Custom Alignments

Source: Unearthed Arcana

Alignment serves as a handy label for the general attitudes of characters and monsters alike. It works as a sorting mechanism, providing a big‐ picture assessment of which creatures, factions, and NPCs make natural allies or enemies.

The standard alignment system embraces the fundamental points of tension in D&D: the struggle between good and evil on the one hand, and the conflict between law and chaos on the other. The nice thing about this arrangement is that it allows for tension even within a good‐ aligned party. The law–chaos divide means that characters can still disagree on how to promote good in the world.

Alignment is meant to serve only as a quick summary of a character, not a rigid definition. It’s a starting point, but elements such as flaws and bonds paint a much more detailed picture of a character’s identity.

You might find that the alignment choices of good and evil, law and chaos are too abstract for your campaign. You might prefer attitudes that are more nuanced, without the implicit demarcation of heroes as good‐aligned creatures and villains as evil‐aligned ones. A simple solution is to discard alignment in favor of an alternative system that brings the key conflicts in your campaign to the forefront.

Identify the Conflict. Think about the important opposing forces in your campaign by asking the following questions. Can you place them on opposite ends of a continuum? Are there multiple conflicts? What are the key conflicts, and how do all the separate conflicts interact?

For your own alignment system, try to create at least two paths, one of which allows a range of options for the player characters. The other paths can divide the world between the characters (including their allies) and their enemies.

For example, imagine a campaign setting where an ecological crisis engineered by a cabal of necromancers threatens to transform the world into a dead wasteland. Forming one alignment path are the opposing forces of life and death. LICK the choice of good or evil, this conflict defines the setting, and you would expect most player characters to be aligned to life or at least neutral with respect to their support for the necromancers’ plans.

The second conflict path might be preservation versus destruction. People who have gathered to protect the land might disagree on whether to attack and destroy the necromancers, or to work instead at strengthening the natural order so that not even the necromancers’ power can overwhelm it.

Multiple Choices. For grittier games that avoid obvious classifications of good versus bad, you might create alignment paths with more than two choices. In a game that focuses on intrigue and power struggles, for example, alignment might be a quick reference for which factions a character supports. One element of a character’s alignment might indicate his or her affiliation with a noble house or guild. A second element could call out which deity or pantheon the character is tied to.

Neutral Alignment. When creating your alignment system, think about the role of neutrality, and decide whether there’s a midpoint for any alignment path. Neutral creatures might choose to sit out a struggle (as is often the case in good versus evil) or see strengths in both approaches (as in law versus chaos). The role of this choice in your campaign should make sense in terms of your central conflict.