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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6316203" data-attributes="member: 42582">So am I (as well as Rolemaster, which is D&D with a slightly different mechanical chassis). I haven't used alignment in D&D or other fantasy adventure RPGing since 1985, when I read the article "For King and Country" in Dragon 101.Everything turns on the second sentence, which is a counterfactual claim about the gameworld. And how do you know that it is true?Here's a parallel. A player writes up Joan, the magic-user, with all this backstory about a mentor, a wizard's guild, stealing her master's spellbook the night that she ran away, blah blah blah. Is it true that, if Joan hadn't stolen the spellbook s/he would have had a spellbook anyway?Well, it's true that if Joan's player had written a different backstory, or even no backstory at all, s/he would still be allowed to play a PC with a spellbook. But that's a counterfactual truth about the real world. The fact that it is true doesn't mean that, in the gameworld, but for her theft Joan wouldn't have had a spellbook.Likewise for the paladin. It may be true that, if John's player played John differently, s/he would still be allowed to play that PC as a paladin. But it doesn't follow that, in the gameworld, the diligence and honour displayed by John aren't necessary conditions of John enjoying divine blessings.This takes as a premise that John is not living up to his responsibilities.If John's player thinks that John is living up to his responsibilities, but the GM disagrees, I don't see why the GM's view should trump.If John's player concedes that John is failing in his responsibilities, and therefore needs to atone, then there is no need for special GM-side rules because it can be handled via GM-player mutuality.Now if John's player concedes that John is neither responsible nor diligent nor honourable, yet nevertheless insists that John is still a paladin who enjoys divine blessings, you have a different issue. But in my view that is not an issue that you can easily solve via rules for enforcing alignment. It's a deeper problem about a lack of sincerity on the part of the player.</blockquote>

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