old school renaissance’.
Some Questions
What is a Paladin?
A paladin, as stated in the introduction to this volume, is one for whom his honour is more important than his life.
This
definition is deliberately broad. A paladin is not necessarily (though he could
be) the chivalric knight that will inevitably have appeared in the mind of the
reader the instant this book’s title was read. Indeed, the concept of a dedicated
warrior who prizes virtue is both of ancient heritage and diverse lineage. It
encompasses, of course, the wandering knight-errant, but also the Japanese samurai,
the Homeric Greek hero, the laconic Spartiate, the gallant Sipahi, the proud hidalgo,
the Roman eques, the Bedouin warrior, the Youxia folk-hero, and much
more besides; such figures are indeed probably universal across societies of a particular
type and level of development. What unites these disparate figures is not
language or culture or background, but adherence to a particular set of values.
What are these values?
First, dedication to honour is distinct from dedication to glory. Glory means winning renown through great deeds. A paladin will sometimes perform great deeds, or at least attempt to do so, and may indeed win fame and status for doing so. But this is not his main aim. His goal is to live honourably: to know, and be known for, abiding by a moral code irrespective of the personal risk it entails.
Second, dedication
to honour means behaving honourably: treating others fairly, justly, compassionately.
It does not mean treating them as equals, and nor does it mean treating them
well; what isa fair or just way to treat a defenceless old beggar woman who has stolen a
loaf of bread is different to what is a fair or just way to treat to a hardened outlaw who has
kidnapped a child. What behaving honourably means, simply, is behaving towards
others – once again – in accordance with a moral code.
And third, dedication to honour requires honesty in all things. This goes beyond ‘mere’ truthfulness, though truthfulness is an important facet of honesty. Honesty also means trustworthiness; it means integrity; it means loyalty; and it means sincerity. It means acting in good faith as an end in itself, even when there is no likelihood that one will be treated in good faith in return. It means staying true to one’s word, in all things and at all times. It means approaching the world with frankness.
A paladin’s outward appearance, the place from which he comes, the language which he speaks, what he chooses to call himself, and so on, may affect the nature of the external moral standards to which he attempts to abide. But the core values listed above are characteristics that paladins share in all societies, cultures and backgrounds where they are found.
The remaining question to ask is, what does a paladin do?
There are two answers to this question, and they are at odds with one another.
The first is that a paladin does good in the world. He is physically and spiritually strong, and there are many who are weak and in need of protection. He therefore dedicates his strength to those who are weaker, so that they may live in a place of greater safety than it would otherwise be. He is their shield and sword.
The second,
however, is that a paladin usually serves. One usually derives one’s
status as a paladin from becoming enmeshed in a web of loyalty to higher temporal
authorities – whether a king, lord, military order, religious institution, or
the like. Yet it is the way of the world that men of honour rarely occupy
positions of high office, and such positions are intrinsically corrupting of
those who hold them. Since this is so, and since a paladin must abide by his
oaths of fealty in all things, he might find himself required to carry out
tasks that are orthogonal – or even opposed – to his conception of the good. Every
paladin must therefore wrestle with the need to loyally and faithfully serve those
to whom one he fealty while also staying true to the other strictures of his
moral code. In a world filled with deceit and danger this is rarely if ever
straightforward.
Intriguing. Are you going to have what are effectively subclasses to create different honor bound characters? I.e. a Ronin vs. d'Artagnan vs. a sort of mystically protected knight (which is more akin to the traditional D&D Paladin).
ReplyDeleteHaving characters bound to various temporal authorities vs. mystical or religious ones might create a sort of matrix of different character options when combined with the various cultural honor backgrounds.
Basically yes.
