D&D Source Material for Honour Systems

Question

For a future character, I would like to have them be restricted to following some kind of honour system or code of behaviour. Examples in the real world would be Chivalry or Bushido.

Are there any source books or material for the Dungeons and Dragons universe of any honour systems? In particular any systems which are non-religious and don't follow typical western definitions of good and evil would be of interest to me.

I'm currently playing D&D Next, but any sources from any edition would be of interest.

Answer 1

Oriental Adventures was produced both for AD&D 1e and then again for 3e; the latter was actually an adaptation to d20 of the pretty deep Oriental game The Legend Of The Five Rings. Both had very in depth honor systems and the latter especially tried to hew to a non-Western way of looking at things.

For the Jade Regent adventure path, Paizo came out with some honor rules for Pathfinder and expanded on them in Ultimate Campaign. They have the bonus of being freely available on d20PFSRD. They have examples of codes for chivalric, criminal, political, samurai, and tribal cultures.

Answer 2

In Dragon Magazine 404 (4th edition), there is a rules supplement covering exactly what you are looking for: Unearthed Arcana: A Matter of Honor

The article presents different ways to implement honor and different styles in which it can be presented such as "Thieves' code", "Bushido", "Chivalry" and "Harper's code." If you implement the Honor code system players will be required to take 1 feat. They have about 4 feats to it as well.

Honor rules.

If your DM decides to add honor as a game element to a campaign, you can use this system by choosing an honor code or making one of your own. If you do, you take the Honor-Bound feat. This uses up one of your available feat slots, so if your character is above 1st level, you must replace one of your existing feats or retrain.

Honor-Bound

You adhere to an honor code. In sticking to this defined morality, you gain a spiritual advantage akin to good luck. This kindness of fortune is most powerful when you act honorably. Prerequisite: Must have an honor code
Benefit: You gain 3 honor points and the honor-able action power.

Honorable Action
Feat Utility
You rise to the challenge when honor is on the line.
Encounter No Action Personal
Trigger: While acting honorably or avoiding dishonor, you make an ability check, an attack roll, a damage roll, or a skill check and dislike the result.
Effect: You spend 1 honor point. Roll 1d6 and add the result to the triggering roll.

Answer 3

The Honor and Glory systems of the Legend of the 5 Rings RPG were ported into the D&D 3E Oriental Adventures book. They provide a system of increases and decreases for various actions grounded firmly in Japanese Bushidō. It can be bolted on to any 3.X character without changes, and should be easily pasted into D&D Next.