Alternative Alignment Systems

[candidus_cogitens]

We're all familiar with the bi-axial system of D&D, and surely most of us are acquainted with systems like Warhammer and Stormbringer (Elric), that use Chaos and Law as the sole axis. Are there other alignment systems?

I have always felt that chaos and law end up being not distinct enough from evil and good. That's what got me thinking about this question. Maybe good and evil are just so deeply ingrained in our minds that it is difficult to think about things any other way.

One alternative that I can think of is eliminate the idea of a cosmic dualism and instead have more of a political (or divine) rivalry. So, instead of having two direct opposites, you could just have two competing gods, two competing kingdoms, etc., which would have some significant differences, but would not necessarily have to be the exact logical antithesis of the other.

Your thoughts?

 

[psychognome]

You could use the Subjective Alignments concept from the Book of Vile Darkness. In general it's about how different people might view evil differently. So for the sake of spells like detect evil and abilities like smite evil the opponent counts as evil if the user views their morality as evil.

I know this isn't really answering your question, but you could try and take a look at D20 Modern's allegiance system. The idea is that a character chooses three allegiances, which can be moral and ethical codes, religious groups, philosophies and even factions. When faced with a moral situation the character acts as through his first allegiance, if that provides no answer then through his second allegiance, and then through his third... for an example:

Sir Lance-A-Lot is a goody-two-shoes knight (instead of saying Paladin). His allegiances are to Good, Law and his knightly Order. When faced with a moral dilemma he first acts in accordance with Good, then with Law, and then through the will of his knightly Order...

Hope that helped...

 

[Nifft]

IMC "natural" critters, including the free-willed races, will never detect as Evil or any other capital-letter trait. You can become Tainted (by worshipping a demon-god, for example), at which point you'd detect as Evil, but just being a selfish, prideful, greedy murderer isn't going to do it.

IMC also the gods are all Good or Neutral (never Evil), so when they fight, it's about Law vs. Chaos.

-- Nifft

 

[Lalato]

There was an interesting post over Monte Cook's boards about using Zodiac signs instead of alignment. I thought it was a novel approach.

--sam

 

[psychognome]

IMC "natural" critters, including the free-willed races, will never detect as Evil or any other capital-letter trait. You can become Tainted (by worshipping a demon-god, for example), at which point you'd detect as Evil, but just being a selfish, prideful, greedy murderer isn't going to do it.

IMC also the gods are all Good or Neutral (never Evil), so when they fight, it's about Law vs. Chaos.

-- Nifft

That is a neat approach.

Originally posted by Lalato
There was an interesting post over Monte Cook's boards about using Zodiac signs instead of alignment. I thought it was a novel approach.

--sam

And that is another interesting approach... have to think of that. And of course, following my example, all Geminis must be Chaotic Evil powerplaying dastards at one time, and Lawful Good roleplaying drama queens at another. Hey, that's why we're called Gemini!

 

[GuardianLurker]

Another option is to add another axis.

I use a three axis system of Good/Evil, Law/Chaos, and Creation/Destruction.

It results in a cosmology that looks like this:
http://patriot.net/~glurker/Olerra/Gazeteer/Common/Cosmology.html

Some of the triples are a little hard to wrap our limited mind around (Law/Evil/Creation, for instance), while others are fairly easy (Chaos/Evil/Destruction). This is because we aren't really used to thinking of Creation and Destruction as morally and ethically neutral. But once you manage it, it works surprisingly well.

 

[Dismas]

How about the Allegiance system from d20 Modern. Character pick upto three things that are important to them.

So you could have Al: Good, evil, a particular religion, having fun or Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

 

[Norfleet]

How about the Allegiance system from d20 Modern. Character pick upto three things that are important to them.

So you could have Al: Good, evil, a particular religion, having fun or Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Hey, I like this option. I know what my 3 choices are going to be: Me, myself, and I.

 

[Camarath]

I thing you could alter the alignment systems were they represented personality rather than a kind of allegiance.
Evil vs Good could repesent the way one values one's self and others, an evil character would be focused on his own desires and needs wile a good character would be focused on the needs and desires of others. Law vs Chaos could repersent the way one structures one's motivation, a lawful character would be motived by thoughts and rational conculsions and a chaotic character would be motivated by his emotional repsonse to the world and certain situations. You could also combine this with a Hard alignment systems for outsiders and poeple who embody the abstact constept of Law, Chaos, Good and Evil. You could start character with their soft personality based alignment and through their action they might delevope a hard alignment. Say if they did excetional deeds of some sort they might gain a touch of one of the alignments or they might gradualy build up an alignment like a taint over time. Soft alignment would be internal (i.e. the character personality) and hard alignment would be external (i.e. based on deeds).

Just my thoughts.