Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Fantasy Heartbreaker: Chaos & Alignment

I could be wrong but I believe most D&D games have moved away from the idea of alignment. RuneQuest games never had alignment but they did have an ever present 'Chaos'. I've never liked alignment as a guideline for role playing. I like Alignment as an alliance though. This way we can have Chaos and anybody that has read any Warhammer books knows how much fun Chaos can be. Chaos provides a great villain and awesome reason to adventure. I see the breakdown as follows:
  • Law - Civilization. When it comes to religion they tend to be monotheistic and opposed to magic and chaos as disruptive elements. Some might even take that opposition to Spanish inquisition lengths as most believe Chaos threatens entire worlds. 
  • Neutral - Those that are unaware of the Law vs Chaos dynamic or who think the forces of Law overstate the problem. These last folks will agree that some nasty beasts side with Chaos but not all users of magic want to conquer worlds or tear down the multiverse and bunching them all together is puritanical and wrong. From a religious point of view Neutrals tend to be polytheistic. 
  • Chaos - Luckily worshipers of chaos rarely get together long enough to form a lasting force. Most folks that side with chaos are nasty things that want to watch the world(s) burn.
The alignments are used to create factions among the beasts and to create complications and advantages with various magic items, many of which were created specifically for this grand war between Law and Chaos. Alignment isn't about personality. Not. Even. A. Little.

No comments: