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General Tabletop Discussion
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Worlds of Design: Is Fighting Evil Passé?
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<blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 7972105" data-attributes="member: 467"><p>Focusing on alignment as moral behavior gets sticky very quickly, as folks personal viewpoints on morality surface (see "lawful good is an oxymoron" above). That's why if I am going to use alignment in a D&D game, I make it an actual thing.</p><p></p><p>Good, Evil, Law, Chaos, Balance and Entropy (the two flavors of neutral) are all actual forces at work in the multiverse, and Alignment represents the connection to those forces. Sometimes it is a choice -- an actual oath of fealty to that force -- and sometimes it is more of an astrology sign style connection. But even in the latter case, the character is palpably connected to a universal force. Player characters can -- and usually are -- Unaligned, along with most folks and creatures. But those things that are Aligned are a part of that force. So Evil Aligned creatures are actually connected to the universal force of Evil.</p><p></p><p>I find this usually takes the ambiguity out. For any given setting I have to decide where humanoid enemy types fit. In my most recent setting under development, I decided that humanoids are all different "breeds" of the same species of "Fellkin" that come from something like the bad version of faerie. There are no orc cubs or whatever. They are Evil creatures, because I want the PCs and players to be okay slaughtering them. But, bandits on the road are like as no Unaligned. They are just criminals. How the PCs treat them should be different than how they treat the Fellkin.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Reynard, post: 7972105, member: 467"] Focusing on alignment as moral behavior gets sticky very quickly, as folks personal viewpoints on morality surface (see "lawful good is an oxymoron" above). That's why if I am going to use alignment in a D&D game, I make it an actual thing. Good, Evil, Law, Chaos, Balance and Entropy (the two flavors of neutral) are all actual forces at work in the multiverse, and Alignment represents the connection to those forces. Sometimes it is a choice -- an actual oath of fealty to that force -- and sometimes it is more of an astrology sign style connection. But even in the latter case, the character is palpably connected to a universal force. Player characters can -- and usually are -- Unaligned, along with most folks and creatures. But those things that are Aligned are a part of that force. So Evil Aligned creatures are actually connected to the universal force of Evil. I find this usually takes the ambiguity out. For any given setting I have to decide where humanoid enemy types fit. In my most recent setting under development, I decided that humanoids are all different "breeds" of the same species of "Fellkin" that come from something like the bad version of faerie. There are no orc cubs or whatever. They are Evil creatures, because I want the PCs and players to be okay slaughtering them. But, bandits on the road are like as no Unaligned. They are just criminals. How the PCs treat them should be different than how they treat the Fellkin. [/QUOTE]
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