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Message: <blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 6273359" data-attributes="member: 3192">I know the book well. It's an interesting read with a mix of insight, humor, and sometimes doubt on my part. Not that anything in the book is deceptive, only that it's difficult to understand at times. And I know I can't remember that well to five years ago much less, what? I guess thirty? But Gary certainly demonstrates a good memory. Plus some amazing stories.That's my thinking too. Alignment as a system is defined by the behavior of the game element and vice versa. If it's lawful, then all the behaviors in the game under lawful make up the current lawful alignment. As a means of communicating to other game elements, not necessarily a sentient (i.e. Intelligent) act at all, the Alignment behaviors become a language of communication. As Gary says, it allows recognition by others on a non-verbal level, signs and signals: the behavior, which enables like-minded groups to find each other. This isn't "announcing their moral-ethical (or lack thereof) beliefs and convictions" in a verbal language. Anyone can pretend anything there with little effort at all. Telling isn't doing. Verbal languages are designed for fast "conveyance of information or general conversation" as Gary says. They are mountains to scale by poets to convey much of anything else. To get closer to game mechanics, think of the microbiological world. Micro-organisms manage to work together in way we can't yet wrap our heads around to create these unthinkably complex multi-cellular organisms like ourselves. They "speak a language" to each other via behaviors to work in concert together, attack another, or largely go their own way. Game mechanics can be designed similarly to communicate, interact according to the rules, based upon their internal design. Act together, act apart, act against. The Players can use game elements under their control to behave any manner they wish, but its going to be covered by the rules one way or another. Just like they can use the spoken character languages to convey or request information in a more commonly understand method from sentient-like designed game elements. The latter here allows for much of the standard Alignment system to be discovered and mastered by cleric players, and others of course, by talking with other "people": NPCs. The Alignment language categorizes the behaviors they might use to engage with them and, depending on the alignment of the game element, learn the result. The mechanics are there to facilitate mastering that game play. Just as using a hammer to smash a box in the game uses To Hit rolls and Damage rolls to Hit Point totals for combats.</blockquote>

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