D&D General Old School DND talks if DND is racist.

[Charlaquin]

Which in all three cases has the party voluntarily cede any chance of catching the foes off guard and getting in that sometimes-highly-important first round of shots and spells. That don't sound much like a winning idea in the long run.

I mean, it’s their choice to make. If the party wants to try to catch the approaching creatures off guard, they absolutely can. They just run the risk of the creatures not being hostile. Again, seems like a shame to throw away such a decision point in favor of having ambushing them be the obviously right answer.

 

[Charlaquin]

What if the alignment was just a default?

Not a fan. I don’t see any value in specifying a default.

 

[Oofta]

I said having recommended alignments (often plural) for individual cultures in a fantasy world. What part of that is worse than having every single race have a recommended alignment across the D&D multiverse? It would be explicit that it is only the culture that leans that way, but individuals vary in any direction they want, especially the PCs. It wouldn't be assigned by race/lineage, and would be more in depth than just "normally chaotic neutral", instead saying something more like "[insertfantasyculture] leans to chaotic and neutral alignments, with strong cultural individualism and freedom as a core ideal of the culture".

How is that worse?

I was replying to

I'm fine with a world's culture having suggested alignments/worldviews, but I'm not okay with it being attached to race/lineage.

Which I may have slightly misread.

But ... I don't see a problem with specific creatures also having suggested alignments/worldviews because the game oversimplifies everything. Non-human creatures fit a niche because, well, it's a game.

I think that's okay with something like D&D. Star Trek on the other hand, well, best not to go there.

 

[Oofta]

Not a fan. I don’t see any value in specifying a default.

Most fiction defines defaults though. It makes things easier to comprehend and fit into a story. Klingons are fierce and warlike, Vulcans are logical and conservative, so on and so forth. It's hardly unique to D&D to have mono-worldviews by species. Many sci-fi games such as Mass Effect do it as well.

They may not categorize it as alignment but for all practical purposes it is.

 

[Morrus]

Not at all. Do you think the PCs would be justified in killing on sight in those scenarios?

I asked somebody (else) about what confused them. You listed a bunch of things. I asked if they confused you. Now you said you aren’t confused.

Now I’m confused. Are you confused, or are you not confused? Or are you just confused about wnether you’re confused?

 

[Charlaquin]

Most fiction defines defaults though. It makes things easier to comprehend and fit into a story. Klingons are fierce and warlike, Vulcans are logical and conservative, so on and so forth. It's hardly unique to D&D to have mono-worldviews by species.

Yeah, and I’m not a fan of it in Sci-fi either. It’s terribly limiting and vaguely essentialist.

Many sci-fi games such as Mass Effect do it as well.

It’s been a while since I played Mass Effect, but I seem to recall the different species having pretty diverse cultures and personalities...

They may not categorize it as alignment but for all practical purposes it is.

Right, getting rid of fixed alignments is a step. But the goal is to have peoples presented with nuance and diversity. By default. If you want a simplified take you are of course welcome to do so in your own games, but it’s easier to remove nuance than to add it; having more nuance by default makes the game more inclusive to those who don’t have the inclination to change the game to remove its in-built essentialist concepts.

 

[Charlaquin]

I asked somebody (else) about what confused them. You listed a bunch of things. I asked if they confused you. Now you said you aren’t confused.

Now I’m confused. Are you confused, or are you not confused? Or are you just confused about wnether you’re confused?

Hang on, this is confusing.

 

[Oofta]

Are we all confused about what we're confusing with a confusing about being confused post?

EDIT: wait, now I'm confused.

 

[CleverNickName]

I know that some of my posts today have been tongue-in-cheek (vegan liches, for example) but to be clear: I want there to be an alignment system in my D&D games. I want it to be a meaningful and important part of all characters, all NPCs, and all intelligent monsters. And I want to unlock all alignment options for all creatures, full-stop.

Lawful good mind flayers? Sure. A good-hearted psionic space squid makes about as much sense as a black-hearted one.
Chaotic-good red dragons? I loved her in Shrek.
Chaotic evil angels? Well they got cast out of Heaven for a reason...
Neutral-good vampires? Yeah, I read that book in high school.

That said, I'm pretty good at ignoring the alignment entries for the creatures in the Monster Manual. After all,

 

[tetrasodium]

Is it OK to kill Warforged on sight?

I'm not asking this to be flippant, but what you are saying is fundamental to discussion around AI/Robots that has been under moral discussion for decades.

No. Legally they have had full emancipation & usually citizenship somewhere since 996 YK when the treaty of thonehold was signed. Just how alive they are is one of the big questions in the setting & of the race since 3.5, but they unquestionably are proven to have a soul as magic that needs one works on them.

So, Flayers indeed confirmed, not Evil, just hungry.

They are capable of being productive functioning members of humanoid society as governor Xor'Chylic proves, but "ohgodhowisthisathingomgwtfbbqthegovernorwearemeetingisWHAT!!" is about the reaction that dinner invite will get from your players You pondered similar back in 945 @Charlaquin. For added wide eyed mental screaming from the players, fill the dining room with his znir pact gnoll guards dining at another table

if I can have good gnolls”

Spoiler: since you mention it:D

There's also an interesting series of books called re:monster about a guy who goes through the standard isekai tropes but wakes up as a goblin child in a cutthroat fr style goblin den ;D