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Scowling Dragon
2013-03-13, 06:32 AM
This is an alternate variation, of the the already alternate "Color Wheel" system.

This is much more of a fast way to portray personality, then really about alignment:

Its based around 6 (D&D) Elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Negative Energy, and Positive Energy.

Positive Energy is associated selflessness.

Negative Energy is associated greed.

A person must have elements of both in order to achieve things in life.

Its much more common then for those who achieve wealth and donate it to have elements of Negative energy as its the thing that allowed them to make the money in the first place alongside with Positive energy.

Those purely of positive energy tend not to gain much money or position in the first place.

Fire is Associated with aggression.

Water is Associated with calm.

One must have elements of both to succeed in life. Though most warriors tend to be more associated with fire, and healers with water.

Air is associated with freedom, and change.

Earth is associated with Stability and resilience.

One must have elements of both to succeed in life. Though air is more associated with Nomadism, and Earth with Law abiding.

Everybody has a mix of all these elements inside them.

So a Crusading Paladin is most likely to be P but everything else is up for grabs:

A F Paladin is likely to not stand for any problems and get much more agitated by injustice much more easily.

A W Paladin is much more likely to keep a cool head and try to think of longer term solutions

A Paladin is much more likely to have elements of E then of A, but without any elements of A a Paladin tends not to crusade and just watch over his own area.

So this is more of a way to just quickly identify the personality type of the person.

So NFA is probably aggressive bandit. But it could also be barbarian.

NW is more likely a thinker type person. Maybe a bandit leader.

NP is likely a good natured Businessman. Scrooge McDuck?

Just because OTHER elements are not noted isn't because they don't have them. But its because they don't define them as much.

Identifying some characters:

Roy: W. Thats the most definitive part of his character. Is that he is most often calm and thinking.

Elan: A. He is a very good person at heart, but doesn't really care for rules.

Haley: NAF. Is like Elan, but has a darker side.

Durkon: PEF. He is a very stable person, but is also quite uncompromising of his principles. We have truly seen the level of Selflessness he portrays recently. He is the one who really has given up the most in the story.

Vaarsavius: NF. Hes very passionate about his magic, and tends to see everything as a means to the magic. But is recently changing.

Belkar: NF. Just aggression and self absorption mostly.


I dunno. Maybe its just a bunch of rubbish. :\

elliott20
2013-03-13, 09:10 AM
In the game Motobushido (Samurai as a biker gang... seriously, that's actually a game), that's actually how they handle attributes in general. It's more explicitly split into three dichotomies

Violence vs. Peace (defines how easily you are to resort to lethal methods)
Self vs. Group (defines your willingness to serve for the greater good)
Destiny vs. Freedom (defines your belief in destiny)

You get 6 points in each of the three categories to split between the two sides. Doing so defines your character's motivations and by doing so, it also defines your effectiveness in your various tasks (After all, a character who is selfish will put more of himself into something that is for himself than for others).

Your system is actually kind of similar, and so I was wondering if you have figured out how they would interact with the rest of the character sheet, as for Motobushido, that is more or less the rest of the character sheet right there.

Scowling Dragon
2013-03-13, 09:19 AM
Oh. Just replace the "Detect Alignment" and such. For the perposed of knocking the Paladin down a peg.

"Oh my god you murdered the mayor!"

"But he Flashed with negative energy!"

"Well YEAH, hes a banker!"

Joe the Rat
2013-03-13, 11:35 AM
I like this. I was working on a similar a cosmology/pantheon system, so I might be a bit biased.

I turned fire and water a little differently though: Fire was about focus, drive, and enlightenment, Water was about life and strong emotions (the torrent rather than the pool). I may try your approach and see what happens.

You can summarize Positive with "Give" and Negative with "Take". Creation/Destruction sometimes get paired up with the +/- as well.

I think the thing you really want to do with this one is emphasize that your elemental alignment reflects character tendencies. "Descriptive, not Proscriptive." A Fire "soul" is capable of moments of calm, or desiring stability, but is more likely to be bold and aggressive. As physical beings made up of all the elements, every action is possible, you just have preferences.

A nice spinoff of this is that elementals / element spirits tend to be driven almost entirely by their trait. Fire elementals are aggressive. Earth spirits are happy the way things are, thank you very much. Water spirits are meditative oracles. Air spirits are tricksters, etc.

Scowling Dragon
2013-03-13, 11:37 AM
Sure. Everybody can fine tune it however you want.

Everybody who isn't just an elemental or Undead or a Angel is a mix of everything.

Fortis
2013-03-13, 03:54 PM
I actually like this system. More descriptive than the usual good/evil and law/chaos axis. I also like how you emphasize that they're more guidelines rather than rigid requirements, and how there must be balance. Might steal it if I ever decide to DM a game.

Joe the Rat
2013-03-13, 07:38 PM
Sure. Everybody can fine tune it however you want.
Actually, I meant using your fire/water perspective on my cosmology.

Scowling Dragon
2013-03-13, 11:50 PM
Sure. Its because fire lasts not for a very long time. Thus it has to BE aggressive because it burns up.

Water on the other hand is forever. So no matter the ice, the steam it always returns to the pool at the end.