Episode 100
How to Use and Think about Alignment in D&D
Welcome back to How to Be a Better DM. I’m your Host today, Justin Lewis and today, I want to talk about an aspect of D&D that is one-part storytelling prompt, one-part game mechanic, and overall an interesting facet of the game, namely alignment.
We’ve all heard the famous phrase of, “It’s what my character would do.”
Naturally, when someone says that, they are usually trying to justify something stupid, evil, weird, or just wrong that they’ve done. Sometimes they’ll cite their alignment as the main driver of their choice making process. For some reason that never really sat well with me. So today, I want to talk about a couple ways to think about alignment, and hopefully help you determine that you need to choose the way you’re going to look at alignment in your game, because it can radically change how your characters act and how you act towards your characters.
What is Alignment
Before we get into how to use alignment in your games, let’s first figure out what alignment is. Even defining it is going to be difficult because how you define it will also impact how you play with it. So i’m going to try to define it and explain it in a way that is agnostic of the way you choose to play with it.
Let me first start by saying that alignment is an optional mechanic of the game. Nowhere does it say in any rulebook or game module that you need to have alignment. Only certain items have requirements about alignment, and that’s simply for the purpose of attunement. As a DM, you can simply choose to disregard all of that, so if you feel that alignment just gums up the system and makes things harder to play, then great. Alignment is not necessary, though in my opinion, it does make things much more fun.
So in its most basic form, alignment describes your characters position relative to Order and Chaos and relative to Good and Evil. I won’t go too much more in dept quite yet, because I don’t want to affect how you think about alignment before I explain the two ways you can use it in game.
In the first edition of D&D, or really when it was just an add-on to the game Chainmail, there was only the choice between Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic. It was much simpler, but then as things progressed, D&D evolved to have the Chaotic and Lawful spectrum and the Evil and Good Spectrum.
What Purpose does Alignment Serve?
In reality, alignment, just like everything else in the game, only helps move the story along. You can take any mechanic out and still move the story along. So really Alignment is just a plot device in the sense that it’s supposed to theoretically impact how your character develops and the choices they make. In practice though, that becomes very messy. You start asking questions about morality, right and wrong, and to be honest the whole discussion becomes very philosophical.
So let me introduce you to my quandary and how I came to think about alignment.
My Quandary
In my current campaign, my wife’s character found himself stuck in his own mindscape. He had essentially been banned there by a being called Dreamtaker, who I’ve talked about on this podcast before. While in the mindscape, the character, Ransom, encountered an evil little character that inhabits part of his mind named Mtiq. Mtiq is supposed to symbolize the potential every being has to do evil. It’s the potential to become the worst version of ourselves. Well, Ransom had become very lost because the mindscape is a maze, naturally. So this evil Mtiq, offered Ransom a map to the mindscape in exchange for his “Innocence”.
Frustrated with the maze and wanting to get out, Ransom took the deal and escaped the mind-maze, but naturally lost his innocence. As soon as Ransom left the maze, I informed my wife that his alignment was now chaotic-evil.
She was not happy about that.
Since then she’s been asking me about ways she can get her innocence back, but really her question is about whether or not she can change her alignment.
Fast forward a few weeks and my brother-in-law, Drew is in town. He and his wife want to join us for one of our sessions. As chance would have it, my other brother-in-law, Ethan, who has a character in our campaign couldn’t make it that night, so Drew played Ethan’s Character Necro, while Drew’s wife played an NPC.
While playing, Drew decided to split Necro from the party and investigate a dockyard. At the dockyard, Drew had Necro pick a fight with and murder a dockworker. Ethan came back just at that moment and with despair saw what was happening with his character. Now this isn’t the first time Necro has murdered someone, but this time was different in that there weren’t any extenuating circumstances. Necro had just murdered this dockhand in cold blood. I told Ethan, that his alignment had shifted towards evil. He was upset naturally, as his character had been trying to make strides toward being good.
With both of these stories in mind, and the desire for these two players to have their characters to be good, I had an interesting thought cross my mind.
