Bring back alignments?

[ForeverSlayer]

I'm not sure that's a valid comparison. Class and race choices do not necessarily restraint behaviour. You can be a claustrophobic dwarf, a forest-burning elf, a pacifist fighter, or even a philanthropic rogue (funny story that, in the old days there was something written about how if your thief wasn't trying to steal from the party, you weren't playing him right. That fell to the wayside pretty quickly). Moreover, classes are well defined metagame constructs. Alignment as described in the books is a lot more vague and everybody brings their own interpretation of good/evil/lawful/chaotic to the table.

Also, with refluffing and multiclassing, the class mechanic isn't as restrictive as it may seem.

It's actually a very good comparison. You choose a race because that is the race you want to be, you choose class because that is the class you want to be, you choose alignment because that is how you want your character to be attitude wise.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Maybe it's because it's a new term that doesn't have any of the old alignment baggage and offers the PCs what they want - to be able to do whatever they want with the freedom of not having to be nice, but also not being labelled evil.

I know that unaligned is 4e's "Nah nyah nyah, you're not the boss of me!" alignment.

What I mean is that alignment doesn't matter, so that entry on a CS doesn't matter. One could write nothing in the alignment entry, and the game works exactly the same way. Which is what I do as a player.

But my players do what you just did; for some reason they feel they compelled to write something, even though they'd be just as free leaving the alignment entry blank. The CB probably makes players pick an alignment, but that still leaves my non-CB players who write 'unaligned' on their character scribbles.

It's just strange, is all.

 

[nightwyrm]

I know that unaligned is 4e's "Nah nyah nyah, you're not the boss of me!" alignment.

What I mean is that alignment doesn't matter, so that entry on a CS doesn't matter. One could write nothing in the alignment entry, and the game works exactly the same way. Which is what I do as a player.

But my players do what you just did; for some reason they feel they compelled to write something, even though they'd be just as free leaving the alignment entry blank. The CB probably makes players pick an alignment, but that still leaves my non-CB players who write 'unaligned' on their character scribbles.

It's just strange, is all.

D&D Players are obsessive compulsive types who feels they need to fill in every blank space on their char sheet?

 

[Spatula]

*I think it's funny when someone says that 4e divine PCs have to be this or that alignment, because they don't.

Well, the Essentials Paladin does. And maybe the Blackguard as well? I don't recall on that one.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Well, the Essentials Paladin does. And maybe the Blackguard as well? I don't recall on that one.

Are they real alignment restrictions, where you lose powers if you violate them? Or are they like the PHB toothless restrictions?

 

[Dragonhelm]

We had an interesting talk about the merits of the various D&D alignment systems over at The Piazza recently. Might be a few tidbits over there that relate to this discussion.

 

[Spatula]

Are they real alignment restrictions, where you lose powers if you violate them? Or are they like the PHB toothless restrictions?

They don't really elaborate beyond saying, "You must be LG." If there's any discussion of what happens when your alignment changes, I couldn't find it.

 

[Mallus]

Anyways - does anyone else miss Alignments?

Maybe a tiny bit... but mainly that's a combination of nostalgia and enjoyment derived from using the alignment system outside of the actual game (ie, hours of nerdy arguments over the D&D alignment of book/comic/film characters and/or the real people).

Do you remember the fun Alignments brought to old editions?

The best I can say about alignment in the old editions is helped some players make interesting characters. Personally, I didn't need it.

The worst I can say about alignment --and I'm thinking specifically of AD&D-- is that it penalized character development, which is a stupid thing to do in a game about playing fictional characters. PC's lost XP for playing out a good person's fall from grace or an evil person's redemption. Thus they were rewarded for playing PCs that didn't change their outlook over time, and were in that way unmoved or immune to the experiences of their (fictional) lives. Now that's the stuff of great drama!

In 25 years of playing D&D, I have yet to find anyone who can explain why that's good idea, or leads to interesting gaming.

 

[Scribble]

I don't have a "problem" with alignments per se... I just found that for the most part, they were kind of pointless.

 

[ForeverSlayer]

I hope they bring back alignment mechanics.