@Irisity Maybe pitch it to me first so I can be sure it'll work. I'd hate for you to go to the effort and not be able to use it.

@Dead Cruiser Smart girl on a primitive planet in an underdeveloped tribe meets space merchants as a young child. Her tribe believes they are demons sent from their gods to try and influence them with sinful and unworldly technologies, but with a child's curiousity, she continues to observe the merchants and even trade with them. As she grows older, she finds out about real medicine and becomes very intrigued. When her tribe finds out she's still communicating with the foreigners, they expel her from the society. She has nowhere else to go so she flees with the foreigners. Along the way she picks up some medical tricks and infuses them with the practices of her people, and eventually gets into a formal medical school. Still fixing out the details of how she ends up with pirates, but there is more detail (surprisingly) i squeezed out of this for time purposes

@IrisitySounds workable so far. I wanted at least someone from an originally "primitive" society, for the added perspective when we eventually encounter others. Bear in mind that "medicine" would be stuff like potions and alchemy and healing magic and so on. This extends to the vast majority of the technology we'll encounter.

So while I'm thinking about it, I want to run a goofy idea by you guys. It's sort of a subversion of the usual classic D&D alignment system, but rather than being a descriptor of your character's morality, it's a sort of classification of the makeup of their soul. The universe exists on these metaphysical axises of Good and Evil (Extropy vs Entropy) and Law and Chaos (Stasis vs Change). None are more closely in tune with these forces than Gods (hyperdimensional beings of vast power), whose existences and perceptions are dependant on the alignment of other entities and forces in the universe. So your character would have an alignment dependant on where their species (or possibly entire planet) falls in the grand scheme of the universe's alignment, regardless of their personal character. This would only affect their potential interactions with Gods (if they were a Cleric for instance) and the effects of certain types of magic on them.

It's just a weird idea I was working with, and I can easily drop it if you guys aren't fans.

@Dead Cruiser It sounds pretty cool to me. Would it influence dicisions, feel like a visceral call in them to act upon certain things?

@Dead Cruiser

See I was thinking along the lines of a sentient android-like creature from a dying planet torn in a never-ending war between life and death, science and magic, fate and those with the courage to change it. Fed up with the "right" side of the war, yet morally obligated not to join the "wrong" side, they instead leave the planet in search of somewhere they can actually be themselves. Of course they'd bring with them some pretty cool machinery and cybertechnology to aide the pirates in both navigation and things that require a more scholarly touch. He'd be kinda eerie (due to being, essentially, a robot), but all around good natured. He'd also use weaponry from his home planet, a place known for their atypical tech, fusing magic and technology into some otherworldly results :3

Edit:
In reference to your alignment, I love the idea. Considering the nature of wars, aliens, and other things, however, placing an alignment on entire worlds may not be as good of an idea xD

Tentatively tossing my hat in for Armsman (or armswoman).

Massive world building got me too geeked, i love it so much

So while I'm thinking about it, I want to run a goofy idea by you guys. It's sort of a subversion of the usual classic D&D alignment system, but rather than being a descriptor of your character's morality, it's a sort of classification of the makeup of their soul. The universe exists on these metaphysical axises of Good and Evil (Extropy vs Entropy) and Law and Chaos (Stasis vs Change). None are more closely in tune with these forces than Gods (hyperdimensional beings of vast power), whose existences and perceptions are dependant on the alignment of other entities and forces in the universe. So your character would have an alignment dependant on where their species (or possibly entire planet) falls in the grand scheme of the universe's alignment, regardless of their personal character. This would only affect their potential interactions with Gods (if they were a Cleric for instance) and the effects of certain types of magic on them.

It's just a weird idea I was working with, and I can easily drop it if you guys aren't fans.

I'm always a fan of fictional religions/mythology.

An interesting twist could be taking a page from Eberron and playing with the "shades of gray" of each religion.

For example, Chaos can be seen as bad (lawlessness, which leads to terrible things), but one could also identify Chaos as being change (progress, allowing things to improve).

-

I guess the only thing I don't quite understand is why it wouldn't be based on the individual/their actions?

However, you could definitely play it like a trait with associated stigmas, like maybe Character A is really good, but belongs to a race known as Evil, so they're forever trying to escape the stigma that comes with being identified as Evil (even though they personally are not), which might be what you're suggesting.

Interested. Might have to drag an old character out who, now I think about it, would be perfect as Master of Ordnance...

@IrisitySounds workable so far. I wanted at least someone from an originally "primitive" society, for the added perspective when we eventually encounter others. Bear in mind that "medicine" would be stuff like potions and alchemy and healing magic and so on. This extends to the vast majority of the technology we'll encounter.

So while I'm thinking about it, I want to run a goofy idea by you guys. It's sort of a subversion of the usual classic D&D alignment system, but rather than being a descriptor of your character's morality, it's a sort of classification of the makeup of their soul. The universe exists on these metaphysical axises of Good and Evil (Extropy vs Entropy) and Law and Chaos (Stasis vs Change). None are more closely in tune with these forces than Gods (hyperdimensional beings of vast power), whose existences and perceptions are dependant on the alignment of other entities and forces in the universe. So your character would have an alignment dependant on where their species (or possibly entire planet) falls in the grand scheme of the universe's alignment, regardless of their personal character. This would only affect their potential interactions with Gods (if they were a Cleric for instance) and the effects of certain types of magic on them.

It's just a weird idea I was working with, and I can easily drop it if you guys aren't fans.

I love the idea.