DeleteI'm interested to see what you develop. You're tapping an idea that was widespread among the earliest D&D players: D&D characters become Heroes (the level-4 Fighting Man) and are against the Baddies. The "old-school" notion that D&D was (supposed to be) picaresque, in the sense that it was about roguish ne-er-do-wells, is pretty recent. Grognardia, fascinated by pulp fiction antecedents, popularized the idea that "old-school" D&D is picaresque only late in 2008. The earliest reference to picaresque anything in published D&D that I can find without trying much is from the 2e era, with Marco Volo: Departure, of 1994, where picaresque means "light-hearted but never farcical or slapstick, in the style of Dumas," or the Forgotten Realms novel of 1995, _Once Around the Realms: A Picaresque Romp_, by Brian Thomsen. Grognardia contrasted the picaresque with epic. So my question for you is this: Are you going for epic? Is a game about honor and service likely to lack humor? I'm guessing you see it as more complicated than that.
ReplyDeleteIn Blackmoor the players stopped worrying about fighting the baddies because they liked looting the dungeon so much, and Arneson punished them for this by having the baddies take over the town. The "we're looking for loot" goes to the beginning of the hobby, as XP-for-GP shows.
DeleteTrue. But in the first instance they needed loot to fund their campaigns against the baddies. Also, "we need funds for the war" is not "picaresque."
DeleteThe Blackmoor players preferred getting the loot to fighting the war. The rules made getting the loot central to the game. The mode of play common in the mid to late 70s as documented in Alarums and Excursions is of players bringing PCs to each other's large dungeons to collect treasure and magic items.
DeleteYou introduced the term picaresque into this discussion. I would say early play is partially inspired by a simplified form of some of the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Dying Earth and Conan stories, which share characteristics with picaresque novels, but "picaresque" is a red herring that you introduced, so we shouldn't focus on it. We should focus on the characteristics of early play.
You're right! I did introduce the term picaresque into the discussion, whereas noisms was talking only about rogues. I'm so used to hearing "rogues" described as "picaresque" these days... No, it wasn't a red herring, because I wasn't trying to be misleading intentionally. It was just my mistake to construe it that way. I've read A&E and I am aware of the range of playstyles from those days. There were heroes in addition to treasure-seekers. A long-term issue for D&Ders is that heroism and treasure-seeking are often at odds, especially with Lawful characters, such as paladins from early '75. That's what noisms is after, as I'm sure we agree. Anyway, my question to noisms remains, if it's worth discussion: is this paladin-only game going for an epic style? A more serious style?
DeleteI'm tinkering with a sort of "Witcher monster-slaying and politics in Sengoku-era Japan" game, and I'm definitely interested to see your take on porting OSR play into a heroic context.
ReplyDeleteOne of the variants included is a Sengoku-era Japan style setting.
DeleteI think you've identified maybe the key tension for paladins/knight - Honour their code vs Duty to their liege. If we define "tragedy" as circumstances where the protag must make an impossible choice, then the possibility for tragedy is baked into the paladin's nature. That said, I get the impression you're not after tortured psychodrama.
ReplyDeleteThe thing I don't love about this, from a game perspective, is that the tension only triggers if the (NPC) liege requires the paladin to do something that would otherwise violate their oath. That feels cheap if it's entirely driven by the DM. So maybe there's a random encounter, escalating threat element to it? (a paladin is unlikely to follow a lord that starts out as a murderous psychopath) Ideally, this meta-trap would be signposted before triggering. Obviously the tension could trigger mid-session under all sorts of circumstances, but I think there could also be a downtime element too.
It's easier if we treat the tragedy as inevitable and mechanical-first. Then you could use something simple like The Black Hack's usage die to countdown/ramp up the tension.
Yes, there definitely has to be a random element to this - I totally agree. The 'honour economy' as it were has to focus on tensions between doing what has been ordered and staying true to the code.
DeleteThis idea is very appealing to me. I hope you develop it and publish it so that I may run this as a campaign. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteGreat - that's my plan, for sure. My problem is that a 'small' idea like this rapidly becomes huge as I start to write it.
DeleteI would almost certainly play this!
ReplyDeleteI really like qualities you ascribe to the true paladin, of honor, the doing of real, tangible good, and the idea of service. I’m going to attempt to articulate why, probably not very well. Bear with me.
