[DF] Dragonlance

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Anthony

4th edition did not use the 9 alignment axis (it had CE, E, N, G, LG) and didn't have abilities that detected or relied on alignment, making it ignorable. 5th edition went back to the 9 alignment axis but also doesn't generally have abilities that detect or rely on alignment, and more recently they've stopped listing alignment on creatures, so it's getting increasingly de-emphasized.

I'm surprised the alignment mechanic has lasted this long — it has long been maligned by players.

Yahtzee in his review of Fable 3 shows why labeling things "good" and "evil" is nonsense:

"I thought the game would end when the evil king was overthrown, but when the revolution batters down his door he basically says, "Fine, you be king then. Oh, and by the way, an evil black primordial slime is going to come and slaughter us all one year from now. Toodle-e-oo." (...) You're given a number of decisions to make as ruler and must choose whether to continue your brother's evil policies in order to raise the arbitrary sum of six million gold coins required to fight off the black goo after the year's up, or blow the entire treasury on making the lives of your citizens happy if short, the Logan's Run option."

Based on his review description every policy what would prevent your subjects from becoming Shxogoth chow are "evil". As Yahtzee put it "why can't we keep the evil policies until the Shoggoth has come and gone, then reverse them all? Surely one year of hardship is better than one year of picnics followed by Armageddon. But no, not an option. Castle Albion was apparently built on a leaking gas main."