Alignment (role-playing games)
Encyclopedia
In some role-playing game
s, alignment is a categorisation of the moral
and ethical
perspective of the player character
s, non-player character
s, monster
s, and societies
in the game.
Not all role-playing games have such a system, and some narrativist role-players consider such a restriction on their characters' outlook on life to be overly constraining. However, some regard a concept of alignment to be essential to role-playing, since they regard role-playing as an exploration of the themes of good and evil.
Some games have used other methods to encourage certain behaviours. For instance, superhero
games like Marvel Super-Heroes
and DC Heroes
each have points that players could earn with heroic behaviour or lose with inappropriate actions. Given that these points could be used to improve their characters, or affect dice roll results in their favor, the players have an incentive to have their characters behave heroically and morally to earn them. The Star Wars RPG by West End Games
uses the rules governing the use of The Force
for the same purpose.
game created a three alignment system of Law, Neutrality and Chaos. In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, this became a two-dimensional
grid
, one axis of which measures a "moral" continuum between good and evil
, and the other "ethical" between law
and chaos
, with a middle ground of "neutrality" on both axis for those who are indifferent, committed to balance, or lacking the capacity to judge. This system was retained more or less unchanged through the second and third editions of the game. By combining the two axes, any given character
has one of 9 possible alignments:
Neutral in this scheme can be one of two versions: Neutral/Neutral, those who have no interest in (or no ability to care about) the choice; or "True Neutral", meaning those who not only actively remain neutral but believe it is necessary to enforce the balance of the world on others, and would act in any required fashion to bring about that balance.
In the current 4th edition of the game, the alignment system has been simplified.
's old World of Darkness
games have "Nature" and "Demeanour" characteristics that describe how the characters really are and how they behave superficially. The Nature and Demeanour are freeform, allowing players to create new types.
Additionally, in White Wolf's Vampire: The Masquerade
and derivatives (such as Ghouls: Fatal Addiction), vampire and human characters may have a "Humanity" trait ranging from 0 to 10. The higher levels are the compassionate and humane while the lower levels are psychopathic (further enhanced by the predatory nature of the vampire psyche). The average living, non-magic human has a Humanity score of about 7 or 8. Other Paths (moral philosophies) were created for vampire types. The "path" mechanic was sharply criticized for providing an "out" for gamers to avoid having to pay in-game penalties for actions which would exact them from a character on the humanity path. Kindred of the East
provided a system for "dharmas" which superficially resembled path mechanics, but was meant to represent the characters mastery of an occult philosophy rather than to gauge its moral state.
However, with the recent re-imagining of the World of Darkness setting, this has changed. In the new editions of the White Wolf games (new World of Darkness, Vampire: The Requiem
, Mage: The Awakening
, etc.), all characters have a morality trait ranked from 0 to 10, though what it is called varies from game to game, and what sorts of behaviour will raise or lower it depend on the character type as well (though in Vampire: The Requiem it is still Humanity and is still affected by the same behaviours). In addition to this, all characters now have a Virtue and a Vice based upon the traditional seven of each, which represents their major (though not only) vice and virtue. This is intended to illustrate that even the very good are never perfect, although characters with a score closer to 10 will be much more capable of avoiding evil behaviour while characters of lower moral tone will begin to care less about and get off more on simply being wicked.
Illustration: A vampire with a Humanity of close to 10 respects and admires the gentler aspects of mankind, seeking to rise above himself and bring a more compassionate and life-affirming tone to vampire society. A vampire with a very low Humanity (between 2 and 4) will be unmoved by the deaths of innocents, possibly including those of small children, whereas a vampire with a Humanity of 0 is a frenzied, inhuman monster (a wight) who must be killed for the good of the vampire community. Similarly, a mage with a score (called Wisdom) close to 10 avoids using magic whenever it is not necessary, and only indulges in its usage in order to better and enrich others and rarely himself. A mage with a low Wisdom seeks power for its own sake, disregarding the needs and the well-being of others; a mage with a score of 0 is considered an abomination, and may be someone who magically binds others (robbing them of their free will), or a soul-eater.
