Blydden

http://www.fighunter.com/?page=temperaments

Before you read this, please read the source of inspiration for this entry up above. I recommend you divert all praise for the temperance system itself to Pseudolonewolf (maybe play some MARDEK while you are at it, please do, it is really awesome). Anyway, in this entry I want to convey some ideas on how temperance could be used in our tabletop games, along with alignment/humanity/et cetera. But, first, please read that link up above. After that, if you don’t like the idea of temperance, feel free to abandon the rest of this entry.

Go on, I’ll wait…

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…Finished? Ok!

First off, let’s get one more thing clear. All pieces posted here are directed at making a temperance system for D&D 4e. Feel free to extract bits and pieces and apply them to World of Darkness, Mutants & Masterminds, Pathfinder, whatever floats your boat. Still with me? Righto.

I do believe that any temperance can go with any alignment, although granted I’m not sure how a melancholic/choleric lawful good character could be pulled off, but I know it has to be possible. More reasonable examples could be a sanguine/choleric NG ardent paladin, a melancholic/phlegmatic unaligned telekinetic psion, a phlegmatic/sanguine CN trickster rogue, et cetera.

Before I go any further, let’s get some mechanics in place. (These apply to D&D 4e, and D&D 3.5e).

“To have a temperance, a creature must fulfill the following:
- Have 3 Intelligence
- Have 3 Wisdom
- Have 3 Charisma.
At character creation, pick a primary temperance, and another, secondary temperance. As with alignment, temperance is a tool for developing an identity. It is not a restrictive straightjacket.”

Ok, done with that. Temperance is for fluffiness, and only affects the core gameplay as much as alignment does. (Which is to say, not very much at all.) When making a character (or NPC), it can be helpful to have his temperance (along with alignment) on hand, to help keep his actions consistent. A sanguine/phlegmatic, feast-loving noble is going to be very different compared to his evil twin melancholic/choleric tax-mongering noble.

Races can be characterized by their stereotypical temperances (unlike stereotypical alignments, which I think is fairly heavy-handed). For example, halflings tend to be more sanguine, and less melancholic. Dragonborn, as a whole, tend to be more choleric, and less phlegmatic. Eladrin tend to be more phlegmatic, and less choleric.

Anyway, I hope I have opened your mind to the possibilities that can come from a temperance system. The title is probably inaccurate, however. In truth, the temperance is not an alternate alignment system (although it could be), but a supplementary alignment system. So, be it Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, World of Darkness, or Mutants & Masterminds, I hope I have given you something you can use.