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Is character alignment essential to the D&D experience?
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<blockquote data-quote="Wolfen Priest" data-source="post: 132261" data-attributes="member: 3909"><p>I just look at the D&D alignment system (the whole x-y axis thing) as being totally redundant. It's like, when I first saw it (about 15 years ago when I started playing) I thought it was a really cool way to capture 'morality,' basing it along 2 axes, law-chaos, and good-evil.</p><p></p><p><strong>Now</strong> I just see it as confusing. Why would a world need to identify law and/or chaos at all, when it already tracks good and evil? I still don't quite understand what a "chaotic good" person stands for, much less a "lawful evil" one. Chaotic neutral? Give me a break.</p><p></p><p>Star Wars, and other games which use an honor system, have systems that work better because they only resolve morality along a <em>singular</em> axis. The reason alignment is so confusing is because they made it a 2-dimentional grid, and it's <em>not</em>.</p><p></p><p>I think a better way to use it would be simply to get rid of (either) one of the axes, (I would probably get rid of the good-evil one), and then break it down numerically.</p><p></p><p>Having a <em>scale</em> from 1 to 100, with one representing ultimate chaos, and 100 representing ultimate law, would clean things up I think. </p><p></p><p>And heck, if you really want to keep the 2-D grid thing going, then use them both; but <em>still scale it</em>.</p><p></p><p><strong><u>Just have it break down like this:</u></strong></p><p><strong>lawful = 71-100</strong></p><p><strong>neutral = 31-70</strong></p><p><strong>chaotic = 01-30</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>good = 71-100</strong></p><p><strong>neutral = 31-70</strong></p><p><strong>evil = 01-30</strong></p><p></p><p>That way, one "lawful[100] neutral[59]" person could be totally different from the next "lawful[71] neutral[31]" person.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Wolfen Priest, post: 132261, member: 3909"] I just look at the D&D alignment system (the whole x-y axis thing) as being totally redundant. It's like, when I first saw it (about 15 years ago when I started playing) I thought it was a really cool way to capture 'morality,' basing it along 2 axes, law-chaos, and good-evil. [b]Now[/b] I just see it as confusing. Why would a world need to identify law and/or chaos at all, when it already tracks good and evil? I still don't quite understand what a "chaotic good" person stands for, much less a "lawful evil" one. Chaotic neutral? Give me a break. Star Wars, and other games which use an honor system, have systems that work better because they only resolve morality along a [i]singular[/i] axis. The reason alignment is so confusing is because they made it a 2-dimentional grid, and it's [i]not[/i]. I think a better way to use it would be simply to get rid of (either) one of the axes, (I would probably get rid of the good-evil one), and then break it down numerically. Having a [i]scale[/i] from 1 to 100, with one representing ultimate chaos, and 100 representing ultimate law, would clean things up I think. And heck, if you really want to keep the 2-D grid thing going, then use them both; but [i]still scale it[/i]. [b][u]Just have it break down like this:[/u] lawful = 71-100 neutral = 31-70 chaotic = 01-30 good = 71-100 neutral = 31-70 evil = 01-30[/b] That way, one "lawful[100] neutral[59]" person could be totally different from the next "lawful[71] neutral[31]" person. [/QUOTE]
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