Topic: Do you use an alignment system in your game?

[Druss_the_Legend]

I do not use an alignment system. I let characters choose how they behave with few restrictions.
Players choose to follow a deity but there is minimal restrictions on these and they are free to switch between them if they wish.

There are certainly some benefits for following certain gods in the game, healing and even selection as a devout or Godsworn follower (this gives them tangible benefits of a few added abilities but also ties them pretty closely to that gods outlook/demeanor if they want to keep those benefits). I currently have a barbarian who is a Godsworn follower of a god of war. This gives him the ability to use a battlecry 1x day that inspires allies and enhances their own frenzy. This benefit was taken way from them after they fled from a battle when the city guard showed up (the pc is a wanted criminal).

I can see both pros and cons of using alignments. Iv played using them in D&D and they give you some real limitations as well as benefits. For example not allowing an evil alignment puts your players more in the role of heroes and moderates their actions around why the kill and what immoral acts are possible, if any right?

Interested to hear what others do? Alignment? yes/no. What restrictions do you impose if any as GM on player actions?

[Peter R]

I do not have alignments. The only restriction I put on players us goat I don't allow evil characters.

[Malim]

I dont think we use it either!

But we do have an chaotic lord who says he isnt evil

[vector]

I do not use alignments, I'm a much bigger believer in "realistic" consequences.

I do allow for the concepts of good and evil. I use a modified form of Grace and Corruption (see Channeling Companion) for my world's clerics, paladins, mages or anyone else who may dabble in evil magic or forbidden knowledge.

The players in my current game would be traditionally considered neutral or evil:

Conner Jax - A priest of the Spellbinder, the dark god of secret lore and magic. His main goal, other than spreading the worship of his god and the gathering of personal power, is the discovery of a path to immortality that does not involve any form of undeath.

Dracus Marius Agrippa "Drago" - A sorcerer and the self-exiled nephew of the dark queen Draquess Drakona. He worships Ahri-Kren, the head of the dark pantheon. His main goal is keeping his identity a secret to avoid political assassination.

Birlun Yor - A dwarven brawler (zen monk) who is the current champion of the Lurker's (thieves guild) pit fighting ring in the city of Arkanay.

Desiderius Orsini - A thief and sometimes assassin, he is a student of alchemy and poisons. He belongs to a secret cabal that worships Irkalla, the goddess of fate and death.

Titus Darius - A demonic warrior (modified Chaos Lord from Rolemaster Companion III) of the fallen empire of Angross, he has pledged himself to a new master, the invincible ruler of Arkanay, the Overlord Merovech V.

So far it has been really fun running an "evil" campaign. I especially love inverting a lot of the usual rpg tropes since the entire genre was born of a very formulaic "good vs. evil".

[intothatdarkness]

I don't use alignments. However, one of the things I look for in character backgrounds is a sort of code of conduct or behavior pattern. Also, clerics and paladins in my games have to meet the strictures of their deities or they lose casting ability. That's as close as I come to alignment, but players know that (and the consequences) up front.

[jdale]

Likewise no alignment system, I just expect consistent roleplaying according to the personality of the character. I discourage evil conduct, try not to reward it (e.g. torture is not the most effective way to obtain information), and try not to punish good behavior (e.g. showing mercy to the fallen should not always prove to be a mistake, although it's smart to be selective about when to do so).

[Druss_the_Legend]

I do not use alignments, I'm a much bigger believer in "realistic" consequences.

I do allow for the concepts of good and evil. I use a modified form of Grace and Corruption (see Channeling Companion) for my world's clerics, paladins, mages or anyone else who may dabble in evil magic or forbidden knowledge.

The players in my current game would be traditionally considered neutral or evil:

Conner Jax - A priest of the Spellbinder, the dark god of secret lore and magic. His main goal, other than spreading the worship of his god and the gathering of personal power, is the discovery of a path to immortality that does not involve any form of undeath.

Dracus Marius Agrippa "Drago" - A sorcerer and the self-exiled nephew of the dark queen Draquess Drakona. He worships Ahri-Kren, the head of the dark pantheon. His main goal is keeping his identity a secret to avoid political assassination.

Birlun Yor - A dwarven brawler (zen monk) who is the current champion of the Lurker's (thieves guild) pit fighting ring in the city of Arkanay.

Desiderius Orsini - A thief and sometimes assassin, he is a student of alchemy and poisons. He belongs to a secret cabal that worships Irkalla, the goddess of fate and death.

Titus Darius - A demonic warrior (modified Chaos Lord from Rolemaster Companion III) of the fallen empire of Angross, he has pledged himself to a new master, the invincible ruler of Arkanay, the Overlord Merovech V.