Additionally, unlike Dungeons & Dragons in which every character is subject to at least a cursory moral classification, not all World of Darkness characters are subject to morality: some beings, such as very old and very powerful Spirits (like the Idigam), or entities from the Abyss (like the Acamoth) are beyond manifest conception and thus are outside any measure of useful definition.
Unlike the majority of other Role Playing Games, the World of Darkness "alignment" system is meant not to reflect philosophical convictions about 'right' and 'wrong', which are left entirely up to the creator of the character, but rather, they represent the generalities of the character's state of mind. Believing in or adhering to a certain set of abstract moralisms is not considered to be as strong a motivating factor as the concrete conditions of what a character's personality may bring them to do. While philosophical moralism may play a strong role in a character's thought, lifestyle, and development, these may be violated with only minor to moderate repercussions, depending on the situation, while striking out against a character's basic temperament carries strong psychological consequences, and the behaviour of comprehensively changing a character's disposition takes a great deal of time and diligence. This system was designed specifically by White Wolf in order to avoid having characters pigeonholed as stereotypical heroes and villains who are often driven by beliefs so strong they seem to be psychic imperatives. It was created with the goal in mind of enforcing the moral and ethical 'grey area' within which the World of Darkness setting as a whole resides, and generating focus around the struggle of each character throughout the Chronicle (WoD Campaign) to syncretise their personality with their beliefs and the situations which test them.
uses "allegiance", an ordered list of groups and ideals the character is aligned with, ranked in approximate order of increasing priority. Characters' allegiances determine a 'rule of thumb' for their reactions to situations, in that they will generally favor the interests or outlook of their highest allegiance, or their next where the first does not apply, etc. This generally allows for snap-decisions on moral or ethical questions, in keeping with the rapid pace of gameplay.
from Mayfair Games
(now known as MEGS, Mayfair Exponential Game System
) used the characteristic "Motivation" to describe a character's ethical behavior. They were selected from a list divided into "heroic" (upholding the good, responsibility of power, seeking justice, thrill of adventure, and unwanted power) and "villainous" (mercenary, thrill seeker, psychopath, power lust, and nihilist). In the MEGS licensed game Blood of Heroes by Pulsar Games, a set of "anti-heroic" variations on some of the heroic and villainous motivations were presented, allowing characters to exist in moral and ethical gray areas.
To enforce the motivations, players are awarded or deducted character points, which have various uses, depending on their actions. For instance, good characters are awarded points for good and heroic behaviour while evil behaviour can cost them.
uses "mental disadvantages" to model the personality of character ("good" and "evil" personality traits are disadvantages because they limit or impose behaviour). Mental disadvantages include ordinary personality traits ("honest", "curious", "shy", "bad temper"), phobias ("scotophobia
", "triskaidekaphobia
"), mental illnesses ("delusions", "hallucinations", "manic depression"), and various self- or externally-imposed behaviours ("vow", "code of honor", "addiction"). Characters gain extra points by taking disadvantages, allowing them to buy more advantages and skills. However, only the extremes of behavior are defined as strong disadvantages, while normal predilections and preferences are referred to as "quirks". Also, if a personality trait or physical trait would normally be defined as a "disadvantage" is created for a character in a game of GURPS where it would actually be an advantage, it's termed an advantage instead—and costs points.
Each category contains answers to a set of questions on moral behaviors. For example, given the question "Would you keep a wallet full of cash you found?", most selfish or evil alignments would keep it, while most good alignments would seek to return the wallet to its owner. The categories are not organized into a pattern like Dungeons & Dragons. The system specifically does not include any sort of "neutral" alignment on the grounds that a neutral point of view is antithetical to the sort of active role heroes and villains should play in a story.
