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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 8692087" data-attributes="member: 32740">VERY few individuals really know what it is that alignment is supposed to do within D&D.  I mean a RARE, rare few judging by internet posts I've read since the internet was even a thing (pre-WWW).  Ask 10 people what alignment is FOR - you'll get 10 different answers.  Why?  Because the rules don't define that for themselves - and even if they do, players are so confused by historical misconceptions and everybody else's whacky takes on it that they can't sort it out for themselves.  Ask for an actual rules citation for what alignment is supposed to do within the game (for ANY edition) and chances are outstanding you'll get no responses at all which genuinely answer the request.  That includes game designers and even Gygax himself.  Alignment has no "mission statement".  Never did.  Go back and read OD&D booklets and you'll see that alignment EXISTS in the game but is utterly unexplained.  If you hadn't read the right fiction from Moorcock or Anderson, or gamed with someone who did (and could thus explain it to you) the purpose of having alignment and how to use it was a complete mystery you had to solve yourself.  RPG designers actually understand no more than individual players about alignment so they never think to sort that out first BEFORE writing alignment rules - and then of course they have to combat 40 years of misinterpretations and confusion and players never bothering to actually READ rules that they assume they already understand.  As Twain said, "It ain't what I don't know that gets me in trouble, but what I know for certain that just ain't so."Over 20 years ago I put a large effort into answering two questions for myself:  What is it that alignment is supposed to do within D&D?  How does alignment go about fulfilling its purpose(s)?  I reached my own conclusions and wrote documentation for MY players to refer to.  I've made virtually no changes to it since then.  None have been needed, even across multiple editions.  I know what I want alignment to do and how to make it do that.  Everyone else's opinions and even chapters of new rules from new editions have therefore been irrelevant.  I seldom flog it anywhere, because as is obvious with EVERY discussion regarding alignment, ask 10 people what alignment is even FOR and you get 10 different answers.  Literally I've done that on multiple boards and the results are the same - complete INCONSISTENCY of responses.  BTB answers about alignment are irrelevant.  DM's must sort out answers for themselves and their own campaigns - AND THEN EXPLAIN THOSE ANSWERS IN DETAIL TO THEIR OWN PLAYERS.  Anything less is a waste of effort anymore.  You can't ask for advice and opinions about it online.  There isn't a universal truth about alignment; no BTB answers that are going to satisfy even a plurality, much less a majority.  There is nothing new to be said about alignment.  It's all been said already and answers will never be reached by asking the same questions and regurgitating the same answers again and again and again - all without having first identified that first, most basic question that nobody asks and therefore cannot answer - what is alignment FOR?Answer that for yourself and you will finally be on the road to understanding how to use it.</blockquote>

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