Alignments as Flags
Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 4:02 am
The alignment system has problems. Here's yet another fix I'm floating for it:
Rather than definining traits of the two alignment axes and then creating the nine alignments from them, and from that coming up with the 17 outer planes of the Great Wheel, how about we go backward?
In this case, alignments like Lawful Evil and Chaotic Neutral don't exist, and actions are not Good or Evil. Instead, you start by designing the outer planes or picking an existing set (I'll use the Great Wheel). Match some general behaviors to each outer plane (in general, acting like its natives act). The same behavior can match two or more planes, although if it matches more than half of them it might not actually be alignment-relevent, or it might be better-written as an exception (that is, doing to opposite is aligned with other planes), it's actually no big deal.
Your alignment, then, is the plane that you act the most like, and/or that you have and keep the patronage of. Your Lawful Evil blackguard nemesis becomes Gehennan; his Lawful Evil Barbarian lieutenant becomes Acheronian, and his Ice Devil ally and imp minions become Baatorian. The Chaotic Good elf queen becomes Arborean, and the Slaad's apprentice takes on the alignment Giant Frog, with a Pandemonic Quasit tempting him to evil. The Githzerai monks in Limbo might stay Lawfully-aligned and become Mechanical, or they might revert to second edition and also become Giant Frog.
You can even generalize this to alignments for more planes. A fire elemental might have Alignment: Fire. A bear might have alignment: Material. Undead become Alignment: Negative.
Now, of course, deciding what alignment a character's behavior matches stays difficult, but the source of it is made obvious: alignments are really arbitrary things. And, since it's due to patronage, you really can simply say you have a certain alignment and, as long as you act vaguely like that alignment and not really like any other, actually get that alignment; praying in temples of Pelor actually does make you more Elysian in alignment, provided Pelor doesn't think too negatively of you. In-character, you actually have some degree of control over your alignment.
You can still take different options in Tome of Fiends moral alignments: Good and Evil can be stark differences because the Good planes want you to help the orphans, while Evil planes want you to creatively dispose of them, or they can be differences where one side has you under a Scarlet-on-Crimson banner and the other has you under a Blood-on-Rust banner. Law and Chaos get an actual definition under this system, although exactly what that definition is can vary even from plane to plane: Mechanical Law might be, for instance, opposite Ysgardian Chaos, while Giant Frog Chaos opposes Arcadian law, and Acheronian law is opposed by Beastlandic Chaos. Each of those pairs of planes has a different definition of what Law and Chaos mean to them, and one might even define Chaos in the way another defines Law (Acheronian Law and Ysgardian Chaos might resemble eachother if you look closely at them, for instance).
Rather than definining traits of the two alignment axes and then creating the nine alignments from them, and from that coming up with the 17 outer planes of the Great Wheel, how about we go backward?
In this case, alignments like Lawful Evil and Chaotic Neutral don't exist, and actions are not Good or Evil. Instead, you start by designing the outer planes or picking an existing set (I'll use the Great Wheel). Match some general behaviors to each outer plane (in general, acting like its natives act). The same behavior can match two or more planes, although if it matches more than half of them it might not actually be alignment-relevent, or it might be better-written as an exception (that is, doing to opposite is aligned with other planes), it's actually no big deal.
Your alignment, then, is the plane that you act the most like, and/or that you have and keep the patronage of. Your Lawful Evil blackguard nemesis becomes Gehennan; his Lawful Evil Barbarian lieutenant becomes Acheronian, and his Ice Devil ally and imp minions become Baatorian. The Chaotic Good elf queen becomes Arborean, and the Slaad's apprentice takes on the alignment Giant Frog, with a Pandemonic Quasit tempting him to evil. The Githzerai monks in Limbo might stay Lawfully-aligned and become Mechanical, or they might revert to second edition and also become Giant Frog.
You can even generalize this to alignments for more planes. A fire elemental might have Alignment: Fire. A bear might have alignment: Material. Undead become Alignment: Negative.
Now, of course, deciding what alignment a character's behavior matches stays difficult, but the source of it is made obvious: alignments are really arbitrary things. And, since it's due to patronage, you really can simply say you have a certain alignment and, as long as you act vaguely like that alignment and not really like any other, actually get that alignment; praying in temples of Pelor actually does make you more Elysian in alignment, provided Pelor doesn't think too negatively of you. In-character, you actually have some degree of control over your alignment.
You can still take different options in Tome of Fiends moral alignments: Good and Evil can be stark differences because the Good planes want you to help the orphans, while Evil planes want you to creatively dispose of them, or they can be differences where one side has you under a Scarlet-on-Crimson banner and the other has you under a Blood-on-Rust banner. Law and Chaos get an actual definition under this system, although exactly what that definition is can vary even from plane to plane: Mechanical Law might be, for instance, opposite Ysgardian Chaos, while Giant Frog Chaos opposes Arcadian law, and Acheronian law is opposed by Beastlandic Chaos. Each of those pairs of planes has a different definition of what Law and Chaos mean to them, and one might even define Chaos in the way another defines Law (Acheronian Law and Ysgardian Chaos might resemble eachother if you look closely at them, for instance).