ara OS \SORCERER'S SCROLL The DUNGEON MASTERS GUID tion regarding the various alignment characteristics. On reflection, how- er, [began to wonder if enough had been said about the different approaches to evil. Now, if one clearly detines the awful evil and the chaotic evil characteristics, the neuéral evil path becomes evident a: the middle road between the two opposite approaches to the precept of banefulness. Considering the confusion regarding alignments, it cannot but help to say a few more words on the subject. For those of you who have not as yet read the DMG, evil i typified by the desire 19 advance self over others, by whatever me possible, and always by the foulest of means possible — a that later. Whatever causes the most harm is typically the most desirable course to follow. Pain and suffering are meat and drink to the creatures of evil. Slavery and oppression of all weaker creatures are considered as natural, ror these exist only to serve and satisfy the demands of me stronger. Lavi! evil believes that the only way to impose the tyranny of their alignment over all creation is to follow an ordered course of action. Theit evil society is rigidly structured, each being knowing its place and ertely ‘dominating all beneath this station, while being just as bullied ztom those above. Each ereature in this hierarchy strives fo follow the arders from the stronger most painstakingly — both to avoid punishment and in hhopes of bettering its position in the order. To those bent cach is as harsh and cruel as possible: fearful of failure in its tasks, of being replaced by an underling. The evil ends desired might be better ob- tained by actions which are actually less vile than other options, but the ‘order of lawful evil will generally perceive the most useful course rather than merely the most baneful in the short term. Hell and its environs, hhate chaotic good most vehemently, for they see threats there to both the structure of their social system and their proposed course, What ‘worse than Ludi (otal fieedunr and happiness brought abuut vuly by. individual achievement and character? Therefore, lawful evil would certainly not hesitate to ally itself with virtually any other eause if this helped to abridge the scope and influence of those creatures typifjing the chaotic good, Similarly, a devil would attempt to influence and possess principally those humans who were powerful and influential leaders of ordered communities, organizations, and states, ic, layful individuals not already committed to evil ends. Chaotic evil certainly has the common denominator of bancfulhess ‘with those creatures who follow the ordered path of woe. They likewise ‘oppress and enslave, torture and kill for the pure pleasure of seeing, suffering and death, But while lawful evil sees these activities as part of the structured course towards a world ruled by evil, those of chaotic evil alignment see such activities as an end in themselves. While the weaker ‘chaotic evil creatures fear and often hate the stronger, they are nuled by them only insofar as the reach of the stronger extends — and possibly ‘only as long as the stronger bas interest in so doing. The individual evil is ‘more important than the collective one. Let each evil being do its best 10 spread evil and chaos, and the ultimate result will be cancerous spread of the alignment, Order is next to good in undesirableness, so lawful ‘good is the antithesis of chaotic evil. Yet ereatures of this alignment will not long associate to combat their hated foes, except lesser creates under the leadership of some mighty demon or in extreme situations where the very structure of chaotic evil is threatened by some great w Vol. IV, No.2 coalition of good. A demon isnot interested in ruling nations but in ‘reading evil as it alone sexs ft Therefore, posession by a creature of| chaotic ei is typically of an unstable individual who will run amok. for shor time, o of some singular figure who wil be ina postion to send ‘out many such individuals. The iffercuces i tacucies aud philosuphics ate reflected in dhe ‘personal involvement of devils and demons inthe affairs ofthe Prime Material Plane. The rulers ofthe Planes of Hell (devils) will seldom nvolve themselves in worldly affairs directly. Archdevils operate through their orgaizations to influence the course of events on the Prime Material Plane Because ofthe strict onder that Gvilkind adheres to, intervention of even lesser devil is rare, asthe rulers make pacts with, humans and other agents. These amangements asure tht lawl evil is