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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 8286742" data-attributes="member: 6915329">I have had a lot of discussions with people who insist that you can't have good-aligned orcs beyond the occasional exception because they're an evil race.I've always pretty much ignored alignment. That's one reason I'm glad it's gone. It was just a useless bit of info that caused problems.So... what you're saying here is that (A) character background, personality traits/ideals/bonds/flaws, that sort of thing, monster descriptions, your purpose for the creature in your adventure... completely useless for determining how an NPC acts; (B) either DMs in general or you in particular can't make up character motivations on the fly unless the character has an alignment to tell you; (C) all people of a particular alignment act the same way and have the same motivations; and (D) no DM can ever say "guys, give me a moment here while I figure out how this NPC is going to react.Uh-huh.The PCs meet a Chaotic Evil shopkeeper and ask to buy something. Quick! How does that shopkeeper react? Because "attack the PCs," "sell the PCs things that look useful but will explode (literally or metaphorically) later on," and "act totally normal, like any other shopkeeper, and then after work they go off and drown puppies and stalk that one bartender they lust after," are all Chaotic Evil things.Or more seriously: The PCs meet a Chaotic Evil minion of a bad guy. How does the minion react? Because "attack the PCs," "Ally with the PCs to help overthrow its master, since it has no real loyalty to the master," "threaten the PCs with its master's wrath until they give it money," and "run away, since it has no real loyalty to its master, and therefore doesn't feel the need to risk its life on behalf of its master," are also Chaotic Evil things.How does having that Chaotic Evil alignment help you figure out the NPC's motivation where there are countless motivations inside every single alignment?That's when you just run with what the PCs are doing and decide the NPC's "alignment" later.Wait... you run prewritten adventures without reading them first? That's just... weird. I mean, I can see reading them and not taking notes or making changes before running the adventure, but not reading them at all?Guys, is this a thing DMs do? Even the most improv-based DM at my table does a ton a prep work before he runs. And I know that I read the adventure multiple times before I run and make tons of adjustments. And we generally all know our favorite settings inside and out. Are we a weird table?And you run games without reading the material first? Or at least having a strong idea of what's in it? Whaaat?I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound rude, but this is weird. I've read the MMs and my setting books multiple times, and I have my own opinions on what things are "really like" in my setting. While I certainly haven't memorized them, I know enough to say that if I decide that the PCs run into something, such as a particular type of creature, I have an idea of how that type of creature works in my game. And if it turns out my memory of that creature is off, then either that particular creature is different somehow, is hiding something, or I just change how that creature type functions in my game.Hit Points = numbers.AC = numbers.Alignment =/= numbers.Well, in that case, having an alignment is incredibly pointless. It doesn't describe morals and ethics on a species level and can be changed on a whim. There's no hard-coded definition to it in the same way there's a hard-coded definition to how a particular weapon or suit of armor works. And nobody can agree as to what any particular alignment means.Thanks. You just proved that there's no reason to include alignment.Because <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/q-a-with-gary-gygax.22566/post-3357010" target="_blank">Gygax</a> said it was a sword that kinda looked like a sickle.Then what are the rules for alignment?Edit: In case I wasn't clear: There are rules for AC, to figure out what hits it. There are rules for weapons, to figure out what damage it inflicts when it hits. And there are rules for hit points, to figure out how much damage a creature can take. If alignment is no different than those things, then what are the actual rules for it.</blockquote>

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