In some of your posts you discuss this culture we have that has embraced moral relativism and the anti-hero. I wonder if some of the attraction we have to characters like the paladin is because we’ve been fed so many anti-heroes. I also think it likely has something to do with the increasingly grey world we live in, where there are things like “alternate truths.”
At one point a while back (I cannot remember the post), in the comments on this blog I mentioned a quote from David Foster Wallace, something about how in a culture that is filled with fatally cool anti-heroes, the new “rebels” will reject irony and embrace earnestness. I’m not going to go look it up, but it’s something I’ve been experimenting with in my own writing, and I’ve thought more than once that the world needs more earnestness, more people operating in good faith no matter what. The paladin is a character who does this.
As for the doing of good – I think often our efforts to do actual good in the real world can feel small and useless. I’m going to hearken back to your last post as well a bit – the one about the article criticizing Yoon Suin. Someone much, much more intelligent than me who was responding to this criticism on Reddit wrote this:
“… some theory is worse than useless, if all it is for is to make ourselves feel better by externalizing evil onto some theoretical enemy.
“When we take action to try and do positive things, our efforts can seem small and futile. Because one day volunteering at a homeless shelter does nothing to end homelessness. When we measure our effort against the results, it feels like nothing.
“But when we stick to abstract support for symbolic values, there's nothing to measure it against. Our symbolic fight against evil can feel important and valuable, because there's no need to measure its impact.”
Doing real, actual good is hard, and it often doesn’t feel like you’ve accomplished much vs purely abstract support for some notion of “good” which is what makes that abstract support so seductive! I think it is key that the paladin does physical, tangible good in the world!
Your last point about the paladin being a servant is also key. I rarely get a chance to participate in RPGs as a player (something of a forever DM) but when I do I tend to lean towards characters who are unambiguously “good” or who are at least trying to be good, no matter how confusing the world is. One of the last characters I felt like I really inhabited and became kind of attached to was a statesman who was a classic humanist who tried to do the most good for the most people. A true believer in the principles of honesty and democracy. A politician who hadn’t compromised his morals and who didn’t lie, and who actually believed and acted as if he was a servant. What we wish our politicians were, I guess.
Certainly, he was a paladin, as you describe them here.
At any rate, I look forward to seeing how this project shapes up – please do keep us posted!
Yes - on the point about the anti-hero, I've recently been watching some of the Soft White Underbelly interviews on YouTube during my lunch break at work. One thing that has disturbed me reading the comments to some of these videos is that the character of the pimp - truly one of the most evil professions in the world - has become cast as a figure almost of aspiration. We live in a time at which doing evil is celebrated; it isn't just that people are unwilling to judge. Their judgement is actually skewed in the objectively wrong direction.
Delete(I don't blame the owner of the channel for this - his interviews are excellent.)
Doing good is hard - it's like that old story about the girl walking with her father on the beach strewn with thousands of star fish who have been washed ashore in a storm. She is painstakingly picking them up one by one and putting them into rock pools. Her father asks, 'Why are you doing that? There are hundreds of thousands of star fish on the beach. You can't save them all.'
'No, but I can save these ones,' she says. A corny story but one which has an important truth in it.
I had not heard of Soft White Underbelly- looks like it's in the best tradition of Studs Terkel - I love stuff like this, so thank you!
DeleteTreasure seeking rogues is a behavior naturally emergent from the rules of the game. Encouraging paladin style heroics often must be mechanically encouraged through methods that are much more dependent on DM fiat (e.g., milestone or story XP, punitive response to violating alignment as adjudicated by the DM).
ReplyDeleteDo you think you can design mechanics that better preserve player agency and lean less on "DM as Solomon" while still rewarding thematic play?
One thing that always strikes me as I read about honor systems is how obvious the correct response to a situation is to people in that culturally defined system... even if baffling to those outside of it. So if there is an honor code, it seems possible to have a little chart for that code that says if x then y, which could either grant xp or have an in game +/- (in addition to any reputational issues that may arise).
