Alignment used as crutch.....

[Psion]

Well, it does happen, but that;'s not the fault of the alingment system; it's bad role playing. It's a stage in the evolution of people who can't seem to get it. They learn to still do what they want and blame anything (thier charater, their alignment) for their actions instead of themsleves. Getting rid of the system just gets rid of their current excuse, it doesn't make them play any better.

Yup.

 

[Aaron L]

In 3E, alignment is a descriptor for spell effect purposes, just like Fire, Sonic, or Cold, if thats all you want it to do and don't want to define your character by it.

I myself use alignmet as a basis, come up with a personality that is in the given alignment, and then go from there, changing the characters alignment if his personality has changed to the point that it is warranted.

 

[Valicor]

I'll give ya a OHH HELL YA!

The one that always annoyed me is. Ohh well I'm Chaotic Neutral so I don't care.

or the No I'm Lawful Good, Do what you want i'm doing it this way.

Often these responses lead to the person starying from the party at crucial moments makign it harder for the DM and the party.

 

[Humanophile]

Anything can be an excuse for annoying, stereotypical roleplaying. I doubt the halfling in one of your other stories would've acted more socially acceptable if he didn't have the letters C and N on his character sheet, they're just another thing to fall back on, and certain types such as Chaotic Stupid and Lawful Gestapo will be constant fallbacks while someone works out the intricacies of personality.

So I can think of a couple of very good reasons to toss alignment completely*, but stupid players will be stupid players regardless, so they're only a minimal one at best.

*Reasons being that it makes morality too concrete and visible (you may like that, I don't, and it'd be nicer of WOTC to give you the option to slide it into your campaign than it is for me to have to chop it out and patch some of the holes), and that I'd be hard pressed to find concensus on where the lines on alignment are drawn and exactly what means what. I'm not calling it bad, just unnecessary and a hassle to many of us.)

 

[Black Omega]

Am I the only one wondering if yet another revival of this arguement isn't just a troll?

For the record, I've neverhad aproblem with alighnment. Most of my group plays Hero System, so we're used to coming up with characters without alignments. Then once the personality is in place you just decide what alignment it fits and go from there. I never decide 'I'm creating someone Chaotic Neutral'. I create someone with background and personality, then decide "Ok, this sounds like Neutral Evil".

 

[SHARK]

*BUMP*

 

[Teflon Billy]

...I've neverhad aproblem with alighnment. Most of my group plays Hero System, so we're used to coming up with characters without alignments. Then once the personality is in place you just decide what alignment it fits and go from there...

See, we back it up even one step further. We just come up with characters without alignments, and once the personality is in place we begin to play.

What is gained by tagging your character with CG, LN or what have you. Just get a feel for the personality and go with that.

 

[hong]

What is gained by tagging your character with CG, LN or what have you. Just get a feel for the personality and go with that.

Mechanics-wise, if you ever use spells like holy smite or dispel evil, it might be useful to know if you catch your party members in the effect.

 

[Teflon Billy]

In my game, the easy fix for that was anything that affected alignment could be taken as affecting creature type.

 

[Black Omega]

What is gained by tagging your character with CG, LN or what have you. Just get a feel for the personality and go with that.

Mostly the game system is based around that for spells. Though the only thing that I keep close track on is honor.