I got a fair amount of feedback from my latest post, the one about alignment. In particular, I heard a lot about how the system I gave had severe limitations and did not work for many campaign worlds.
This is true. My motivation in building that system was to fit it to a specific campaign world. But it is not the only system. I'm going to present some more, in varying levels of wackiness, as well as the worlds that they imply. I'll start with last week's as a template and go from there.
What: Alignment is a philosophy. LG people aspire to be LG, though they may fall short. An alternative way to think about this system is that people have "true" alignments which reflect their active morality and "philosophical" alignments which reflect their ideal moralities.
Why: This system allows alignment to be absolute without making morality absolute without making mistakes impossible. A Neutral Good priest who is an absolute jerk but still personally aspires to be Neutral Good will still show up as NG for an alignment check. It essentially removes action from alignment.
Where: This system works in a world that, for various reasons, requires absolute alignments. A planar-based campaign with heavy Celestial/Fiendish (D&D speak for "Angelic/Demonic") influence would use this alignment (indeed, that is the world it was developed for), which allows for Paladins to track down and kill followers of fiends without the world saying that the paladins are Right for doing so.
Why Not: By decoupling alignment from action, alignment loses a lot of its significance. It still has some bearing on morals (a person who truly believes the best way to live is by controlling everyone around him and taking what he wants could not be CG), but alignment loses its essential link to the soul; a DM with this system would never say "If you stab that baby, you're going to lose your Good alignment" (a situation that comes up far more often than you might expect), which is always a nice expression of character tension.
What: Good and Evil are switched for "Altruistic" and "Selfish."
Why: This system removes value judgments from alignments. This allows for alignments to be absolute and linked to personal action, but not divided into "right" and "wrong." Alignments essentially become political views or social opinions.
Where: Detect Selfishness functions as a personality test, so this sort of world allows you to only interact with people who act like you. The most significant changes in this world would be political and social; Selfish people want Altruistic friends, and Altruistic people will be friends with anyone, so Detect Altruism can somewhat work as "Detect Sucker" for the unscrupulous and selfish. Probably, a small group of Selfish with Nondetection cast on themselves would rule while pretending to be Altrustic (and would in fact be constantly checking each other to make sure nobody's actually Altrustic, because they'll probably be whistle-blowers). Celestials and Fiends would become much less mystical, and would just be supernatural manifestations of personality traits (and would probably not show up very often, consequently).
Why Not: By making personality types detectable, social gaming becomes incredibly prominent, and the people willing to use it (i.e., the selfish) come out on top. It would be a very parasitic/predatory alignment system.
Bonus: A more extreme version of this in cold-war era D&D could use "Communist" and "Capitalist". The Red Scare prominently includes Free Market Paladins busting down doors and casting Detect Communism on random people. If you took it further, you could say that Lawful is government control and Chaotic is laissez-faire (so America is Chaotic Good: Free Market). Celestials and Fiends would be supersoldiers for the two sides, and Hell would be a Marxist paradise.
What: Good and Evil acts are absolute, and alignment is determined by amount of good and evil acts.
Why: You didn't like the one where action has no effect on alignment? How about one where action determines alignment absolutely? This system maks alignment into a numbers game, where actions have certain amounts of Good or Chaotic "points," and if you get enough points, your alignment can slip. This allows players and NPCs to carefully game their alignment (burn down one orphanage, pet 1000 puppies, we're square). This consequently allows for careful gaming of public perception.
Where: A world with this system would heavily favor Good over Evil, and probably Law over Chaos. Evil would be treated like debt, or a criminal record; you're not getting a job or a loan or anywhere near my daughter unless you work off that Evil. All prison sentences would include community service, and the black market would sell puppies and allow for discreet donations to charity (because if you suddenly and publicly do a lot of Good acts, what are you trying to hide?). Heaven becomes a gated community for souls with extreme Good surplus, and Hell becomes a debtor's prison.
Why Not: Alignment is absolute and decoupled from morality. Certain actions are declared unilaterally to be Good and others are determined to be Evil, as defined by the laws of the universe, so you can't have any "stealing to feed his family" dilemma. It's either Good or Evil. Also, it's a ton of paperwork for everybody.
Note: It's possible to play a variation on this where "you have to mean it." That is to say, helping an old lady across the street doesn't give Good points if you're only doing it for the Good points; this removes a lot of the gaming of it, but arguably that removes a lot of the point. Another variation could come from saying that your alignment, as determined by points, affects your morality. So if you do a lot of Good acts, you actually become a better person. Biggest problem with this variation is that it basically locks out Chaotic characters from this system, since they'll be unwilling to play by your rules, man.
