Summer 2021 Pitches: In the Shadow of Giants

 

In the Shadow of Giants

Protect your people in a post apocalyptic lost world.

Using their mastery of rune magic, the Giants built wonders across the jungles, mountains and swamps of this land. They raised up the ageless elves and put the tunnelfolk (dwarves, gnomes and halflings) to work. They forged towers taller than mountains, travel machines as fast of lightning, lava forges and cloud cities. Then something went wrong.

The disaster laid their civilization low, killing giant and small folk alike. Now the giants live in savagery like the rest of us. Nature and the dinosaurs have reclaimed mastery of the world. But within the towering ruins lay wonders of an earlier age: steel, rune forged tools, crystal codices and more. Those who dare the dangers within can secure their tribe's survival in this dangerous land.

Setting: A jungle clad land of fierce dinosaurs, giants and savage tribes. Metal working and other advanced technologies are uncommon. People worship the elements and the divine dinosaurs. Warlocks and Sorcerers greatly outnumber Wizards who must hunt for spells in the Giant ruins. 

System: D&D 5th edition with some house rules into available race and class options as well as restricted starting gear.

Story Possibilities:

• Stealing Fire: The giants left wonders in their spire cities and sky castles. The brave and resourceful can find food, tools and knowledge to make their people masters of this world. Beware however of the old inhabitants and the traps they left behind.
• The Great Migration: The tribe has lived for generations in the shadow of Red Mountain growing food in its rich volcanic soils. But the ashfalls grow heavier day by day. Soonit will bruy everything. The tribe must move on and they need you to find the way through this savage land.
• A New Order: As the cataclysm continues to ripple through the land, new creatures seek to fill the gap left by the Giants. Tribe against tribe, apex predator against apex predator. Will the dinosaurs drive the mammals to extinction or will they too pass on? Or will the giants yet reclaim their lost throne?

Review: Dungeon World

Dungeon World is a roleplaying game that combines the core mechanics of Apocalypse World (AW) with the setting and feel of Dungeons and Dragons.

My experience with this game is somewhat limited relative to its sources: I played a convention one shot and a short game (4 sessions) with my local group with my wife as game master. But I think it is sufficient to give a fair review of the game in comparison to AW and D&D, games I've spent years playing.

I should however admit that D&D as a game and genre has lost much of its appeal to me (why is a topic for another day) so I plan to focus on well it replicates the feel of D&D and not my opinion on the genre.

Dungeon World Review

Same System, New Genre

So let's start with how it resembles the less familiar of its two ancestors, Apocalypse World.

Like AW, it uses the dice mechanic of 2d6 + attribute where a 7+ succeeds. 7-9 means a partial success and 10+ being a full success. Failure serves to signal the game master to further complicate the situation.

Dice are used whenever a "move", or narratively important action, occurs. Attack a monster? Roll Hack and Slash. Climb down an abandoned well? Defy Danger if there's a threat (like crumbling bricks or hidden monsters), otherwise we skip to the bottom and what you find there.

The moves of Dungeon World tell us what is important about the game and how to handle it. Hack and Slash covers melee attacks and Volley does the same for range. Defy Danger is your catchall saving throw/skill check system. Spout Lore and Discern Realities tells your character something interesting about the situation from their education and perception respectively. Parley covers attempts to talk your way out of things.

There's a lot that harkens to the expedition model of dungeoneering. Encumbrance, while abstracted, is a move. Undertake A Perilous Journey exists for wilderness travel. Make Camp and Take Watch cover resting in dangerous environments. Supply covers the shopping trips and Recruit attempts to get meat shields hirelings.

Like AW, Dungeon World uses armor to absorb damage, though not very much relative to the damage thrown at characters.

Where it gets interesting is where it deviates from what one might expect from D&D. Last Breath gives one a chance to survive a brush with death (when your hit points drop to zero). Carouse lets you burn through your ill-gotten loot in true Conan style.

Magic items rarely grant a simple bonus. A sword might be flaming or sharp enough to cut through stone but that doesn't make the rolls easier. It might deal more damage or open up new moves instead. Mundane gear is simplified with less and there is much less shopping involved.

Adding to this is the fact that damage is based not on the weapon used but on character class. Fighters simply do more damage than Wizards even if they both wield daggers.

Experience comes from four main sources: failing rolls, following alignment, advancing your relations with other player characters, and fulfilling the main goals of the game: getting loot, exploring the world, and fighting monsters.