So far it has been really fun running an "evil" campaign. I especially love inverting a lot of the usual rpg tropes since the entire genre was born of a very formulaic "good vs. evil".

very cool characters and backgrounds. I'll counter with my current batch of players/characters

Nightshadow the burglar - has multiple split personalities, is working as a spy for the leader of The Order of the Black Lotus (Assassin's Guild) although this was only revealed in a 'Jason Bourne' style flashback. Recently acquired a cursed 'Dark Rapier' which is slowly corrupting him and turning him into an evil creature of darkness. He worships Shalpa God of Thieves. Nighshadow's goal is to lead his own criminal organisation.

Kromm Lionslayer - A barbarian, former slave, one-time gladiator, now acting commander of a small band of sell-swords called Hawkmasks (They wear masks when on missions to protect their true identities). Kromm works for a crimelord/slaver named Jubal. Kromm is a Godsword follower of Vashanka God of War. Kromm's goal is to become Jubal's right hand man and captain of the Hawkmasks.

Blackfang the assassin - trained and mentored by the legendary/retired assassin Daemon Deathbringer who is a former member of the Black Lotus, left the organisation when his friend and former leader was assassinated by his son and new leader Draven the Slayer. Blackfang is a member of The League of Shadows, a spinoff assassins guild created by Deathbringer. Blackfang's goal is to become a legendary assassin within the League of Shadows (all agents have assassin rings which allow them to change their appearance). To achieve his goal he will have to kill Draven the Slayer. Blackfang carries a stolen Purple Mage Amulet which has men hunting him.

Gurhard the Bounty Hunter - newest character to the campaign. A freelance hunter for hire who's goal is to put away as many wanted criminals as possible. He is selective about what contracts he accepts and takes on only one bounty at a time. Gurhard is currently hunting a dangerous magician name Rabben Half-hand who was connected to the disappearance of Lythande The Blue Star Adept (a good magician). Rabben is connected to an evil cult and helped them capture Lythande using a trapped magical scroll.

The parties main goal to begin with was to bring down a thieves guild called the Big Fish Gang. They were also searching for a rival crimelord named the Beggar King, who turned out to be a former friend of their current boss Jubal. The party killed the Beggar King but then found out the person they killed was a decoy (someone posing as him).

All characters have a common goal to destroy an evil cult called The Bloody Hand. This cult and the assassins guild (Black Lotus) have formed an alliance to further their own goals of chaos and accumulating power. The blood cult wants to summon a powerful demon god and the assassins guild wants to create an army of vampire assassins.

[Druss_the_Legend]

I do not use alignments, I'm a much bigger believer in "realistic" consequences.

I do allow for the concepts of good and evil. I use a modified form of Grace and Corruption (see Channeling Companion) for my world's clerics, paladins, mages or anyone else who may dabble in evil magic or forbidden knowledge.

The players in my current game would be traditionally considered neutral or evil:

Conner Jax - A priest of the Spellbinder, the dark god of secret lore and magic. His main goal, other than spreading the worship of his god and the gathering of personal power, is the discovery of a path to immortality that does not involve any form of undeath.

Dracus Marius Agrippa "Drago" - A sorcerer and the self-exiled nephew of the dark queen Draquess Drakona. He worships Ahri-Kren, the head of the dark pantheon. His main goal is keeping his identity a secret to avoid political assassination.

Birlun Yor - A dwarven brawler (zen monk) who is the current champion of the Lurker's (thieves guild) pit fighting ring in the city of Arkanay.

Desiderius Orsini - A thief and sometimes assassin, he is a student of alchemy and poisons. He belongs to a secret cabal that worships Irkalla, the goddess of fate and death.

Titus Darius - A demonic warrior (modified Chaos Lord from Rolemaster Companion III) of the fallen empire of Angross, he has pledged himself to a new master, the invincible ruler of Arkanay, the Overlord Merovech V.

So far it has been really fun running an "evil" campaign. I especially love inverting a lot of the usual rpg tropes since the entire genre was born of a very formulaic "good vs. evil".

very cool characters and backgrounds. I'll counter with my current batch of players/characters

Nightshadow the burglar - has multiple split personalities, is working as a spy for the leader of The Order of the Black Lotus (Assassin's Guild) although this was only revealed in a 'Jason Bourne' style flashback. Recently acquired a cursed 'Dark Rapier' which is slowly corrupting him and turning him into an evil creature of darkness. He worships Shalpa God of Thieves. Nighshadow's goal is to lead his own criminal organisation.