What: Alignment is momentary. Everyone has a base alignment, but every action they perform temporarily changes their alignment to match.
Why: Alignment becomes a record of recent activity, which has its most significant effects on police work and murder mysteries. If you can Detect Evil on the man who found the body, you can determine whether he commited the murder (unless he did something to readjust his alignment in the meantime). If you want crazy roleplaying, say that it also changes the way they act for the duration, which can create a chain of evil or good actions. Arrested prisoners, in that case, would be asked to tickle a baby (shifting their alignment and personality to Neutral Good), and then would be released.
Where: Again, a campaign with lots of crime drama / murder mysteries would be well-served by this, because it would create a new kind of evidence. If you include the personality rule, it would also create a really wacky world with shifting alignment and interesting roleplaying challenges. Celestials and Fiends would make zero sense in this world, since an angel can "fall" by accidentally insulting somebody.
Why Not: Alignment is now totally unrelated to personality and celestials/fiends don't make any sense. Alignment is still linked to morality (though with the "all actions have absolute morality" above), but only in the very short term.
What: Alignment is physical. Good characters radiate Goodon particles, and Evil characters radiate Evilium (like radioactive elements). Spells like Detect Evil actually detect Evilium particles, and Smite Evil creates a chemical reaction which ignites them.
Why: Adding alignment particles adds a lot of interesting dimensions, and more the more you think about it. Notably the fact that these particles have a location and a number; if Smite Evil ignites Evilium, it would be more effective the more Evilium there is, meaning that 1) it could be used as an area of effect spell on a group of evil beings, and 2) it would be ineffective if used twice in a row, because it just destroyed all the Evilium in the area. If there's an "Evilium leak," Smite Evil might even be really dangerous; a volatile enough reaction would blow up in the Paladin's face!
Where: This alignment system fits perfectly in a sci-fi setting where magic is replaced by machines. The possibilities of doing science on alignment particles is really neat. You could also capture them and release them for various effects (simulate a flamethrower by expelling Evilium particles and then Smiting them, or a grenade by including a Smiting machine in an Evilium-filled capsule). Evil beings would likely be captured, but not executed or encouraged to reform, so as to harvest the Evilium coming off of them. Celestials and Fiends would be constructs made of Goodon/Evilium.
Why Not: Alignment loses all abstractness and barrels full-speed into the physical world. It's got lots and lots of consequences that need to be taken into consideration, so a world with this system becomes about this system.
Bonus: This one can be combined with the above. In that case, good acts release Goodon, which can temporarily mask Evilium, changing a person's apparent alignment.
Why: This system allows alignment to be absolute without making morality absolute without making mistakes impossible. A Neutral Good priest who is an absolute jerk but still personally aspires to be Neutral Good will still show up as NG for an alignment check. It essentially removes action from alignment.
Where: This system works in a world that, for various reasons, requires absolute alignments. A planar-based campaign with heavy Celestial/Fiendish (D&D speak for "Angelic/Demonic") influence would use this alignment (indeed, that is the world it was developed for), which allows for Paladins to track down and kill followers of fiends without the world saying that the paladins are Right for doing so.
Why Not: By decoupling alignment from action, alignment loses a lot of its significance. It still has some bearing on morals (a person who truly believes the best way to live is by controlling everyone around him and taking what he wants could not be CG), but alignment loses its essential link to the soul; a DM with this system would never say "If you stab that baby, you're going to lose your Good alignment" (a situation that comes up far more often than you might expect), which is always a nice expression of character tension.
Yes, it's still evil to stab this baby.
What: Good and Evil are switched for "Altruistic" and "Selfish."
Why: This system removes value judgments from alignments. This allows for alignments to be absolute and linked to personal action, but not divided into "right" and "wrong." Alignments essentially become political views or social opinions.
Where: Detect Selfishness functions as a personality test, so this sort of world allows you to only interact with people who act like you. The most significant changes in this world would be political and social; Selfish people want Altruistic friends, and Altruistic people will be friends with anyone, so Detect Altruism can somewhat work as "Detect Sucker" for the unscrupulous and selfish. Probably, a small group of Selfish with Nondetection cast on themselves would rule while pretending to be Altrustic (and would in fact be constantly checking each other to make sure nobody's actually Altrustic, because they'll probably be whistle-blowers). Celestials and Fiends would become much less mystical, and would just be supernatural manifestations of personality traits (and would probably not show up very often, consequently).
Why Not: By making personality types detectable, social gaming becomes incredibly prominent, and the people willing to use it (i.e., the selfish) come out on top. It would be a very parasitic/predatory alignment system.
