RPG Design: Alignment (Part II)

Two weeks ago, I covered the genesis and early development of arguably the most controversial of all role-playing topics, Alignment.  Starting from cosmic teams with "Alignment languages", TSR-brand Alignment then expressly baked morality into the rules set and encouraged GMs to penalize PC behavior that was, in the opinion of the GM, "out of Alignment."

In the official D&D universe by 1977, Good, Evil, Chaos, Law and Neutrality are "objective" and definite (e.g., they can be determined via magic)... and a Player's failure to adhere to a GM's subjective interpretation of an ostensibly "objective" belief system could be severely punished.  Consequently, it is not surprising that Alignment has been a disputatious subject ever since.

By contrast, many other contemporary Old School games, such as Tunnels & Trolls (1975), Traveller (1977) and RuneQuest (1978), do not have any kind of officially defined and/or rules enforced in-game morality.

However, things were about to get weirder for TSR-brand Alignment.

In the same year that Holmes Basic Dungeons & Dragons (1977) was released, TSR also started releasing the first of the three core books of 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the second of which  (The Player's Handbook (1978)) featured an even more complex Alignment scheme than Holmes Basic:

With the exception of 4th edition, this nine-fold system has mostly remained in place for Dungeons & Dragons ever since.

Beyond merely adding four more Alignments (Lawful Neutral, Neutral Good, Neutral Evil and Chaotic Neutral), Gygax further raises the stakes by stressing in PHB that, according to him, Alignment are meant to be mostly set in stone:

"Changing Alignment:

While involuntary change of alignment is quite possible, it is very difficult for a character to voluntarily switch from one to another, except within limited areas. Evil alignment can be varied along the like axis. The neutral character can opt for some more specific alignment. Your referee will probably require certain stringent sacrifices and appropriate acts - possibly a quest, as well - for any other voluntary alignment change. In fact, even axial change within evil or good, or radial movement from neutrality may require strong proofs of various sorts.

Further voluntary change will be even more difficult. Changing back to a forsaken alignment is next to impossible on a voluntary basis. Even involuntary drift will bring the necessity of great penance."

More so than Holmes, Gygax pushed the ideas that 1) in-game morality could be objectively defined and 2) failure to meet these standards should be punished.

One might argue that Alignment is represented in SOME of the source literature (e.g, there are "good guys" and "bad guys" in LoTR).  However, the problem is that the line between "good guys" and "bad guys" is not clear in ALL the source literature.  Most notably, R.E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian is not a nice guy- he murders many, many innocent people, usually because of greed and/or because he's being aggro.  Due to authorial fiat, most of the Cimmerian's sociopathy occurs off-page.  When it occurs on-page, Conan's misdeeds are cast in the most sympathetic light possible.  For example, in The Frost-Giant's Daughter (1932), where our protagonist is clearly a would-be rapist:

"[Conan's] sword fell into the snow as he crushed her to him. Her lithe body bent backward as she fought with desperate frenzy in his iron arms. Her golden hair blew about his face, blinding him with its sheen; the feel of her slender body twisting in his mailed arms drove him to blinder madness. His strong fingers sank deep into her smooth flesh; and that flesh was cold as ice. It was as if he embraced not a woman of human flesh and blood, but a woman of flaming ice. She writhed her golden head aside, striving to avoid the fierce kisses that bruised her red lips.

"You are cold as the snows," he mumbled dazedly. "I will warm you with the fire in my own blood — "

With a scream and a desperate wrench she slipped from his arms, leaving her single gossamer garment in his grasp. She sprang back and faced him, her golden locks in wild disarray, her white bosom heaving, her beautiful eyes blazing with terror."

And, when mapping Conan's behavior on his ostensibly "objective" nine-fold Alignment system, instead of Chaotic Evil,  Gygax calls this guy "Chaotic Neutral (towards good)" in The Dragon #36.

Yeah.