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Alignment. Who needs it?
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<blockquote data-quote="dead" data-source="post: 1507395" data-attributes="member: 18707"><p>If player characters have a rich personality, then alignment is not necessary.</p><p></p><p>And personality can be complex. The black and white (and grey) of alignment will never be able to "perfectly" define it.</p><p></p><p>A personality might be black with grey streaks, it might be white with black speckles.</p><p></p><p>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!"</p><p></p><p>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?</p><p></p><p>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."</p><p></p><p>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).</p><p></p><p>Anyway, this works for my game; it may not work for yours. Just some thoughts of mine . . .</p><p></p><p>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><p></p><p>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.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="dead, post: 1507395, member: 18707"] 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. [/QUOTE]
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