Deletee.g. if challenged to single combat, must accept or lose face. If in combat must challenge to single combat, or otherwise draw attention (like in a party against a dragon). If presented with a situation of monetary gain, must dispose of it in an appropriate fashion ad so on.
In that way the player knows how to behave, and it would not be strictly GM fiat that gives XP or bonuses. (or perhaps more likely, removes said XP or bonuses for players behaving in the usual way and not as their honor system would demand.)
In stories about honour, behaving honourably is often a challenge and an achievement because the characters are tempted to behave otherwise.
DeleteWith a chart, and with punishments for going against it (of appropriate severity, that outweighs just taking the proverbial money and running), it's no longer tempting, and it's just a matter of referencing the chart. Giving away valuable money because you'll get docked even more valuable XP otherwise isn't acting with honour, it's just a cost-benefit decision.
Agreed. XP for honor, XP penalty for dishonor, no mention of "good and bad" morality, which is an eternal debate, but rather focus on honorable and dishonorable using a code clear enough to be adjudicated without a level of wisdom in excess of the average DM.
DeleteYes - the basic idea is that the PCs belong to an 'Order' which has a moral code comprising 3-5 broad principles. Violate the principles and you get docked a fixed amount of XP.
DeleteIt might be complained that this is just a 'cost-benefit' decision but that's like saying that the XP for gold system, or for that matter XP for monster kills, is 'just a cost-benefit system'. If one thinks it's illegitimate for that kind of mechanic to influence player decision-making (which I am open to be persuaded by) then it is illegitimate across the board and there should be no XP system, or an XP system purely based on subjective goals.
You could always split it up. Provide situations where making honourable choices is suboptimal and reduces your chance of survival, but having a high 'Honor' score will unlock both prestige and possibly even a rare martial aura of glory, or divine favor or something like that. A mundane and a supernatural axis.
DeleteIntriguing. I need to think about that more. I like the idea of having an XP system alongside an 'honour points' system and the two being traded off against each other somehow.
DeleteDual resources is indeed interesting. The point about true honor being found when it isn't the outcome of cost benefit analysis is fair in real life, but not relevant to a game. If you want story-telling hour, D&D and it's ilk are poor fits. If you want a game where good play is honorable play, you need an incentive.
DeletePerhaps this analogy is strained, but without some system of mechanical benefits, being honorable is like living lavishly or conquering the hearts of beautiful maidens - important things in the real world that motivate great efforts, but unexciting rewards for the player whose PC experiences them.
Yes, I agree entirely - very astute observations.
Deletenoism, I'm amazed you don't see a fundamental difference between XP for gold and XP for honour.
DeleteXP for gold meant to encourage people to act like self-interested rogues seems perfectly appropriately driven by cynical cost-benefit decisions.
XP for honour meant to encourage people to act like the honourable characters from stories about paladins and such seems to achieve that behaviour only externally: the characters might well act as prescribed by the awards chart, but the players will still be driven by the same incentives as in the selfish rogues game, i.e. what is best for me, giving me most XP?
I'm not saying there should be no game benefits, only that it's not as simple as swapping out gold and swapping in honour, and leaving the entire dynamic otherwise the same.
Maybe it's as simple as framing things such that everyone is clear that whoever has most honour is winning the game, not whoever is the highest level. Indeed, arguably high honour with low level is more impressive than the same honour with high level, for the same reason beating Dark Souls without leveling is even more impressive than beating it normally.
So what I want to do is play a character whose highest aspiration is to cap off a life of honour with an honourable death. If you can pull of an incentive structure that makes me go "Yes! I died right!" when my paper man is killed, then you'll have made something great.
ReplyDeleteThat's the plan!
DeleteAnd maybe such a death could provide some OOC benefit to the PC’s next character, and/or to the adventuring group. (?) - Jason Thompson
DeleteYes, that's a cool idea.
DeleteAllow the player to retain their XP total, and maybe reward extra XP for the encounter where they heroically sacrifice themselves (or otherwise die honorably). None of this "start again at 1st level, 0 xp" or "start again but 1 level lower" stuff.
