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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 471279" data-attributes="member: 2205">I've also been playing for 20 odd years now, and I'd disagree with this 100%.  Plenty of games that are pretty good games, and I've run and played in good games in these systems, have no mechanical alignment system whatsoever.Alignment in a game serves two purposes, really, one well and one rather poorly.  I see how alignment serves as a descriptor of your character and his motivation, although this is the purpose that it serves very poorly, for many of the reasons you describe above.  It's simply too simplistic to do this well, so characters are often put into just a handful of convenient "bins" rather than fully fleshed out as far as motivations.  Alignment also serves to peg individuals as "us" and "them."  It does this very well, but whether or not this functionality is desirable or not depends on the game and the group.  As far as I'm concerned, it's not -- I'd rather scrap alignment altogether and let motivations be more complex than alignment.All in all, I haven't heard of any compelling reason why alignment is necessary in all RPGs, especially from one who realizes the problems with it.</blockquote>