My first proper 4E game - Our reaction.

[jdrakeh]

I'd argue that 4E is the first edition of D&D that actually acknowledges the mythological roots of elves.

Well, technically, Tokien's mythology is still mythology. HSpeaking in terms of Earth's historical mythology, however, you're right -- D&D elves have never had much in common with Earth's historical portrayal of elves (or fairies) as otherworldly creatures.

 

[rounser]

D&D elves have never had much in common with Earth's historical portrayal of elves (or fairies) as otherworldly creatures.

Disagree. From memory, they're very similar to the iconic celtic elves called the Tuatha De Danaan, right down to the detail of fleeing to another far land across the sea. You see it in middle earth, FR and Greyhawk, and that's just off the top of my head.

 

[Bialaska]

As far as alignment goes, LG, LE, CG and CE are all equal extremes as far as points on the chart goes. However, CG and LE have always seemed less to the edge of the dial than LG and CE for me. Lawful Good was super uptight AND goody 2 shoes, while Chaotic Evil was just pure, unadulterated villainy. Chaos and goodness and the law abiding bad guy...not so much. LN and CN both had serious problems of their own.

Personally I would have been happiest w/alignment finally being purged, but the way it is in 4E is more a single line than anything else.

LG G U E CE

Most folks will be unaligned b/c nothing strikes them personally enough to be truly behind any cause. Maybe someone who has grown up w/a strong sense of duty and desire to see people protected will end up as Good and become a guardsman of their city. The people who are CE and LG are the extreme champions of Evil and Good respectively. They take the other aspect and push it just as far as their core belief. Maybe pushing as much into chaos as you can will result in evil gaining a stronger hold in the world, just like establishing law and order, religion and such may help goodness.

Well, the problem with making Chaotic and Lawful parts of Good and Evil is a huge limitation.

In my own campaign world there is a general who is extremely lawful, yet at the same time he has led a genocide against neighbors because it was ordered by his king. Torture and generally being nasty is not below him either. In 3.5 he was Lawful Evil, with by far the Lawful component being dominant. It was far better in the old system where Law and Chaos were independent concepts, just to be combined with Good and Evil when necessary.