Kromm Lionslayer - A barbarian, former slave, one-time gladiator, now acting commander of a small band of sell-swords called Hawkmasks (They wear masks when on missions to protect their true identities). Kromm works for a crimelord/slaver named Jubal. Kromm is a Godsword follower of Vashanka God of War. Kromm's goal is to become Jubal's right hand man and captain of the Hawkmasks.

Blackfang the assassin - trained and mentored by the legendary/retired assassin Daemon Deathbringer who is a former member of the Black Lotus, then left the organisation when his friend and former leader was assassinated by his son and new leader Draven the Slayer. Blackfang is a member of The League of Shadows, a spinoff assassins guild created by Deathbringer. Blackfang's goal is to become a legendary assassin within the League of Shadows (all agents have assassin rings which allow them to change their appearance). To achieve his goal he will have to kill Draven the Slayer. Blackfang carries a stolen Purple Mage Amulet and has men hunting him for it.

Gurhard the Bounty Hunter - newest character to the campaign. A freelance hunter for hire who's goal is to put away as many wanted criminals as possible. He is selective about what contracts he accepts and takes on only one bounty at a time. Gurhard is currently hunting a dangerous magician named Rabben Half-hand who was connected to the disappearance of Lythande The Blue Star Adept (a good magician). Rabben is connected to an evil cult and helped them capture Lythande using a trapped magical scroll.

The parties main goal to begin with was to bring down a thieves guild called the Big Fish Gang. They were also searching for a rival crimelord named the Beggar King. The party killed the Beggar King but then found out the person they killed was a decoy (someone posing as him).

All characters have a common goal to destroy an evil cult called The Bloody Hand. This cult and the assassins guild (Black Lotus) have formed an alliance to further their own goals of chaos and accumulating power. The blood cult wants to summon a powerful demon god and the assassins guild wants to create an army of vampire assassins.

[Hurin]

Barbarian, Bounty Hunter, Assassin, Burglar, Chaos Lord... maybe some of those specialized RM2 professions were popular after all 

[vector]

very cool characters and backgrounds. I'll counter with my current batch of players/characters...

Wow, that sounds like a game I would love! Cool characters and I've always loved playing rogues and thieves.

Is that the Thieve's World setting? I haven't read those books since high school, but I quite liked them.

[Druss_the_Legend]

very cool characters and backgrounds. I'll counter with my current batch of players/characters...

Wow, that sounds like a game I would love! Cool characters and I've always loved playing rogues and thieves.

Is that the Thieve's World setting? I haven't read those books since high school, but I quite liked them.

Cheers. Yes it is Thieves World, based in the city of Sanctuary. Its honestly a fantastic setting. The Maze is a region of the city infamous for the desperate criminals that inhabit it. Its a place the city guard will not go unless they are in large numbers. The Hellhounds/elite guards are a group of professional soldiers who do their best to stamp out crime where they can. They are famous for the ruthless efficiency with which they carry out their work. There are some colourful and memorable characters (NPC's) that really bring the setting to life, Hanse Shadowspawn, Prince Govenor 'Kittycat' Kidakithis, Jubal the crimelord and his sell-sword hawkmasks, Enas Yorl the hazard class enchanter/shape-shifter, Lythande the Blue Star Adept, Zalbar the Captain of the Hellhounds and Tempus the Hellhound - part demi-god part ruthless killer.

Ive used the setting a fair bit. It has never really lost its interest for me. 3 years ago, after a 20+ year break from roelmaster I decided to re-energize my campaign and injected some new NPC's villains and factions (The Beggar King, The Big Fish Gang/Thieves Guild, The Order of the Black Lotus (assassins guild), The League of Shadows (rival assassins guild), The Bloody Hand Cult - who already existed in the setting, I just fleshed them out a bit and created a vampire plot around the Black Lotus and Blood Cult. The setting was far from dead, it just needed some new fuel in the tank The coolest thing of all is the campaign has reunited a group of us that used to roleplay 25yrs ago.

I guess to keep things interesting for me and to keep the players guessing I blew up my existing small scale campaign and created a very big and epic story arc where the player characters are central to the plot... especially the Burglar, he has a very complex background and its still evolving with the whole vampire curse but also the volatility of his split personality disorder which has not played a major part yet but it will in future sessions and its put him right in the middle of things as a spy for the Black Lotus.

My campaign has grown from 2 to 4 players in two years. seemingly modest numbers but we play exclusively online, which is not for the faint of heart as rolemaster has a somewhat clunky combat system when you are GMing a battle involving 12-16 combatants (as quite often happens in my games!). Iv upskilled quite a bit using roll20 which is amazing as a gaming platform but it tales some time to master it and when I say time, im talking 100hrs+ to get to grips with all of its features (im almost there, but its taken ages as i only play for 6wks of the year and its an intensive 6wks).

