should nations have alignments? should tribes?
- Thread starter alsih2o
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LuYangShih
First Post
A nations government would have an alignment. Whether or not that alignment would be the same for the people of the nation is an entirely different question.
Djeta Thernadier
First Post
I would say they may give the appearence of having an alignment, but in actuality , the individuals within the government may have different alignments, but the more powerful leaders alignments would prevail.
As for the members of the nation, they are probably varied.
Unless, of course, this nation only attracted people to live there who were of a certain alignment, or if the governing body made sure no one who differed from them got in.
Good question though. Really makes you think.
As for the members of the nation, they are probably varied.
Unless, of course, this nation only attracted people to live there who were of a certain alignment, or if the governing body made sure no one who differed from them got in.
Good question though. Really makes you think.
Utrecht
First Post
Well, ignoring the whole tricky thing of what exactly a nation is......
The people would average out to be neutral.
Governments however, would have some type of lawful bias to them - and that is what gives the "nation" its alignment since its tools of power (army, police, Civil service, etc.) will end up mimicing that alignment....
The people would average out to be neutral.
Governments however, would have some type of lawful bias to them - and that is what gives the "nation" its alignment since its tools of power (army, police, Civil service, etc.) will end up mimicing that alignment....
Nations, not really but more than likely will follow along with the major gods, my soap box, if you define evil in your game the nation can use that as a guideline and see those that do not have the same guideline as you as being evil or barbaric. This can create some interesting game interactions.
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
Absolutely. The alignment of the nation/city/tribe dictates expected behavior and enforced laws. The alignment of individuals dictates how closely they follow those dictates.
I usually design cities (and to a lesser extent, nations) with alignments. The people who do best in those cities are usually the ones who stay close to the "party line." For instance, a city that is effectively LE (screw over anyone you can, but stay within the boundary of the law while doing so) is going to celebrate the people who used those laws to their own advantage. The CG citizen, continually put down and taken advantage of, is going to want to fight back.
I usually design cities (and to a lesser extent, nations) with alignments. The people who do best in those cities are usually the ones who stay close to the "party line." For instance, a city that is effectively LE (screw over anyone you can, but stay within the boundary of the law while doing so) is going to celebrate the people who used those laws to their own advantage. The CG citizen, continually put down and taken advantage of, is going to want to fight back.
Wombat
First Post
Should nations have alignments?
Sure, they are Lawful Neutral
Or at least this fits my theory of nations to date. Nations are based around Laws and generally want to uphold them to a fair extent; and while nations may do good things or bad things at a given moment, they are primiarly there to more or less maintain the status quo, or inching upwards as much as other nations will let them. I have yet to find a historical nation that lasted more than 30 years that did not fit this pattern, but that is strictly a personal bias.
But if you want to assign such alignments (and we all know my general attitude towards alignments) to nations, be my guest.
Sure, they are Lawful Neutral
Or at least this fits my theory of nations to date. Nations are based around Laws and generally want to uphold them to a fair extent; and while nations may do good things or bad things at a given moment, they are primiarly there to more or less maintain the status quo, or inching upwards as much as other nations will let them. I have yet to find a historical nation that lasted more than 30 years that did not fit this pattern, but that is strictly a personal bias.
But if you want to assign such alignments (and we all know my general attitude towards alignments) to nations, be my guest.
I think that a nation will often be comprised of numerous varying (and sometimes radically different or violently opposed) cultural groups who boundaries similarly may cross national boundaries. Most published campaign settings I've seen (with exceptions of course), however, seem too often to assume a homogenous culture for each nation or at the most have maybe one counterculture within a given nation and even then the cultural and national boundaries are often the same.
I think alignment is a bunch of bunk anyway though, and with governments it gets even worse than at the character level. I think it's much more interesting when nations ally with or go to war with one another over their interests and political power, with alignment having nothing to do with it. Painting certain governing bodies as the "bad guys" and others as the "good guys" using a broad brush removes possibilities rather than adding them.
I think alignment is a bunch of bunk anyway though, and with governments it gets even worse than at the character level. I think it's much more interesting when nations ally with or go to war with one another over their interests and political power, with alignment having nothing to do with it. Painting certain governing bodies as the "bad guys" and others as the "good guys" using a broad brush removes possibilities rather than adding them.
I don't use alignments anyway, so it should come as no surprise that I don't use them for groups.
Dramatically, I like to keep people guessing--some priests of the Death God may be decent folks.
Philosophically, I would tend to agree with those who hold that the alignments of larger political entities run from neutral to evil, with good societies unheard of this side of Utopia.
I think it makes for a more interesting situation if good heroes are seen as rather odd birds, making good the heroic stance that it usually is.
Dramatically, I like to keep people guessing--some priests of the Death God may be decent folks.
Philosophically, I would tend to agree with those who hold that the alignments of larger political entities run from neutral to evil, with good societies unheard of this side of Utopia.
I think it makes for a more interesting situation if good heroes are seen as rather odd birds, making good the heroic stance that it usually is.
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