D&D General So how about alignment, eh?

[jmartkdr2]

I still use the terms as descriptors but haven’t enforced anything about alignment in twenty years.

I do think there’s interesting ways to use cosmic alignment, if that’s something you want to be a major theme of the campaign.

 

[niklinna]

I have always felt that stuffing morality and ethics into any manageable number of boxes grossly oversimplifies things and makes creating interesting characters more difficult.

 

[Vaalingrade]

None.

 

[Clint_L]

To be fair to alignment, it arose in a time when the designers were probably just trying to get people to role-play even a little, so it was a useful shorthand.

 

[niklinna]

To be fair to alignment, it arose in a time when the designers were probably just trying to get people to role-play even a little, so it was a useful shorthand.

It originated mostly for assigning unit types to sides for miniatures wargaming, no?

 

[CleverNickName]

The only alignment chart I'll ever need.

 

[Redwizard007]

Alignment is a great descriptive tool, but as anything else, it fails miserably.

The days of "but that's what my character would do," alignment restricted classes, Helm of Opposite Alignment (or whatever the hell it was called,) failing paladins, and all the other associated garbage that came with it should be swept up and incinerated.

Where I will always use alignment, is as shorthand notations for monsters, NPCs, and organizations in my own notes, but I will continue to attach more descriptive details as they become relevant.

 

[Clint_L]

It originated mostly for assigning unit types to sides for miniatures wargaming, no?

No. Gygax brought introduced it to D&D in 1974, inspired by Michael Moorcock's Elric stories. Originally the alignments were chaotic, neutral, and lawful.

 

[Reynard]

No. Gygax brought introduced it to D&D in 1974, inspired by Michael Moorcock's Elric stories. Originally the alignments were chaotic, neutral, and lawful.

They were still factions.

 

[niklinna]

Did anybody see Freebase, the role-playing game? (It was an insert in Buttery Wholesomeness, the one and only supplement to Human Occupied Landfill.) It featured alignments like Crunchy Granola and Liberal Establishment. I may be misremembering the particulars.