I’ve been playtesting the new Neverwinter MMORPG from Cryptic since the open beta launched last month, and I have to say, it’s a ton of fun. But one thing seriously missing is Alignment. For those of you unfamiliar with Alignment in Dungeons and Dragons, let me sum it up: Alignment is essentially your moral code. A Lawful Good character follows the laws of goodness, where as a Chaotic Good character is just good for the sake of goodness, but doesn’t follow any rules to be so. A Lawful Evil character has a code that she follows in her quest for evil, where a Chaotic Evil character is just a rampaging lunatic, wreaking havoc with no rhyme or reason. You also have your Neutral alignments, which gives you more of a grey area to operate in.

Without Alignment, certain character classes have little in-game consequences for playing out of their “moral” role. A Paladin could wantonly kill without any repercussions, an evil Cleric could avoid cruel deeds and still hold favor with his gods. With Alignment, there are consequences. You could lose your powers, or your god could curse you.

Alignment is a hard thing to implement in an MMORPG, but it looks like Goblinworks is doing just that with their Pathfinder game. Here is Rich Baker (one of the Goblinworks game developers) with more information:

Including a reasonably faithful implementation of the alignment system helps Pathfinder Online provide a better translation of the tabletop game into a MMORPG. After all, what’s the point of including the paladin if we don’t define objective standards of “lawful” and “good” in the game? Without those, the paladin would be just another fighter with some cross-training in cleric, or vice versa. Likewise, clerics dedicated to serving good-aligned gods should experience real consequences for committing evil acts, and monks who abandon their lives of discipline and community should likewise suffer the loss of special abilities arising from their devotion to a philosophy greater than themselves.

In addition to specific character abilities dependent on alignment, alignment also matters for dealing with NPCs, equipping certain magic items, and the alliances a character can join—the Hellknights don’t have much use for chaotic folks, for example. Settlements also have alignments; a settlement’s alignment is selected by its leader at founding, and anyone who wishes to join the settlement must have an alignment within one step of the settlement’s alignment. Unlike Reputation, alignment isn’t immediately apparent on inspection. There are spells and abilities that allow you to discern a character’s alignment, but without magic, you’ll have to rely on careful observation to determine if someone is evil or simply misunderstood.

What’s exciting about this to me, personally, is that Role Playing will end up being a much stronger part of Pathfinder Online’s core game mechanic. I love playing Neutral Good Rangers, and now, the game will expect me to stay in character. Playing a Paladin as a paragon of virtue is going to be more than just a choice; you will need to conduct yourself accordingly, or risk losing your powers.

For more information on how Alignment will be incorporated into Pathfinder Online, check out the dev blog here!