Finally the gameplay can be largely improvised. Like in many AW games by default the world is built up between the GM and the PCs thus creating a setting that both groups are familiar with. You could run the game in a "standard" D&D fashion with premade dungeon maps but there is nothing holding you to that.

Like (A)D&D

The world Dungeon World seeks to emulate is that of older versions of Dungeons & Dragons, like AD&D and Basic D&D, and not more recent systems like 3rd or 4th edition (Dungeon World was published in 2012 so comparisons to 5th edition don't come into it).

Characters are defined by six attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma which provide bonuses to rolls in a not quite linear fashion. Characters are also defined by a class and from that choice a race. A simplified alignment mechanic is also included (which unlike D&D's stick model, merely grants experience when you act according to your alignment).

Like D&D it includes hit points, based on Constitution and Class, and not AW's usual countdown clock. On the face of it makes the characters seem much tougher. However monsters in Dungeon World deal dice of damage, sometimes with bonuses, and characters soon appear quite fragile.

Characters advance in levels, which each new level bring more abilities and each level requiring more and more experience. Interestingly going up in level does necessarily add hit points or otherwise give bonuses (though characters do get to raise attributes which can have these effects). Characters thus grow more linearly than they would in D&D.

Spell casting sticks to the Vancian model of casting a limited number of prepared spells. Spells are not automatically lost when cast. That is fairly common option when using them however.

Unlike AW, combat tends to go back and forth for several "rounds". It's not quite like D&D but it certainly doesn't lend itself to the "one and done" behavior I enjoy in AW. Fights can get drawn out which means a lot more opportunities for failure and thus complications. Depending on how hard your game master is making his or her moves those misses can be worse than the initial fight itself.

Finally Dungeon World delivers the hordes of wacky monsters we've come to expect from D&D.

Conclusion

The result of merging D&D and AW is a game that seems a bit grimmer than most D&D games I've played. Characters are more fragile. Large monsters are scary, able to kill any character in just a couple lucky hits. Magical healing is limited and runs out quick. Monstrous hordes can easily wear adventurers down. This is not a game with the feel of a swashbuckling adventure.

Dungeon World's strengths over D&D include an experience system that rewards playing towards the game's tropes. The alignment system provided also works well as a guide and incentive instead of the usual straitjacket. The somewhat more narrative style also works for me.

The game could use some more examples and detail in places. I was never quite sure what a shapeshifting druid could do, seeing as only a bare handful of animals are detailed in the book.

All in all however, I think it's an excellently designed game that delivers on what it sets out to do: create the desired feel of D&D using the Apocalypse World system.

RPG-a-Day: 25th through 31st

Finally we reach the end of August and the RPG-a-Day entries. Time to look at my favorite mechanics, inspiration, and websites.

Favorite Revolutionary Game Mechanic

What does this even mean? There have been many mechanics that people have called revolutionary: hero points, fail forward, unified roll mechanics. But many of these have roots going back decades and I question how revolutionary they really are. In my opinion many "revolutionary" ideas codify what people were doing all along. Maybe not all players and game masters used them but those willing to bend the rules as written to play the game enjoyably did.

I guess with that definition I'd have to go with autosuccess on clue detection. It's obvious when you think about it: always allow players to find the clue that leads them to the next scene. But without having it spelled it out for them, many game masters seem to be happy reveling into their sneakiness and subtlety while the their players scratch their heads in frustration.

I suppose simulationists might make the counter argument that always finding the clue isn't realistic. Perhaps not but I'd much prefer to play in a world of TV detectives than the real world where so much goes unsolved. In the end of the day we are playing a game, a game about stories, and satisfying stories follow certain rules.

Favorite Inspiration for your game

Easy. Witch Hunter Robin. This anime series follows a teenage witch hunter operating in quasi-modern day Japan. Unlike most of her team she possess supernatural abilities herself, specifically pyrokinesis. There is a weird conspiracy angle to it also involving ancient witches, primordial gods, and genetic engineering. I've mined it for ideas for mortals hunting monsters to wizards or other beings operating on the edge of society. It is perhaps my most watched series.

As a second inspirational source I use is music. Since I do so much horror and mystery these days, my favorite music to get into a plotting mood is the sound track to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It positively drips with eeriness and dread.

