Alignment (Dungeons & Dragons) - History

History

Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax credited the inspiration for the alignment system to the fantasy stories of Michael Moorcock, and Poul Anderson. The game's alignment system from the original 1974 boxed set initially featured only Law, Neutrality and Chaos. Law generally equated to good and heroism, and Chaos implied anarchy and evil; however, the good and evil parallels were not strongly defined. Dwarves were Lawful and elves Chaotic, while humans could be of any of the three alignments.

Richard Bartle's Designing Virtual Worlds noted that alignment is a way to categorize players, along with gender, race (or what would be called by sub-species in the real world), character class, and sometimes nationality. Alignment was designed to help with roleplaying. Players decide how their characters should behave when they assign them an alignment, then play them based on that decision. The dimensions lawful/chaotic and good/evil, which both cross neutral, come from AD&D. "A lawful good character is benevolent and just; a lawful evil character plays by the rules, but is without mercy; a chaotic good character is a rebel with a conscience; a chaotic evil character is a self-serving bully who'll do anything to further their ambitions." The five other combinations involve some form of neutrality. Alignments can change. If a lawful neutral character consistently performs good acts, when neutral or evil actions were possible, their alignment will shift to lawful good. In games, the referee (or Dungeon Master) decides when alignment violations occur because it is subjective.

A player character's (PC's) alignment can be seen as their outlook on life. A player decides if his or her character is good, neutral, or evil. A player also decides whether the character's alignment is lawful, neutral, or chaotic. A neutral good character is unconcerned with the "cosmic balance", but is kind to those around them. Notable character class restrictions during early editions of the game included the Paladin, who had to be Lawful Good; the Druid, who had to be Neutral Neutral; the Ranger, who had to be Chaotic or Neutral Good; and the Thief, who could not be Lawful. Alignment is important for Clerics as well. D&D's gods are "strongly aligned", and their clerics must follow a similar alignment.

Alignment is only a tool for guiding gameplay, not an immutable declaration of how a character must act, and is used only as a guideline. Still, characters in a party should have compatible alignments; Lawful Good characters are compatible with Lawful Evil characters if they have a common goal, but the addition of a Chaotic Evil character may tear the party apart. Characters may even have some influence on the alignment of their companions. Lawful Good leaders may influence their companions to act in a more noble fashion. The authors of Dungeon Master For Dummies have found that a party of good or neutral characters works better: the impetus for adventures is easier, group dynamics are smoother, and it allows the "heroic aspects of D&D shine through".

While the game had always allowed the creation of creatures who were intrinsically good or evil, it was not until Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) that the concept was explicitly introduced into the alignment system. Characters and creatures became capable of being lawful at the same time as being evil (such as a tyrant), or chaotic but good (such as Robin Hood). Nine alignment combinations became possible in all. For example, lawful good (LG) or neutral evil (NE) are two possible alignments, referred to with the law/chaos component first and the good/evil component last. A character or creature considered neutral on both axes is referred to as true neutral or simply neutral. This system was used up to and including the 3.5 edition of the D&D game.

Under 2nd Edition AD&D rules, a character who performed too many actions outside of his alignment could find their alignment changed, with penalties requiring more experience to be gained to reach the next level. In third edition D&D this restriction was removed.

In the third edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game, a character's alignment can restrict what character classes the character may take. For example, a lawful character cannot become a bard or a barbarian, a druid must be neutral in at least one aspect, and only lawful good characters can become a paladin. Certain weapons (such as a Holy weapon) or spells (such as detect evil) affect creatures differently depending on alignment.

A rule removed from recent editions of the game was alignment languages, wherein people of the same alignment could communicate through insinuations and intimations that only really make sense between those of like-minded affiliation with an aspect of a universal standard of ethic and morality.

In 4th edition, alignments were simplified by merging them into a single continuum, eliminating the chaotic good, lawful neutral, chaotic neutral, and lawful evil alignments. The remaining alignments are:

• Lawful Good: Civilization and order.
• Good: Freedom and kindness.
• Unaligned: Having no alignment; not taking a stand.
• Evil: Tyranny and hatred.
• Chaotic Evil: Entropy and destruction.