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<blockquote data-quote="BenBrown" data-source="post: 5710621" data-attributes="member: 1642">I think that where they went wrong was adding the second axis.&nbsp; If you just have:Chaotic&lt;-&gt;Neutral(or Unaligned)&lt;-&gt;Lawfulthen alignment is just that: alignment.&nbsp; It's which cosmic force with which you are aligned, with very little in out-of-setting moral judgements involved unless one of your players is a comitted anarchist or something like that.I honestly don't know why this was ever changed.&nbsp; Maybe it's that Gary Gygax had players who equated &quot;chaos&quot; with &quot;evil&quot; and he wanted to make it clear that wasn't the case.&nbsp; That's the only thing I can think of that doesn't involve some game designer doing something I consider to be incredibly stupid for no good reason.Honestly, it doesn't take much work to portray the forces of law and chaos in such a way that players will be ambiguous about both of them.&nbsp;&nbsp; Chaos tends towards the nihilistic nutjobs, while Law gives you cold, distant prigs who think they know what's best for you.&nbsp; One can easily be turned off by both.You can therefore have a big cosmic conflict without the problem of &quot;Evil&quot; ever rearing its ugly little head.Maintaining the balance between Law and Chaos: a perfectly reasonable goal.Maintaining the balance between Good and Evil:&nbsp; I have yet to see this make sense.&nbsp; In what kind of world does this make sense?&nbsp;&nbsp; If &quot;Good&quot; is something that has to be balanced, then it's not really good, now is it?For the record, I'm another that liked D20 Modern's Allegiances (and one can easily add the cosmic forces of Law and Chaos there too)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="BenBrown, post: 5710621, member: 1642"] I think that where they went wrong was adding the second axis. If you just have: Chaotic<->Neutral(or Unaligned)<->Lawful then alignment is just that: alignment. It's which cosmic force with which you are aligned, with very little in out-of-setting moral judgements involved unless one of your players is a comitted anarchist or something like that. I honestly don't know why this was ever changed. Maybe it's that Gary Gygax had players who equated "chaos" with "evil" and he wanted to make it clear that wasn't the case. That's the only thing I can think of that doesn't involve some game designer doing something I consider to be incredibly stupid for no good reason. Honestly, it doesn't take much work to portray the forces of law and chaos in such a way that players will be ambiguous about both of them. Chaos tends towards the nihilistic nutjobs, while Law gives you cold, distant prigs who think they know what's best for you. One can easily be turned off by both. You can therefore have a big cosmic conflict without the problem of "Evil" ever rearing its ugly little head. Maintaining the balance between Law and Chaos: a perfectly reasonable goal. Maintaining the balance between Good and Evil: I have yet to see this make sense. In what kind of world does this make sense? If "Good" is something that has to be balanced, then it's not really good, now is it? For the record, I'm another that liked D20 Modern's Allegiances (and one can easily add the cosmic forces of Law and Chaos there too) [/QUOTE]

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