, Shin Megami Tensei II
, Shin Megami Tensei: NINE
and Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine
uses a system where the player's alignments may shift towards Law, Neutral or Chaos. A player's alignment affects demon use in the game. Demons are creatures in the world of MegaTen that the players battle or befriend. These demons are based on mythological creatures or deities from different regions and religions. A player's alignment also affects what quests they may take or the amount of money needed to pay for certain quests or items.
Players may shift toward any alignment by answering certain questions on the storyline quests called acts or by donating money to the alignments' respective Churches: the Messaian Church (Law) or the Gaian Church (Chaos).
In the older West End Games
game, behavior is controlled with Force points which indicate one use of it per point. When using The Force for evil deeds will give the character a Dark Side point which can accumulate and put the character at risk of being turned to the Dark Side and player loses control of it. By contrast, self serving deeds with the force simply permanently costs the player the point while heroic deeds allow the player to regain the point. In addition, using the Force for a heroic deed at a dramatically appropriate moment, such as Luke Skywalker
firing his proton torpedoes in the Death Star
's exhaust port in the Battle of Yavin, will allow the player to earn an extra force point.
have "passions," specific stimuli that bring out certain behavior and reflect the character's deepest personality traits. Every character has one "fear passion" that gives the character a bonus chance to escape a specific kind of frightening stimulus, one "rage passion" that helps the character lash out against a particular frustrating stimulus, and one "noble passion" that provides a bonus to selfless behavior for the sake of some greater cause. Passions are invented freeform during character creation, but each fear passion is tied to one of the five types of psychological stress in UA: Violence, Helplessness, Isolation, Self, or the Unnatural.
originally used a linear five placing system: Law - Good - Neutral - Evil - Chaotic
. In changes of alignment (for whatever reason) a character moved one place along to the next position - so for example a neutral character could move to good or evil but not to chaotic.
In practice the system was used to regulate reactions between characters of different alignments.
However, in the newer edition, the concept of alignment (as well as, apparently, the presence of 'Law' as the antithesis of Chaos) has been discarded, with the emphasis more on the personalities and unique natures of characters, rather than a linear alignment system.
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
s, alignment is a categorisation of the moral
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
and ethical
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
perspective of the player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
s, non-player character
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
s, monster
Monster
A monster is any fictional creature, usually found in legends or horror fiction, that is somewhat hideous and may produce physical harm or mental fear by either its appearance or its actions...
s, and societies
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
in the game.
Not all role-playing games have such a system, and some narrativist role-players consider such a restriction on their characters' outlook on life to be overly constraining. However, some regard a concept of alignment to be essential to role-playing, since they regard role-playing as an exploration of the themes of good and evil.
Some games have used other methods to encourage certain behaviours. For instance, superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
games like Marvel Super-Heroes
Marvel Super Heroes (role-playing game)
Marvel Superheroes , aka "the FASERIP system," is a role playing game set in the Marvel Universe, first published by TSR under license from Marvel Comics in 1984. In 1986, TSR published an expanded edition, entitled the Marvel Superheroes Advanced Game. Jeff Grubb designed both editions and Steve...
and DC Heroes
DC Heroes
DC Heroes is an out-of-print superhero role-playing game set in the DC Universe, published by Mayfair Games. Other than sharing the same licensed setting, DC Heroes is unrelated to the West End Games DC Universe....
each have points that players could earn with heroic behaviour or lose with inappropriate actions. Given that these points could be used to improve their characters, or affect dice roll results in their favor, the players have an incentive to have their characters behave heroically and morally to earn them. The Star Wars RPG by West End Games
West End Games
West End Games was a company that made board, role-playing, and war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania...
uses the rules governing the use of The Force
Force (Star Wars)
The Force is a binding, metaphysical and ubiquitous power in the fictional universe of the Star Wars galaxy created by George Lucas. Mentioned in the first film in the series, it is integral to all subsequent incarnations of Star Wars, including the expanded universe of comic books, novels, and...
for the same purpose.
