What Did Alignments Ever Do For D&D?

[Tequila Sunrise]

Yes, it's that time of the month. Today a post inspired me to finally blog about my single not-so-horrible run-in with alignment.

I've wanted to put some of my thoughts on the topic into writing for a while now, so I thought I'd share. Also, I want to shamelessly advertise my blog!

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Caused a lot of arguments that weren't worth the effort, mostly. Their primary failing is, of course, that no matter how they are written, not everyone is going to agree on what exactly constitutes X alignment.

 

[Orius]

Alignment really seems to have been intended for a quick and broad general description of overall behavior of the PC. Never anything specific, just a basis for role-playing.

Alignment's problems I think came about when it started becoming a mechanical requirement for classes, and penalties were enacted for behavior contrary to alignment. In particular is the infamous disputes over the paladin class, where many of the arguments seem to be. I've long held the posistion that bad DMs who shouldn't have been behind the screen alignment stomped paladins because they couldn't handle the class in the campaign. In short, it was another case of the rules trying to enforce RPing mechanically for the sake of game balance, which maybe isn't a good idea.

 

[Shemeska]

They provise useful guidelines for easily catagorizing monster behavior in a broad manner, and likewise for thematic purposes can be useful for PCs.

People can get too hung up on rules-lawyering something that shouldn't be specific unless you're talking about certain outsiders that literally personify those alignments. But people getting hung up on that stuff is a problem with a minority of players rather than the system itself.

 

[Wik]

Meh, I liked alignments. And I actually used them today... when playing out an NPC. Basically, when the PCs were considering the possibility of allowing a species to die out (essentially, genocide - they were just looking at all angles) I sat back and thought "how would a True Neutral Druid Handle This?" and eveything fell into place.

For the players, they can be sort of annoying, but on the other extreme, they do prevent guys from basically adopting the best personality for every situation - the ol "I'm Lawful Good in the city, Chaotic Evil in the dungeon" situation that seems to crop up from time to time.

 

[Dausuul]

*shrug* I've seen a few alignment disputes. Nothing major, it was pretty much like any other rules dispute--the DM made a ruling and everybody moved on.

On the other hand, I'm hard pressed to think of anything positive I've seen emerge from the alignment rules.

 

[GoldDragon]

I guess they really didn't don't matter but we use and love them. It's especially interesting when you can use god-goading with an alignment breech. Just puts a new spin on the gaming sessions, from time to time.

 

[fanboy2000]

In basic D&D there were alignment languages. (Old schoolers never seem to mention that when reminiscing...) IIRC, it was more body language. If you changed alignment, you forgot your alignment language and learned the new one.

Weird.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Humor?

I have seen my fair share of nerd-rage based on rulings on alignments, and it always stemmed from one thing: The GM and Player did not agree on what alignment X meant.
But alignment is a very good shorthand description for the general approach a character had toward life.. as long as it wasn't treated as a straight jacket.

I ended up adopting a flexible 'code of honor' ruling for those PCs tied to a specific alignment {paladins specficially} in which the player codified the 10 rules thier character abided by.

I also ended up doing what Eberron eventually did, nerf out the 'detect evil' spells and abilities and make the dieties more remote and not completely tied to the clerics alignment.

With these two changes, I avoided the nerd-rage events... at least while I was running the game

 

[howandwhy99]

In basic D&D there were alignment languages. (Old schoolers never seem to mention that when reminiscing...) IIRC, it was more body language. If you changed alignment, you forgot your alignment language and learned the new one.

Weird.

We use alignment languages. Their design really is up to the DM. I think of them as behavior that expresses the alignment held by a PC. That includes strategies and tactics. It isn't a natural language.

They are useful in determining enemies, allies, and neutrals. But more difficult than simply using the spell Know/Detect Alignment.

Alignment is a huge part of D&D to my understanding. It outlines the predetermined actions of the NPCs and behaviors of everything else in the world with an alignment. Which is, well, everything.