spread upon the Prime Material Plane, even though the Tits of Hell ae smaller than the Layers ofthe Abyss, for example, an there are far fewer devils than there are demons. While there is rivalry betw the Dukes of Hell, itis a prescribed and ordered contest wherein the rivals recognize mits and the noe for mutual cooperation in order to insure that ther colletive realm remains strong and inviolate The very nature of demonkind, however, dictates afar more direot involvement in activites on the Prime Materal Plane. Lacking extensive ‘rgauizatvns cack, dean hd unsl boone, psionally ative if be ot She desires to meddle inthe affairs of humankind, eal. I isnot making & ‘ire of necessity on te part of demons to point out that they prefer such personal involvement. Thus, this or thet demon lord will be ‘encountered in material form, directing the activites of whatever group Of followers he oral las yal Ww spread dautde al wu up Lie earth. Each powerful demon (and there are scores and scores of them) competes biter with all others ina deadly rivalry for supremacy — bat inthe Abyss and on the Prime Meteial Plane, The chaotic nature of emonkind dictates that mutual cooperation is unlikely at best, and any lance perween tro demon lores Wile obe OF MSIIST an Pea, doomed toa very short lifespan Neutral evil as typified by daemorking, follows the mile couse between the rigidly ordered society ofthe Nine Hells and the anarchy of the Abyss. Yet tis alignment has nier the onznzational capability of Tal evi nor the great multitudes of ehote ev, 50 al fold 1s Weaker than either. The flexibility of neural evil ereatures enables them © survive and remain relatively fee of rue by either Hell or one or more demon lords, The daemons and other inhabitants of Hades (and Ge- henna and Tarterus as well) will as offen as not become personally involved in activity on Prime Material Plane if they ce it a gunfal fo ticir power and prestige or particularly enjoyable. in lke manner, they will join in dibolical or demonic eniepnises to futher their ends, evil and persona Lawful evil has more common cause than those of lawful neutral ‘ent than it does with demonkind, just as chaotic evil has more fellow- Sip wid laote neusaiy han i Goes wih Hell Bath ligaments, de chaotic and the lawl evil, despise those who take the neutral couse, Seeing this as fence straddling sot speak. The demons are to disor sanized to enslave those creatures, however, while Holl desires a buffer and uses daemonkind as tools as wel. For ier part, daemons play off the Abyss against lawl evil to insure thelr eedom, power, and conin- ued. importance In summation, lawful evil, though its orderly arrangement and structure, wield grat influence throughout the Prime Material Plane, ven thodgh devils seldom take «personal role, and the number ofthe “vvllers i the Nine Hells 1s not bverwnelmig Cote ev onthe ‘other hand, while represented by a far greater number of povverfil creatures taking a direct part inthe affairs of the world, has no greater inflacnce or power — perhaps les even — because of animosity between demons andthe chaotic tendencies which preclude organization and assurance of purposes cared out by lesser beings under diction. Hell ‘works carefllyt bring is evil yolk overall the wor, while demoakind artepts only individ forays w aggrandize some lord or other, ‘crease the fame and glory ofa parcular prince or princess othe Abyss, or merely t bring a few decades of foulest pleasure "Thc wal evil character, then, is bound to follow a couse wich is strcly ordered, The path he or she follows is one of evil, but also one Which attempts to bring fom rue 1 the world under the auspices of Hell, The character must obey and strive forthe purposes of lawfulAugust, 1979 cl — furthering hs or ber own poston inthe proccss of cous. Those ‘of you wo have read Fred Saberhagen's CHANGLING EARTH will Tecogtize tht the Emperor Tohn Oninor ruled a lf el realm — ale though he apparently served no dabolc master in contrast, the chaotic evil character serves only himn or herself, but aways wmands evil ends But he cutie evil caacier recone taser, save ou of fear and necessity, and even in the event that such recognition is necessary, be orshe wil always strive toga the upper hand and dominate I lawl evil canbe likened tow mountain cain, wth the highest peaks being the Dukes of Helland the lowest foothills the menial servants, then chaote evil isa series of stands and sets ina ‘ast sea — numerous but connected only tenuously by underwater Tes The lawl evil character wil ceranly cooperate with