I wondered, “Is alignment prescriptive or descriptive?”
Does your alignment tell you how your character should act, or how they have acted in the past?
I’ve come to the conclusion, that you need to make that decisions because when you explain this to your players, you can then let them make choices moving forward with that in mind. So let’s look at the 3 options that this opens up to you (yes there is a secret 3rd option).
Descriptive
If you choose to let the alignment be descriptive, then it is more of a description of all their past deeds. It has little bearing on what they will do in the future and instead is more of a reputational aspect.
If you choose to play with this method, then I would adopt certain measures that somewhat in the old game Knights of the Old Republic. In that game when you pause the game, you’d see your character standing there with a spectrum and a guage showing how far they are into the light or dark sides. When they are in the light side, they stand tall and are surrounded by light and have an aura of good about them. If they are deep in the dark side, then their eyes have darkened and their face is covered by a permanent scowl. They are surrounded by darkness.
If you use the descriptive method of Alignment, then I would adopt similar attributes and if they make their way to being Chaotic Evil, then people start to perceive and mistrust them. Any persuasion checks that rely on trust or good will will receive disadvantage. On the other hand, any checks involving deception or intimidation should probably get some sort of advantage.
On the flip side, if your character is lawful good, then they should likely be naturally trusted.
Of course, this is simplifying things but you get the general idea. The alignment becomes a list of all the bad things they done or the good things. Over time, people would naturally get a sense of those things just by being around them.
In this method, if someone wants to change their alignment, then they have to consciously do actions over a long period of time to slowly change their alignment.
Prescriptive
The prescriptive method of Alignment is less about what you’ve done and more about what you aspire to be. The distinction is slight, but the big difference is that a character can choose to change their alignment in an instant. Changing alignment would likely require some large emotional experience but it could happen. From that moment, despite shortcomings, the character would try to live up to a certain ideal lifestyle.
From a DM’s perspective, you could reward strenuous attempts with advantage or inspiration and give de-inspiration for actions that go against the alignment.
The Combo
As you’ve no doubt guessed by now, the 3rd option is the combination of the 2. Really, this is closer to how we live in our real lives. We are partly our past and partly our aspirations for the future. If you can handle it, try and combine both of these methods to create a current alignment that correctly reflects the cumulative effect of all the decisions of the past and at the same time allows the character to aspire for different ways of life and try to make their way to that point.
I suppose you could also cut it down into “if you want to change your alignment you have to essentially get a certain number alignment points in this or that direction.” I might implement that as a test with my players, but it is going to be difficult. And why shouldn’t it be. We’re only talking about the concept of good and evil and how to act rightly in a difficult world.
As you go out and play your sessions with your players, I’d encourage you to bring in more and more moral quandaries and questions. Thinking of right and wrong and best and worst decisions is at the very nature of human existence. Your players will enjoy being pushed to think about what they really should do and what effect it will have on their characters. They will also enjoy the opportunity to try and do that in their own life. In that way, D&D becomes much more than a game.
I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. It was a little different and a lot more philosophical. I’m confident though that thinking about alignment will make your games more interesting. We’ll be back next week for another great episode. Until then, let’s go ahead and roll initiative.
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Transcript
Welcome back to How to be a Better DM. I'm your host today, Justin Lewis. And
[Justin]:today, I wanna talk to you about an aspect of D&D that is one part storytelling,
[Justin]:one part game mechanic, and overall just an interesting facet of the game. Namely,
[Justin]:alignment. We've all heard the famous phrase of, it's what my character would do.
[Justin]:Naturally, when someone says that, they're usually trying to justify something
[Justin]:stupid, evil, weird, or just wrong that they've done. Sometimes they'll cite their
[Justin]:alignment as the main driver of their choice making process. And for some reason
[Justin]:that never really sat well with me. So today I wanted to talk about a couple ways
[Justin]:to think about alignment and hopefully help you determine that you need to choose
[Justin]:the way you're going to look at alignment in your game because it can.