Dungeons & Dragons
The original Dungeons & DragonsDungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
game created a three alignment system of Law, Neutrality and Chaos. In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, this became a two-dimensional
Dimension
In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a space or object is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus a line has a dimension of one because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it...
grid
Grid (spatial index)
In the context of a spatial index, a grid is a regular tessellation of a manifold or 2-D surface that divides it into a series of contiguous cells, which can then be assigned unique identifiers and used for spatial indexing purposes...
, one axis of which measures a "moral" continuum between good and evil
Evil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
, and the other "ethical" between law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
and chaos
Civil disorder
Civil disorder, also known as civil unrest or civil strife, is a broad term that is typically used by law enforcement to describe one or more forms of disturbance caused by a group of people. Civil disturbance is typically a symptom of, and a form of protest against, major socio-political problems;...
, with a middle ground of "neutrality" on both axis for those who are indifferent, committed to balance, or lacking the capacity to judge. This system was retained more or less unchanged through the second and third editions of the game. By combining the two axes, any given character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
has one of 9 possible alignments:
| Lawful Good | Neutral Good | Chaotic Good |
| Lawful Neutral | Neutral (2 versions) | Chaotic Neutral |
| Lawful Evil | Neutral Evil | Chaotic Evil |
Neutral in this scheme can be one of two versions: Neutral/Neutral, those who have no interest in (or no ability to care about) the choice; or "True Neutral", meaning those who not only actively remain neutral but believe it is necessary to enforce the balance of the world on others, and would act in any required fashion to bring about that balance.
In the current 4th edition of the game, the alignment system has been simplified.
- 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.
World of Darkness
Characters in White WolfWhite Wolf, Inc.
White Wolf Publishing is an American gaming and book publisher. The company was founded in 1991 as a merger between Lion Rampant and White Wolf Magazine, and was initially led by Mark Rein·Hagen of the former and Steve and Stewart Wieck of the latter. Since White Wolf Publishing, Inc. merged with...
's old World of Darkness
World of Darkness
"World of Darkness" is the name given to three related but distinct fictional universes created as settings for supernatural horror themed role-playing games. It is also the name of roleplaying games in the second and third settings...
games have "Nature" and "Demeanour" characteristics that describe how the characters really are and how they behave superficially. The Nature and Demeanour are freeform, allowing players to create new types.
Additionally, in White Wolf's Vampire: The Masquerade
Vampire: The Masquerade
Vampire: The Masquerade is a role-playing game. Created by Mark Rein·Hagen, it was the first of White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness role-playing games, based on the Storyteller System and centered around vampires in a modern gothic-punk world....
and derivatives (such as Ghouls: Fatal Addiction), vampire and human characters may have a "Humanity" trait ranging from 0 to 10. The higher levels are the compassionate and humane while the lower levels are psychopathic (further enhanced by the predatory nature of the vampire psyche). The average living, non-magic human has a Humanity score of about 7 or 8. Other Paths (moral philosophies) were created for vampire types. The "path" mechanic was sharply criticized for providing an "out" for gamers to avoid having to pay in-game penalties for actions which would exact them from a character on the humanity path. Kindred of the East
Kindred of the East
Kindred of the East is a role-playing supplement by White Wolf Game Studio to their Vampire: The Masquerade line. The vanguard of White Wolf's "Year of the Lotus" theme , this rich sourcebook is a stand-alone setting, requiring only secondary rules to be fully playable...
provided a system for "dharmas" which superficially resembled path mechanics, but was meant to represent the characters mastery of an occult philosophy rather than to gauge its moral state.
However, with the recent re-imagining of the World of Darkness setting, this has changed. In the new editions of the White Wolf games (new World of Darkness, Vampire: The Requiem
Vampire: The Requiem
Vampire: The Requiem is a role-playing game published by White Wolf, set in the World of Darkness, and the successor to the Vampire: The Masquerade line. It was first released in August 2004, together with a new core rule book for the World of Darkness...
