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Old 10-11-2019, 09:06 AM   #1
hcobb
 
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Location: Pacheco, California
Default TFT has the same alignment system as AD&D

In AD&D a character's alignment determines the type of otherworldly being they invoke to raise the dead, heal all wounds, and for other boons.

So a True Neutral character might invoke a sacred beast, a Lawful Good character would invoke a kindly paternal god, a Lawful Evil character would invoke a devil with strict rules, and a Chaotic Evil character would invoke a trickster demon.

In TFT all characters invoke only demons to do these things and can spend a mere 500 XP to gain such a boon.

Thus when the players ask what alignment their "murder hobos" are you know what to tell them. This has the same practical effect as the AD&D system while saving time during character creation and space on the character sheet.
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Old 10-11-2019, 10:07 AM   #2
Chris Rice
 
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Default Re: TFT has the same alignment system as AD&D

No one has ever asked me what alignment their character is. It's such a daft concept.
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Old 10-11-2019, 12:43 PM   #3
Skarg
 
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Default Re: TFT has the same alignment system as AD&D

I already knew what to tell them. The only place D&D alignments exist is in D&D-like games. TFT is not a D&D-like game, and has no alignments. Religions are per setting. So is availability of wishes.
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Old 10-11-2019, 04:58 PM   #4
Steve Plambeck
 
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Default Re: TFT has the same alignment system as AD&D

Hahaha! Excellent point hcobb!

And from the horse's mouth... some (much younger) friends and I were just having drinks Wednesday night, and the subject of D&D came up. They play it, and have invited me in. I'd rather recruit them to start a new TFT group, but they of course never heard of TFT and have started asking me how it's different.

When I said, "well, for one thing there's no alignments," they actually cheered and said "Oh good! We always ignore alignments, we think they're stupid!"

That warmed my heart :)
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Old 10-13-2019, 01:06 PM   #5
RVA_Grandpa
 
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Default Re: TFT has the same alignment system as AD&D

Alignments? We don't need no stinking alignments!
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Old 10-17-2019, 05:13 AM   #6
David Bofinger
 
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Default Re: TFT has the same alignment system as AD&D

Quote:
Originally Posted by Skarg View Post
I already knew what to tell them. The only place D&D alignments exist is in D&D-like games.
And in the fiction those alignments came from: Tolkien (for good-evil) and Moorcock (for law-chaos).
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Old 10-17-2019, 10:32 PM   #7
Skarg
 
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Default Re: TFT has the same alignment system as AD&D

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Bofinger View Post
And in the fiction those alignments came from: Tolkien (for good-evil) and Moorcock (for law-chaos).
The alignments might exist as themes in the stories, but not every person in those worlds would fit neatly into them the way D&D wants everyone and everything to.

Good and evil exist in real frameworks as well. And are mentioned sometimes in TFT. But it's the artificial definitions over-applications of them, such as in the OP, that are thankfully absent from TFT.
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Old 01-30-2020, 01:31 PM   #8
KevinJ
 
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Default Re: TFT has the same alignment system as AD&D

When questions of good and evil do come up in non-d&d games, I refer players to the descriptive alignments in Palladium games. Based on the information presented in the respective games it is easier to understand the motivations and possible actions of an Anarchist or Scrupulous character than a Lawful Neutral character.
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Old 02-01-2020, 04:06 AM   #9
FireHorse
 
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Default Re: TFT has the same alignment system as AD&D

"Alignment" was literally the very first thing I ever house-ruled out of a game, decades ago in high school. It was quite possibly the single stupidest, most irrational aspect of the D&D world — particularly the asinine notion of alignment languages — and I despised it wholeheartedly.
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Old 02-01-2020, 02:54 PM   #10
BobP
 
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Default Re: TFT has the same alignment system as AD&D

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Bofinger View Post
And in the fiction those alignments came from: Tolkien (for good-evil) and Moorcock (for law-chaos).
The names come from there, but the original function of D&D alignment was inherited from the Chainmail wargaming rules, where Alignment told you which side of a fight a race's army would be on (with Neutrals it was random).

The ideas can themselves be of use, but building mechanics on them was folly.
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