Favorite idea for merging two games into one

I've done a bit of thought on this lately. My big one has been merging parts of the Old World of Darkness and the new World of Darkness: Vampire: the Masquerade clans and politics in the Requiem ruleset and with a New World of Darkness toolkit mentality. Or Wrath: the Oblivion dropped into New World of Darkness perhaps with Sineaters, Geists, and Mummies.

Favorite game you no longer play

Most games I love I expect I'll return to eventually. I've done so for the Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game and I might for GURPS someday. But I don't expect I'll run or play second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons again despite owning a lot of books for it. I don't love the rules and as I said last week I'm kind of burned out on dungeon fantasy.

It remains a favorite (and secures its spot on my bookshelf while each year the 3rd edition section shrinks) because of its settings. TSR created so many evocative settings: Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Planescape, and more. I never explored them enough or tried to make them mine. So they sit there inviting me to play. Occasionally I'll dust one off and try to pull inspiration from it.

Favorite RPG website/blog

Hmm, a tough one. I visit a lot of gaming sites on any given day. Some are blogs, some forums, others company websites. I'd say of all of them I find RPGnet provides me the most ideas to consider.
Favorite RPG playing celebrity

Hmm, had to do a bit of research on this to properly weigh the options. I think in the end I have to go with Wil Wheaton if only for TableTop (I also have no issue with any of his acting roles including Wesley). Promoting gaming to the masses (or at least expanding the variety among those already playing) is a worthy endeavor, one I was willing to put my money into (for funding the third season).

Favorite non-RPG thing to come out of RPGing

One thing roleplaying games have helped provide me with are some of my dearest friendships. I can't imagine that I would have found half of my current crop without roleplaying. I met Alec and Jared through my High School GM Glen, Mike through Jared when starting my own game, and many others through similar chains.

Adapting Adventures: Adapting Material Between Systems

One of my secret pleasures as a game master s adapting adventure material to my own purposes. I find a special joy in reworking material from another source, a puzzle to be worked out, whether it is just adjusting the plot to fit the campaign or adapting material from one game system to another.

This week I muse on what lessons I’ve learned from doing so.

Adapting Material Between Systems

Loom of Fate (Mage: the Ascension to Mage: the Awakening)

I was recommended this adventure by the Darker Days podcast. The scenario’s plot revolves around a young woman fated to save a city by sacrificing her humanity. It raises the question whether she has free will and leaves the final decision in the players’ hands. Cosmologically, it deals with a lot of the big elements of the game (the Weaver, the Wyld, the Technocracy) as the protagonists deal with growing chaos in San Francisco as an ancient force of the Wyld slips its bindings.

To adapt this, I needed to decide how close to those defining concepts I would stay. My game was based in Chicago. So earthquakes were replaced with the threat of fire,a resurgent spirit of the Great Chicago Fire. I let one pylon (or cabal) of the Seers of the Throne take on a technognostic element so as to approximate the cyberpunk feel of the Technocracy.

Some changes were easy. The fated orphan mage became an Acanthus as did the other fated figures. The Weaver elements became simple spirits of order and the city.

Some things required more work. The Men in Black did not fit well in my established Seer Hierarchy. I replaced them with the Men in Black from Summoners, positing that they are an Abyssal manifestation due to the new mage’s early spells. The same thing happened with the Marauders who became demon and fire worshiping vampires known as the Malpheans.

In each case I needed to decide what was important from the core story and what could be replaced with an element more appropriate to the game I was running. In some cases things dovetailed nicely (I had already plotted to have something Bound beneath the city). In others I nearly rewrote the character or scene entirely.

The Banewarrens (D&D 3e to Arcana Evolved)

This was my most ambitious adaptations as I translated large numbers of opponents between systems. A megadungeon meant to take PCs from 5th to 10th level, it includes many mid-level foes and leveled monsters. Even though both are d20 based, doing a complete translation was not simple. In addition to different spells (and magic system), classes, and races, it even has strange new armors and weapons for higher powered foes to use.

For example here are my notes for Navanna at some point through the game (sans spelling mistakes):

Navanna

Female Tiefling Unfettered 11-CR 11; HD 11d8+33 (94 hp), -4/-17; Initiative +7; Speed 40 ft.; AC 25 (+3 Dex, +6 armor, +2 shield, +4 dodge), +2 vs. one melee/ranged, +4 vs. attack of opportunity, +4 against missiles if move, expertise; Base At +11/+14; Attack longsword +16/+11/+6 melee (1d8+5/19-20) or longbow +15/+10/+5 ranged (1d8+3); SA sneak attack +2d6 (+3 At/dmg for sword), evasion, 1/day-veil of darkness (heightened); SQ darkvision 60 ft., air, fire, cold, electricity resistance 5; Save: F+6, R+10, W+5; Abilities: S16, D17, C17, I14, W14, C15.

