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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 2637592" data-attributes="member: 2067">Speaking of problems everyone seems to have.....<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    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />The Collected Knowledge:#1: Alignments are descriptive, not proscriptive. Good doesn't tell you what to do. You do what you do, and the universe may describe it as Good. Or it may describe it as Evil, or as Neutral, or as Lawful, or as Chaotic. It makes no sense for someone to "not do something because they are of Good alignment." It makes sense for someone to "not do something out of fear of having a different alignment than the one they wish."This is quite important, though not specifically for this point.#2: Alignment is not usually obvious. The only way to determine alignment is magic, and for every magic there exists a countermagic. In addition, you would need a society of a certain size to support a spellcaster or a dozen who can cast the spells that determine and obscure alignment. This is more important for the point, but you seem to address this mostly. You note that it's easier to detect than obscure, fer'instance.#3: Evil isn't always bad; Good sometimes is; most folks are Neutral. Evil has teammates. Evil can handle some problems in a more "efficient" manner. Evil is not constrained by someof the ideas of good. Likewise, sometimes Good requires too much sacrifice, too much acceptance, too much generosity to be really practical. Because most  (human) folks are Neutral, they tend to look out for themselves and those they care about above and beyond anything and anybody else. "Good, Evil, I'm the guy with the gun." Good isn't always the best option, and in a world with alignment, this is quite obvious. Good doesn't outnumber Evil, and Good isn't nessecarily saught over Evil. Good is just one option. Evil is an equally valid and equally powerful option. There is no objective reason to favor Good. Evil works just fine.This is more important to your point.This isn't true. Or, rather, it is only true in certain extreme circumstances. In a society dominated by evil humanoids (orcs, goblins, etc), being Evil is a virtue. It is strong, it is assertive, it is dominating -- Evil will absolutely get you elected in a hobgoblin democracy. In a society domianted by good humanoids (elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc), the side is reversed. If you're an Evil gnome, you won't become President Gnome of Gnomes because the Gnomes don't want evil things, in general. Now, since humans are the majority and humans are the vastly dominant species, most societies are dominated by humans -- humanoids without a real alignment. Thus, you can say 1/3rd the population wants that Evil guy in power, 1/3 of them want that Good guy in power, and 1/3rd of them don't really care as long as they're fed and happy. Being Evil wins some elections; being Good wins others. The most successful politicians play the middle field -- they're Evil sometimes, Good others, leading them to being Neutral overall. They help the poor (because the poor want themselves and their loved ones helped, and the Good like that), and they crush their enemies with scorched earth warfare (because that makes the normal selfish townsfolk happy and safe, while delighting the bloodthirsty Evil in the populace).Basically, in a world with alingment, most people don't want to try and be Good. Because Good isn't always the best option, or the most rewarding, or even the one the meshes with what they want to see. A society leaning towards Good is just as likely as one leading toward Evil, and most Human socieities will stradle the line.In D&D, people can be Evil and still fall in love, and people can be Good and still be bloodthirsty. And people don't nessecarily want to be Good. In the real-world, eveyrone wants to do what they consider to be the best for the world. Because there's no way to tell Good and Evil with a glance, we're pretty much left to our own logic to figure that out (if we even think such things as Good and Evil exist, which we may decide they don't and still be entirely logical). In D&D, the only people who want to do what's best for the world are the Good. Not everyone is Good, or even tries to be. Some want nothing but destruction. Some crave violence like food. Some care for their own dominance only. Some just want to feed their family and live their lives and not worry about those crazy evil destructive folks or those insanely sacrificial good folks.Where it becomes unrealistic, for you, is when you assume everyone wants good. When you realize that in a world with objective alignment there is no *benefit* for Good over Evil, it becomes a lot easier to envision what a D&D political system might look like.</blockquote>

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