DeleteNot sure why I can't log in to comment. This is Dennis Laffey.
As an alternate to “when you die honorably you gain XP for your next character”… maybe there isn’t a direct XP benefit but the Honor Score of departed PCs provides some benefit in a storygamey/meta game sense. Hear me out! XD For example, stories of the departed PC’s deeds could have SUCH power that they provide a bonus to diplomacy/charisma-type skills when the dead one’s exploits are mentioned. Or NPC followers & charities naturally accrue, following the legend of the honorable one. - Jason Thompson
DeleteI endorse this. I have thought about playing a paladin-only or some kind of 'knightly' game many times, I have a great love of all Arthurian stories and the Pendragon RPG, however it is a very different game from D&D in many ways. Paladin-D&D would be great so I don't have to get good with another game system.
ReplyDeleteHere are some thoughts/questions I had. Not trying to trip you up, I'm really wondering how these things can be solved:
Re: Honour
I have noticed that when I try to portray honour-based cultures or NPCs in my games, the players mainly react as if these people are retarded. Of course this could be my failure to portray them well, but it seems like the reaction of safe, well-fed urbanites to what would otherwise be a common human viewpoint. How to convey a different worldview to the players well enough that they can make decisions and relate to NPCs? When composing your answer, please keep in mind that players are generally lazy, illiterate churls.
Re: Challenge, DM guidelines
This would be a concern in any single-classed D&D game. D&D is a game of teamwork. So how does one write adventures or create dungeons, wilderness areas, etc. that are playable with only one class? Even if we discount the thief, how many classic adventures could you do with no clerics or magic-users (the easiest example is that the numbers of humanoid groups seem calibrated for the sleep spell, to say nothing of dispel magic or other utilities)? Will the challenges/monsters get repetitive? How would a paladin game work at 1st level compared to 5th, 10th or above?
Re: Alignment
Just a suggestion, you might look at what Melan uses in Helveczia. Rather than a grid, it's a linear track with virtue at one end, and vice at the other.
Regarding the lazy, illiterate churls - I agree. To a certain extent it needs buy-in, which you can't really legislate for. But you can get buy-in by explaining things clearly, succinctly and interesteringly - which is where the actual text comes in!
DeleteChallenge/variety/teamwork is the hard part, for sure. I would like to avoid having 'kits' or lots of sub-classes but this may ultimately be inescapable.
OH also, Huso muses on this subject on his blog here for those interested - https://www.thebluebard.com/post/murder-hobos-xp-driving-behavior
ReplyDeleteI read Gene Wolfe's Wizard Knight books earlier this year, the protagonist is obsessed with honor and knighthood and what exactly that means. One interesting thread that runs through the novels is the oaths the main character makes and the consequences he receives for breaking them. For a paladin focused game I'd like to see mechanical benefits for the making of oaths and consequences for breaking them.
ReplyDeleteYes, definitely. I'm a big Wizard Knight fan, and that book was probably responsible for sparking this idea in my head.
DeleteFascinating idea! Looking forward to seeing what comes out of it. Has echoes of Chris McDowall's work in progress Mythic Bastionland to me (where all the PCs are knights), but more setting-generic (and more compatible with B/X and its ilk, sounds like?)
ReplyDeleteYes, setting-generic and B/X compatible is the idea. Basically a OSR game but with the assumption that the PCs are goodies rather than amoral rogues.
DeleteHiawatha and Robin Hood could be considered paladins. In fact, Hiawatha is so classed in the AD&D Deities & Demigods Cyclopedia.
ReplyDeleteRobin Hood, so far from being a kind-hearted bandit, defended his fellow loyal and suffering subjects of the good and lawful king, Richard, against the chaotic and evil depredations of the usurper, John.
Consider C. S. Lewis's second Narnia book, Prince Caspian. Sometimes God's forces of goodness and law have no choice but to live as outlaws in the wilderness when wicked forces wrest power from the just. Heck, in the Bible the good guys are rarely in power.
Good points, which raise the old question as to whether there is a 'natural law' or not.
Delete