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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DammitVictor" data-source="post: 7972082" data-attributes="member: 6750908">Whenever discussing D&D alignment, I always try to keep a certain maxim in mind, in the hopes of showing a little more compassion towards people whose beliefs about alignment cause me to have a deep, visceral distrust of their beliefs about morality.That rule is that less than ten percent of humanity is Good, and more than ninety percent of humanity believes that it is Good. This applies to all of the people who wrote the rules, all of the people who interpret the rules, and all of the people trying-- or not-- to play by the rules.This is both the source of all of my complaints about alignment, and I believe the main reason that so many other people do not clearly recognize them. Confusion over the differences between the Law/Chaos and Good/Evil axes only serves to muddy the waters further.I see the appeal of a simple, idealistic game in which the player characters are shining heroes doing their best to fight the varied and myriad forces of darkness-- a simple, idealistic game in which doing their best is usually good enough and leads to the world generally being a better place. All that style of game requires is that the Dungeon Master and the players all agree on that campaign style and buy into it.The problem is, all that style of game requires is that the Dungeon Master and the players all agree on that campaign style and buy into it-- everyone bitches about the "Good In Name Only" or "Neutral For Tax Purposes" murderhoboes who direspect lawful authority and kill NPCs on whims. (These are, to be clear, a problem and an impediment to idealistic heroism.) Nobody talks about the Dungeon Master who says that they want simple, idealistic heroes... and throws morality traps into the game, has the lawful authorities and the common folk treat their "Shining Heroes" like hot garbage, and then expects the player characters to selflessly defend that status quo like the heroes they are.The difference between simple and simplistic here is in whether the desired tone of the game applies to the whole world... or just the player characters. Heroes selflessly defend the just from the injust. There's another word for the kind of person who tirelessly defends the injust to their own detriment: henchmen.</blockquote>

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