Every now and again, the topic of alignment comes up. Most people are pretty sick of talking about it. It’s a shame. I find it super interesting, but I can see why the haters hate.

Alignments were a useful addition to early rpgs. It helped smooth out certain conversations and quandaries. Let’s say you were sneaking up on an orc camp. A local baron paid you to wipe them out. You know you are acting in moral justification because the baron is perceptibly aligned to good whereas these orcs are perceptibly aligned to evil. You leap from the bushes and hurl a hatchet into the skull of an orc. The battle is on! This is an action game, after all. Philosophy tends to derail the spirit of the thing.

These days, our culture is moving in a direction of globalism, awareness, and social justice. We can’t really look at those old, romantic stories the same way. It is tough to think of the world in black and white. Binary states of Good and Evil limit the depth of struggle, sacrifice, and humanity we can share in our stories. I’ve been thinking about a new way to reflect this.

Not too long ago, I sat down with my brother to roll up a new character. We used D&D 5e. This latest edition still features alignment, but there is a focus on other personality traits, such as ideals and flaws, to inform role play. My brother rolled up a rogue with the soldier background. When we rolled up his traits, we saw that this character quit his regiment after a falling out with his captain. He was a bitter cynic, naturally distrustful but with a ‘live and let live’ attitude. My favorite part was his flaw. He couldn’t help but obey authority figures. Even after all this cynicism, and his chaotic nature, and the renouncing of the privileges of his service, he felt compelled to follow laws and defer to those in power. It was an unreasonable contradiction. It was a properly tragic quality. How much more meaty and fulfilling a descriptor for a player to work with than just ‘Lawful Neutral’.

So here I have this idea. Instead of 2 axes of Law/Chaos and Good/Evil, we have five qualifiers. A character picks 2 of them as an alignment. Many qualifiers contradict each other, but they are not mutually exclusive. A character can connect to qualities of rage and passion, while also connecting to discipline and composure. These alignments hint at internal conflict that can really drive role play.

For purposes of this post, I’ll be cribbing from the five schools of magic in Magic: the Gathering. I like them because they suggest a variety of qualities and styles. They are as follows:

Black Traits – Ambition, Callousness, Ruthlessness Methods – Sacrifice, Dominance, Stealth

Blue Traits – Scholarly, Patient, Creative Methods – Politics, Invention, Examination

White Traits – Stoic, Honorable, Defensive Methods – Confinement, Persuasion, Industry

Red Traits – Passionate, Impulsive, Wild Methods – Destruction, Indulgence, Music

Green Traits – Compassionate, Nurturing, Overwhelming Methods – Healing, Teaching, Growth



Now this is not a definitive examination of these elements, but it will serve as a starting point.

A character considers their alignment. They pick two colors to represent their character. One is major or primary, the other is minor or secondary. They are listed in order. These colors can represent attitudes, ethics, preferences, or any other tendencies the player decides. The nature of the representation can shift in play. A player may take Red for his barbarian character to represent his rage, but in play come to see the barbarian growing merciful and delighting in earthly pleasures. The player may decide that his character expresses ‘Redness’ in excess of drink rather than carnage.

The alignment of Red-White might reflect a zealous captain. He’s a braggart and a violent drunk, but fiercely loyal to his queen. White-Red on the other hand could refer to a mystic elf woodsman meditating in the wilderness. She hunts monsters and thieves that trespass too close to sacred ruins, fighting in a fugue state of berserk violence.

Let’s consider characters from popular fiction. Frank Underwood is a notorious character, as fascinating and chilling as Richard II. I would think of Frank as Black-Blue, as ambition is his driving motivation. Guile and deceit are his favored methods. The arcane complexity of his machinations lend themselves well to Blue.

Brienne of Tarth is another fun character. Arguably, she’s minor to the plot, but she’s a huge fan favorite (and one of mine, I confess). I think I’d set her at White-Red. She primarily occupies herself with the making and keeping of oaths. Though she is very dedicated and disciplined, I think Red fits the best as a minor color with her bottled rage and shame feeding her prowess in battle. The other colors just don’t fit as well. She thinks little of her own advancement (Black), shows open disdain for cunning and subterfuge (Blue), and doesn’t really connect to a family or community (Green). You could argue that her training of Podrick and her commitment to the Starks are evidence of Green, but I see them as consequences of her ‘Whiteness.’

Ultimately, this alignment system is very vague and shifting. It’s about as subjective as an astrological sign. Two characters of identical alignments can have radically different interpretations. That’s fine. I like this style over something like the zodiac because it highlights character’s similarities. A Red-Green conqueror might respect a Green-Blue saboteur once caught and dragged before a tribunal. Their mutual expression of Green gives them a reason to share values and appreciation for the other’s motives.

The important thing is that there is great room for contradiction in a character. Characters will struggle between personal advancement and the well-being of their family. They will hesitate to condemn a criminal guilty of creating beautiful, but treasonous works. They will balk to let a volume of lost knowledge burn in a heretic’s pyre.

Alignments like ‘Chaotic Good’ don’t work because they make little sense. They don’t work because they are too consistent. Humans (and other playable races) are by nature contradictory and inconsistent creatures. It’s time we start playing them that way.