Dark or Dumb (but first an update)

The editing on the e-book is complete. I have to do up the first few pages of the book, which would be the blurb/sample, the copyright page, a title page, that sort of thing. Then I mess it all up fixing the text styles, cut out my beloved double space because no one uses them in publishing no matter how handy they are on the eyes, and bang and beat the book into a pdf file. So, as I surmised a while ago, the e-book will be available in the new year, not before. It's just as well. I have to organise my advertising campaign.

I was doing some writing for my Rifts game, though not on the big super gaming week extravaganza. I hope in January to get things really rolling again. That'll mean some changes, but nothing extraordinary. Most of what it means is getting off my butt and getting things moving, and I'm not talking about just missions. I want to hit all the untapped possibilites of such a dynamic group. One thing I'm considering is the alignments of some of the characters. I'm embroild in a heated debate with myself over what exactly should be expected of a diabolic alignment, then from there I can decide how I want to handle it.

The problem lies in that if you take it as things that the character must always do, and ways they must always be like, then someone who fits the diabolic category pretty much has to be a useless raving loon that can't work for anybody, can't work with anybody, can't handle having people work for them, and in any place with any sense of reality would be killed off pretty quick because of their actions. So obviously, this can't be the case despite how with all the other categories that level of adherance to the list of traits works just fine.

What the list of traits for the alignment must be, is the tendency to be that way when they're at their worst. Or somehow its meant to be a much more fluid scale. Or there just aren't that many diabolic people and those that are are of no consequence to any kind of story other than cops track down serial killer who has nothing more to their character than the M.O. they're working with and the same-old-same-old profile which is being run into the ground on dozens of crime shows. Where's the fun in that?

Certainly, this is a huge part of the argument against using alignments at all. Unlike the people who just plain dismiss them I use them for the simple reason that as a part of the game you go with it. Not using the alignment system is akin to say changing all the rents in Monopoly. You can do it, but then you're not playing the same game, not playing the way it was intended. Rules can't just be called stupid because people prefer a different method. You might as well call cycling stupid because you own a car.

Mood: self-indulgent
Music: Christmas is a Birthday by Burl Ives, Silent Night/Holy Night Jam by Joe Satriani