thers in ont to exend the say of his or her alignment — seckng advantage by Tes, ticker, and deve hie adberng to the leer of the bargin nally “The chotic evil character will rule but sekdom cooperate fr long. AS soon ashe o she ses a posible advantage acruing through abandon met of Berajal —~or pts simply beease e or she has row ted tof the pact the chao ev cara wl be ue to the preset of his or ter alignment! Payers ca sun die vole oC gol ova vil eatin wit unde ifficuly, bat in mi experience the orderly or disorderly tenden- cies are another matter allogether. Law and chaos seem to be more ingrained in the aotuel personality of a player, and these bens are ths ht as easily acted out While you, a5 DM, wil order he NPCS of Iv neutral, oF chaotic evil alignment, your players will end vo assume alignments which actually ft ther personalities as respects order versus anarchy, 0 you must obsere sich actives ute closely It commen for players fo seck the bast of bth word by clining the beets of one alignment while using the poceses ofthe ote in order to gain power. Tiisra player mg wel Eaum to be awrul ev in onde foresee Te assistance ofan atchdevil, and thereafter blithely go about setting up a toaly independent and fige-whecling empire of evl which has nothing The Dragon six monte ler thee or more so-called “improved” design are on the maker? 1 fel that tis symptomatic ofa lok of daring and ingealy on the part of the industry esa whale tha one orto compen shoul do i the tral lazing and inventing, only to hav the rex of them ump om ihe baeivagon made popular BF thse that tok the risks Ifyou wana world tha dominated By gobi, iste of having smen be the dminant race tha sup to yon. Unless they are somes PC's is Tudirous to advance lower races, and serves no wef pur nef the lane onder were capable of ancomen, ma wo not Wikddaninat pedi" Hein pried all of ths in cntet 2 would’ want to bet on who reclved any favor. I'm sure thal the readers have enh evidence 10 male wp ter ovn mbes now... Ei Arcane Magicking Plat the depths of the Cue of Tin and the Brad af Procogniion, Explore the effets on hapless rcs of the ‘Sword of Rout. Gems, Jewcy, and 172 brand new, olty magic tems ore desorbed inthe TOME OF TREASURES Published by GRP Enterpses, P.O. Box 4146, Aington, Vigne, 22204 Price $6.00 to do wi the aims of Hell Such Hherties cannot be allowed TREK 8O a tN K-80, by Bruce Berry, was written for the Radio Shack TRS-80 Computer and will run on any TRS-80 with at least 16K of memory and Level It Basic. This is not just another Star Trek game. It has been in develop- ment for over I year! Action takes place on a real-time basis. Your mission? Starfleet Command is under heavy attack and you must rescue the supply fleet. You have 2 or more Starbases where you can resupply once, cach. There are 45 60+ Klingons you must destroy in a given amount of time without losing more than 5 Tugs. Features: 64 Sector quadrants, 64 quadrant universe. Klingons can move, resupply, fire torpedoes ‘or disruptors. Tugs can fire phasers, Enterprise can fire phasers or torpedoes and can lock both and course for fire and move (evasive action). Torpedoes intercept czn be locked on or off. Sensors can be short range (qua- Grant) of long range (cight surrounding quadrants). Probes can scan enemy ships for position, energy and torpedoes. Galactic scan shows all known quads with number of stars, Klingons and bases. Ship's energy can be channelled to phasers, warp drive, impulse engines and shields, in increments of 10% and any combination. Damage Control reports, Self-destruct, Warp and Impulse Movement. Programming notes give instruction for changing allotted stardates for accomplishing mission; units of energy from reactor/date available for chan- nelling; initial and resupply levels for shicld, phaser, impulse and warp drive envray; initial and resupply of number of torpedoes; number of Klingons (Min. &/or Max.); number of bases; allotted max. phaser power/shot; Rich in detail. Move and fire any direction. Impulse as well as warp quadrant to quadrant. Time and energy are functions of speed and distance. Damage is logically determined by shield strength. Lots of action all sgraphically displayed including torpedo track and muck much more, THIS IS THE TOUGHEST TREK GAME 100 TREK-80. - $15.00 % ae «ss... On cassette. perry Illinois Residences add 5% Tax Judges Guild 1105 NN, University Ave. (N4) Decatur, IL 62526 (217) 422-1930 1 Approved for use itn ACEO + Approves for use with Traveler 36, Tromury of Arcnnc Namen 750 Tee $250 95+ Survival ofthe Fite!