[Justin]:because it can radically change how your characters act and how you act towards
[Justin]:your characters. First of all, what is alignment? Before we get into how to use
[Justin]:alignment in your games, let's first figure out what alignment is. And even defining
[Justin]:it is gonna be a little bit difficult because how you define it also impacts how
[Justin]:you play with it. So I'm gonna try to define it and explain it in a way that's
[Justin]:agnostic of the way you choose to play with it. Let me first start by saying
[Justin]:that alignment is an optional mechanic of the game. Nowhere. does it say in any rule
[Justin]:book or game module that you need to have alignment. Only certain items have
[Justin]:requirements about alignment and that's simply for the purpose of attunement. As a
[Justin]:DM, if you wanted to, you could simply choose to disregard all of that. So if you
[Justin]:feel that alignment just gums up the system and makes things harder to play, then
[Justin]:great, just don't use it. Alignment's not necessary, though in my opinion, it does
[Justin]:make things a lot more fun. So in its most basic form, alignment describes your
[Justin]:character's position relative to order and chaos, and relative to good and evil. I
[Justin]:won't go too much more in depth quite yet, because I don't want to affect how you
[Justin]:think about alignment before I explain the ways that you can use it in your game.
[Justin]:In the first edition of D&D, or really when it was just an add-on to the game Chainmail,
[Justin]:there was really only the choice between lawful, neutral, and chaotic. It was much simpler,
[Justin]:but then as things progressed, as they often do, D&D evolved to have the chaotic
[Justin]:and lawful spectrum as well as the evil and good spectrum. But what purpose does
[Justin]:alignment serve? In reality, alignment, just like everything else in the game, only
[Justin]:helps move the story along. You can take any mechanic out and still move the story
[Justin]:along, so really, alignment is just a plot device, in the sense that it's supposed
[Justin]:to, theoretically, impact how your character develops, and the choices they make,
[Justin]:really how the plot progresses. In practice though, that becomes very messy. You
[Justin]:start asking questions about morality, right and wrong, and to be honest, the whole
[Justin]:discussion becomes very philosophical with you as the DM, being the judge. So, let
[Justin]:me introduce you to my quandary and how I came to think about alignment. In my
[Justin]:current campaign, my wife's character found himself stuck in his own mindscape. He
[Justin]:had essentially been banished there by a being called Dreamtaker, who I've talked
[Justin]:about on this podcast many times before. And while in that mindscape, the character,
[Justin]:Ransom, encountered an evil little NPC that inhabits part of his mind named Matik.
[Justin]:And, spoiler alert, Matik is supposed to symbolize the potential every being has
[Justin]:to do evil. It's the potential to become the worst version of ourselves. And
[Justin]:as such, you can't really get rid of him because he's gonna always be there,
[Justin]:he's gonna always try and make you do terrible, terrible things, and that's just
[Justin]:it. So, in this maze, Ransom had become very lost because obviously the mindscape is
[Justin]:a maze, right? The mindscape is a maze. So, in this maze, Ransom had become very
[Justin]:lost because obviously the mindscape is a maze, right? The mindscape is a maze.
[Justin]:So, in this maze, Ransom had become very lost because obviously the mindscape is
[Justin]:a maze, right? The mindscape is a maze.
[Justin]:So in this mindscape, Ransom had become very lost because obviously the mindscape is
[Justin]:a maze. And this evil Matique appeared and offered Ransom a map to the maze in exchange
[Justin]:for quote unquote his innocence. Frustrated with the maze and wanting to get out, Ransom
[Justin]:took the deal and escaped the mind maze but naturally exchanged his innocence
[Justin]:and therefore lost his innocence. And as soon as ransom left the maze, I informed
[Justin]:my wife that her character was now chaotic evil. She was not happy about that.
