I actually like the Dungeons & Dragons alignment system in general (well, as long as you don’t use the AD&D1e system of someone changing alignment due to their actions also losing a level for doing so). But I also understand people who don’t like the two-axis system and the debates that ensue over what is evil and what is not (here’s a hint: *most* evil people by the rules of the game think they are good, just like a lot of people think that stuff on the Evil side of the chart should be on the Good side). Personally I prefer the single-axis system of B/X D&D and Labyrinth Lord.
However, inspired by the alignments posted at Save vs Poison and the alignments from the Palladium RPG system, as a group we sat down and came up with our own favourite alignments.
Here’s the original alignments from Palladium (aside: how the hell did I get a hardcover of Rifts Ultimate Edition in my collection? I *know* I didn’t buy this!):
- Principled (Good): Maps to Lawful Good
- Scrupulous (Good): Maps to Neutral Good with Chaotic tendencies
- Unprincipled (Selfish): Maps to Chaotic Good
- Anarchist (Selfish): Maps to Chaotic Neutral
- Aberrant (Evil): Maps to Lawful Evil
- Miscreant (Evil): Maps to Neutral Evil
- Diabolic (Evil): Maps to Psychotic Evil, err, Chaotic Evil
Here’s the awesome alignments from Save vs Poison:
- Spicy: If there are any girls there, you want to do them.
- Extra Spicy: If there are any girls or guys there, you want to do them.
- Cheddar Bacon Ranch: God dammit, now I’m hungry.
- Zesty: What Would Ricardo Montalban Do?
- Libertarian: Nobody can make you do anything, especially the government. Once per session, you must express your disapproval of something based on the Founding Fathers being opposed to it.
- Luddite: Technology BAD.
- Neo Luddite: Technology isn’t bad, per se, it’s just annoying, and WILL YOU PUT YOUR GODDAMN PHONE AWAY WHILE I’M TALKING TO YOU?!
- Murder: You kill other things, usually on sight. You may or may not take their stuff.
- Communist: The treasure belongs to the Party.
- Chaste / Lustful
- Energetic / Lazy
- Forgiving /Vengeful
- Generous / Selfish
- Honest / Deceitful
- Just / Arbitrary
- Merciful / Cruel
- Modest / Proud
- Pious / Worldly
- Prudent / Reckless
- Temperate / Indulgent
- Trusting / Suspicious
- Valorous / Cowardly
- Spicy / Wallflower
- Luddite / Technophile
- Greedy / Communist
- Murderous / Reasonable
- Lawful / Chaotic
- Affectionate / Antisocial (Emo)
- Good / Evil
- Stinky / Neat-Freak
- Cool / Stressed
- Naive / Blaze
- Spicy Cool
- Murderous Evil
- Naive Luddite
- Lawful Stinky
- Unfashionably Stressed
- Reasonably Chaotic
- Greedy Good
- Cool Wallflower
- Lawful Affectionate
Hah! Love it.
this is a system I could actually use.
I used the Palladium system for years, and even came up with analogies to LN and TN (“Honorable” and “Temperate”) and was planning on using it again for my newly rebooted AD&D campaign – but my players insisted on using the old AD&D system, so what I’ve done is merged the two so that folks get the very useful descriptions and explanations from Palladium, but get the evocative flavor of the AD&D titles.
And those titles really do matter, there’s been a couple of very important NPC’s in my game world for years now (in the home-brew system) that were Abberant – when you start calling and thinking about them as “Lawful Evil” it really shifts my (and thier) perspective of the characters.
I’ve always loved the Pendragon alignment system as well, managed to write a paper for a psych class on personality analyzing King Arthur using it…
D.
This is downright terrific, and thanks for the link back to Save vs. Poison’s schema. Would you consider pdf-izing this post, or including your system in the next issue of the Dodecahedron?
I’ve never heard of the Save vs Poison game before, and now I’m hungry. I mean–and now I am going to have to go check that out. Mmmmm. Alignment. Flavorful alignment.