Bring back alignments?

[mudlock]

I can't think of any good way to implement such things. Any system that forces or encourages the use of alignment is just going to frustrate those who don't want to deal with it. Indeed, I've only found that such things impede roleplaying rather than enhance it.

I can't help but think of Fate's aspects. D&D alignment was (is?) a way to *compel* characters to act a certain way, but the players got little out of it (except, historically, access to certain classes like paladin, and certain spells and magic items that cared), and certainly nothing like Fate's ability to *invoke* an aspect to allow the player to effect the story.

Maybe that's a fair quid pro quo that can work in D&D too; alignment lets the DM tell you how to play your character sometimes, but in exchange, you get to sometimes tell the DM how to write their adventurer.

 

[Ryujin]

There are also other ways, to deal with the hand-waves the 9 point alignment system had. One of my pet peeves has been Paladins and the whole Lawful Goodness thing. This could just as easily be handled by a Code of Honour. Did Holger Carlsen have issues with his powers because his impure thoughts were against his alignment, or against his code of chivalry? Does it really make any difference, in a mechanical sense?

The concept of Philosophies is far more appealing to me, than is that of alignment. The 4e setup approaches this by having interesting Unaligned gods like Melora and Erathis. From my point of view it would frequently be easier to reconcile both a 'good' and 'evil' proponent of Erathis' 'crushed by the wheels of industry' philosophy, than it would two 'unaligned' followers of Melora and Erathis.

Having certain specific classes have to follow a Code has been a mainstay of Dungeons and Dragons, since 1e. Look at the Old Paladin and Cavalier. With those classes, alignment was largely an afterthought. You knew the strictures, under which you had to operate.