Bring back alignments?

[wlmartin]

In theory they are cool. In practice they lead to arguments about if Batman is lawful good, chaotic good, chaotic neutral, or lawful evil which I find tiresome to even think or care about.

I agree - I do think that in modern day gaming, they are indicative of a broken unbalanced system but the feel of having an Alignment is something I miss.

Might just call my next Character Mr Good, first name - Chaotic!

I was going to do a whole long paragraph or 2 about alignments but it was long, boring and actually makes me think getting rid of them was not such a bad idea LOL

I just do miss the idea of having a CE character, not actually having a system that accepts that type of character but the concept... like THAC0, I miss THAC0 sometimes... I don't really wanna bring it back, but I do miss it

 

[Pickles JG]

So you like the alignment system but you choose to play chaotic good because it bypasses the restrictions of the alignment system? I used to do this when I was 17

I hate the shallow characterisation & cliche roleplaying to say nothing of plot nuking detect alignment spells. I still use it in 4e Planescape but there it is more along the lines of the team you support.

 

[Zaran]

I miss things like Detect Evil. I think it was silly for WotC to remove such a thing because some GMs couldn't figure out how to stop it from bypassing some encounter. I would have rathered they explain how to deal with such spells as Detect Evil.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I think it was silly for WotC to remove such a thing because some GMs couldn't figure out how to stop it from bypassing some encounter. I would have rathered they explain how to deal with such spells as Detect Evil.

At what point is it worth just removing a game element that DMs keep screwing up compared to more and more attempts trying to explain it?

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I don't mind having alignment in the game, but I do mind alignment embedded in the mechanics. Sometimes I want to run a game with something approaching one of the D&D takes on alignment, and sometimes it gets in the way. If it isn't mechanically embedded, I can do what I want, no matter the style of the particular campaign.

I don't think I'll ever miss alignment discussions on the internet, as in, alignment of Batman.

 

[mudlock]

Put whatever adjectives and nouns in the "alignment" box on your sheet your want (d20 Modern had an interesting take), I'm just glad that all game-mechanical effects that key off of what's written there are gone.

 

[malraux]

Put whatever adjectives and nouns in the "alignment" box on your sheet your want (d20 Modern had an interesting take), I'm just glad that all game-mechanical effects that key off of what's written there are gone.

I guarantee that if I write my alignment as "Impulsive Button-Pusher" it'll have significant game mechanical effects.

 

[Spatula]

Anyways - does anyone else miss Alignments?

No, and they're still around in any case. Although I would have chosen different alignments to get rid of in 4e, or gotten rid of them altogether. Personally I find that allegiance systems are a much better role-playing tool than alignment ever was.

IME, alignments were used as a straightjacket ("I can't do that, I am lawful"), as an excuse to misbehave ("I kill the other party members in their sleep. You can't get mad! I'm just role-playing my character!"), or just ignored. Alignments are a neat concept, and an interesting lens to view a fictional world through, but they don't map well to the mass of contradictions that people actually are. As a result, alignments tend to hinder role-playing rather than enhancing it, IMO.

Do you remember the fun Alignments brought to old editions?

Arguments about what your character must or must not do? Misunderstandings about the meanings of law and chaos? Paladins getting unfairly punished? Having to ban CN as a PC alignment because misanthropes used it as an excuse to misbehave?

Not really.

I do kinda miss the flamewars. It was always reassuring to know that at any given moment in time, there was someone, somewhere, arguing whether or not paladins can kill orc babies, or if paladins have to follow the laws of an evil kingdom, or which alignment best fits Batman.

 

[Zephrin the Lost]

Someday I'd like to experiences a campaign where alignments are used and followed that doesn't result in fun-killing conflict, because I've never seen it. It's interesting to read about experiences with these rules that are so different from my own.

--Z

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Personally, the only alignment derived "fun-killing" I've ever seen was when people playing LG Paladins wanted to use torture.