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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6921539" data-attributes="member: 4937">Does putting this caveat in alignment in any way distinguish the rules for say a succubi from a hobgoblin or a hobgoblin from a troll?&nbsp; Are exceptions to eithers basic behavior to be any more expected, and can we on the basis of those exceptions say anything?&nbsp; The problem with this broad far reaching caveat is that it doesn't distinguish the demographics of one entry in the monster manual from another.&nbsp; That was largely left up to the individual DM.&nbsp; I assure you, I played during 2e and certainly in the early 2e era it was still uncommon to treat monstrous humanoids or demihumans as people.&nbsp; That began to change with the publication of 'reverse adventures' in Dragon where you played the bad guys, and with the publication of more lore for the traditional evil races and books for creating demihuman PCs.&nbsp;&nbsp; I ran a 'reverse campaign' for a while, the &quot;goblin campaign&quot;, which was really all about &quot;goblins are people&quot; and &quot;goblins can be heroes&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp; But in earlier eras, Tolkiens original conception, of goblins and orcs being the basically mindless wholly ruined servants of a dark power prevailed and wasn't generally questioned, even as campaigns increasingly departed from Tolkienisms (certainly D&amp;D elves are not Tolkien's immortal elves however clearly inspired by them they may be).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6921539, member: 4937"] Does putting this caveat in alignment in any way distinguish the rules for say a succubi from a hobgoblin or a hobgoblin from a troll? Are exceptions to eithers basic behavior to be any more expected, and can we on the basis of those exceptions say anything? The problem with this broad far reaching caveat is that it doesn't distinguish the demographics of one entry in the monster manual from another. That was largely left up to the individual DM. I assure you, I played during 2e and certainly in the early 2e era it was still uncommon to treat monstrous humanoids or demihumans as people. That began to change with the publication of 'reverse adventures' in Dragon where you played the bad guys, and with the publication of more lore for the traditional evil races and books for creating demihuman PCs. I ran a 'reverse campaign' for a while, the "goblin campaign", which was really all about "goblins are people" and "goblins can be heroes". But in earlier eras, Tolkiens original conception, of goblins and orcs being the basically mindless wholly ruined servants of a dark power prevailed and wasn't generally questioned, even as campaigns increasingly departed from Tolkienisms (certainly D&D elves are not Tolkien's immortal elves however clearly inspired by them they may be). [/QUOTE]

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