Re: [MUD-Dev] Alignment

[Matt Chatterley <root#mpc,dyn.ml.org>]

On Sun, 24 Aug 1997, Jeff Kesselman wrote:

> At 08:33 AM 8/24/97 PST8PDT, you wrote:
> >Here is a set of guidelines that have a different take on alignment.  
> 
> Its really an entirely different alignment system.

Agreed.
 
> There have been many takes on alignment over the years. Ultima really only
> ahs a law/chaos scale for instance, or at elkast thats the dmoninant
> alingment.

Yeah - although I like the implied take on chaos/order in Moorcock's
fiction writings. I would sum up my view of it as being "Chaos must be bad
because it is the absence of order, and anarchaical, Order must
be bad, because it is the total absense of order, and is far too
confining. Therefore balance is the only true 'good' state."
 
> The big question coems down to this-- is it really useful to catagorize
> characters in such fashion?   Fasntasy hero has no notion of alingmnet and
> I never ntoed it to be a problem.,  Instead it has specific perosnality
> traits and quirks that youa ssemble to coem up witha  reasonably complete
> character.

Having two views of alignment should be sufficient for roleplay - what the
character thinks of his/herself, and what the rest of the world (globally
and locally) think of him/her.

For Caffeine, I will probably require a third view (the actual innate
'alignment', taken from the point of view of the 'creator' of the world),
for a few things - notably magic which modulates based on where you stand.

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/index.html
"Speak softly and carry a big stick." -Theodore Roosevelt