, Mage: The Awakening
Mage: The Awakening
Mage: The Awakening is a role-playing game developed by White Wolf, Inc. and based in their World of Darkness setting. The characters portrayed in this game are individuals able to bend or break the commonly-accepted rules of reality to perform subtle or outlandish acts of magic. These characters...
, etc.), all characters have a morality trait ranked from 0 to 10, though what it is called varies from game to game, and what sorts of behaviour will raise or lower it depend on the character type as well (though in Vampire: The Requiem it is still Humanity and is still affected by the same behaviours). In addition to this, all characters now have a Virtue and a Vice based upon the traditional seven of each, which represents their major (though not only) vice and virtue. This is intended to illustrate that even the very good are never perfect, although characters with a score closer to 10 will be much more capable of avoiding evil behaviour while characters of lower moral tone will begin to care less about and get off more on simply being wicked.
Illustration: A vampire with a Humanity of close to 10 respects and admires the gentler aspects of mankind, seeking to rise above himself and bring a more compassionate and life-affirming tone to vampire society. A vampire with a very low Humanity (between 2 and 4) will be unmoved by the deaths of innocents, possibly including those of small children, whereas a vampire with a Humanity of 0 is a frenzied, inhuman monster (a wight) who must be killed for the good of the vampire community. Similarly, a mage with a score (called Wisdom) close to 10 avoids using magic whenever it is not necessary, and only indulges in its usage in order to better and enrich others and rarely himself. A mage with a low Wisdom seeks power for its own sake, disregarding the needs and the well-being of others; a mage with a score of 0 is considered an abomination, and may be someone who magically binds others (robbing them of their free will), or a soul-eater.
Additionally, unlike Dungeons & Dragons in which every character is subject to at least a cursory moral classification, not all World of Darkness characters are subject to morality: some beings, such as very old and very powerful Spirits (like the Idigam), or entities from the Abyss (like the Acamoth) are beyond manifest conception and thus are outside any measure of useful definition.
Unlike the majority of other Role Playing Games, the World of Darkness "alignment" system is meant not to reflect philosophical convictions about 'right' and 'wrong', which are left entirely up to the creator of the character, but rather, they represent the generalities of the character's state of mind. Believing in or adhering to a certain set of abstract moralisms is not considered to be as strong a motivating factor as the concrete conditions of what a character's personality may bring them to do. While philosophical moralism may play a strong role in a character's thought, lifestyle, and development, these may be violated with only minor to moderate repercussions, depending on the situation, while striking out against a character's basic temperament carries strong psychological consequences, and the behaviour of comprehensively changing a character's disposition takes a great deal of time and diligence. This system was designed specifically by White Wolf in order to avoid having characters pigeonholed as stereotypical heroes and villains who are often driven by beliefs so strong they seem to be psychic imperatives. It was created with the goal in mind of enforcing the moral and ethical 'grey area' within which the World of Darkness setting as a whole resides, and generating focus around the struggle of each character throughout the Chronicle (WoD Campaign) to syncretise their personality with their beliefs and the situations which test them.
d20 Modern
d20 ModernD20 Modern
d20 Modern is a roleplaying game designed by Bill Slavicsek, Jeff Grubb, Rich Redman, and Charles Ryan. It was published by Wizards of the Coast in November 2002, and uses the d20 System...
uses "allegiance", an ordered list of groups and ideals the character is aligned with, ranked in approximate order of increasing priority. Characters' allegiances determine a 'rule of thumb' for their reactions to situations, in that they will generally favor the interests or outlook of their highest allegiance, or their next where the first does not apply, etc. This generally allows for snap-decisions on moral or ethical questions, in keeping with the rapid pace of gameplay.
