Alignment Guidelines For Builders

Implementing scripts and rules for how alignment affects your world is an important aspect to consider. Well planned and judicious use of alignment can really pull players into the story, while too many shifts can result in players losing class abilities and not able to play the character they have built and planned.

Law
Lawful folks are willing to follow rules laid out that they see as applying to them. They will observe the rules as best as they can. They do not like changes without strong and good reasons (and not a little bit of prodding to do so by a majority.) They do not like to act independantly unless necessary.

Lawful is not just obeying the laws, though. It is a recognition that the Lawful respect authority, observe that the group is more important overall than the individual. The respect of tradition and the dislike of change is another aspect of Lawfully Aligned people.

Most importantly, Lawful does not always mean obeying the Law. And it doesn't mean only following the law.

The belief that you succeed through teamwork and structure, that rules and regulations ultimately benefit everybody as they provide that structure so that everyone can excel.

Lawful is not just about laws, if you follow all the laws you will tend to be lawful, but honor, family, and duty are all lawful as well.

Chaos
Chaotic Alignments are not necessarily unorganized. It doesn't mean that they don't respect the laws of the lands. It doesn't mean that they are fickle and without principle.

In fact, it can mean that they adhere to a principle of helping the individuals around them. To such a degree that one might mistake them for lawfully aligned.

Except that they do not favor the group over the individual. They do not favor slavish devotion to the letter of the law over, say the spirit of it. In other words, they attempt to divine the intent of purpose of such things and apply it as they deem proper. On a case by case basis.

It doesn't mean that they are going to just lie about whatever, because you can't count on them. It could be that they are honest to a fault, including letting you know how badly your breath stinks or exactly how out of fashion your clothing is. It could mean that they are nice and principled, but still manage to somehow engage in activities that most would deem illegal, improper and by some as immoral.

They are free thinkers, independant and resourceful. They see the necessity of groups to preserve the individual, as opposed to the individual sacrificing itself for the group.

The belief that it is the individual that matters, that regardless of rules or structure, one only excels on their own and that individual deeds are what advances everybody.

Importance of Alignment

 * None
 * No Alignment Restrictions to classes and no attention is paid to alignment at all. Requires 2da adjustments to open up the alignments, or a tool or vendor that allows players to change their alignment.


 * Minimal
 * Alignment is ignored in game, paladins can be evil even though they have to choose lawful good, but alignments are used to prevent certain combinations of classes as a means of balance.


 * Roleplaying Minimal
 * Let the player stay in charge of his alignment, and no automatic changes. It is assumed the player is going to play his chosen alignment, and this might need DM assistance or intervention for flagrant rule breakers in classes where it matters (Paladins killing villagers for example).


 * Enforced Lightly
 * Alignment is considered important, and occasional alignment shifts are possible. Shifts are only made upon major and clear violations of alignment, where there is no question as the act is a violation. ( Joining forces with the evil menace probably means you are no longer good for example )


 * Enforced Heavily
 * Alignment is adjusted upon most actions but only slightly. Major acts result in major shifts.

Methods of shifting

 * Dm Adjusted - the dm’s adjust alignment manually.


 * Player Adjusted – the player uses a tool, or in modules the debug console.


 * Vendor Adjusted – this can be implemented via a store, or via tokens, or via atonement type activities.


 * Action Adjusted – Players alignments are adjusted based on their actions, merely attacking npc’s in a certain faction, or not hostile can shift your alignment. This is problematic as such could be an accident, or it could not be intentional. Those under effects of confusion and the like should not be subject to alignment shifts.


 * Conversation Adjusted – Certain answers in conversation trigger an alignment shift. This is an attempt to get intent. As many things in alignment are controversial, restraint should be exercised as well as the player should not be railroaded towards a particular alignment by a lack of options. Either the answers should allow a neutral way out, or shift only on one axis at a time.

Types of shifts
These give more options to the writers/scripters and allow closer following of D&D rules.

Pure-Shift
( Lawful, Chaotic, Good, Evil ) Alignment is shifted determined points towards given alignment.

Two-Axis-Shift
( Chaotic and Evil at same time, for each of the 9 alignments ) Alignment is shifted determined points towards both alignments.

Only-Shift
( Lawful, Chaotic, Good, Evil only when you are) Only-Good-Evil-Shift will shift you towards evil only if you are good. Only-Evil-Shift will shift you towards good if you are evil. Only-Lawful-Chaotic-Shift will shift you towards lawful only if you are chaotic. Only Chaotic-Lawful-Shift will shift you towards chaotic if you are lawful. These all will move you towards neutral, and are for actions that are not in the spirit of your alignment. ( Lying for example is a Non-Lawful-Shift as it is in violation of the lawful ethos )

Non-Shift
( Lawful, Chaotic, Good, Evil only when you are not ) Non-Evil-Evil-Shift will shift you towards evil only if you are not evil. Non-Good-Good-Shift will shift you towards good if you are not good. Non-Lawful-Lawful -Shift will shift you towards lawful only if you are not lawful. Non-Chaotic-Chaotic-Shift will shift you towards chaotic if you are not chaotic. These all will move you towards the alignment and tend to go past neutral but only when you are not the given alignment.

Neutral-Shift
This is a two axis shift towards neutral. Used when you act in a way to support balance. This is a rare shift but tends to come into play with druid specific dialogs. As this could also be a good act, it would most likely have an alternate option to allow this. ( “save the tree (to preserve the balance)” would result in a neutral shift, while “Save the tree (because i want to preserve life or help)” would result in a good shift. The parenthesis clarify the intention and could be unvoiced and just written. ) Probably reserved for those who support druidic ideals.

Faith Breaking shift
Major transgression against your deity, that removes you ability to level, and perhaps the ability to have spells granted by your deity. Of course this is something that would require custom scripting to implement. The fact that this event occurs would most likely require some sort of atonement.

Atonement Shift
Restores your prior alignment, most likely would need some way to store the fact you had an alignment change. This is a good service to be put into temples and the like to allow players who made a mistake to make amends, or to correct a change they don’t agree with.

Links and references
http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=603774&forum=109