(How) did you ditch alignment?

[CRGreathouse]

I use the Book of Hallowed Might (slightly modified), which slightly expands the current alignment rules.

 

[Ace]

I voted other --

I have two homebrew worlds -- In my main one there are 13 Alignments like in the old 1e Manual of the Planes -- the nine core and 4 additional -- Chaotic Neutral Good, Lawful Neutral Good, Chaotic Neutral Evil, and Lawful Neutral Evil. Most people are Neutral -- otherwise it is as Core

In my new campaign normal people don't have alignments -- Some folks like Rangers, Paldins and Clerics (and any creatures with an alignment descriptor) are Aligned

There are three alignments Light (basically Good) Green (Faeries and life stuff) and Dark (Hellspawn)

 

[Kesh]

Something else.

When I get to run my homebrew campaign, I'm going to use the Allegiance system from d20 Modern.

 

[scourger]

We normally play with the core alignments for D&D, but they may be absent from other games. "Characters in Omega World have personalities, motivations, hopes, and fears, not alignments..." for example. It is a really great system for that game. Similarly, alignment doesn't factor much in Judge Dredd--the player characters are judges and are expected to conform to a certain standard of conduct. Alignments usually don't even factor that much in our D&D games; except we have one DM who tries to force the "alignment straightjacket" code of conduct which is met with heavy resistance or lots of Neutral or Chaotic Neutral PCs. I think that DM really wants the PCs to be heroic but won't say it. He then gets frustrated when the PCs act in ways he doesn't like or expect. I find it infinitely more helpful if the DM outlines the type of game that is being offered at the beginning and advises the players to select aligned characters accordingly, but that is rare. I made it a condition of my current game that the PCs are the "good guys" and that I expect them to take the "good" role. Beyond that, I don't even know the PC's alignments or really care as long as they behave.

 

[Li Shenron]

In my main one there are 13 Alignments like in the old 1e Manual of the Planes -- the nine core and 4 additional -- Chaotic Neutral Good, Lawful Neutral Good, Chaotic Neutral Evil, and Lawful Neutral Evil.

This sounds weird I've never heard of it... how are these 4 described differently, for example how is LG different than LNG? Just less "extreme"?

 

[John Morrow]

This sounds weird I've never heard of it... how are these 4 described differently, for example how is LG different than LNG? Just less "extreme"?

It's basically the arrangement of the standard Outer Planes, which include planes that occupy a transitionary space between the primary alignments.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

We basically use normal alignments.

 

[Li Shenron]

It's basically the arrangement of the standard Outer Planes, which include planes that occupy a transitionary space between the primary alignments.

Ok... that doesn't sound very special to me then. I already thought those extra outer planes were kind of redundant :\

 

[DMScott]

Sometimes, we play with the normal rules.

Other times, we chuck alignments. Two basic ways that have worked well:

1) Use Arcana Unearthed. No alignment-based spells.

2) To use normal D&D spells with as little change as possible, alignment is replaced by religious rivalries. Each entity of worship (be it a god, pantheon, or philosophy) has at least one enemy faith, and possibly one or more allied faiths. The faith and its allied faiths are considered the same alignment for alignment-based spell effects, enemy faiths are the opposed alignment, everybody else is neutral.

For example, if I did this with the Greek pantheon, Athena's faith would probably be enemies with Ares' faith, and maybe allied to Apollo's. So if a cleric of Athena casts "Detect Evil", a cleric of Ares would show up. "Detect Good" would ding on a cleric of Apollo. Of course, due to politicking and such the religious enmities aren't always mapped directly to the current situation - there are times when clerics of Ares and Athena are on the same side, and when clerics of Athena and Apollo are working at cross-purposes.