[MUD-Dev] Alignment

[Spin]

>From "Paul Schwanz" <Paul.Schwanz at east.sun.com> 
<snipped>
> > This concept could be charted to look like this:
> >
> > ................GIVING(+).................TAKING(-)
> >
> > (H)EALTH........Nurturing(H+).............Conquest(H-)
> > (W)EALTH........Generosity(W+)............Greed(W-)
> > (I)NFORMATION...Teaching(I+)..............Secrecy(I-)
> > (P)OWER.........Loyalty(P+)...............Betrayal(P-)
> >

>From Christopher Allen :
> We have been talking some at Skotos about something very similar to this,
> but not for purposes of "alignment", but instead, for reactions of NPCs to p
> layers.
> 
> Pendragon
> ---------
> The basic idea we credit from the Pendragon system by Chaosium, which is
> that every NPC has a number of personality modifiers:
> 
> Some adverbs have emotional content, such as "provocatively" the we need to
> say where it falls. I think the Pendragon system may be useful here.
> 
> Chaste     Lustful
> Energetic  Lazy
> Forgiving  Vengeful
> Generous   Selfish
> Honest     Deceitful
> Just       Arbitrary
> Merciful   Cruel
> Modest     Proud
> Pious      Wordly
> Prudent    Reckless
> Temperate  Indulgent
> Trusting   Suspicious
> Valorous   Cowardly
> 
> In Pendragon, each of these pairs have to total 20. So if Chaste was 15,
> then Lustful would be 5. GMs in that paper game could use these when they
> didn't know what an NPC would do, and wanted to roll randomly to see the
> result.
> 
> Continuum Alpha
> ---------------
<snipped>

  Isn't adding all these terms just compounding the problem? Everyone
seems to be struggling with what is "good" and "evil", now they have
to struggle with what is "Trusting/Suspicious",etc. There is also the
problem of deciding if an action is cruel, selfish or both.

  Most of the discussion has skirted the issue of game use. What will 
the alignment be used for? I find it inane that other characters might
automatically might know the alignment of my character. Magic items 
are obviously an exception, cause they're magic. 		

  On my mud, killing is an evil act. Just starting combat will cause
your alignment to fall. There are of course problems with this.

Alignment conundrum #29863: Killing is evil, but that nasty dragon is
just about to eat the good princess...

  One may also subdue opponents on my mud, but theoricatlly this leads
to Alignment conundrum #29864: Yah, we subduaded the evil troll and
hog tied it. Now what? We can't kill it, that is _evil_. We can't leave
it tied up, bacause that will kill it. We can't let it go, because if
it every kills someone else, we would be partly to blame...

  Another problem I see with alignment interactions is delayed effects. If
someone comes along and gives my character a beer and a pat on the back,
is that friendly? What about five minutes later when I realise my money
pouch is missing? Third party information is also difficult to deal with.
If Bubba tells me that my best friend Boffo was planning to kill me
tomorrow, should I hate Boffo for wanting to off me, or Bubba for telling
obvious "lies" about Boffo? 

  Finally, I'd like to re-iterate the Alignment solution #0;

  "I've killed everyone that disagreed with me, therefore I'm right and
good."

Cheers,
  Malcolm Valentine



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