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<blockquote data-quote="AFGNCAAP" data-source="post: 1367303" data-attributes="member: 871">Couldn't agree more.&nbsp; It seems that more often than not, a person's intrepretations on what is &quot;good,&quot; &quot;evil,&quot; &quot;neutral,&quot; &quot;lawful,&quot; and &quot;chaotic&quot; are often the source of the problems.&nbsp; It's all about definitions--the key thing about D&amp;D is that the definitions are (usually) set in stone, but often aren't recognized as such by the game's players.Calico_Jack73's mention of Marine Snipers as Assassins is an excellent point along these lines.&nbsp; An &quot;assassin&quot; does not necessarily equal an &quot;Assassin&quot; in D&amp;D terms (the lowercase word is a generic use of the word itself, while the uppercase word is a specific use of the Prestige Class title).&nbsp; While any character of any class or race could be deemed/labelled as an &quot;assassin,&quot; only those Evil-aligned characters, trained in the killing arts, willing to murder anyone, and who are members of a particular Prestige Class, are deemed &quot;Assasins&quot; in D&amp;D.&nbsp; Along the same lines, &quot;marine&quot; does not necessarily equal &quot;Marine&quot;--one term refers to the seas &amp; sea-related things in general, while the other term refers to a particular set of trained military personnel bossed around by Generals (or Admirals--don't recall my ranks for sure, but I do recall that the Marines are closely associated with the Navy--at least the U.S. version).Also, I think that a lot of people tend to forget that in the default setting for D&amp;D (as well as in other popular settings like Toril or Krynn), the forces of Good, Evil, Law, &amp; Chaos are real, tangible, &amp; have an effect on the gameworld's reality--they're typically called gods.&nbsp; Though the mere mortals in the game may think &amp; believe they're actually lawfully, honorably, or benevolently, the gods are able to truly determine if the mortals truly are or not--the deities have a greater level of knowledge, perspective, and awareness of the impact of mortal events on the world around them than the mortals do.For example, one &quot;assassin,&quot; he/she may consider killing a tyrannical leader as a &quot;good&quot; act, but in reality, said &quot;assassin&quot; actually did more harm than good because that &quot;good&quot; act of &quot;assassination&quot; either allowed someone more ruthless &amp; tyrannical to assume power, caused a more violent outbreak of political struggle/civil war between vying factions trying to assume power, or even sent a message to the nation's enemies that it was currently unstable and ripe for conquest/destruction.I think Alignment, in one form or another, should be kept in D&amp;D.&nbsp; In games, esp. legendary/heroic games, where good &amp; evil are tangible forces, or where the gods are active in mortal lives, then AL should be kept.&nbsp; In games where things are a bit more ambiguous, and where divine intervention isn't truly evident (some of the more grim-&amp;-gritty fantasy settings; also d20 Modern, with its &quot;modern sensibilities&quot;), I think that the d20 Modern system of Alliegiances really works out well--there's still alliegiances to Good and Evil, but these are seperated in context to allegiances to a nation, cause, belief, organization, etc.; thus doing something that is &quot;good for the nation&quot; or &quot;good&quot; according to the beliefs/values held by a religion/organization is not necessarily &quot;Good&quot; at all--they allow their alliegiance to said nation/faith/organization/etc. to dictate their actions.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AFGNCAAP, post: 1367303, member: 871"] Couldn't agree more. It seems that more often than not, a person's intrepretations on what is "good," "evil," "neutral," "lawful," and "chaotic" are often the source of the problems. It's all about definitions--the key thing about D&D is that the definitions are (usually) set in stone, but often aren't recognized as such by the game's players. Calico_Jack73's mention of Marine Snipers as Assassins is an excellent point along these lines. An "assassin" does not necessarily equal an "Assassin" in D&D terms (the lowercase word is a generic use of the word itself, while the uppercase word is a [I]specific use[/I] of the Prestige Class title). While any character of any class or race could be deemed/labelled as an "assassin," only those Evil-aligned characters, trained in the killing arts, willing to murder anyone, and who are members of a particular Prestige Class, are deemed "Assasins" in D&D. Along the same lines, "marine" does not necessarily equal "Marine"--one term refers to the seas & sea-related things in general, while the other term refers to a particular set of trained military personnel bossed around by Generals (or Admirals--don't recall my ranks for sure, but I do recall that the Marines are closely associated with the Navy--at least the U.S. version). Also, I think that a lot of people tend to forget that in the default setting for D&D (as well as in other popular settings like Toril or Krynn), the forces of Good, Evil, Law, & Chaos are real, tangible, & have an effect on the gameworld's reality--they're typically called gods. Though the mere mortals in the game may think & believe they're actually lawfully, honorably, or benevolently, the gods are able to truly determine if the mortals truly are or not--the deities have a greater level of knowledge, perspective, and awareness of the impact of mortal events on the world around them than the mortals do. For example, one "assassin," he/she may consider killing a tyrannical leader as a "good" act, but in reality, said "assassin" actually did more harm than good because that "good" act of "assassination" either allowed someone more ruthless & tyrannical to assume power, caused a more violent outbreak of political struggle/civil war between vying factions trying to assume power, or even sent a message to the nation's enemies that it was currently unstable and ripe for conquest/destruction. I think Alignment, in one form or another, should be kept in D&D. In games, esp. legendary/heroic games, where good & evil are tangible forces, or where the gods are active in mortal lives, then AL should be kept. In games where things are a bit more ambiguous, and where divine intervention isn't truly evident (some of the more grim-&-gritty fantasy settings; also d20 Modern, with its "modern sensibilities"), I think that the d20 Modern system of Alliegiances really works out well--there's still alliegiances to Good and Evil, but these are seperated in context to allegiances to a nation, cause, belief, organization, etc.; thus doing something that is "good for the nation" or "good" according to the beliefs/values held by a religion/organization is not necessarily "Good" at all--they allow their alliegiance to said nation/faith/organization/etc. to dictate their actions. [/QUOTE]

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