Skills & Feats: Balance +5, Bluff +12, Climb +4, Diplomacy +8, Disguise +15, Escape Artist +11, Jump +5, Open Lock +10, Search +4, Sense Motive +10, Sleight of Hand +11, Sneak +13, Spot +7, Swim +9, Tumble +11. Defensive Move, Expertise, Fleet of Foot, Improved Initiative, Mobility, Speed Burst, Weapon Focus/Specialization (longsword).

Treasure: Cloak of charisma +2, headband of dimension door (1/day), +2 leather coat, +1 buckler, +1 longsword of subtlety, MW composite longbow (Str 16), 12 MW arrows, deathblade poison (2-DC 20 1d6 Con/2d6 Con), gold necklace (500 gp), emerald ring (1700 gp).

Potions of greater battle healing, ability boost (lesser), nondetection, glibness, invisibility (heightened), potion of lesser battle healing x3.

She was relatively easy to move over. Others like rangers and bards have poor fits in the other system.

There it helped that this was one of the first games I wrote entirely electronically (way back in 2004). Cut and paste templates for the stat blocks quickened my work also letting me grab specific elements of text from the adventure pdf (my preferred format for adventures) for my own notes.

Still it was a lot of work and I doubt I'll ever want to do that much again.

Next time we'll look at some instances of my plot modifications/synthesis and how that helped reduced the prep I needed to do. Even as I add more work to my to-do list.

Dungeon Design

Originally published May 5, 2012

This past year I have been running a D&D game for the first time in a long while. For this campaign, I decided to focus on the dungeon aspect of the game and to that end I examined what aspects of dungeons were the most enjoyable to me as a player and a gamemaster. I broadly identified three features that I and my players have found enjoyable in the past: a sense of history, a touch of the magical, and a dynamic nature to the dungeon.

The first, history, is important if you want to make a logical and intriguing dungeon. By knowing how a dungeon was made and why, you can more easily map it as well as ensure that the space doesn't feel like a mix of unrelated rooms. For example, if the dungeon was a living space, then you know you need a kitchen and bath. Perhaps servant quarters are needed or kennels for the builder’s pets. By knowing why it was built you know what rooms you need and roughly how they might be laid out. For example, the servants' quarters make sense to be near the kitchens and the master bedroom should be well insulated from the work areas.

The history of a dungeon also gives it character. Was it built in a rush with rough hewn walls or poorly fitted masonry? Or was it once a palace or temple with a beautiful mosaic on the floor? Was there an earthquake that collapsed certain passages? These little details help the dungeon from being just another set of 10 by 10 rooms and to draw your players further into the game.

The second feature is a sense of the unusual or magical, something that adds to the dungeon’s personality. Often you can find this element by looking at the history of the dungeon. Perhaps the dungeon is an ancient vault filled with mirror-like magical doors that the adventurers must find a way past. Or it might be built around a central shaft hundreds of feet deep. Or perhaps an ancient sorcerer grew the dungeon and the walls are alive. Again this helps to keeps your players' interest.

A side aspect of this is the idea of a transitional dungeon. That is to say a dungeon that connects other dungeons. Since my game focuses on dungeons, I set it in a city built over a labyrinth of interconnecting dungeons and caverns. So my dungeons all have connections to one or more other locations. For example, you might be able to access one dungeon from the sewers or by a hidden tunnel to a dockside warehouse. The sewers in turn may connect to several other dungeons before emptying in a large waterfall into a series of subterranean tunnels. The tunnels might connect to caverns of massive crystals, lost dwarven mines, ancient catacombs, or a city of underground slavers. This gives the characters new leads of where to go after the current dungeon is resolved as well as allowing you to reuse the old dungeon as a stop along the way to a new location.

This brings us to the last feature, that the dungeon is dynamic and changing. By having a dungeon evolve in response to the characters’ actions you add the potential for further plots as well as aiding in the suspension of disbelief. For example, when the party kills the ogre down the hall, this might allow other monsters to move in. They might set up defenses against the foes they know roam these hallways. Perhaps these creature find that hidden catch of magic items the group missed or perhaps the monstrous survivors of the earlier battle subjugate these new inhabitants and use them against the party in an act of revenge.

