h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Alignment in Role-playing Games - A1155421
Author: Ekaterin - U239615

Hi, I've been advised to submit A1155421 - 'Alignment in Role-playing Games' to Peer Review. At the moment it only discusses the AD&D alignment system because that's the only one I know about, and I'd welcome any information on other role-playing games with significantly different alignment systems. Examples of Balanced True Neutral and Chaotic Neutral characters would also be nice to have.

I'm a chaotic neutral and feel a strong affinity towards others with my alignment. I think I have only really seen them in fiction though. I will try to think of a good example and get back to you on it. I think any mercenary army would be considered chaotic neutral.
-MotDoc

You could just title this article "Alignment in AD&D". Are the definitions that make up the most of this article your own, or are they from an AD&D reference work of some kind?

This article defines 'alignment' but doesn't really describe the purpose of it. I can think of several reasons a Chaotic Evil person (based on what you have given) might heal someone, that aren't psychotic. Is someone who is Lawful Good necessarily going to behave in a retarded fashion?

Why choose to define it and abide by it at all, when few interesting characters in novels and fairy tales match these 9 types 100%? Is this a Jungian archetype thing? Enneagrams?

For the most part its like prototypes. All characters have variations obviously or there would be no reason to create characters more than 9 times, but the basic alignment gives a way of quickly summing up the general idea of the character. Plus it helps to understand how a character will behave in a novel situation.
I took the quiz and got chaotic neutral. Good to know it hasn't changed.
-MotDoc (loves starting fights and watching)

if you try search for other alignment quizzes you could see how many agree...

...i got NG on 4 different ones.

The definitions are mine, though Wonko and AK helped and supplied the single-word descriptions (Crusader, Benefactor and so forth).

Wonko, any chance you could post links to the other alignment quizzes you've found? Here are rough descriptions of the ones I know about (some may exist in multiple variants). I'll try to find URLs for them later, but work is busy right now.

The one the article links to, with questions covering relationship to family, friends and country, and four options for each question.

One where each question has 4 options and you must put the options in order. E.g. If you weren't an adventurer, what would you be?
A herbalist treating the sick (Good).
A hermit living alone in the wilderness (Chaotic).
A man-at-arms in a nearby castle (Lawful).
A bandit roaming the countryside (Evil).

Most of the questions distinguished the four basic alignments like that, but there were a couple that split between "corner" alignments e.g. "Who is your hero?" Robin Hood is CG, Darth Vader is LE and so on.

The "What D&D Character Are You?" quiz which not only gives you an alignment but also a race and class. It has strange questions like "Which of these concepts is most importnat to you: fairness, honor, love,..." and the first time I tried it it called me a Lawful Neutral Elf Ranger/Druid (I don't think so - NG, or maybe passive neutral).
Ekaterin.

The URLs I've found:

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/dx20001222b - this is the one I link to in the article, and it makes me N.

http://www.marietta.edu/~mcrpga/align.html - the one with "if you were not an adventurer, what would you be?" fairly consistently makes me CG.

Two variants on "What D&D character are you":

http://neppyman.irulethe.net/dndwho/ made me an LN Gnome Ranger Bard. But if I change my answer to the "thugs beating up a merchant"
question from "Call the watch, let them handle it" to "Smite them!"
then I become NG. (And I choose "Call the watch, let them handle it" because I am physically incapable of dealing with thugs myself, not because of anything to do with my alignment.)

http://twinrose.net/dandchar.php made me a CG Halfling Mage Thief. One question asks "What is the most admirable life goal?" I picked Knowledge and Wisdom, but if I pick my actual life goal of Comfort and Stability instead, then I am an NG Halfling Bard.

http://www.selectsmart.com/ has several tests including http://www.selectsmart.com/FREE/select.php?client=RPGALIGN . These are nice because they let you rate the priority of your answers, so when you're really not sure about a question you can rate it low, and when the answer is obvious and definite, rate it high. It made me NG without any tweaking
Ekaterin.

The selectsmart test gave me CG, with CN as only #3. I think it was because the evil questions were much more obviously extreme than the good options.

I'm intrigued that you would classify Tom Riddle as NE. Isn't letting the basilisk go a chaotic act?

You'll have to ask Wonko - he came up with that one, not me.

Better example of NE, but a bit obscure: the protagonist of "Dogfight" by William Gibson and Michael Swanwick. He raped his girlfriend just because she had some mind-enhancing drugs that he wanted. I guess the stereotypical amoral loner cyberpunk protagonist would count as NE (unless their alignment changed during the book....)

but isn't liying low and waiting for power to restore less chaotic...?
and he released the basilisk secretly, it wasn't like throwing it in the middle of everyone...

He was lying low, because he had to, not because that is what he wanted. He has often been opportunist, like in the case of his diary being found by Ginny, or in the stumblings of Bertha.

And, how could he possibly know that the basilisk wouldn't kill just anyone? Mrs. Norris and Sir Porpington are clear examples of collateral damage.

Furthermore, he healed Wormtail *precisely* for the CE reasons given by Ekaterina-for the purpose of torturing him some more, prior to an eventual killing. We haven't seen it yet, but we know V considers him quite expendable, and it seems likely he might, just to satisfy his anger.

ok, i see... maybe that example should be dropped.

Well, I percieve the whole alignment system as somewhat artificial games rules. In any game, everyone has to agree with the rules as given. Furthermore they are being applied to a fictional character, so just because Lord Voldemort is given as NE, doesn't have anything to do with 'real life' perceptions of the same. Maybe, NE is what he really is in Rowling's mind, and we just don't know it?

This is why I am not understanding the 'fun' or the purpose of the alignment concept very well. It seems that folk responding to the thread are saying 'I am alignment X', instead of 'my character I'm playing at the kitchen table is alignment X'.

it's quicker...

but also these tests tell you what YOU are.

Do psychologists set these tests? Why classify your self into only 9 categories?

(still trying to find the entertainment value )

It is simply another arbitrary method of self-evaluation, like IQ or astrological sign. Human beings seem to have some innate need to evaluate ourselves and express the results in some simple symbol, such as a number, color, animal, or set of letters. Might have something to do with tribe affiliation or some such thing. And then we memorize these things to spout them in any circumstance. I have a 1510 SAT score, about 135 IQ (never tested by any method I consider accurate), O+ blood type, Taurus, Rat (Chinese astrology) and so on. Even researcher numbers are another form of this (208372) and it helps the government in the assignment of arbitrary identification numbers. Umm...not really sure where I'm going with this.
-MotDoc

You have been helpful to me, MotDoc. I have been applying my own standards and wondering why one would walk an odd crooked line instead of flying. Now that you have categorized it amongst zodiac and such, my brain pinged on the (what should have been) obvious.

It really does seem that there's nothing particularly universal about this alignment system, and my original suggestion of a title change is a good one, I think.

I have changed the title to "Alignment in AD&D". AK, are you lurking in this thread? We badly need a better example of NE - Deke is definitely NE, but he's also really obscure. Does anyone here know a lot about cyberpunk? As I mentioned above, it seems to me that NE would be a common alignment of amoral loner cyberpunk protagonists.
Ekaterin.

Urm... What's AD&D?