DC Heroes
DC HeroesDC Heroes
DC Heroes is an out-of-print superhero role-playing game set in the DC Universe, published by Mayfair Games. Other than sharing the same licensed setting, DC Heroes is unrelated to the West End Games DC Universe....
from Mayfair Games
Mayfair Games
Mayfair Games is a publisher of board, card, and roleplaying games. They also license German-style board games and publish them in English throughout the world...
(now known as MEGS, Mayfair Exponential Game System
Mayfair Exponential Game System
The Mayfair Exponential Game System or MEGS is a rules system developed for role-playing games. It is noteworthy for its use of an exponential system for measuring nearly everything in the game. This system makes it possible to have both cosmically-powered characters and ordinary human characters...
) used the characteristic "Motivation" to describe a character's ethical behavior. They were selected from a list divided into "heroic" (upholding the good, responsibility of power, seeking justice, thrill of adventure, and unwanted power) and "villainous" (mercenary, thrill seeker, psychopath, power lust, and nihilist). In the MEGS licensed game Blood of Heroes by Pulsar Games, a set of "anti-heroic" variations on some of the heroic and villainous motivations were presented, allowing characters to exist in moral and ethical gray areas.
To enforce the motivations, players are awarded or deducted character points, which have various uses, depending on their actions. For instance, good characters are awarded points for good and heroic behaviour while evil behaviour can cost them.
GURPS
GURPSGURPS
The Generic Universal RolePlaying System, or GURPS, is a tabletop role-playing game system designed to allow for play in any game setting...
uses "mental disadvantages" to model the personality of character ("good" and "evil" personality traits are disadvantages because they limit or impose behaviour). Mental disadvantages include ordinary personality traits ("honest", "curious", "shy", "bad temper"), phobias ("scotophobia
Nyctophobia
Nyctophobia is a phobia characterized by a severe fear of the darkness. It is triggered by the brain’s disfigured perception of what would or could happen when in a dark environment....
", "triskaidekaphobia
Triskaidekaphobia
Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number ; it is a superstition and related to a specific fear of Friday the 13th, called paraskevidekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia.The term was first used by Isador Coriat in Abnormal...
"), mental illnesses ("delusions", "hallucinations", "manic depression"), and various self- or externally-imposed behaviours ("vow", "code of honor", "addiction"). Characters gain extra points by taking disadvantages, allowing them to buy more advantages and skills. However, only the extremes of behavior are defined as strong disadvantages, while normal predilections and preferences are referred to as "quirks". Also, if a personality trait or physical trait would normally be defined as a "disadvantage" is created for a character in a game of GURPS where it would actually be an advantage, it's termed an advantage instead—and costs points.
Palladium
Palladium uses a system where alignments are described in detailed terms with alignments describing how a character acts in a certain situation; whether they will lie, how much force they will use against innocents, how they view the law, and so on. The alignments are organized into three broad categories: Good, Selfish, and Evil. The seven core alignments are Principled (Good), Scrupulous (Good), Unprincipled (Selfish), Anarchist (Selfish), Aberrant (Evil), Miscreant (Evil), and Diabolic (Evil). An eighth alignment, Taoist, was introduced in Mystic China, but has not seen wide use.Each category contains answers to a set of questions on moral behaviors. For example, given the question "Would you keep a wallet full of cash you found?", most selfish or evil alignments would keep it, while most good alignments would seek to return the wallet to its owner. The categories are not organized into a pattern like Dungeons & Dragons. The system specifically does not include any sort of "neutral" alignment on the grounds that a neutral point of view is antithetical to the sort of active role heroes and villains should play in a story.
Shin Megami Tensei series
Shin Megami TenseiShin Megami Tensei
is a console role-playing video game from Atlus that was originally released on October 30, 1992 and later on several platforms, although no installment was released outside of Japan. It was originally released on the Super Famicom and was later ported to the PC Engine Super CD-Rom and Mega-CD...
