Alignment is a universal construct in Dragonlance, abandoning it or downplaying it is to ignore a foundational principle of the campaign setting, The Law of Consequences. Let’s learn all about it. Buy Dragonlance Adventures:
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Thank you for watching todays Dragonlance Setting episode. What do you think of the Law of Consequence? Is alignment important in your game? Leave a comment below!
I really wish WOTC would shit or get off the pot about alignment with 5e and future editions. I understand early editions were very restrictive about alignments, and that can be frustrating and just plain not fun for some players. I also understand that alignment can be a great guide for amazing role play that pushes us as players in ways that make the game so exciting. In 5e, they've thrown their hands in the air, and say alignment really doesn't matter, but then they publish modules where magic items require a specific alignment in order to survive against the BBEG (I'm looking at you Holy Symbol of Ravenkind).
Funny enough, Tracy and Laura are knee-deep on their 5e campaign: Skyraiders of Abarax, and they're ditching alignment as we know it currently, replacing it with an ethos. Tracy has described it as being two-fold: They liked the Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic measure, but they wanted to get rid of good vs. evil because nobody believes they're themselves evil, that's a label others put on people. They came up with a cultural ethos (what you were raised to believe), and your personal ethos (what you've come to believe, either being inclusive or exclusive). It's refreshing, and I'm looking forward to seeing how my players play their part.
Evil is ignorance. The point of this video makes sense, but i will argue a force of will can transcend the medium. Be good, or at least head toward it.
The High God's Law elevates Dragonlance beyond the rest of Dungeons & Dragons to me. It's not the same as the Law of Neutrality. The subtleties are fascinating. I don't necessarily agree that good causes conflict in real life. Yet I may agree that conflict is good in fantasy.
YES
With Dragonlance, it's always been pretty easy to both be good and striving to maintain the balance. The two most-played-in eras (War of the Lance and post-Chaos War) find players in a world where evil is riding high and the party is, at least in-part, the balancing factor there to make things right. It'd probably be less fun for most groups if they were evil and had to bring a good society down a few pegs lol.
Great Video. I love this idea of how to apply the lore and laws of Dragonlance to the actual game. Knowing what is in the world is second to how its applied and shared. That being said. Alignment is something I'd like to make more use of in my games. Its a great indicator for roleplay and decision making but can be hard to implement, especially to newer gamers.
Awesome awesome video. Very thought provoking. The few times I've DM'd, I haven't used the alignment tracker but I've applied consequences when the player acts outside their alignment. I think it's important for the role playing aspect depending on their character class. For a cleric, their connection to their god should wane. Similar for a mage. For a knight, there could be a trial to defend their actions (which could be fun) but for like a fighter or thief, it shouldn't really matter as much. Just my opinion. Thanks!
I like that the Good vs. Evil axis is divorced from the Law vs. Chaos axis. Too often, laws are evil.
alignment could be a mined field for any exposed company or author this days. so they choose to "handwave" it out of existence. for once i always play with Alignment and giving a lot of importance to that, but always talking before we start a campaing of how its going to be handled and what does each alignment means
Hi, I partly agree. You are totally right that alignment is more critical in DL than other settings. However, tracking alignment based on actions is a tricky beast. If a character is lawful good, that doesn't mean that they have to follow every law: a lawful good knight might go against the word of the law, or even the word of the Measure as Sturm did without losing their alignment. Sturm didn't become neutral good at the end because he violated the decrees of the other knights.
A DM who has consequences for a playing acting against their alignment has a real risk that they are just putting their interpretation of what lawful good or true neutral would mean. There are not just 9 possible characters and 9 possible choices in any situation and a player has as much right as the DM to decide what counts as lawful good or true neutral or whatever in a situation.
Now, if a player is acting in a way that a DM feels is contrary to the players alignment (or bonds, ideals, traits, and flaws), the DM could ask the character how that choice fits with the character. This then prompts the character to either consider, as you suggested, that they are playing themselves and not the character and reconsider the action or to provide such a justification. Either of these outcomes is a more rich and enjoyable role play situation than a punishment for breaking alignment in my opinion.
Amazing video! I'm going to suggest it to my players!