Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Edena_of_Neith" data-source="post: 4370572" data-attributes="member: 2020">Nobody could ever figure out what the alignments meant.&nbsp; It was quite a regular affair for one person to call this fictional character from a book lawful good, and another interpret that character as chaotic evil.&nbsp; Not only amongst players, but amongst the game designers also.&nbsp; For example, take Thomas Covenant.&nbsp; What alignment is Thomas Covenant?&nbsp; * Don't answer that question!&nbsp; It's a trick question. *&nbsp; If you actually tried to answer the question, you'd start an Alignment-War thread / Thomas Covenant-War thread, which would go on for hundreds of posts, involve vast amounts of philosophy and personal opinion, and if - incredibly - the thread wasn't shut down by the Admins, the matter would never be resolved.&nbsp; Likewise, what alignment was King Arthur?&nbsp; Sounds pretty easy, right?&nbsp; A lot of people would quickly contradict you.&nbsp; -&nbsp; Just as players see fictional characters in different lights, they saw alignment in different lights.&nbsp; The DM was, basically, the final arbiter of what alignment was, much to the dismay of some players, and sometimes the results were tragic (been there, saw that.)&nbsp; In the very early days of gaming, a popular alignment was Neutral Evil, because it was widely interpreted as the Do Anything You Want And Get Away With It Alignment.&nbsp; Some even called it The Fun Alignment.&nbsp; &nbsp; As far as I know, the first really strict definitions of Good and Evil were in the 3.0 Book of Exalted Deeds and the 3.0 Book of Vile Darkness, which spelled out in absolute terms what these were (and awarded your character In Game power if he or she adhered strongly to Good or Evil.)&nbsp; &nbsp; The most popular alignments in the groups I played in were Neutral Good (the Get Along With The Other Characters Alignment), Neutral (the Live and Let Live Alignment), and Chaotic Neutral (The Let's-Squash-Em-Good! / Let's Have A Free-For-All! Alignment.)&nbsp; Chaotic Good (The I'm A Nice Guy Out To Do Heroic Things Alignment) came up next.&nbsp; Lawful Evil (The I'm Despicable But Also Amicable Alignment) occasionally cropped up.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Edena_of_Neith, post: 4370572, member: 2020"] Nobody could ever figure out what the alignments meant. It was quite a regular affair for one person to call this fictional character from a book lawful good, and another interpret that character as chaotic evil. Not only amongst players, but amongst the game designers also. For example, take Thomas Covenant. What alignment is Thomas Covenant? * Don't answer that question! It's a trick question. * If you actually tried to answer the question, you'd start an Alignment-War thread / Thomas Covenant-War thread, which would go on for hundreds of posts, involve vast amounts of philosophy and personal opinion, and if - incredibly - the thread wasn't shut down by the Admins, the matter would never be resolved. Likewise, what alignment was King Arthur? Sounds pretty easy, right? A lot of people would quickly contradict you. - Just as players see fictional characters in different lights, they saw alignment in different lights. The DM was, basically, the final arbiter of what alignment was, much to the dismay of some players, and sometimes the results were tragic (been there, saw that.) In the very early days of gaming, a popular alignment was Neutral Evil, because it was widely interpreted as the Do Anything You Want And Get Away With It Alignment. Some even called it The Fun Alignment. As far as I know, the first really strict definitions of Good and Evil were in the 3.0 Book of Exalted Deeds and the 3.0 Book of Vile Darkness, which spelled out in absolute terms what these were (and awarded your character In Game power if he or she adhered strongly to Good or Evil.) The most popular alignments in the groups I played in were Neutral Good (the Get Along With The Other Characters Alignment), Neutral (the Live and Let Live Alignment), and Chaotic Neutral (The Let's-Squash-Em-Good! / Let's Have A Free-For-All! Alignment.) Chaotic Good (The I'm A Nice Guy Out To Do Heroic Things Alignment) came up next. Lawful Evil (The I'm Despicable But Also Amicable Alignment) occasionally cropped up. [/QUOTE]

Verification