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<blockquote data-quote="PapersAndPaychecks" data-source="post: 3262066" data-attributes="member: 28854">Sure it does.&nbsp; If you play the game as written.The issue is that the &quot;game as written&quot; assumes conditions as they were in the mid-1970's, i.e., you play the game straight through from 1st level to level 14+, and the DM's campaign stays static (when you roll a new character, it's in the same world as the old), and each player has a main character and multiple henchmen (so if your main character dies and can't be rezzed or whatever, you can take over the hench instead of starting again at level 1), and there are 8-12 players who compete with each other rather than always co-operating... and the big assumption which is that everyone's a wargamer who wants to &quot;win,&quot; and making their choices with an eye to having the most powerful character later in the game.These are the players who forced Gygax etc. to come up with the alignment mechanism because without it, there was too much acting Chaotic Selfish.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />&nbsp; D&amp;D's the only game that's ever needed an alignment system (which is why it surprises me that alignment wasn't one of the sacred cows that 3e sacrificed).Most of those players would go with humans because they're destined to be the ultimate &quot;winners&quot; of D&amp;D.&nbsp; (We didn't get the &quot;you can't win at a RPG&quot; thing at all!)I remember sitting round with my fellow players earnestly figuring out the optimal party for us (which was 5 fighters, 3 clerics, 3 mages and a thief, iirc) and needing to roll the dice to decide who would have to play the elf and who would have to play the dwarf.&nbsp; Because you needed one of each in the party; the elf spotted the secret doors and fought the ghouls, and the dwarf had the extra detect traps thing and the incredibly good saving throws and the huge AC bonus against ogres and giants...If you play the game as if it were 3e -- i.e. with about 4 or 5 players, one character each and that character representing the player's entire investment in the game, no henchmen, people regularly dropping old campaigns and starting new ones to experiment with different settings or because the old campaign was just boring, then no, the mechanic isn't going to work for you.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="PapersAndPaychecks, post: 3262066, member: 28854"] Sure it does. If you play the game as written. The issue is that the "game as written" assumes conditions as they were in the mid-1970's, i.e., you play the game straight through from 1st level to level 14+, and the DM's campaign stays static (when you roll a new character, it's in the same world as the old), and each player has a main character and multiple henchmen (so if your main character dies and can't be rezzed or whatever, you can take over the hench instead of starting again at level 1), and there are 8-12 players who compete with each other rather than always co-operating... and the [b]big[/b] assumption which is that everyone's a wargamer who wants to "win," and making their choices with an eye to having the most powerful character later in the game. These are the players who forced Gygax etc. to come up with the alignment mechanism because without it, there was too much acting Chaotic Selfish. ;) D&D's the only game that's ever [i]needed[/i] an alignment system (which is why it surprises me that alignment wasn't one of the sacred cows that 3e sacrificed). Most of those players would go with humans because they're destined to be the ultimate "winners" of D&D. (We didn't get the "you can't win at a RPG" thing at all!) I remember sitting round with my fellow players earnestly figuring out the optimal party for us (which was 5 fighters, 3 clerics, 3 mages and a thief, iirc) and needing to roll the dice to decide who would have to play the elf and who would have to play the dwarf. Because you [i]needed[/i] one of each in the party; the elf spotted the secret doors and fought the ghouls, and the dwarf had the extra detect traps thing and the incredibly good saving throws and the huge AC bonus against ogres and giants... If you play the game as if it were 3e -- i.e. with about 4 or 5 players, one character each and that character representing the player's entire investment in the game, no henchmen, people regularly dropping old campaigns and starting new ones to experiment with different settings or because the old campaign was just boring, then no, the mechanic isn't going to work for you. [/QUOTE]

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