Alignment and you

So the subject of alignment popped into my head just recently. We all had a conversation bach in the day bout hitlers alignment. So he's evil right? Well yes but not in his mind. Obviously this isn't really true to our system. He is evil but really a different kind of evil. Had he toned it some with the anti everyone else he may be painted as a sort of patriot in circles. Sadly this wasn't the case. I remember back to parties were everyone in the party was evil. These groups were fun but the reasoning of their evilness wasn't always there. Some characters have to be evil by design of their race or undeadness. We all know there are exceptions to this and vice versa. The usual bent of most groups are non-evil. In the present there seems to be alignment requirements for the groups we play. This could be done for the reason that the campaign was supposed to be a flavor and being chaotic evil in a group of lawful goods doesn't always work. The other bit that I always thought is that "how do the other players know what my alignment is". Now I know there are spells but who really needs to go casting this all the time. There are times when it is needed but in a group the one thing that shouldn't pop up is the alignment issue. I can't work with so and so cause he's evil. In most bits I think someones actions should dictate the other characters perception of them. Another thing is the alignment change. Doing one really horrible thing might make you evil but in most terms it should take over time to develop into full blow evilness. The road there is more fun then simply being there from the beginning. Sure there can be exceptions but when everyone is evil is rarely takes much to go on before things go over the edge. When all are willing to sacrifice and kill everyone they find it loses its charm. It isn't as kewl when it's the norm instead of the exception. When there is one guy who doesn't always go with the flow and do the norm it's refreshing. When there is an awesome story to go along with it; it's even better. The usual evil doers who happen to be good is also fun. When the norm for the characters is not what their motivation is it can be fun. I have kind of swayed away from alignment due to it being too much of a tool and restriction rather than a resource. It seems to be something that defines the players actions rather than a construct defined by the players actions. It tends to dumb decisions into "could he do this" rather than "ya lets do this". Some prestige classes require it and then it becomes "only this type of person can do this". In some cases this is warranted, in others just horrible. It becomes less amusing when one or two rules dictate what is and what will never be rather then decisions that create a story that is fascinating to witness and create.

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