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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7598717" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I haven't played with mechanical alignment since the mid-1980s. In my 4e campaign the players gave their PCs alignments as per the rules, but this has no mechanical significance - it's a type of label.</p><p></p><p>I think the AD&D alignment categories can be rendered broadly coherent: it's not in doubt that selfishness, and disregard of the rights and wellbeing of others, is evil, while respecting those things is good; but there is a dispute over whether the <em>pathway</em> to goodness is through social order and self-control (which the LG and CE both believe) or is through individual self-realisation (with the CG and LE both believe).</p><p></p><p>What's not coherent, in my view, is the metaphysical presentation that reaches its pinnacle in Planescape, which suggests that LG and CG, so far from being competing claims about the pathway to goodness, are <em>both correct</em> (because in the metaphysical presentation both the Seven Heavens and Olympus are places where wellbeing, truth and beauty are realised).</p><p></p><p>If a game isn't focused on the disagreement between the LG and CG as to the proper pathway to goodness, than I don't think even non-metaphysical alignment has anything to offer. In my 4e Dark Sun game, for instance, we didn't bother with alignment for PCs because it's got no relevance to that setting and its themes.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7598717, member: 42582"] I haven't played with mechanical alignment since the mid-1980s. In my 4e campaign the players gave their PCs alignments as per the rules, but this has no mechanical significance - it's a type of label. I think the AD&D alignment categories can be rendered broadly coherent: it's not in doubt that selfishness, and disregard of the rights and wellbeing of others, is evil, while respecting those things is good; but there is a dispute over whether the [I]pathway[/I] to goodness is through social order and self-control (which the LG and CE both believe) or is through individual self-realisation (with the CG and LE both believe). What's not coherent, in my view, is the metaphysical presentation that reaches its pinnacle in Planescape, which suggests that LG and CG, so far from being competing claims about the pathway to goodness, are [I]both correct[/I] (because in the metaphysical presentation both the Seven Heavens and Olympus are places where wellbeing, truth and beauty are realised). If a game isn't focused on the disagreement between the LG and CG as to the proper pathway to goodness, than I don't think even non-metaphysical alignment has anything to offer. In my 4e Dark Sun game, for instance, we didn't bother with alignment for PCs because it's got no relevance to that setting and its themes. [/QUOTE]
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