Quote Originally Posted by Max_Killjoy View Post
Right -- I'm far more concerned with how Alignment is actually viewed and used by players; what a game designer might be trying to accomplish with Alignment and why it would be in a system at all; and whether it accomplishes anything useful to have it in a system.
Letīs take a look at Legend of the Five Rings.

Here, metaphysical rules overlap and override what we understand as "natural rules". The dominant paradigm heavily modifies what we understand as "Laws of Nature" by adding their mystical and spiritual components as "hard rules". So when you're fully aligned with one (Heaven, Hell, Nothing), the fundamental rules of the "Laws of Nature" will drastically change for you.
As Heaven is (basically) reality as we know it, once you build up enough "alignment points" with one of the other realities, the character becomes an NPC because we lack the means to handle a fundamentally different reality, like Nothing having no clear concept of form and causality.

Using Heaven means that Honor, as expressed by the Honor Rank and in-game by the code of Bushido, is a tangible thing and can have real effects, making "Honor is a force stronger than steel" true. The heart and soul of "Samurai Drama" is understanding that the seven tenets of Bushido (Duty, Compassion, Honesty...), which should advance a "harmonious society", will always cause friction and conflict, making it clear that reaching the highest ranks is a nearly superhuman feat and maybe not even desirable..... As a counter-point, there's always Shourido, but I digress....

This is Alignments taken to the end point by forcing players to actually think about their actions and consequences beyond their character and also looking at the bigger picture.