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Heroes In Shades Of Grey
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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7735274" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>The alignment system in D&D has always tended to - somewhat unfortunately - pigeonhole characters into little boxes; reinforced by the 1e-era penalties for varying from one's alignment. This presents an arbitrary and in many cases unnecessary limitation on how one can play one's character and even what character one can play at all. This article seems to want to reinforce that limitation, where for 35+ years I've wanted to mitigate it in most cases while maybe not removing it outright.</p><p></p><p>Don't get me wrong, I quite like the alignment system - but I want the character to define its alignment rather than have the alignment define the character. In other words, just play the character in character and a vague idea of its alignment will soon enough become apparent.</p><p></p><p>I also promote the idea of - I guess you could call it shades of alignment, where for example a true paladinic type might have its alignment as LG a character who is very Good and trends a bit toward Chaotic might show as cG. Someone who is close to true Neutral but shades a bit toward Chaotic Good (i.e. by far the most common alignment seen in my games) would show as Ncg.</p><p></p><p>And we've never really played with heroism as a goal, not since day 1 back on the very early '80s. Any heroism arising from what our characters do is often just a side effect of our killing monsters and taking their stuff and may not even always be intentional; though sometimes there's a sort-of-heroic story lurking somewhere in behind it all.</p><p></p><p>Most of the real heroism we see in our games comes when characters risk themselves to save other characters.</p><p></p><p>Lan-"Paladins, however, still have to play to alignment; which is probably why they stick out like sore thumbs"-efan</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 7735274, member: 29398"] The alignment system in D&D has always tended to - somewhat unfortunately - pigeonhole characters into little boxes; reinforced by the 1e-era penalties for varying from one's alignment. This presents an arbitrary and in many cases unnecessary limitation on how one can play one's character and even what character one can play at all. This article seems to want to reinforce that limitation, where for 35+ years I've wanted to mitigate it in most cases while maybe not removing it outright. Don't get me wrong, I quite like the alignment system - but I want the character to define its alignment rather than have the alignment define the character. In other words, just play the character in character and a vague idea of its alignment will soon enough become apparent. I also promote the idea of - I guess you could call it shades of alignment, where for example a true paladinic type might have its alignment as LG a character who is very Good and trends a bit toward Chaotic might show as cG. Someone who is close to true Neutral but shades a bit toward Chaotic Good (i.e. by far the most common alignment seen in my games) would show as Ncg. And we've never really played with heroism as a goal, not since day 1 back on the very early '80s. Any heroism arising from what our characters do is often just a side effect of our killing monsters and taking their stuff and may not even always be intentional; though sometimes there's a sort-of-heroic story lurking somewhere in behind it all. Most of the real heroism we see in our games comes when characters risk themselves to save other characters. Lan-"Paladins, however, still have to play to alignment; which is probably why they stick out like sore thumbs"-efan [/QUOTE]
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