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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spell" data-source="post: 3970990" data-attributes="member: 19718">not that many core mechanics are tied to it... and stuff like "this magical item deals damage to you, if you are not LG" can be easily ignored, just like you can ignore alignment restrictions for classes and the like.not necessarily. if a rule is supposed to regulate a quantifiable part of the game, then they *have* to be clearly defined. you didn't choose a combat related action at random, for your example of how "open" rules might create problems: combat is the one thing in pretty much every role playing system that needs to have clear, fixed rules... but, even then, there are a number of games in which GMs are adviced to "ignore" some monster attack rolls if that means killing a character in an "unproductive", stupid way. ("sorry, joe. the kobold kills you. .i guess you had to take more rest, after killing the dragon and rescuing all of the other PCs corpses...")pretty much everything else, at one time or another, has been left to the GM to determine. this goes from the specific skills a character has (albeit this, too, is generally strictly regulated in today's RPGs), to rules for chases and movement (take a look at Call of Cthulhu, for example), to specific rules on the size and weight of each character, and so on.while i certainly agree that undefined rules might cause arguments, so can very specific rules.example: multiclassing in D&D. it's very specific and very neat... but how is it logical that my 18-int wizard character had to study for years the rudiments of ancient languages and wizardry before taking one level of wizard, and the average joe fighter with an int of 9 can take a level in the same class whenever he feels like? does the fact that he has a dex of 3 not count when he casts a spell with a somatic element?different games call for different needs, so nobody is right. if you want a more precise way of  looking at alignments, check the HackMaster core rules.what bugs me with 3e is that some rules just have to stay (feats, skill points, reliance on magical items, AC as it is rather than damage reduction), unless one is prepared to pretty much redesign the system in order to balance it out again.i'm sorry, but i don't see how that is the case with alignment rules. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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