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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 8692116" data-attributes="member: 4937">[USER=32740]@Man in the Funny Hat[/USER] : Fundamentally the questions alignment raises are difficult ones.&nbsp; If you ask people, &quot;What does it mean to be good?&quot;, not only is this question a vexingly complex one, but it's not a vexingly complex one that most people haven't spent a lot of time thinking about.&nbsp; But as you note, everyone already believes that they understand anyway so they'll confidently try to answer it.&nbsp; This isn't just a problem related to rules text in D&amp;D.&nbsp; I wouldn't expect people to have answers to the question, &quot;Why should one be good?&quot;, because it's a question so obvious most people never realize it's a question much less try to answer it.&nbsp; But ask it, and people will confidently tell you an answer.&nbsp; If your kid says, &quot;I'm not going to do my homework because it's not important because of the heat death of the universe.&quot;, most people aren't going to try to solve the ethical dilemma raised by that.&nbsp; They are just going to say something that amounts to &quot;Do it anyway.&quot; and probably some variation of &quot;Or else.&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp; So of course there are no answers to be found in a game text, and of course there has been no consistency across products or editions of the game.&nbsp;&nbsp; I'll give you a simplified answer to the question &quot;What is alignment for?&quot; based on my reading of the 1e AD&amp;D DMG and not necessarily how it is usually used.&nbsp; Originally Gygax seems to have used alignment to force players who were going to play in a me first anti-social way to mark that on their character sheet as a warning to the group, while giving him an excuse to punish players who were anti-social but failed to do that.&nbsp; Managing dozens of players, many of whom probably weren't close personal friends, Gygax was using in game constructs as incentive to not be a jerk at the table.&nbsp; It's not however ever been usually used that way because the framework outlined in the 1e DMG has never really been used much at typical tables with 3-7 friends playing together.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 8692116, member: 4937"] [USER=32740]@Man in the Funny Hat[/USER] : Fundamentally the questions alignment raises are difficult ones. If you ask people, "What does it mean to be good?", not only is this question a vexingly complex one, but it's not a vexingly complex one that most people haven't spent a lot of time thinking about. But as you note, everyone already believes that they understand anyway so they'll confidently try to answer it. This isn't just a problem related to rules text in D&D. I wouldn't expect people to have answers to the question, "Why should one be good?", because it's a question so obvious most people never realize it's a question much less try to answer it. But ask it, and people will confidently tell you an answer. If your kid says, "I'm not going to do my homework because it's not important because of the heat death of the universe.", most people aren't going to try to solve the ethical dilemma raised by that. They are just going to say something that amounts to "Do it anyway." and probably some variation of "Or else." So of course there are no answers to be found in a game text, and of course there has been no consistency across products or editions of the game. I'll give you a simplified answer to the question "What is alignment for?" based on my reading of the 1e AD&D DMG and not necessarily how it is usually used. Originally Gygax seems to have used alignment to force players who were going to play in a me first anti-social way to mark that on their character sheet as a warning to the group, while giving him an excuse to punish players who were anti-social but failed to do that. Managing dozens of players, many of whom probably weren't close personal friends, Gygax was using in game constructs as incentive to not be a jerk at the table. It's not however ever been usually used that way because the framework outlined in the 1e DMG has never really been used much at typical tables with 3-7 friends playing together. [/QUOTE]

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