Did the Alignment Champions Win?

[Steely Dan]

The reason I ask this is that when I talked with David Noonan on November 3rd at the Open Game Day at the London Dungeon, I asked him if alignment was still in, and he said "Well, a DM wouldn't really need to deal with it, but a player might have it on his character sheet…"

But now I see alignment is all over the place (monster descriptions etc), so maybe after all the hullabaloo over alignment getting the shaft, they caved and put back more emphasis on it than they had originally planed for 4th Ed?

 

[Saishu_Heiki]

It is still in as a concept, but is removed as a mechanic.

For example, there are (presumably) no axiomatic weapons, based on D&D Podcast 20. Also, the inclusion of "Unaligned" makes it so not everything will have to be placed on that coordinate system.

A good change, IMHO.

 

[frankthedm]

And ugly Humanoids are all Evil!

Killing a tribe of orcs should lead to celebrations, not angsty guilt trips.

 

[MaelStorm]

I don't think it's all over the place. It's just that people who are enamored with this concept zoom it very big. It's been demoted completely and has no game effect anymore. 90% of the game is unaligned.

 

[Beckett]

Of the D&DXP characters, the ranger and the paladin are Good. The other four are all Unaligned.

I don't think alignment is going to have a major impact on the game.

 

[Henrix]

To me it looks like they've nailed it exactly where it should be - it doesn't have to affect anything, and could probably be done away with entirely if you want to, but there are rules for aligning things if you want to.

 

[Lizard]

And ugly Humanoids are all Evil!

Killing a tribe of orcs should lead to celebrations, not angsty guilt trips.

Depends on the campaign tone. I'd like the game to support "Knee deep in dead orcs? Is that all? Send more orcs!" and "Oh, woe betide the sorry fate that causes us to kill, lest we be killed! Curse you, cruel gods of dire necessity!"

Hell, I like it when both characters are in the same party.

Here's a tip learned from almost three decades of DMing. (I'll hit that '30 years of running people through dungeons' mark in October or so):Ethical dilemmas get your players arguing with each other, in character, chewing up game time in a way which requires very little prep on your part. THEY remember this great, involving, game; YOU remember having an extra half hour to nap instead of statting out opponents. Someday, I'll write 'The Total Lazy Bastard's Guide To Being A Great DM, or, How To Plot A Five Hour Session On A Twenty Minute Bus Ride')

 

[FourthBear]

From a statement I read around here (sorry, I can't recall the source), there was a suggestion that alignment might tie into some story awards. Perhaps if you take an alignment, there's a system to suggest rewards if you act in accordance with that alignment. Or it could be similar to the organization rules introduced in the latter half of 3.5e. In any case, I'm almost sure I'm going to utterly ignore alignment in my 4e campaigns. I already do so in current 3.5e campaigns, where I have to do some houseruling and violence to the system to remove alignment.

 

[hong]

Here's a tip learned from almost three decades of DMing. (I'll hit that '30 years of running people through dungeons' mark in October or so):Ethical dilemmas get your players arguing with each other, in character, chewing up game time in a way which requires very little prep on your part. THEY remember this great, involving, game; YOU remember having an extra half hour to nap instead of statting out opponents. Someday, I'll write 'The Total Lazy Bastard's Guide To Being A Great DM, or, How To Plot A Five Hour Session On A Twenty Minute Bus Ride')

Did you just say that alignment wars and party infighting are a good thing?

 

[FourthBear]

Did you just say that alignment wars and party infighting are a good thing?

Hey, I may hate alignment, but I love party infighting! OK, not all types of party infighting, but as long as it doesn't lead to tiresome grudges and actual violence and crime, it's almost all good.