A Note On Alignment

 There are two ways of defining Chaos:

1: Pandemonium, that is to say a state of lawlessness and a breakdown of the order of society, the disarray creating injustice.  In other words, Evil.

2: Randomness, happenstance and luck determining various outcomes and events, neither inherently good nor inherently evil.


Equally, there are two ways of defining Law:

1: The Law, as in natural law or the Law of God.  This being the order which the world has been set by the highest authority, it is Good and right to follow such a Law, as to do anything else would be to go against creation itself.  Humanity being part of creation, it would naturally be insane for any human to willingly go against such Law.

2: A Law: This could range from the law of the land, that is to say, the state, all the way to any set of morality which a person chooses to follow, no matter how justified or sadistic it may tend.

OD&D

In OD&D, the alignments of Lawful and Chaotic must either:

1: Refer to the first definitions of each.

2: Refer to the second definitions of each.

Why:

Pandemonium does not care about A Law, because different sets of laws can be pitted against each other to create disarray.

Randomness does not care about The Law, because randomness already exists in nature.

The Law does not care if Randomness is present, because it is neither good nor evil.

A Law does care about Pandemonium, but is helpless to stop it.

Neutral would, naturally, be the middle-ground between the two ideas, however, this middle would change depending on what the ideas present actually are. 

Unaligned needs must represent a certain inability to comprehend that there is any kind of alignment at all.

AD&D

In AD&D, the first definition of Law has been shifted to Lawful Good, with the second being split between Lawful Neutral and Lawful Evil.

The first definition of Chaos has been shifted to Chaotic Evil, with the second being split between Chaotic Neutral and Chaotic Good.

I would imagine that Neutral Good would then be a "Sensus Fidei" situation, seeking after the Good while neither focusing on nor avoiding any specific aspect of it.  Likewise Neutral Evil would be seeking after the opposite, though similiarly in a non-systematic, yet somewhat ordered way.

In my mind, True Neutral takes the place of Unaligned, with, under this new system, more of an allowance for sentient beings to be in this category.  Except that AD&D still has Unaligned for beasts...

Be seeing you.








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An unhinged review of Baptism of Fire

Image
 For quick reference: when it comes to setting material I would set Oriental adventures at a 5 and most modern shlock as 1. [1] BoF comes in at a 3 for setting material Is this an attack on the author? No.   A ridiculous idea to any sane man, I know, but this will be important later. In point of fact, I happen to like it.   The overall quality I would put at a 5, with the layout being a 4.   In Specific When I read through setting material, I like to find those pieces which scream flavor. The introduction could have been half the length and gotten across the same information, this is due in part to the introduction being repeated, it appears in the first page of the actual book, and again in the introduction section, a minor annoyance.  In Character Creation 3d6 standard is respectable, but a piece of real interest, in the form of social class presents itself immediately afterward.  Though I like the system provided, I still found it lacking, at l...
Read more

There are only three gaming cultures

 Those who joined the hobby from playing board games, those who joined the hobby from playing video games and those who joined the hobby having played no games. Some establishing information Wargaming, as it existed before D&D (excluding Braunstein-like material) could be considered a subset of the board game hobby.  That is, from at least one key viewpoint: the players involved read the rules, and followed those rules.  As well, the boardgame hobby tends towards trying out new games, often every week (this from observation), and the wargaming hobby, again of the late 60s/early 70s seems, also from observation, to have been similar in this aspect as well. The thesis 1. Those who played the game at its inception were those individuals drawn from the war-game hobby. 2. Due to the advancing popularity of video games, at or around the 1990s and culminating during the 3rd edition of the game, those who joined the hobby came from the background of playing video games. 3....
Read more

The W40k Rant

 I don't like the lore, I don't like the gameplay, I don't like the company who makes it.  My seething fury towards this terrible game was started by three separate incidents, relating directly to the three issues above, but which do not encompass the whole of my distaste for this game.  The three events would be: A frankly off-putting lore video, the first and last I can remember attempting to watch, before being quickly deterred.  The fact that the official rules require actual physical miniatures, all of which are purposely and prohibitively expensive.  And finally, an event which occurred long before I was aware of it: that the company had copyrighted the term "space marine" a horribly generic term which they had the gall to claim.   Now, I do not know the current situation regarding the copyright, but the rest still stands. Furthermore The lore. The video which I found, this was years ago by now, and I believe I have thoroughly forgotten which cha...
Read more