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<blockquote data-quote="DMScott" data-source="post: 1867631" data-attributes="member: 11734">I treat alignment as descriptive, not definitive - in other words, it describes how a character has acted in the past, but doesn't mandate how they must act in the future (though of course future actions might change the description, if they're not in line with past behaviour). I've never had a problem with players accepting this method, though in some cases they've disagreed with the description.As to why bother, it's useful for game purposes - running spells like Dispel Evil or Holy Word is a lot easier with an alignment system. If I'm running a setting where those sorts of spells don't exist then I don't use alignments. Alignment tends to draw lines and let people know who's with &quot;us&quot; and who the bad guys are; in some settings (i.e. Lord of the Rings-style settings) that's useful. In others, it's not desireable - in a Conan-style setting, for example, I'd dump alignment.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DMScott, post: 1867631, member: 11734"] I treat alignment as descriptive, not definitive - in other words, it describes how a character has acted in the past, but doesn't mandate how they must act in the future (though of course future actions might change the description, if they're not in line with past behaviour). I've never had a problem with players accepting this method, though in some cases they've disagreed with the description. As to why bother, it's useful for game purposes - running spells like Dispel Evil or Holy Word is a lot easier with an alignment system. If I'm running a setting where those sorts of spells don't exist then I don't use alignments. Alignment tends to draw lines and let people know who's with "us" and who the bad guys are; in some settings (i.e. Lord of the Rings-style settings) that's useful. In others, it's not desireable - in a Conan-style setting, for example, I'd dump alignment. [/QUOTE]

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