Bonus: A more extreme version of this in cold-war era D&D could use "Communist" and "Capitalist". The Red Scare prominently includes Free Market Paladins busting down doors and casting Detect Communism on random people. If you took it further, you could say that Lawful is government control and Chaotic is laissez-faire (so America is Chaotic Good: Free Market). Celestials and Fiends would be supersoldiers for the two sides, and Hell would be a Marxist paradise.
Space reserved until somebody draws a Free Market Paladin.
What: Good and Evil acts are absolute, and alignment is determined by amount of good and evil acts.
Why: You didn't like the one where action has no effect on alignment? How about one where action determines alignment absolutely? This system maks alignment into a numbers game, where actions have certain amounts of Good or Chaotic "points," and if you get enough points, your alignment can slip. This allows players and NPCs to carefully game their alignment (burn down one orphanage, pet 1000 puppies, we're square). This consequently allows for careful gaming of public perception.
Where: A world with this system would heavily favor Good over Evil, and probably Law over Chaos. Evil would be treated like debt, or a criminal record; you're not getting a job or a loan or anywhere near my daughter unless you work off that Evil. All prison sentences would include community service, and the black market would sell puppies and allow for discreet donations to charity (because if you suddenly and publicly do a lot of Good acts, what are you trying to hide?). Heaven becomes a gated community for souls with extreme Good surplus, and Hell becomes a debtor's prison.
Why Not: Alignment is absolute and decoupled from morality. Certain actions are declared unilaterally to be Good and others are determined to be Evil, as defined by the laws of the universe, so you can't have any "stealing to feed his family" dilemma. It's either Good or Evil. Also, it's a ton of paperwork for everybody.
Note: It's possible to play a variation on this where "you have to mean it." That is to say, helping an old lady across the street doesn't give Good points if you're only doing it for the Good points; this removes a lot of the gaming of it, but arguably that removes a lot of the point. Another variation could come from saying that your alignment, as determined by points, affects your morality. So if you do a lot of Good acts, you actually become a better person. Biggest problem with this variation is that it basically locks out Chaotic characters from this system, since they'll be unwilling to play by your rules, man.
Why: Alignment becomes a record of recent activity, which has its most significant effects on police work and murder mysteries. If you can Detect Evil on the man who found the body, you can determine whether he commited the murder (unless he did something to readjust his alignment in the meantime). If you want crazy roleplaying, say that it also changes the way they act for the duration, which can create a chain of evil or good actions. Arrested prisoners, in that case, would be asked to tickle a baby (shifting their alignment and personality to Neutral Good), and then would be released.
Where: Again, a campaign with lots of crime drama / murder mysteries would be well-served by this, because it would create a new kind of evidence. If you include the personality rule, it would also create a really wacky world with shifting alignment and interesting roleplaying challenges. Celestials and Fiends would make zero sense in this world, since an angel can "fall" by accidentally insulting somebody.
Why Not: Alignment is now totally unrelated to personality and celestials/fiends don't make any sense. Alignment is still linked to morality (though with the "all actions have absolute morality" above), but only in the very short term.
Worth their weight in gold on the black market.
What: Alignment is physical. Good characters radiate Goodon particles, and Evil characters radiate Evilium (like radioactive elements). Spells like Detect Evil actually detect Evilium particles, and Smite Evil creates a chemical reaction which ignites them.
Why: Adding alignment particles adds a lot of interesting dimensions, and more the more you think about it. Notably the fact that these particles have a location and a number; if Smite Evil ignites Evilium, it would be more effective the more Evilium there is, meaning that 1) it could be used as an area of effect spell on a group of evil beings, and 2) it would be ineffective if used twice in a row, because it just destroyed all the Evilium in the area. If there's an "Evilium leak," Smite Evil might even be really dangerous; a volatile enough reaction would blow up in the Paladin's face!
Where: This alignment system fits perfectly in a sci-fi setting where magic is replaced by machines. The possibilities of doing science on alignment particles is really neat. You could also capture them and release them for various effects (simulate a flamethrower by expelling Evilium particles and then Smiting them, or a grenade by including a Smiting machine in an Evilium-filled capsule). Evil beings would likely be captured, but not executed or encouraged to reform, so as to harvest the Evilium coming off of them. Celestials and Fiends would be constructs made of Goodon/Evilium.
Why Not: Alignment loses all abstractness and barrels full-speed into the physical world. It's got lots and lots of consequences that need to be taken into consideration, so a world with this system becomes about this system.
Bonus: This one can be combined with the above. In that case, good acts release Goodon, which can temporarily mask Evilium, changing a person's apparent alignment.
And if you drink this, you become an Angel.
-Charlie
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