243 New Alignments

This was originally written in 2011 and is appearing here as part of Throwback Thursday.

There have been a couple of sites taking interesting looks at the meaning of each of the alignments in the two axis, nine alignment system. All of this reminded me of an idea I had more than a decade ago, but at the time wasn't able to fully realize.

I have always been a huge proponent of alignments, even when their detractors have been most vocal. From my perspective, when I am DMing, alignments can be an invaluable tool for getting a very quick understanding into how a monster/NPC operates. As a player, alignments aren't nearly so useful, but neither have I ever felt restricted by them the way some people do.

Being that I see alignments as a great source of information, it always seemed logical to me that rather than do away with them (as some have proposed) we should be seeking to expand them.


The Two Ways To Expand Alignment

I had two ideas for how to expand alignment, both of which were stemmed from the concept that alignments could be represented by two axis with three possible values.

Expand the length of the axis from 3 to 5, thereby creating 25 possibly alignments. The alignments would still cover the same range as the current ones, but would give a more detailed notion of where a creature lay.
Instead add a third axis, giving a total of 27 alignments.
The first idea was easy to implement, but difficult to see the benefit of. While it makes sense that there might be some people who are a light good and some who are a lot good, from a game perspective describing an NPC as a little bit good raises more questions that it answers.

The second idea really appealed to me, but I couldn't for the life of my figure out what the other axis would be. The nine alignment system seemed so self contained, that anything else would just feel out of place. However, in preparing to write this article I came upon a possible answer.


The Big Five Personality Traits

In contemporary psychology, the “Big Five” factors (or Five Factor Model; FFM) of personality are five broad domains or dimensions of personality which are used to describe human personality.

The Big Five factors and their constituent traits can be summarized as:

• Openness – (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious). Appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, curiosity, and variety of experience.
• Conscientiousness – (efficient/organized vs. easy-going/careless). A tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement; planned rather than spontaneous behaviour.
• Extroversion – (outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved). Energy, positive emotions, surgency, and the tendency to seek stimulation in the company of others.
• Agreeableness – (friendly/compassionate vs. cold/unkind). A tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others.
• Neuroticism – (sensitive/nervous vs. secure/confident). A tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, or vulnerability.

Now if you assume that Conscientiousness is represented by the Lawful-Chaotic axis and that Agreeableness is represented by the Good-Evil axis then you would be left with Openness, Extroversion and Neuroticism to make up three more axis.

Obviously having five different values being measured would mean an end to the graphical representation of alignment with axis; a suitable replacement would be five parallel lines, or scales.

Here is what such a system might look like:

Now admittedly, before this could be truly useful a few adjustments would need to be made – notably the terms need to be revised to avoid ones that start with the same letter (to preserve the usefulness of writing in the format LG). But otherwise I could see a more complex alignment system such as this being a boon.