D&D General Do you use Alignment in your D&D games?

[Horwath]

yes, as a guideline.
not tied to game mechanics.

 

[Oofta]

You're not the only respondent to the thread who has said this.

There are people who have said 'I use alignment to..", leaving no ambiguity.

You need to fill in the blank there. I use alignment to help me decide what NPCs do is far different from "I use alignment to force people to play their PCs the way I think they should be played" are completely separate things.

I've seen the former, I haven't seen the latter in this thread or any other time it's come up. If I did I would call it bad DMing.

 

[Cadence]

You need to fill in the blank there. I use alignment to help me decide what NPCs do is far different from "I use alignment to force people to play their PCs the way I think they should be played" are completely separate things.

I wonder if that is a function of mostly having players who don't try to push things? Would you let the player with LG on their sheet who semi-regularly shop-lifted and lied and didn't run out to answer cries for help when his beer was fresh use the item designed for LG characters? (As was said above at one table, if it's 51% LG...)

 

[Oofta]

I wonder if that is a function of mostly having players who don't try to push things? Would you let the player with LG on their sheet who semi-regularly shop-lifted and lied and didn't run out to answer cries for help when his beer was fresh use the item designed for LG characters? (As was said above at one table, if it's 51% LG...)

I don't know what my player's PC's alignments are so it wouldn't matter. However, there may well be consequences to shoplifting and constantly lying.

 

[Cadence]

I don't know what my player's PC's alignments are so it wouldn't matter. However, there may well be consequences to shoplifting and constantly lying.

Is that different for you in 5e than it was in 3.5 or before?

 

[Oofta]

Is that different for you in 5e than it was in 3.5 or before?

Other than the paladin? No. Even then I wasn't very particular about it. Sometimes I know what the alignment is, sometimes I don't.

The one time it came up, the paladin made a mistake and ordered the execution of innocent people that could have been saved. It would be the same with an Oath of Devotion paladin.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I probably hate aligment more than Snarf hates bards...

Unpossible.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

Looks like the majority prefers to use alignments. Case closed.

Or let's continue bickering like its 2002 again. Just a few things to keep in mind, though:

1. If you're using words like "repressed", "freedom", or "autocracy" to strengthen your case for something as trivial as a roleplaying game, then your argument was already weak. This just makes it weaker.
2. Characters don't choose their players. If you think they do, then you may have more serious issues to address.
3. D&D isn't necessarily a co-op game, but it is a social one. That means people, not characters, need to find common ground and get along for the benefit of the group. You know, like most mature adults.
4. Alignment has always, and will forever be, a part of the D&D game. But like everything else in the game, you can choose to ignore it or change it however you see fit.
5. If you think you know somebody because they use option A or play with rule B, that says more about you than what you want to say about your ideal character for a game that you feel was created entirely for you.

And if someone takes offense to any of these, just call it a receipt. I've already taken offense from several comments in this thread. And this discussion has run its expected course.

 

[Cadence]

Other than the paladin? No. Even then I wasn't very particular about it. Sometimes I know what the alignment is, sometimes I don't.

The one time it came up, the paladin made a mistake and ordered the execution of innocent people that could have been saved. It would be the same with an Oath of Devotion paladin.

It feels like it would matter for clerics (and the detection spells) and some of the spells/items that targeted alignment. Did they just not come up very often?

 

[Cadence]

Characters don't choose their players. If you think they do, then you may have more serious issues to address.

That's an interesting thought.

I wonder if there could be something like where some authors say they don't really find out what a character is going to do until it happens as they write it (like it is just coming out and not a choice).