SFRPG

As I am still a hardcore AD&D player I occasionally have concepts that cross-games. One thing, I am confused about alignments in SWN.

Do they (or should they) exist?

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(The joy that comes from discovering something cool that others have known about forever is described as a release of Xendorphins)

Nope, Alignment doesn't exist in SWN.

You could add it pretty easily though if you wanted to. Alignment would also work as a way to describe governments and Factions of all sizes.

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My friends call me Richard. You can call me Sir.
www.XmasDragon.com

I think that alignment is a good way to keep characters "in character" i.e. a holy warrior should not be able to go around butchering people and not have some formal punishment.

In AD&D, if your alignment changes, you lose a level.

For all those unfamiliar to AD&D, alignment graph:



It makes sense in my opinion.

_________________
(The joy that comes from discovering something cool that others have known about forever is described as a release of Xendorphins)

Woah... Ended up a little bigger than I thought it would..

_________________
(The joy that comes from discovering something cool that others have known about forever is described as a release of Xendorphins)

I would be inclined to not use alignment and let the consequences of acting out of character come from other sources.

If you have a Lawful Good "Paladin" then he must be associated with some holy order right? If he starts butchering people, the Holy Order is going to send someone (or several someones) to stop him and bring him back for trial and punishment/execution.

Even if he isn't associated with some organization that wants to protect its name, he will eventually piss off someone enough that they will go off and hire a bunch of wandering adventurer types to take care of their little problem...

I think there are more adventure potentials in using "logical consequences" than there are in just saying "you broke the rules, go down a level".

YMMV

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My friends call me Richard. You can call me Sir.
www.XmasDragon.com

"Alignment" in my Alkonost setting is a political one - do you uphold the ideas of the Alkonost Republic, or rather think that the changing times require new ideals? Are you a Miranist who looks to the Liberated Worlds for inspiration, or do you think that Ameena Miran is a dangerous tyrant? Do you think that man is superior to Machine, or the other way around? Do you think that Kedesh's strength and order are a way to go or do you see them as rampaging fascists?

Or do you ignore it all and just look out for a quick buck from interstellar trade, or become a mercenary fighting for the highest bidder?

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We are but a tiny candle flickering against the darkness of our times.

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I've never been all that keen on alignment, myself, and I omitted it from SWN largely because I didn't feel it really meshed well with the genre. You see a lot of upright heroes and scurrilous villains in sci-fi, but there just doesn't seem to be that genre-flavored dedication to principles of Law or Chaos you see in Moorcock or other D&D inspirations. Still, if you wanted to add it in, it wouldn't break anything to have people pick an alignment. Telepathy might have a variant power at some level to do the equivalent of Know Alignment on people, though of course it would be ridiculously illegal to rummage around in someone's head that way. Not that that often stops PC telepaths, of course....

Sorry for the thread revival, but Alignment kind of came into play in my SWN campaign that just ended. The initial 'hook' for the players was that they were all meeting at the funeral of their friend who died under mysterious circumstances. One of the players was a priest who managed to convince his order to leave the monastery to pay respects to his friend. But low and behold ( ) they get wrapped up in an adventure as they try to figure out the real murderer. Cue them scheming with the underworld, battling security forces, typical adventurer stuff.

Well, our priest's order found out about his illicit habits (though the player did well in role-playing his conflicted feelings to things like breaking into government facilities) and sent a 'team' to go bring him in, since they figured he's gone rogue. Cue everyone's surprise when an armed and armored hit squad of warrior-priests show up demanding them to hand over their buddy. Hilarity ensues.

Like Cyborg says, I play alignment out through consequences to the players. Since the game is sandbox, I rely on the back-and-forth between the player's actions and 'my' reactions ('me' being the government, society, etc.).