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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aenghus" data-source="post: 6761035" data-attributes="member: 2656">Such a game may or may not use alignment. Alignment can be used constructively in many different ways, and I think it's entirely possible to scale down the amount of uncertainty and confusion in a game and still have moral and ethical questions and debates, just shorter and less fraught ones. There will still be worries about legitimate targets and tactics, dubious allies and alliances.Commonly a game like this colour codes the factions for the convenience of the players and the PCs, so NPCs literally wear their alignments. Unrealistic but useful for styles of play which emphasise action and straightforward plots. This also facilitate "good" characters who to remain "good" need to restrict their use of violence to legitimate targets, and allows them to be be more proactive.In a grittier game "good" PCs are often stuck in reactive mode as there are no safe proactive directions, unless you don't mind the risk of mowing down innocent people, or unlucky people. It's one of the reasons more callous PCs are an easier fit for such games.AgreedRPGs feature complex interactions, and the people involved can make certain plots impractical. For instance many groups feature what I call the "barbarian" player, who preferred method of roleplaying is a headlong charge at a clear enemy, and gets twitchy when denied such opportunities, until their fuse blows and their PC flips out and kills someone. Groups with such a player have issues with lots of talky talk or more cerebral play, but that's the price to play to facilitate such a player.The risk of throwing everything up to debate is creating situations like the PCs convincing themselves to all accept the universe is doomed and retire to remote places to await the inevitable end of all things in some comfort. I haven't seen this happen to a whole group, but I've seen a number of PCs retire in despair or resignation.I find True Neutral to be IMO a rare alignment, somewhat elitist and by definition disconnected from the ebb and flow of standard politics in any particular gameworld. They work better IMO as defenders of small enclaves, such as stone circles, mystic forests and other places of power.I am a big fan of the "unaligned" alignment, for all the NPCs who don't care about cosmic balance and just go with the flow, picking the path of least resistance.</blockquote>

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