Alternate alignment systems?

[Valesin]

I just came from the alignment poll/thread and it got me thinking: What are the published (unpublished?) alternate alignment systems or variations on the core alighment rules?

I have been DMing 3.x for over 10 years and in all that time I have never used alignment...until now. Discarding alignment with the core rules/spells was doable but it was often a headache and required lots of 'on the fly' rulings.

However, given some of the rules/classes from WotC recently (ToB, Incarnum, etc), plus some 3rd party sources I love (GR Evangelist), discarding alignment just didn't seem like a viable option. But my hostility to the alignment system, particularaly the 'detect' spells, just won't be completely banished.

I seem to remember seeing some alternate alignment systems, many with a continuum of alignment strengths, but I can't remember where they were off the top of my head. I guess I could go through my 100+ sources looking for them, but I thought I would see if I could get you guys to do it for me! OK, that isn't really the case: I am not just lazy. I would like to hear from people who use alternate systems, how they affect the game, and the pros/cons of systems people have tried.

Thanks.

 

[Turanil]

D20 Modern allegiances system. One can have allegiance to Law or Chaos and to Good or Evil, so it encompasses D&D alignments where needed (sso all outsiders will have the required alignment, as will priests and paladins). Then, you can have other allegiances such as to a nation, organization, particular individual, etc. Lastly, one may have no allegiance as well if he doesn't want to.

 

[Nyaricus]

Star Wars Force Points lets you slip from evil to good, and vice versa, with some nice themeing. I have never played SWd20, but I rarely hear complaints about this part of the system

cheers,
--N

 

[Aus_Snow]

As well as those options mentioned already:

Green Ronin's Advanced Player's Manual has, among many other things, rules for the kind of numbered alignment scaling you might have been thinking of.

Unearthed Arcana and other sources have rules for such things as Reputation, Social Standing, Honour and so forth, which could be subbed in for a stronger emphasis on one's actions and their effects in society.

RPGObjects' Legends of Excalibur has a Nobility rating, with Transgressions and Virtues. Along with Fate and Destiny, which work off one another. . . and (IMO) everything else you might need for Arthurian RPing. A great system - and setting, of course .

True20 breaks it down (as in all things, actually) - all characters have a Virtue and a Vice. Yes, even the good guys and bad guys. Simple, but very effective.

The Book of Broken Dreams, from Netherland Games, brings some psych to d20. . . after all, who said all 'good guys' are sane? Or that all 'bad guys' are insane? A neat, nicely done PDF, regardless.


edit --- actually, re: the point on UA above.. Legends of the Samurai, also from RPGObjects, has rules for Honour, Allegiances, Reputation. It's also excellent.

hm, Call of Cthulhu (BRP or d20) has Sanity rules, of course.

 

[the Jester]

In my low-magic game, rather than alignments, characters took ten "character traits" at start and added up to one each level they gained. These could be any kind of roleplaying trait that the character wanted- a lisp, alcoholism, fear of spiders, fondness of the color blue, the desire to fill a parent's shoes, etc. I normally give roleplaying xp for playing your class, race, alignment and personal concerns; in the low-magic game rp xp was instead all based on your charater traits. This led to a lot of excellent roleplaying.

In an old homebrewed system I made called Crossroads, characters' alignments were Tragic, Gothic, Romantic, Epic or Comic... I might be missing one there, I'm not sure. That was a fun system, and alignments were a central piece of the puzzle (the party traveled through various universes and tried to stop mysterious enemies from changing the worlds' alignments, thereby unbalancing the dish of worlds- yadda yadda, it's actually pretty complex, the way it all worked). A character's alignment would affect how the world reacted to him, and how things played out for him.