I personally find working out these shifts of territory and resources to be a fun diversion in between sessions. It also helps me to remain connected to the game, thinking about what would the monsters do with the new vacancies in the area. Would they move in? Would they move away to someplace safer? Or would this present an opportunity for them to accomplish something they otherwise could not?

As an example of how all of this can work in practice, let us look at a dungeon I used early on in my campaign: Old Keep. The idea behind Old Keep was that I needed a dungeon to replace an abandoned keep from Fiery Dragon's adventure Plague of Dreams. The details of that adventure are unimportant except that a pair of bandits, natives of the city the adventure is set in, are hiding there. In the search of a reward and a measure of revenge the adventurers were hunting these bandits.

In designing the dungeon, I immediately knew I wanted to place it inside the city with connections to the labyrinth below (thus helping to establish the setting). So the isolated keep from the adventure wouldn't do. Instead, I decided Old Keep would be a relatively unused fortress defending the lakeside of the city. With few threats from that direction and a newer fort under construction it was lightly used. Moreover rumors of hauntings in the lower levels meant that the old servant quarters and dungeons were sealed off.

Thus establishing the necessary isolation, I went to work on the history. Unsurprisingly Old Keep is the oldest fortress in the city. It was built to protect the area after the current rulers, the Giants, destroyed the cruel sorcerous Dramojh. Moreover it is built over the “ruins” of a Dramojh palace. The palace was essentially a giant plant which grew rooms and servants as the Dramojh prince needed them. The Giants burned it to the ground but to keep it from growing back they built the fortress over it, reinforced with magical runes to stunt plant growth. In addition to this purpose it also held a certain artifact, called the Ebon Ring, that the Giants were unable to destroy. The fortress then served as the center of power for the Giants, housing servants, holding prisoners, and being the location of their ceremonies. Eventually the lower levels fell into disuse and were sealed off.

With the history in place we now have some ideas for the original layout. We will need a dungeon with cells for prisoners and interrogation rooms. We might also include some servants’ quarters as well as wine cellar. The Giants are very big on ceremonies and so we need a ceremonial space. As this was a working fortress, a water source and an armory is also in order. Lastly there is the mysterious Ebon Ring Vault and the source of the hauntings. These will make our main areas of exploration.



So here we see my map. I put this together with Fractal Mapper which I find to be fairly simple to use and relatively inexpensive mapping program. I have placed the dungeon area in the lower right, the ceremonial area in the lower left, and the vault area in the upper left. The servants quarters and related rooms occupy the upper right. In the center the long room is our central armory and the circular chamber with the blue circle is a well room.

The jagged rooms and distorted layout in the servants' quarters area comes from our fantastic aspect: the old Dramojh dungeon has overpowered the wards here and is growing into the lower levels of Old Keep. This is also one of three links to other dungeons. Vines and fungi cover the floors and walls of the servants quarters, snaking outward from a large pit in the center of the region indicated by the other blue circle.

Another link are the two doors leading to the sewers (labeled room 17 on the map). Rusted and poorly locked, these are supposed to be reasonable entrances for the adventurers as well as some of the dungeon dwellers to make their way into Old Keep. The third link is the double doors to room 35 at the very top which leads to the Ebon Ring Vault. When I was building the dungeon I had no idea what was behind the door except that there was an old, potentially evil, artifact. I made sure the door was beyond the group’s current abilities at the time (they were about 3rd level) and left it for a later adventure.

There are also two other entrances for the adventurers to use to get into the dungeon. There is the secret passage leading from the old cells. This is the actual way the bandits snuck in here. Lastly there is the stairway down to the armory which they could have accessed by bribing or convincing the town guard to allow them to use. The other stairways are bricked up.

A final fantastic element is the hauntings. In this case I took the material from the original Plague of Dreams adventure. In there a demon is lurking near the site where an evil artifact was stored and its infernal taint has infected the dungeon causing mysterious sounds, spontaneous animating weapons, and other ghostly effects. Moving this demon to the area by the Ebon Ring vault we can have it drawn to the power of artifact stored there. The hauntings hopefully add to the creepy ambiance of the dungeon.

