Alignments in RPG, Almost a Constant Conversation

Found on Deviant Art

In role-playing games (RPGs) some topics keep making the rounds. The use of alignments for characters is one of those areas of discussion that keeps coming back into gaming circles. Alignments are used in many game systems and not in others. For some people there is a legitimate reason for using alignments and for others there isn't. Over the many years of my gaming career I don't know how many times I have been in discussions about the use of alignments and whether or not they should be used. But, I was recently asked again about their use and where I stood on the issue.

I have used alignments when creating some games and completely ignored them in others. Their use is one of those rules I believe can be ignored when they become a hindrance to the playing of a character. At the same time I have used them, and seen others use them, as a great way of providing a guideline to how a character would react to a situation. This is all because the main thing is to understand what alignment is.

Dictionary.com has one definition of alignment of "a state of agreement or cooperation among persons, groups, nations, etc., with a common cause or viewpoint." This definition touches on some of the ideas of alignment in gaming, but not really enough to give a full understanding of what it means. For discussion, I am going to define alignment as the following.

Alignment: the basic underlying parameters of a character defining their moral standing.

This means a characters alignment is a guideline to how the character views the world and how they fit into it. The earliest versions of gaming worked more with Michael Moorcock's writings and where focused on law versus chaos. Shortly thereafter there was the introduction of good and evil. Dungeons and Dragons combined the two into a nine-point matrix back in the 1970s which has become a standard most gamers are familiar with. I have seen variations on the matrix, some going back to the simpler three-point scale of chaos to law, or good to evil. I have also seen a variation that expanded it to a 16-point matrix and a 25-point matrix. And, as mentioned earlier many games don't use alignments.

It can be argued that people, real world people, have and don't have alignments. You can go out and find personality tests that will direct you to your alignment. At the same time, how you respond to once situation might point you as being a lawful good person, then another will point you at being chaotic good and another situation has you as being neutral evil. Real life alignments are fluid to the time, situation, and experiences. We each have what we were taught growing up, or own interpretation of morals and ethics, which creates our underlying parameters defining our moral standards. And my moral definitions of life is going to be different than yours, which will be different than another person's.

We find commonality in groups and with issues, but life itself is a complex mashup. I am sure every one of us has faced a situation that all of our experience tells us we should be do a certain action that doesn't fit the current needs. This is not that our moral code is broken, it is that there is a higher level of complexity.

Now let us bring that back into the gaming scenarios we all like to play.

One of the biggest arguments I have heard against the use of alignments is that paladins in Dungeons and Dragons are not lawful stupid. I have seen paladins played with such a strong code of ethics that they do stupid actions because to do otherwise would break their alignment. The interesting part of when this happens is usually when another player at the table tell the one playing the paladin how to play their character. There are many ways a person can play a lawful good character and not break from the alignment. It comes down to how they have defined the alignment.

Every person, and thus every character, has an underlying story that guides them through their actions. A part of that backstory defines their alignment. Charlemagneis one major historical example many like to use for defining a paladin, but there were other holy knights, such as Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It could be easily argued that every knight sitting with Arthur was a Paladin. Each was different. Each had variations to their moral code. Each could be argued to be lawful good. It comes down to the code of conduct that each observed.

This can easily apply to RPGs. Think of an alignment as the code of conduct your character has. One good working example of this is many games that are point based have one skill/advantage/disadvantage of an honor code, or code of conduct. Most of these games, like GURPS, lists this as a disadvantage because it is designed to limit the character on the action they will take. Examples include the code of chivalry, not attacking law enforcement, not hurting pets. It can also go in other directions such as when a crime is discovered enforcement must be swift and immediate. Would that be good or evil? Most players define these codes without realizing it.

Another found on Deviant Art

Players make determinations of how their character act in a situation. This is usually based on past and present conditions, the backstory and the current story. Alignments are part of both, but are brought forth from the backstory. They are a guideline that helps the player in determining the actions of the character. The big word there is guideline. The history of experience will play a part in the current action chosen, but it doesn't have to be the absolute defining limiting factor of what happens in the moment. Let's return to our paladins (because they are easy to pick on).

The paladin is confronting the evil lord who the party has turned over to the kingdom's authorities before. The evil lord was sent to prison and there has been no word that he escaped. Based on earlier events in this adventure is can be surmised that he is receiving help at the prison and being allowed to come and go as he pleases. In a sense he is in control of his fate at the facility, and not the warden. I can see the player with the paladin could easily remain in his alignment by capturing the lord, again, or fighting till the death of the evil lord. Others I have presented this scenario to have said they would cause the Paladin to lose his status if they killed the evil one instead of taking him into custody. I think this plays out like the climax in Men in Black III (sorry if that is a spoiler).

Straight up I would say to use alignments if they help you understand the playing of the character, or if they are an essential part of the game you are playing. If you are not playing a system using alignments you might want to consider, if you are not already doing it, of defining your character's view of the world. Knowing how the character sees the world and how they feel they fit into it can provide some great role-playing. This also works when creating non-player characters.

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