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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 1628703" data-attributes="member: 177">For me, it is less a matter of agreement or disagreement as it is questioning the wisdom in the presentation.&quot;...can a good character be accused of murdering another person, even if that person should be considered evil?&quot;Alignment is the long-term average of past actions and motivations.&nbsp; The actions dictate alignment of the character.&nbsp; The alignment of the character says nothing about the moral status of present or future actions.&nbsp; To ask &quot;can a Good character commit murder?&quot; is rather like asking, &quot;Can a person who is generally a nice guy ever be rude?&quot;By asking the question, the author seems to assume the reader has a fundamental misunderstanding of alignment.&nbsp; This assumption will turn off large parts of your audience.&nbsp; Repeating that which they already know is okay - the folks who know it already can view it as a primer intended for others, and will skim it until they hit discussion of topics less clear to them.&nbsp; But, asking as the article does fails to imply that deeper discussion will follow.&nbsp; It will make a more sophisticated reader think, &quot;Hm.&nbsp; Any idiot knows that.&nbsp; If that's the level this is written for, I shouldn't bother with it.&quot;&nbsp; And you quickly lose sales.As a separate point - I'm also not a fan of equating the Law-Chaos axis with society as a whole.&nbsp; As far as I'm concerned, a person who prefers orderliness can be lawful without any reference to the will of the majority. But that's just me.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 1628703, member: 177"] For me, it is less a matter of agreement or disagreement as it is questioning the wisdom in the presentation. [i]"...can a good character be accused of murdering another person, even if that person should be considered evil?"[/i] Alignment is the long-term average of past actions and motivations. The actions dictate alignment of the character. The alignment of the character says nothing about the moral status of present or future actions. To ask "can a Good character commit murder?" is rather like asking, "Can a person who is generally a nice guy ever be rude?" By asking the question, the author seems to assume the reader has a fundamental misunderstanding of alignment. This assumption will turn off large parts of your audience. Repeating that which they already know is okay - the folks who know it already can view it as a primer intended for others, and will skim it until they hit discussion of topics less clear to them. But, asking as the article does fails to imply that deeper discussion will follow. It will make a more sophisticated reader think, "Hm. Any idiot knows that. If that's the level this is written for, I shouldn't bother with it." And you quickly lose sales. As a separate point - I'm also not a fan of equating the Law-Chaos axis with society as a whole. As far as I'm concerned, a person who prefers orderliness can be lawful without any reference to the will of the majority. But that's just me. [/QUOTE]

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