Finally I added an element of dynamic evolution. This actually flows from the history of the dungeon. Originally the dungeon was inhabited by a mix of undead and vermin along with the demon and his minions. A few years ago a tribe of frogmen moved into the area from the sewers and began breeding. When the bandits arrived they killed the leaders of the frogmen and set themselves up as the lords of that part of the dungeon. Later when the adventurers came in they killed the bandits and most of the frogmen but missed the demon and the undead. The frogmen rapidly reproduced from the left over piles of eggs and then fell under the sway of the demon who was then the most powerful force in the dungeon. Later when the adventurers returned they slew the frogmen utterly as well almost all of the other inhabitants of the dungeon. After this most creatures avoided the area.

So I hope this example shows how you can make your dungeons more exciting and interesting by incorporating a dungeon's history and magical elements. I'd love here your own ideas for making better and more engaging dungeons.

Alignment and Morality

Originally published on March 24, 2012

I’ll admit on onset that I am not a big fan of Alignment, particularly as it is presented in D&D. Part of this comes from my experiences as Alignment as a straitjacket and part of it is from a simplification of the complexity that goes into a character.

For those unfamiliar with Alignment, the idea is that a character will belong to one of several moral groups. Typically these are some combination of Law, Chaos, Good and Evil. Lawful characters enjoy order and rules. Chaotic characters like more freedom and dislike overly ordered societies. They like to make their own decisions separate from the rules of society. Good and Evil in this scale are real choices. Good characters want to help others while Evil characters are in it for themselves and will do whatever they can to get on top.

Now to some extent this division makes sense. D&D is supposed to be a game of epic fantasy where good fights evil in a starkly black and white setting. It is okay to kill goblins because they are evil. But as I get older, I prefer more nuanced stories and characters. It is not enough that one side is evil and the other is good, I need reasons for their actions. I expect justifications from my villains and perhaps be able to sympathize with them. Moreover I roleplay partly as escapism and given our current political system, I’d like less of the “us verses them” mentality.

But separate from that Alignment is presented as a roleplaying tool, a way for a player to present his character consistently. In this I think it fails badly. In D&D, particularly older versions, there is a tendency to over emphasize aspects of Alignment. The 2nd edition of AD&D characterized Chaotic Neutral, characters devoted to individual action but not actively seeking to help or harm people, as madmen with no thought to their actions. Lawful Good, the paladin ideal of honor and justice, has long been the pain of more “flexible” characters, becoming something of a joke.

The worst aspect of the system is that is pigeon holes a character. In older versions you would suffer experience penalties for switching Alignment. For certain classes they lose their abilities if they fail to uphold their Alignment. Most times I’ve seen it used, if there isn’t a class restriction requiring a certain Alignment, characters tend to slide to neutral and chaotic alignments, diminishing the importance of the system as a whole.

That is not to say there isn’t a place for moral codes in roleplaying games, but rather that alignment is a poor man’s crutch. It is good for people who need the barest sketch of a character (Neutral Good Dwarven Thief for instance) to jump into play. But in a longer game with more roleplaying than rolling, it would be better for the player to invest the time to think about who the character is and what their past was. From there they can place themselves in their character's shoes and make decisions from their point of view. This I believe is the best way to handle morality and consistency of character.

There are other methods that can work in specific circumstances however. For example in the World of Darkness, characters possess a morality trait which typically shows how human they are. Since in that setting, the characters are typically monsters such as vampires and werewolves, this serves to track their descent into an inhuman monster. It works because it fits the feel of the game where a character is already damned and where the darkness usually triumphs over the light. Even this system however becomes something of a straitjacket as a character’s abilities to deal with humans weaken as they descend into darkness. For example low humanity vampires are limited in how good their social rolls can be, how easily they can stay awake during the day, and how long it takes them to reawaken after being knocked into death-like torpor.

A thought I have been having recently is the idea of positive bonuses from a character’s actions. Perhaps in the above example, it would be better to give bonuses to a mortal’s rolls to resist a low morality vampire rather than to penalize the inhuman monster directly. Thus a socially adept vampire would still be potent despite his inhumanity. One can go further with this idea though. Perhaps low morality might give bonuses to certain actions, actions that hasten their descent into evil. Examples might be hurting people, betraying friends, and invoking fear. A character could always ignore the bonuses, focusing on actions that are more positive, but then they would be roleplaying their way to higher place on the morality scale.

Alignment and morality are not needed for a roleplaying game or to play a consistent character. But they can have their place in a game if crafted to promote certain behaviors and themes. The important point however is they should enable a character and not limit their actions.