[Justin]:And since then, she's been asking me about ways she can get her quote unquote
[Justin]:innocence back. But really her question is about whether or not she can change her
[Justin]:alignment. Fast forward a few weeks, different situation. My brother-in-law, Drew,
[Justin]:is in town. And he and his wife want to join us for one of our D&D sessions. As
[Justin]:chance would have it, that same night my brother-in-law, Ethan, who does have a character
[Justin]:in our campaign, couldn't make it, he couldn't play. So, Drew decided to play
[Justin]:Ethan's character, Necro, and Drew's wife played an NPC. While playing, Drew decided
[Justin]:to split Necro from the party and investigate a dockyard. At the dockyard, Drew
[Justin]:had Necro pick a fight with and murder a dockworker. Ethan came back. just at that
[Justin]:moment and with despair saw what was happening with his character. Now this wasn't
[Justin]:the first time Necro has murdered someone but this time was different in that
[Justin]:there wasn't any extenuating circumstances. Necro had just murdered a random person in
[Justin]:cold blood. And I told Ethan that his alignment had shifted towards evil. He
[Justin]:was upset naturally as his character had been trying to make certain strides forward
[Justin]:to be good. So with both of these stories in mind and the desire for these two
[Justin]:players to have their characters to be good, I had an interesting thought come
[Justin]:across my mind. I wondered, is alignment prescriptive or descriptive? Does your alignment
[Justin]:tell you how your character should act or how they have acted in the past? Just
[Justin]:because Ethan's alignment is now evil, does that mean he can't do anything good? And
[Justin]:does that mean someone who is good, they can't do anything evil? And I've come
[Justin]:to the conclusion that you need to make that decision because when you explain
[Justin]:this to your player, you can let them make choices moving forward with that in mind.
[Justin]:So let's look at the three options that this kind of conundrum opens up to you.
[Justin]:And yes, there is a, sorry, a, and yes, there is a secret third option. Descriptive.
[Justin]:If you choose to let the alignment be descriptive, then it is more of a description
[Justin]:of all their past deeds. It has little bearing on what they will do in the future,
[Justin]:and instead is more of a reputational aspect. It's more of a label based on all their
[Justin]:previous actions. If you choose to play this method, then I would adopt certain
[Justin]:measures that somewhat in the old game Knights of the Old Republic, you can find.
[Justin]:For example, For example, in that game, when you press pause...
[Justin]:You see your character standing there with sort of a spectrum, a gauge, showing how
[Justin]:far they are into the light or dark sides of the Force. When they are in the light
[Justin]:side of the Force, the character that you see there standing stands tall. Their posture
[Justin]:is open and brave, and they're surrounded by light, and they seem to have an aura of
[Justin]:good about them. If they are deep in the dark side, then their eyes have darkened,
[Justin]:and their face is covered by a permanent scowl. and all around them they're surrounded
[Justin]:by darkness. If you use the descriptive method of alignment, then I would adopt similar
[Justin]:attributes maybe, and if they make their way to being chaotic evil, for example,
[Justin]:then people start to perceive and mistrust them. They see something in their
[Justin]:eyes that indicates a chaotic or evil nature. Any persuasion checks that would rely
[Justin]:on trust or goodwill would receive disadvantage. And on the other hand, any checks
[Justin]:involving deception or intimidation would probably get some sort of advantage.
[Justin]:Obviously, assuming that the people they're trying to intimidate or persuade are
[Justin]:neutral or good. On the flip side, if your character is lawful good, then they
[Justin]:should naturally be liked and trusted by people who are common folk, right? People
[Justin]:within cities, for the most part. Of course, this is simplifying things, but
[Justin]:you get the idea. The alignment becomes a list of all the bad things they've done or
[Justin]:the good things and over time people would naturally get a sense of those things
[Justin]:just by being around them. You know that kind of sixth sense that you sometimes
[Justin]:get around people about their character and gut senses of I should trust this person
[Justin]:or I don't like this person. That's exactly what I'm talking about. And in this
[Justin]:method if someone wanted to change their alignment then they would have to consciously
[Justin]:act. over a long period of time to slowly change their alignment, essentially
[Justin]:filling up their past with deeds that are good over evil to slowly shift the balance
[Justin]:towards neutral and then towards good. So that's the descriptive method. Prescriptive.
