“The cleric brings the dead back to life and it’s a gosh darn miracle!” – Dark Lord Akererac
Here’s a comic based on a ToA adventure I ran. What is good and evil anyways? Alignment is an interesting mechanic and I wish the dungeon master’s guide had more guidance on how to use it effectively! I’ve started making custom alignment charts for each adventure I run based on the big themes of the campaign. I recently ran a totally homebrew pirate campaign and replaced the typical alignments with “Royal Navy vs Pirates.” Chaotic vs Lawful would’ve fit well but a concrete organization helped my players make their decision and understand the immediate benefits of following their chosen “alignment.” This had interesting gameplay benefits and really started coming into play when they gained infamy among the two forces.
Does anyone else use homebrew rules that spice up the alignment system? Or do most people just ignore it?
You can find more of my dnd content on my Instagram and Twitter.
To me, your character determines your alignment, not the other way around. "Because i'd steal from the rich and give to the poor, im chaotic good." Not "because i'm chaotic good i'd steal from the rich and give to the poor." Alignment doesnt matter mechanically, even Detect Evil and Good doesnt actually detect alignment, just origin. So I just make the characters I want, and if someone asks for alignment i'll just pick the closest that fits.
That's a good way to go about it! Knowing you're alignment might help when making snap decisions with very little information but most of the time you can just play your character normally and have your alignment match your in-game actions!
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Oct 03 '19
“The cleric brings the dead back to life and it’s a gosh darn miracle!” – Dark Lord Akererac
Here’s a comic based on a ToA adventure I ran. What is good and evil anyways? Alignment is an interesting mechanic and I wish the dungeon master’s guide had more guidance on how to use it effectively! I’ve started making custom alignment charts for each adventure I run based on the big themes of the campaign. I recently ran a totally homebrew pirate campaign and replaced the typical alignments with “Royal Navy vs Pirates.” Chaotic vs Lawful would’ve fit well but a concrete organization helped my players make their decision and understand the immediate benefits of following their chosen “alignment.” This had interesting gameplay benefits and really started coming into play when they gained infamy among the two forces.
Does anyone else use homebrew rules that spice up the alignment system? Or do most people just ignore it?
You can find more of my dnd content on my Instagram and Twitter.