Me, the DM: Are you taking this opportunity to attune to the weapon?
Player: Yeah, I’ll do that now.
Me: Cool. What’s your alignment?
P: What? You tell me!
Me: Would you say you’re evil? Because if not, you’re about to be.
@EmpyClaw I have to go to bed but hopefully typing this right now allows me to remember that I have opinions on this! (That I would like to share with the class when I'm less eepy)
@RethinkJeff I am excited to hear these opinions!
@EmpyClaw With the understanding that 9point alignment is about Big Fucking Heroes, I think alignment is about intention, with known side effects being pulled into the intent. Attuning to an evil sword doesn't inherently make you evil, doing the things that makes the sword evil would. The sword might have an ego that tells you to do evil things, and it might even compel you to do those evil things, and I think the shift in alignment would come afterwards, when the character doesn't unattune.
@EmpyClaw I have more words available on this topic, and 9 point alignment in general, but 500 chars makes wild gesticulating hard lol. I need to find a place to put my blog.
@RethinkJeff I’d read a blog on this. I think the scenario you suggested sounds super fun.
@EmpyClaw I once gave a player a positive minor intimacy of "secrets" as part of a curse and it was very cool to see how just the one thing impacted character behavior! 10/10 do recommend.
@RethinkJeff I don’t disagree. Perfectly valid method.
In this case, the item has a Wisdom save on attunement and then their alignment shifts on a fail.
From a purely game mechanics standpoint, I think that’s fine. “This weapon does something to you that affects your character. Adjust your play accordingly.” Akin to saves against madness and its affects.
I do love from a roleplay aspect the idea of the slow shift, the voice from the blade, the changing actions until they succumb to Evil.
@EmpyClaw Not to suggest you hack your game, but Intimacies from Exalted 3e handle this _excellently_, and I would highly recommend taking a look! Instead of shifting alignment you could say "you gain a major/minor intimacy towards stealing candy from babies". Avoids some of the mind control/consent problems that can happen with blanket alignment shifts.
@RethinkJeff I think it depends on the player and the GM. Some people prefer well-defined boundaries, especially with things that impact how they play the character, and time to adjust. Others thrive with the nebulousness and drama from the other approach.
Funny enough, his character was already Evil at the time (on paper, less so in practice if we thought about it).
I think it creates an interesting moment where the game rules create drama. How it plays out from here is up to the player.
@EmpyClaw I mostly have problems with altering character behavior, character consequences are great! I like to be in charge of the behavior that drives those consequences though. Agree with it depending on player/gm/group though.