Im a rules tinkerer by nature, which probably frustrates my players but they have to take the good with the bad . I am always looking for ways to streamline things and take away so mush dice-rolling and table referencing with the goal of leaving more time for the fun part - roleplaying. Dice rolling has its part, its unavoidable but i try my best to keep things moving when we play (which is usually for 3hr sessions online) so its less than ideal to spend that whole time on a single combat unless its the major battle at the end of the story arc, you know the climatic battle that everything hinges on and has been building up to.

[Druss_the_Legend]

very cool characters and backgrounds. I'll counter with my current batch of players/characters...

Wow, that sounds like a game I would love! Cool characters and I've always loved playing rogues and thieves.

Is that the Thieve's World setting? I haven't read those books since high school, but I quite liked them.

I collected the novels and at one stage had 10 or so but tbh the first 2 novels were the best imo. #1 Thievs World, #2 Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn.

[vector]

Hey Druss_the_Legend, you are a brave GM to run a Rolemaster battle with 12 - 16 combatants. I ran a similarly large combat just last Monday. Let's just say a lot happened in just the first two rounds!

I'm very fortunate to have a small group of great players that can meet nearly every Monday evening. One of my long time players ran two characters: Desiderius Orsini and Titus Darius.

He was a great player who brought a lot of passion and humor to the game. He passed away earlier this month and he is sorely missed.

Back to the topic at hand, I would never use a strict D&D style alignment system in any of my games, but the old system is a fun one to play around with. Just think of all the meme posters and alignment debates you can find online. 

[Druss_the_Legend]

Hey Druss_the_Legend, you are a brave GM to run a Rolemaster battle with 12 - 16 combatants. I ran a similarly large combat just last Monday. Let's just say a lot happened in just the first two rounds!

I'm very fortunate to have a small group of great players that can meet nearly every Monday evening. One of my long time players ran two characters: Desiderius Orsini and Titus Darius.

He was a great player who brought a lot of passion and humor to the game. He passed away earlier this month and he is sorely missed.

Back to the topic at hand, I would never use a strict D&D style alignment system in any of my games, but the old system is a fun one to play around with. Just think of all the meme posters and alignment debates you can find online.

Vector, sorry to hear about losing a great player... sounds like he made quite an impression on your campaign. Its the players that bring a campaign to life and take it to new levels of fun... its the reson i was so eager to reboot my campaign with old friends.

I have played with alignment in D&D and found it rather restrictive. But that can be a challenge as well, depends how you approach things i guess. In my campaign, like some who commented here I do my best to hold players accountable for the actions of their characters. I think alignment is a flavour/preference thing and can add depth to the setting for sure. I think of pcs actions and the impact of them as ripples in a pool. They are felt and get noticed. NPCs closest to the actions (say murder or even a justified killing that was deserved) will react to those actions, perhaps not immediately but eventually some NPC will show up and have an axe to grind with the pc responsible or those responsible for keeping the peace will want to ask some questions. This sort of accountability will keep the pcs actions in check or get them into trouble they cant get out of at some point.

[vector]

I have played with alignment in D&D and found it rather restrictive.

First, thanks very much.

I agree that the D&D alignment system is too restrictive. But, some of the funniest "bad role-playing horror stories" I've heard usually involve a player playing a paladin as either "Lawful Stupid" or insisting that the most heinous acts are somehow justified by his alignment (props to "realism" for that one!).

And be very suspicious of the player that always insists on their characters being Chaotic Neutral.

[Spectre771]

No alignments either, unless the player had their own credo they wanted to follow.  In cases of players wanting to follow a god/religion, I ask them to write down the tenets of their faith so I can hold them to it during gameplay, but more as a gameplay mechanic to make the game fun, not as a mean to punish them, just a friendly reminder that they should or shouldn't do this or that.

We also don't allow "evil" characters but we do allow chaos characters.  (Sometimes it's encouraged.  )  Chaos isn't necessarily evil, but it's certainly strange to play.  One of my players rolled on the chaos table and was cursed/gifted with "racial maximums."  Her PC was 9' tall and built like house.  It came in handy when everyone had to bail out of the 2nd floor window and she simply stepped outside and helped everyone down.

 You can be a oddball but still get along with others. ;-)

The D&D alignment system is painfully restrictive and some DMs used to really force the alignment in gameplay, and regaining alignment once lost was such a pain.  That led most of the players to just taking Neutral/neutral or neutral/good.  At that point, why bother having alignments if everyone is going to be the same anyway?