Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="ProfessorCirno" data-source="post: 5424099" data-attributes="member: 65637">I'm a huge non-fan of alignment, neither as player or DM (though I'll be focusing on DM here).&nbsp; I've outright told my players that they can have whatever alignment they want, or not at all - I won't be looking at it.&nbsp; I expect them to play characters naturally.Funny enough, I think alignment can work if you go way, way back to it just being a law and chaos divide.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; Well...The good/evil divide is senseless.&nbsp; Let's say you want a complex game with a lot of grey areas and difficult moral choices.&nbsp; Good/evil alignment hinders you here.&nbsp; At least back when I played 2e, Detect Evil was nicknamed &quot;Ruin Plot Point&quot; because, well, that's what it did - you knew who was a baddie and who wasn't before you even conversed with them.&nbsp; In divorcing alignment from mechanic, Eberron was allowed to use a lot of very dramatic and awesome narrative ideas.&nbsp; Corrupt priests taking their religion and others of their religion to horrifying depths, strange and bizarre outsiders (dagons) who don't even operate on mortal ideas of morality at all, etc, etc.&nbsp; You can't actually have a grey area when morality is by definition of the rules &quot;Good vs Evil&quot; in capital letters.But, let's say you aren't so serious, you just want a beer and pretzels game.&nbsp; Does alignment help there?&nbsp; I'd contend it doesn't.&nbsp; Because you don't want complexity, there's no purpose to alignment.&nbsp; You're there to kill some things and steal their stuff; at no point would alignment rear it's head.&nbsp; If you're looking for a somewhat simplistic good vs evil, holy guys vs the bad demons, then alignment...still doesn't help.&nbsp; If the evil guys are uniformly evil and the good guys uniformly good, then where does alignment enter the picture at all?As for chaos vs law, they has never and will never be a uniform agreement on what constitutes as either.&nbsp; Every single player has their own idea on what's chaotic and what's lawful.So yeah, completely from a DM's perspective, I personally prefer not having alignment at all.&nbsp; Characters can be, well, three dimensional.&nbsp; Their morality can shift and change as the game goes on.&nbsp; Good institutions have bad apples.&nbsp; Non-humans are not constrained to a &quot;mostly&quot; or &quot;always&quot; or any sort of pre-set alignment.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ProfessorCirno, post: 5424099, member: 65637"] I'm a huge non-fan of alignment, neither as player or DM (though I'll be focusing on DM here). I've outright told my players that they can have whatever alignment they want, or not at all - I won't be looking at it. I expect them to play characters naturally. Funny enough, I think alignment can work if you go way, way back to it just being a law and chaos divide. Why? Well... The good/evil divide is senseless. Let's say you want a complex game with a lot of grey areas and difficult moral choices. Good/evil alignment hinders you here. At least back when I played 2e, Detect Evil was nicknamed "Ruin Plot Point" because, well, that's what it did - you knew who was a baddie and who wasn't before you even conversed with them. In divorcing alignment from mechanic, Eberron was allowed to use a lot of very dramatic and awesome narrative ideas. Corrupt priests taking their religion and others of their religion to horrifying depths, strange and bizarre outsiders (dagons) who don't even operate on [I]mortal[/I] ideas of morality at all, etc, etc. You can't actually [I]have[/I] a grey area when morality is by definition of the rules "Good vs Evil" in capital letters. But, let's say you aren't so serious, you just want a beer and pretzels game. Does alignment help there? I'd contend it doesn't. Because you don't want complexity, there's no [I]purpose[/I] to alignment. You're there to kill some things and steal their stuff; at no point would alignment rear it's head. If you're looking for a somewhat simplistic good vs evil, holy guys vs the bad demons, then alignment...still doesn't help. If the evil guys are uniformly evil and the good guys uniformly good, then where does alignment enter the picture at all? As for chaos vs law, they has never and will never be a uniform agreement on what constitutes as either. Every single player has their own idea on what's chaotic and what's lawful. So yeah, completely from a DM's perspective, I personally prefer not having alignment at all. Characters can be, well, three dimensional. Their morality can shift and change as the game goes on. Good institutions have bad apples. Non-humans are not constrained to a "mostly" or "always" or any sort of pre-set alignment. [/QUOTE]

Verification