@Dead Cruiser

See I was thinking along the lines of a sentient android-like creature from a dying planet torn in a never-ending war between life and death, science and magic, fate and those with the courage to change it. Fed up with the "right" side of the war, yet morally obligated not to join the "wrong" side, they instead leave the planet in search of somewhere they can actually be themselves. Of course they'd bring with them some pretty cool machinery and cybertechnology to aide the pirates in both navigation and things that require a more scholarly touch. He'd be kinda eerie (due to being, essentially, a robot), but all around good natured. He'd also use weaponry from his home planet, a place known for their atypical tech, fusing magic and technology into some otherworldly results :3

Funny you should mention that, because my character is from a planet that was nearly destroyed by war 500 years ago, and has since then been slowly but surely rebuilding. My guy was one of the few to actually have the means to leave the Gods-forsaken world, even though things are finally coming back together now.

Plans are coming together in my brain-meats, fuelled aided by cake and sugary tea.

I'm still hoping to play the Ship's Cook / Steward. Species wise, I have a hankering to do something strange, and have an idea about a species of alarmingly large caterpillar-ish creatures that eventually undergo metamorphosis, breed, and die based on some seasonal occurrence on their native planet. Escaping the planet seemed like a good idea on how to avoid the "death" part of this process, and so smuggling himself off-planet and joining up with a pirate crew made a certain amount of sense. Plus, brightly coloured caterpillars are downright adorable, and a huge one is either extremely adorable or really bloody terrifying. Maybe both!

It's all fun and games until the crew run into someone with a phobia of caterpillars/butterflies.

Hullo hullo, had a busy couple of days IRL, so now I'm back to work at this.

@Irisity Probably not, unless they were a race that was very sensitive to spiritual matters, like a tiefling or somesuch.

@corneredbliss Kool

@Hologram Prose My thought is that while it uses the terms Good/Evil as a callback to traditional alignment, the idea of alignment itself has no bearing on morality. It's just a descriptor of natural forces in the universe. Entire races/worlds get clumped together in it, because that's the lowest level at which these forces can be measured. For an individual to have their "own" alignment, they would have to be something akin to a demigod or greater, as otherwise they are too insignificant on the universal scale. As far as discrimination goes, maybe/maybe not, as someone who is sensitive to alignment would probably also have knowledge that it's a fairly objective system. They would have to make the conscious decision to discriminate against someone for factors outside of their control that has almost no bearing on them as a person.

Just as a couple of examples... an "all things must end eventually" sort of Death God (Raven Queen for instance) would be categorized as Neutral Evil (indifferent to stasis vs change, favorable to entropy). A sun god focused on destroying the undead would be Lawful Neutral (favorable to stasis, indifferent to entropy vs extropy). A crazy death god obsessed with raising the undead would in fact be Lawful Good (favorable to stasis, favorable to extropy). Funny, right?

@jbeil Kool

@Hylozoist Reminds me of a thing I read, where cicada nymphs infested with certain fungal parasites never pupate into full cicadas, and grow into warped, exaggerated versions of nymphs over time. Also, what you described would be an example of a Chaotic Neutral race. Just for another example.

Another thing I wanted to mention, just offhand, is that the Nova Dawn is not a big ship. It has the living space and amenities to support a crew of about twenty tops.

@Dead Cruiser

Okay given those definitions... The world my character would be from is currently in a state of true neutral. One side seeks to preserve the planet's life after its star has dimmed out(No entropy = extropy, favorable to stasis) while the other seeks to progress the planets descent into its death (favorable to entropy, as well as change), so the two sides would cancel each other out and carry their own alignments?

@Hylozoist Reminds me of a thing I read, where cicada nymphs infested with certain fungal parasites never pupate into full cicadas, and grow into warped, exaggerated versions of nymphs over time. Also, what you described would be an example of a Chaotic Neutral race. Just for another example.

Perhaps going down the parasitic-infection route might be the way to go; rather than smuggling himself off the planet (which would probably be quite a difficult task), individuals infected with the parasite are shipped off-planet so as to try and keep the parasite away from the general population and make sure that the cycle of death and birth continues properly. Also, nature is kind of weird and frightening at times, but makes for good inspiration.

@Hologram Prose My thought is that while it uses the terms Good/Evil as a callback to traditional alignment, the idea of alignment itself has no bearing on morality. It's just a descriptor of natural forces in the universe. Entire races/worlds get clumped together in it, because that's the lowest level at which these forces can be measured. For an individual to have their "own" alignment, they would have to be something akin to a demigod or greater, as otherwise they are too insignificant on the universal scale. As far as discrimination goes, maybe/maybe not, as someone who is sensitive to alignment would probably also have knowledge that it's a fairly objective system. They would have to make the conscious decision to discriminate against someone for factors outside of their control that has almost no bearing on them as a person.

Just as a couple of examples... an "all things must end eventually" sort of Death God (Raven Queen for instance) would be categorized as Neutral Evil (indifferent to stasis vs change, favorable to entropy). A sun god focused on destroying the undead would be Lawful Neutral (favorable to stasis, indifferent to entropy vs extropy). A crazy death god obsessed with raising the undead would in fact be Lawful Good (favorable to stasis, favorable to extropy). Funny, right?

Ah ok, that makes a lot more sense, thanks for the clarification! :D

Another thing I wanted to mention, just offhand, is that the Nova Dawn is not a big ship. It has the living space and amenities to support a crew of about twenty tops.

Bunk beds for everyone!

Also, nature is kind of weird and frightening at times, but makes for good inspiration.

My first thought was "it's just like r/natureismetal"... D:

Tossing in tentative interest. Things are finally clearing up for me life/schedule-wise but this sounds right up my alley.

Heeeyyy!

Space pirates sounds awesomes!!

Noobs to your Guild but not new to RP. Hoping I can submit an appie when its time. :]

Radical. I've got my eye on this.

Yay for more people!

I've been thinking about it, @Dead Cruiser, and I think I've come up with a way to make my character fit more with the magicy-spacey theme of this RP.