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Useful aspects of Alignment in D&DN
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5924865" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I'm very opposed to mechanical alignment. I think it is one of the major causes of D&D's reputation for fostering antagonistic play.</p><p></p><p>Insofar as (4) is a remnant of mechanical alignment, I'm not interested. Apart from anything else, it makes tracking alignment matter - which then makes it something over which player and GM may disagree - which then has the potential to lead to needless antagonism.</p><p></p><p>I think alignment makes no sense as anything but a metagame label. It should not be part of the gameworld. In the real world, it makes no sense for beings or entities to conceive of themselves as "evil". Leaving aside ironic usages, such as Milton's Satan's "Evil, be thou my good", people don't describe themselves as evil. They have stories to tell themselves about how what they do is reasonable, or necessary, or excusable, or otherwise permissible given the circumstances in which they do it. Gygax's description in his PHB and DMG of people who actively pursue suffering and woe is a description of severely aberrant personalities, which doesn't capture the disagreement in actual real world moral and political disputes.</p><p></p><p>Turning to alignment as a metagame label:</p><p></p><p>(2) and (3) still don't do much for me. Just tell the GM. Write a background. State some religious or political allegiances. And most importantly, play the character!</p><p></p><p>(1) is harmless enough. In 4e, for example, "Chaotic evil" means something like "relishes destruction, wants to reduce the world to primordial chaos". "Evil" means "selfish and nasty, domineering, etc". And unaligned, good, and lawful good are various modes of being a reasonable and decent person.</p><p></p><p>Rolemaster does the same sort of thing with a dozen or so Outlook labels.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 5924865, member: 42582"] I'm very opposed to mechanical alignment. I think it is one of the major causes of D&D's reputation for fostering antagonistic play. Insofar as (4) is a remnant of mechanical alignment, I'm not interested. Apart from anything else, it makes tracking alignment matter - which then makes it something over which player and GM may disagree - which then has the potential to lead to needless antagonism. I think alignment makes no sense as anything but a metagame label. It should not be part of the gameworld. In the real world, it makes no sense for beings or entities to conceive of themselves as "evil". Leaving aside ironic usages, such as Milton's Satan's "Evil, be thou my good", people don't describe themselves as evil. They have stories to tell themselves about how what they do is reasonable, or necessary, or excusable, or otherwise permissible given the circumstances in which they do it. Gygax's description in his PHB and DMG of people who actively pursue suffering and woe is a description of severely aberrant personalities, which doesn't capture the disagreement in actual real world moral and political disputes. Turning to alignment as a metagame label: (2) and (3) still don't do much for me. Just tell the GM. Write a background. State some religious or political allegiances. And most importantly, play the character! (1) is harmless enough. In 4e, for example, "Chaotic evil" means something like "relishes destruction, wants to reduce the world to primordial chaos". "Evil" means "selfish and nasty, domineering, etc". And unaligned, good, and lawful good are various modes of being a reasonable and decent person. Rolemaster does the same sort of thing with a dozen or so Outlook labels. [/QUOTE]
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