Character Alignment

Alignment determines how your character assesses a particular situation, and what it 'means' to him/her.  There are two, separate scales to consider:

• good, neutral and evil
• law, neutrality and chaos

Good, Neutral, Evil

Your character may be completely indifferent to such "morals", or start out with strong views of what is "right" and "wrong" in his/her eyes.

Good characters would be more likely to wish to assist their fellow men, or perhaps not allow harm to befall a friend.  By contrast, an evil character may spend all day brooding about and plotting the downfall of his perceived enemies, simply have no care for life and wish to see the "weak" obliterated, or even have some desire to bring about as much death as possible.

Your natural tendencies can be exacerbated by the greater sentient powers within the multiverse.  These powers are known as the "Spheres", and are drawn upon by Priests and Acolytes.  If you take a connection to a particular Sphere (e.g. the Evil Sphere), then over time it will cause your outlook to become more strongly aligned with its nature.  So a good priest might become more benevolent over time, whereas an evil priest may lose what love he once had for his fellow man.

Law, Neutrality, Chaos

A lawful character would generally honour and respect society's rules, whereas a chaotic character would seek to oppose them.

In HeroQuest we strongly discourage chaotic player characters: in-game your character's life is controlled by the guilds via a feudal hierarchy, and a continued rebellion against "the hand that feeds you" would essentially cause your training, sleeping quarters, clothing, armour and items to be withdrawn. 

Out of character, HeroQuest is intended - in the main - to be a collaborative role-playing game.  We have "in character" laws that prevent you killing, harming or thieving from other characters, because out-of-character we consider this extremely undesirable behaviour.  That is not to say that we don't expect tension between characters, only that we don't want the players behind these characters to become upset due to actions by other players.

There are a small number of non-player-characters (NPCs) who are suspected to be of chaotic alignment but have worked their way upto a position of power within their Guild.  These individuals are few and far between.

Combining the Scales

Your character may be extremely Lawful - for example, your word is your bond - while still being inherently Evil (Lawful Evil); or perhaps you have a strong desire to perform Good deeds, but are not really interested in "traditions and red tape" while not actively opposing it (Neutral Good).  A character who has no strong inclinations on either axis is sometimes called "True Neutral", but deliberately pursuing a path of Neutrality is known to be extremely difficult.

Alignment is frequently used in paper-based role-playing systems.  Much has been written on the internet about what attributes a character might possess for each combination, as well as plenty of "alignment quizzes", should you wish to delve deeper into fleshing out your character's moral and ethical compass.

Unless you are playing a priest, there is no need to declare yourself in advance to be a particular alignment, and you are certainly under no compulsion to tell other people (in or out-of-character) what your character's outlook is - although this may gradually become apparent by your actions over time...