:: VARIANT ALIGNMENT RULES

:: An optional "House Rule" for D&D which changes the Alignment issue to allow for much more customization, and lots of interesting options. Instead of just nine alignments, you have three areas and define your alignment through them; They are:

:: Good/Benevolence - a number representing you and whether you'd be willing to give up stuff for the less fortunate, or take it from them. A positive number would be "good", and a negative number would be "evil." A neutral or indifferent character would be 0.

:: Order/Stability - a representation of the character's attitude towards law, structured society, tradition, etc. a positive number would be "lawful", where a negative number would be "chaotic". a neutral number would be neutrality or indifference.

:: Balance - This represents the character's attitude towards a balanced state of nature. Druids and rangers usually have a positive rating here, because they respect nature a great deal. Characters with a negative value in this area would either want to destroy the balance (crazy people would be like this) or they would want to tip this balance in their favor(therefore evil).

The numbers range from +3 to -3 for each area. +3 is reserved for extremists. If you take a +3 or a -3 in any area, you must take a 0 (no more, no less) in each other area. A paladin must take a +2 in either Good/Benevolence(G/B) or Order/Stability(O/S) and a +1 in the other, but can take a +2 in both areas if they wish. Monks must have a +2 in O/S.

Example character: Tol, who would be chaotic evil in the traditional alignment, is a G/B: -1, O/S: -1, B: 0. What this means is that if able, he will take from others to give to himself, but won't go on psychotic rampages killing people he believes to be innocent just to take their (few) gold pieces. That is what the -1 in Good/Benevolence stands for. He does not necessarily consider himself evil, he just is not a very good person in his mind, due to "necessity" as is usually the case. The -1 in Order/Stability means that he opposes laws that he considers unfair to anyone, he seeks out and destroys what he considers wrong with NO care for the laws that govern (in his case, he will destroy all slavery, ESPECIALLY when it is Drow who have been enslaved, due to his past experiences) and he abhors tyranny, tradition, and still has an immense hatred for his father, who was a king. He cares nothing about the balance of nature, but if he met a druid who sought help, he'd likely do something because he "could care less, but... then it's not something he opposes either."
All that from just three numbers. How is that chaotic evil I ask you? Sure, he sides with the drow in an argument, and will slaughter paladins as well as Blackguards if they oppose him. He's got more than one kind of police force out to kill him, on charges of murder, but his diplomatic tongue has convinced more than one man to question his purpose in killing him. For this reason, he may someday make an excellent leader.

Now let's look at an aristocrat: O/S: +3 He cares about the law and nothing else. The law is holy. It is infallible. It is what determines what is fair and what is unjust. Fairness is what is granted by the law. He will not allow the laws to be changed as it would hint at the laws being unfair. To him, everything has a rational expression, and an answer. For this reason, he has no Good/Benevolence score, as nothing can knock him from his current position until he changes his position on the law. In order to be "corrupt" he would have to stray from his current alignment, by lowering his O/S score. At that point, he would be given a 0 in both Balance and Good/Benevolence, and from there he would develop his own attitude towards the world. What could provoke such a drastic change? Only one thing: a WOMAN.

And now, the evil necromancer: O/S: 0. G/B: -2, B: -1 The evil necromancer Boogitywoogity seeks to attain lichdom and turn all the power in the surrounding area towards his control. He woud take whatever he could from anyone, hence the -2 in G/B, and because he seeks power, he gets a -1 in Balance. If he became obsessive with power and got greedy and refused to allow the chance of anyone else getting to it, he might go farther down the line there, and sink to -2. This might happen if heroes intervened. If he went PSYCHOTIC, and ONLY if that happened, he would try to destroy all the power in the area and this sink to -3 in balance. He would then go on a rampage, killing, destroying, etc. If he did all that to steal, or to take and gain as much as possible, he'd be -3 in G/B. Note that he would have to focus on nothing but that though, so he couldn't be "evil" and psychotic at the same time. (In case you're wondering, evil is in quotes because at its core it is an opinion. Psychosis is very much real and alive and well. Much more popular.)

And now Ed, the psycho: B: -3 After working for the postal service for three years and slowly slipping into psychosis (go take a course in psychology if this subject interests you - you will learn SO much), Ed wants to destroy "the lies, the lies, ALL THE LIES!" and he goes on a rampage in the city killing over 10 people including his wife and kids. Don't think a human can make a difference? Think again. Some heroes would definitely want to find out what the HELL happened to provoke this, and they discover that there's a group of girls who delighted in driving people over the edge. Technically, it's legal. Have the players face the situation where the real murderers are protected by the law. This happens in real life. At any given moment, 55% of the population is in a state of neurosis - somewhere between "normal" and psychosis. Kinda scary, huh? Now think about how often a crazy person should be at the heart of an adventure. Perhaps divine influence? A cursed item?