Alignment in Eberron: Yay or nay?

[jester47]

I have always stated IMCs that alignment is not equivalent to motivation. Motives and actions are always better than some freaky mechanic. [edit: additional] I don't think the absolutes of align ment work very well. IMC I have found it better to have alignment act sort of like a blood type for destiny. The actions of someone with an evil alignment no matter how kind or good will eventually lead to some evil. Thus you could have a Chaotic Evil character who acts like Fred Rogers. I have found that this fixes a lot of game play. Fred Rogers gets zapped by anti-evil protections just because his kindness eventually causes or permits a greater evil to run rampant. It also allows for interesting characterisation, and I think this method would work well for Eberron.

Aaron.

 

[Quasqueton]

In D&D, perhaps the "Nazis" are LE, and the artifact they're about to open is known Evil. Unfortunately, they didn't do a detect Law/Chaos on the artifact, and they are about to learn the hard way that Chaotic Evil artifacts do bad things to Lawful Evil persons.

Alignment abiguity is not at all necessary for great plots.

Quasqueton

 

[Hellcow]

In D&D, perhaps the "Nazis" are LE, and the artifact they're about to open is known Evil.

Or neutral. My memory from Raiders was that if Indy hadn't looked away he could have been melted too -- the lesson was "Don't mess with incredibly powerful things", not "Don't mess with them if you're evil." And in Eberron, priests don't need to match the alignment of the gods -- so there's no reason their artifacts have to, either. I'd tend to make most artifacts neutral -- but that's really personal preference.

 

[tmaaas]

I'm thinking about adding an "Undetectable" (Very Faint) category to the Detect Evil table. Essentially, take the Faint category and divide by two. Anything lower than that is undetectable by the spell (or Paladin class ability).

 

[Hellcow]

Now you've got me thinking more about The Maltese Falcon. Again, in my view, there's no question that Gutman and Cairo were "evil" (in D&D terms) and Sam knew it; it's not like someone was going to say "Psst! Sam! That Cairo guy's not such a good guy!" He catches on pretty quickly about the other players in the scenario. And he himself has had an affair with his partner's wife, so he's not exactly Dudley Do-Right. On the other hand, I'm now struck by the scene where he asks Effie "What's your woman's intuition tell you about [Brigid]?"

Which raises the question -- is Effie a paladin?

While I'm joking, I do see the paladin's detect evil working more in this way when dealing with humans. Obviously if there's a big undead creature around, it's the early warning system. But for people, I see as more of a "I've got a bad feeling about this guy -- keep your eyes on him" than "Die, blackhearted fiend!"

 

[Vrylakos]

Thanks for everyone's responses. It's made for some interesting reading and thinking.

I'm considering perhaps only things dedicated to Evil will bling-bling on a paladin's Detect Evil ability. Undead, clerics with Evil as a domain, things Powered by/DEDICATED to Evil in the big cosmic sense.

For regular joes, I like the 'feminine intuition' angle that Keith brought up... I might even have it reveal 'worst character traits'.... greedy, dishonest, treacherous, oathbreaker, etc. and perhaps a degree of weakness the subject has to this sin. Not EVIL, but certainly seedy character traits that folks might have. More of a "how messed up is this person's moral compass?" than a binary Evilometer.

Just a thought.

Vrylakos

 

[diaglo]

the wishy washy nature of alignment in Eberron is one of the detractors IMO.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Everyone knows my soapbox...define evil in your game.

 

[dravot]

the wishy washy nature of alignment in Eberron is one of the detractors IMO.

So go back to the rigid, stilted concept of alignment, and then enjoy Eberron your own special way. Now everyone's a winner!

 

[diaglo]

So go back to the rigid, stilted concept of alignment, and then enjoy Eberron your own special way. Now everyone's a winner!

i'm just saying that was one of the detractors for me. along with it tho is the changes in the divine/deities.

i'm not a big matrix fan either. so the sentinent constructs... although i like the new idea... don't do it for me as a player race.

the availability of magic too will take some getting used to... i like low magic settings.

i don't like action points. nor am i a big fan of pulp action movies/comics/novels.

i do like the introduction of a favor class psion. and many of the other new ideas. overall i actually like Eberron.