Ideals, Bonds, Flaws system for 5e Alignment

[KentDT]

I'm curious if anyone has seen or developed Ideals, Bonds and Flaws for each of the 5e Alignments?
I would have thought it to be a no-brainer and somebody to have thought it through by now but have never come across any. I suppose I could do it myself but thought I'd check here first to see if anybody knows of any already in existence.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Afraid not. I suspect it's because the ones connected to the Backgrounds in the Player's Handbook already indicate an alignment connection to one of the four corners and middle of the chart (good, evil, lawful, chaotic, neutral). Plus, I think story-wise it is easier to have connections and feelings towards that which you are and do in the world, rather than it is just grand philosophical concepts.

 

[iserith]

Yes, this is how I run Inspiration for most games: The Case for Inspiration.

And for my Planescape game, a setting which makes rather a big deal out of alignment, I added this bit:

Alignment
In the rare times when the forces of Law and Chaos are in balance, alignment matters little in the grand scheme. But in these dark times, with coterminous Planes of Evil influencing events on Clichéa, what one believes and how he or she acts on that belief matter a great deal to the outcomes manifested in this primordial, often unseen struggle.

Copy and paste the appropriate alignment for your character in the Ideal section of your personal characteristics. You can claim Inspiration for either your Ideal or your Alignment. This effectively gives you 5 different ways to achieve your 4 Inspiration for the session.

• Lawful Good. I can be counted on to do the right thing as expected by society.
• Neutral Good. I do the best I can to help others according to their needs.
• Chaotic Good. I act as my conscience directs, with little regard for what others expect.
• Lawful Neutral. I act in accordance with law, tradition, or personal codes.
• Neutral. I prefer to steer clear of moral questions and don’t take sides, doing what seems best at the time.
• Chaotic Neutral. I follow my whims, holding my personal freedom above all else.
• Lawful Evil. I methodically take what I want, within the limits of a code of tradition, loyalty, or order.
• Neutral Evil. I do whatever I can get away with, without compassion or qualms.
• Chaotic Evil. I act with arbitrary violence, spurred by my greed, hatred, or bloodlust.

 

[aco175]

I can see where backgrounds and alignment overlap and maybe alignment is just a remnant of the older editions waiting to be finally killed off in 6e. Backgrounds seem to take more into account before giving you your alignment, where if you just pick an alignment, you may feel you need to shoehorn his whole life into a sentence about each alignment.

Each background has a lift of several ideals and such that also list them as good or chaotic or such. I wish there was more for each background, but I feel free to take some from the other backgrounds. I tend to always pick some sort of good for the alignment and let the background choices determine if I am lawful good or chaotic good.

 

[bedir than]

The only time alignment comes up at my table is when players with years of play previous to 5e bring it up out-of-character. "I'm chaotic good so I..." or the like.

My NPCs judge characters on their behaviors and the legends that get built around that.

 

[Satyrn]

Yes, this is how I run Inspiration for most games: The Case for Inspiration.

And for my Planescape game, a setting which makes rather a big deal out of alignment, I added this bit:

Alignment
In the rare times when the forces of Law and Chaos are in balance, alignment matters little in the grand scheme. But in these dark times, with coterminous Planes of Evil influencing events on Clichéa, what one believes and how he or she acts on that belief matter a great deal to the outcomes manifested in this primordial, often unseen struggle.

Copy and paste the appropriate alignment for your character in the Ideal section of your personal characteristics. You can claim Inspiration for either your Ideal or your Alignment. This effectively gives you 5 different ways to achieve your 4 Inspiration for the session.

• Lawful Good. I can be counted on to do the right thing as expected by society.
• Neutral Good. I do the best I can to help others according to their needs.
• Chaotic Good. I act as my conscience directs, with little regard for what others expect.
• Lawful Neutral. I act in accordance with law, tradition, or personal codes.
• Neutral. I prefer to steer clear of moral questions and don’t take sides, doing what seems best at the time.
• Chaotic Neutral. I follow my whims, holding my personal freedom above all else.
• Lawful Evil. I methodically take what I want, within the limits of a code of tradition, loyalty, or order.
• Neutral Evil. I do whatever I can get away with, without compassion or qualms.
• Chaotic Evil. I act with arbitrary violence, spurred by my greed, hatred, or bloodlust.

If I play Batman, can I add all those to my character sheet?

 

[Satyrn]

But seriously, those are nice, extraordinarily concise definitions.

 

[iserith]

But seriously, those are nice, extraordinarily concise definitions.

I stripped them right out of the section on Alignment in the Basic Rules, so while I can claim credit for the adaptation of Inspiration, I cannot claim the definitions.

 

[jgsugden]

Look at the descriptions of these things in the backgrounds - they tie many elements to suggested aligments.

Beyond that, I usually just use the ones in the book for inpiration. I decide on things that match the back story I have for the PC.

 

[Retreater]

"Gondor has no Alignments. Gondor NEEDS no Alignments."

(Or backgrounds, flaws, bonds, ideals, inspiration, etc.)