Alignments in Amber

Alignment is the assignment of a rough and ready system of moral standards to tabletop miniature role playing games, mostly used to allow the Moderator to decide what happens if Boromir picks up the One Ring, or when SturmbannführerToht or Oberst Dietrichpries open the Ark of the Covenant.

Alignment is also used as the simplest form of roleplaying aid for new players who have never pretended to be someone other than themselves before. Just this last month, I saw my own son, playing a half-orc monk named Chim Pan Zi have to confront the fact that his lawful good character could not break into a building owned by the evil Baron, or even disobey the evil Baron’s evil weapons-confiscation laws. (He gave up his weapons and continued to fight bare handed). The solution he came up with was that Lawful Good members of his order obeyed Good Laws according to the spirit of the law, but Evil Laws only according to the letter, being minimally compliant, and not cooperating with an active evil. I thought that was a pretty sophisticated solution for a fifteen year old to come up with. But the point he, he had to think out how someone with a different worldview and philosophy of life would think.

Once Dungeons and Dragons got the ball rolling on Alignment, several other rules systems made several other clever rules about alignment.

Read the rest of this entry »

Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.