D&D 5E RIP alignment

[Maxperson]

Did you not read my post explicitly saying WHY WotC would choose to remove it? Go back and read the post and it'll say exactly why they would.

Yes, and like me, he probably rejected your False Dichotomy for what it is. I at least offered up a reasonable third option that takes care of everyone on both sides.

 

[Lanefan]

Re: D&D

The issue is, it's too damn big of a tent that needs to be shrinked.

Au contraire. There's no such thing as a too-big tent.

And who/what would you exclude in this shrinkage process; and - given the recent move toward inclusivity - how?

 

[Maxperson]

And they made me swap my green towels for new ones with polka dots.

Froody. Take care of that towel and it will take care of you.

 

[Lanefan]

Thank you. This was where I was going. A shift from stopping external Evil forces toward exploring internal struggles and personal relationships.

In other words, the angst-driven 1990s all over again.

Colour me unenthused.

 

[turnip_farmer]

Sounds nice in theory, but in practice "learning the game" to the extent you seem to want can take months if not years; and even then can only really be done through play* rather than by reading.

That, or you're creating a rather significant (and IMO unnecessary) barrier to entry for new players/DMs.

* - and during that learning process is when the simple top-level descriptors come in most handy.

Let me give the perspective of a noob, as someone who only started GMing two years ago and prior to that had no exposure to DnD,

I have never played the slightest attention to alignment in DnD; nor have I read almost any of the flavour text in the Monster Manual.

See, I never played DnD growing up, but I still have a brain and I still consumed fiction. Nobody who fits those two criteria needs any special guidance in how to run monsters. And the entire world's population fits those two criteria.

DnD people baffle me. They go through life thinking that things entirely specific to DnD are common knowledge ('trolls regenerate'; 'hydras are vulnerable to fire'; 'gnomes are something other that stupid things with red hats that tasteless people put in lawns') and yet think that newbies are so starved of conceptual reference points that they would have no idea how the baddies should behave without representing them on some idiosyncratic set of philosophical axes.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

They actively put their own greed ahead of the lives and well-being of just about every other living thing on the planet. So yeah, pure LE. No question.

Is any irony intended here? All X are bad?

commerce is bad? They’re all like the Wolf of Wall Street? All of them? Even the fiduciary guys?

I just...I should not even ask. It’s so far from D&D and reality that I have no idea what to say.

what’s next? All lawyers are bad? Respectfully there are unethical people in all professions.

mid you come into money or get charged with a crime you’re just going to consult a cousin and hope for the best? Because if not you’re in bed with the devil, right?

life experience has taught me not to paint with such broad strokes.

 

[Faolyn]

Yes. Zelda will have to do that because WotC rules the world. You think that’s bad, you should see what they’re doing with the nougat density in Mars Bars. And they made me swap my green towels for new ones with polka dots.

They let you have polka dots?! Lucky.

 

[DEFCON 1]

The latter group should be able to read the paragraph or two at the beginning that fixes that. If someone is too lazy to read and they choose not to play, they have only themself to blame. Not WotC. Not alignment.

If you need something in the written section to "fix" something in another section... why not just fix the broken section itself first, hmm?

How about we make both groups read the flavor text to find out how / when / where / why a particular monster is potentially evil and/or good? No reason to make it unnecessary for one but required reading for the other.

 

[Charlaquin]

(or Zora* if you're old school)

*Remember when they were always an enemy in game? After the most recent generations would be okay killing them on sight?

They’re still enemies sometimes. Generally they’re allies in the 3D games and enemies in the 2D games, though IIRC there are some exceptions. I think it’s actually based on timeline. Zoras are evil in the fallen hero timeline (presumably because Ganon corrupted them) and good in the other two timelines. It’s just that the majority of the 2D games take place on the fallen hero timeline.

 

[Blue]

@Blue

I went and took a look, nitropay is part of the advertising block of javascript. Thanks for pointing it out though.

Thanks for looking. I don't mind giving my eyeballs to help support, I'll whitelist them now that I know who they are.