Alignment. Who needs it?

[teitan]

I almost do. Which is to say that I put any CN characters under great scrutiny.

CN is the ultimate "dodge responsibility" alignment, and I am actively suspicious of anyone who takes it. Why? Because dodging responsibility is not conducive to me running a smooth campaign.

OMG, I thought I was the only "anal" DM as my players call it. I make the player tell me exactly what CN really is before I even allow it in the game and to name a few CN characters... do you realize how many times I hear "Wolverine" (Lawful Good, sorry, too disciplined to be anything but... he was a fricking samurai and just because you are a wooly loner on the edge of society doesn't mean you are chaotic, just morose)? Conan yes, Logan no.

Jason

 

[kamosa]

If player characters have a rich personality, then alignment is not necessary.

And personality can be complex. The black and white (and grey) of alignment will never be able to "perfectly" define it.

A personality might be black with grey streaks, it might be white with black speckles.

Take, for example, a character who is just, caring, and honest. However, whenever he meets Purple Things he turns his nose up in disdain -- even though these Purple Things are innocent and do not deserve his contempt. If the Purple Things need help, the PC says, "Go somewhere else! You'll get no kindness from me!"

Now, what "alignment" is this guy? Is he good because 99.9% of the time his personality is that of a "good" person (ie. just, caring, honest); or is he "evil" because 0.1% of the time he is a bigot and this "stains the whole"; or is he "neutral" because the good and the bad counter-act each other?

I say he is none of these. The rigid alignment system cannot portray what this complex PC is. He is kind of "white with black speckles."

So, I've ditched alignment in my game. This has been a great move because it has forced my players to focus on personality traits and quirks. GURPs is a good system because it "forces" players to play personality traits/quirks with its advantages/disadvantages system (oh, yeah, it has no pesky alignment).

Anyway, this works for my game; it may not work for yours. Just some thoughts of mine . . .

You'll have to change a lot of spells like Detect Good/Evil and Unholy Blight etc. I've just made all these spells detect/affect the "enemy".

P.S. I unruffled some feathers with my last posting: "Why we love D&D but hate d20". Sorry, I've being properly reprimanded. But, thanks "Author of Crystalmancy" for your support.

I mostly agree with this but I still feel that alignment has some use. At the very least it forces players to think about their world view before they start playing.

The problem I have with alignment is that it doesn't work for lawfull characters. A chaotic or neutral character can flip into lawfull for a few decisions and it doesn't affect their overall alignment. But, in most games, if you make one chaotic decision as a lawfull character look out here comes the big bad GM to reprimand you.

I agree that lawfull characters should be held to a higher standard of consistancy, but my god only robots are perfect in the alignment department.

Alignment is just a game tool, and it stops being usefull once it starts getting used as a weapon against the players by the GM.