[Justin]:The prescriptive method of alignment is less about what you've done and more about
[Justin]:what you aspire to be. The distinction is slight, but... the big difference is that
[Justin]:a character can choose their alignment in an instant. Changing alignment would likely
[Justin]:require some large emotional experience, but it could theoretically happen. And from
[Justin]:that moment, despite shortcomings, the character would try to live up to a certain
[Justin]:ideal lifestyle. From a DM's perspective, you could reward strenuous attempts with advantage
[Justin]:or inspiration and give quote-unquote de-inspiration for actions that go against
[Justin]:the alignment. And how this might look in play is, let's take Necro, for example.
[Justin]:Necro has an alignment of evil, chaotic evil, just because of his past actions and
[Justin]:whatnot. Let's say I adopt the prescriptive method.
[Justin]:Ahem.
[Justin]:Let's say I adopt the prescriptive method. I can tell Necro, I can say, hey, you
[Justin]:can claim that your alliance, you can claim that your alignment is lawful good.
[Justin]:But every time you don't live up to that, you will have periods of moral guilt,
[Justin]:right? So let's say he kills another person. I would say for like the next week,
[Justin]:he would have lots of guilt and 50-50 chance that on every role he has, he has disadvantage.
[Justin]:Now, that's a lot of roles, so I don't know if I'd do it exactly that way, but you
[Justin]:get the idea. He has these aspirations, and when he doesn't live up to them, he would
[Justin]:essentially have cognitive dissonance, and that would hamper his ability to do everything
[Justin]:else. The combo. As you've no doubt guessed by now, the third option is the combination
[Justin]:of the two. And really, this is closer to how we live in real life. We are partly
[Justin]:our past and partly our aspirations for the future and together, those combined
[Justin]:to make the present. And if you can handle it, try to combine both of these methods
[Justin]:to create a current alignment that correctly reflects the cumulative effect of
[Justin]:all the decisions of the past and present, and at the same time, it allows the
[Justin]:character to aspire for different ways of life and try to make their way to that
[Justin]:point. For example, you could almost separate their alignment into previous alignment
[Justin]:and future alignment, right? So everything they've done in the past has physical effects
[Justin]:on their person. So if they've done evil things, then they become a darkened and
[Justin]:seedy character. But if they have alignment for the future, every time they do
[Justin]:something good, they could get bits of inspiration. I suppose you could also cut
[Justin]:it down into if you want to change your alignment, you have to essentially get
[Justin]:a certain number of alignment points in this or that direction. I would maybe implement.
[Justin]:that as a test with my players, but it would be somewhat difficult. And why shouldn't
[Justin]:it be? We're only talking about the concept of good and evil, and how to act rightly
[Justin]:in a difficult world. So as you go out and play your sessions with your players,
[Justin]:I'd encourage you to bring in more and more moral quandaries and questions. Thinking
[Justin]:of right and wrong, and best and worst decisions, is at the very nature of human existence.
[Justin]:So your players will likely enjoy being pushed to think about what they really
[Justin]:should do, and what effect it should have on their characters. And that particularly
[Justin]:is probably the most important aspect of alignment. What effect do their choices
[Justin]:have on their characters? I would wager you should reward choices that fill in,
[Justin]:align, hence the word alignment, choices that fill in, no. I would reward choices that
[Justin]:align with their long-term vision of themselves. And if they don't have a long-term
[Justin]:vision of themselves, then maybe you could add some more moral quandaries and give
[Justin]:their player, or give their character...
[Justin]:Something to think about.
[Justin]:I think your characters, your players rather, will enjoy the opportunity to have
[Justin]:these mental exercises and try and do somewhat similar things in their own lives.
[Justin]:And in that way D&D becomes more than just a game. It becomes practice for living
[Justin]:a better life. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. It was obviously a little
[Justin]:different and hopefully you enjoyed it.
[Justin]:I hope you enjoyed today's episode. It was a little different and a lot more philosophical.
[Justin]:And I'm confident that thinking about alignment will make your games more interesting
[Justin]:and your players will be more invested. We'll be back next week for another great episode,
[Justin]:but until then, let's go ahead and roll initiative.