, Shin Megami Tensei II
Shin Megami Tensei II
is a video game and direct sequel to Shin Megami Tensei for the Super Famicom released on March 18, 1994 in Japan. It was later remade for PlayStation in 2002, and then for Game Boy Advance in 2003. It is a console role-playing game and part of the Megami Tensei series...
, Shin Megami Tensei: NINE
Shin Megami Tensei: NINE
is a Megami Tensei game released for the Xbox, released only in Japan. It was originally developed to be played as an MMORPG, but due to numerous delays it was released as a single-player only version with an online version planned to be released in the future. The online version was eventually...
and Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine
Shin Megami Tensei: IMAGINE
, formerly , is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game based in the Megami Tensei universe. Aeria Games acquired the rights to the game from Cave Co., Ltd. Shin Megami Tensei is a major intellectual property of the Japanese developer and publisher, Atlus Co., Ltd...
uses a system where the player's alignments may shift towards Law, Neutral or Chaos. A player's alignment affects demon use in the game. Demons are creatures in the world of MegaTen that the players battle or befriend. These demons are based on mythological creatures or deities from different regions and religions. A player's alignment also affects what quests they may take or the amount of money needed to pay for certain quests or items.
Players may shift toward any alignment by answering certain questions on the storyline quests called acts or by donating money to the alignments' respective Churches: the Messaian Church (Law) or the Gaian Church (Chaos).
Star Wars
The alignments of WotC Star Wars RPG are limited to Light Side and Dark Side, though there are variations within these.In the older West End Games
West End Games
West End Games was a company that made board, role-playing, and war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania...
game, behavior is controlled with Force points which indicate one use of it per point. When using The Force for evil deeds will give the character a Dark Side point which can accumulate and put the character at risk of being turned to the Dark Side and player loses control of it. By contrast, self serving deeds with the force simply permanently costs the player the point while heroic deeds allow the player to regain the point. In addition, using the Force for a heroic deed at a dramatically appropriate moment, such as Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
firing his proton torpedoes in the Death Star
Death Star
The Death Star is a fictional moon-sized space station and superweapon appearing in the Star Wars movies and expanded universe. It is capable of destroying a planet with a single destructive super charged energy beam.-Origin and design:...
's exhaust port in the Battle of Yavin, will allow the player to earn an extra force point.
Unknown Armies
Characters in Unknown ArmiesUnknown Armies
Unknown Armies is an occult-themed role playing game by John Tynes and Greg Stolze and published by Atlas Games. Subtitled "A roleplaying game of power and consequences"...
have "passions," specific stimuli that bring out certain behavior and reflect the character's deepest personality traits. Every character has one "fear passion" that gives the character a bonus chance to escape a specific kind of frightening stimulus, one "rage passion" that helps the character lash out against a particular frustrating stimulus, and one "noble passion" that provides a bonus to selfless behavior for the sake of some greater cause. Passions are invented freeform during character creation, but each fear passion is tied to one of the five types of psychological stress in UA: Violence, Helplessness, Isolation, Self, or the Unnatural.
Warhammer FRP
Warhammer Fantasy RoleplayWarhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is a role-playing game set in the Warhammer Fantasy setting. Over the years, it has been through a number of phases and different publishers, most of which were related in some way to Games Workshop...
originally used a linear five placing system: Law - Good - Neutral - Evil - Chaotic
Chaos (Warhammer)
In Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 fictional universes, Chaos refers to the often stereotypically malevolent entities which live in a different timespace, known as the Warp in Warhammer 40,000 and as the Realm of Chaos in Warhammer Fantasy...
. In changes of alignment (for whatever reason) a character moved one place along to the next position - so for example a neutral character could move to good or evil but not to chaotic.
In practice the system was used to regulate reactions between characters of different alignments.
However, in the newer edition, the concept of alignment (as well as, apparently, the presence of 'Law' as the antithesis of Chaos) has been discarded, with the emphasis more on the personalities and unique natures of characters, rather than a linear alignment system.