Angels/Demons in a World Without Alignment?

[Kesh]

Personally, I've never played in any games which had Angels/Demons without alignments. I've played in WoD and SR, but if there are Angels and Demons in those games, then I've at least never seen them. That may be why I had problems trying to view Angels/Demons without the solid alignments that Dnd has given them.

The closest thing Shadowrun has to demons would be the Horrors, which are really underplayed. They had a more prominent role in Earthdawn, but SR players didn't want the world to end so the writers pushed the Horrors into the background. Most of the angels & demons are just spirits shaped to look like that (ie. a Catholic priest might summon a fire-spirit that takes the form of the angel from the Garden, whose body & sword are wreathed in flame).

 

[Gez]

If I did away with the alignments, I wouldn't do away completely with them. I'd replace them with d20 Modern's allegiances system.

A being can have up to three allegiances, which can be to virtually anything -- a person, a country, an ideology, a philosophy, or even oneself.

Based on that, Chaos, Evil, Good, and Law as "laws of metaphysics" would disappear, but you could still have demons with an allegiance to the abstract philosophies of Evil and Chaos.

 

[Wolf72]

no alignment? ... Like in Elric? Just allegiance to Law, Balance, or Chaos? ... or the Black Company with just allegiances?

 

[Nightfall]

Sol,

Yeah I was semi-thinking that as well.

Wolf,

Or you could just use Thieves World allegiences since some work that way too. (Even the good and evil ones.)

Another option is the Monte Cooke way of doing alignment via "degrees".

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Or you could just use Thieves World allegiences since some work that way too.

I don't think he was advocating the Black Company Campaign Setting rules on that, but rather evoking just the BC setting's presentation of allegiances in the novels as an example...

I might be wrong. *shrug*

 

[Nightfall]

Eric,

Well I was wondering...and I would also like clarification. I mean the rules for it are fine but I think in D&D game, there are other ways to do it. WoW RPG has allegiances, as does Thieves World. I think if you want use a mechanic, that's the way to go. Although nothing wrong with using Black Company I suppose...

 

[Dog Moon]

Another option is the Monte Cooke way of doing alignment via "degrees".

What is that? Also, which source has the best details on 'allegiences'? Not sure I want to use these, but I figure I might as well check them out.

 

[Gez]

What is that? Also, which source has the best details on 'allegiences'? Not sure I want to use these, but I figure I might as well check them out.

Modern's allegiance system.

 

[Wolf72]

I don't think he was advocating the Black Company Campaign Setting rules on that, but rather evoking just the BC setting's presentation of allegiances in the novels as an example...

I might be wrong. *shrug*

true, true ... don't really care about the rules, but between BC and Elric they try to do away with alignment ala DnD. Haven't read TW game (just some books and a cool graphic novel) but from what I did see on the post it's probably pretty similar

 

[Nightfall]

Dog,

The Monte Cooke handling of alignment was done on a point scale and was demonstrated/shown in Book of Hallowed Might. It was a nice way to say how "lawful" someone is or how "good" someone was based on a point scaling with 0 on an axis being completely neutral.