A while back I saw someone post a homebrewed alignment system

>>53480291
Traditional alignment only works in games where you can reasonably expect the edge-cases of that framework to not be challenged, as it falls apart under moderate scrutiny (see the massive quantity of arguments about what constitutes each alignment). If you're playing a hack-and-slash with clear good guys and bad guys, it's fine. If you want something more nuanced, I'd suggest passing on it.

I suppose a question would be why include alignment at all in a game? In the case of D&D and its ilk, it has mechanic effects (Smite Evil being classic) that reinforce the struggle of good vs evil which speaks of the original intention for the game (straightforward conflict). This only really matters if alignment is an objective force in your world. If it isn't, there's really no need to officially codify the alignment of all characters. You'll get better character personalities if you don't provide such simplistic crutches to rely on.

>>53480538
>Traditional alignment only works in games where you can reasonably expect the edge-cases of that framework to not be challenged, as it falls apart under moderate scrutiny (see the massive quantity of arguments about what constitutes each alignment). If you're playing a hack-and-slash with clear good guys and bad guys, it's fine. If you want something more nuanced, I'd suggest passing on it.

Yeah,t hat's why I was looking for the homebrew alignment system I mentioned. IIRC instead of it being on two axes you could choose to stack as many or as few alignments as you wanted, and the alignments were different ideas that didn't always contradict each other.

>>53480614
Okay, and how would this serve the gameplay?

>>53480711

It's definitely a crutch, but most people who play RPGs aren't good character writers. I think, at least conceptually, there's merit in having an easy to understand filter between "what I would do" and "what my character would do." I don't think I need to elaborate on the ways in which the law/chaos/good/evil alignment system falls apart, which is why I was interested in trying an alternative that is structured differently and less rigidly.

>>53480614
Wasn't this a thing in 13th Age?

>>53480711
If there's a lot of alignment-exclusive stuff, then having multiple alignments could prove very useful, but at the same time it would open you up to a lot of vulnerabilities.

>>53480815
Why use weird alignment-boxes instead of something like just listing applicable character traits? A simple but useful method I find is to ask the players a bunch of questions for them to answer about their character, ex:
What motivates you?
Why did you choose the profession you did?
What do you believe in?
etc. etc. And you can of course tailor the questions depending on the type of game you're running.

>>53481093
>Why use weird alignment-boxes instead of something like just listing applicable character traits?

At a certain point the distinction between the two should all but disappear, I would imagine

>>53481949
By definition, if you are listing options for your players to select from, those options are going to be a limiting factor on character creation. With standard 2-axis alignment, there are 9 possible alignments. You can add axis or swap to a giant list or whatever, but at the end of the day your players are still picking one of a finite set of options, and those options constrain the possible variety of characters. If you include so many options such that this effect is negligible, then why even phrase it as picking an option instead of just telling the player to describe their character however seems most appropriate?

>>53481995

Yeah but there aren't really an infinite number of ethical systems, are there? Any real person is going to identify more strongly with an already-defined philosophy, or maybe more than one.

At what level do I get access to Smite Nihilism?

>>53482115
Does every character even think about the nature of morality and ethics? Even if somehow ethical framework was a central pillar of every character ever, it's still not the only factor that defines a character, and paying it undue attention detracts from other facets of the character.

>>53480291
I hope you find your chart friend. Also, play with alignments if you like. They're fine to have in your game.

>>53482501

I think a lot of people fall into a category even if they don't think about it much. You're right that it's not the only factor and probably gets too much attention though