A New Player’s Guide to the D&D Alignment System

Getting started on creating a character and their story

I adore Dungeons and Dragons. I’ve been playing for about two-and-a-half years now, and I can’t get enough of it.

But I definitely struggle with character creation. The paperwork throws me off — I love to tell a good story and create a believable person to portray, but I also look at the typical character sheet and want to scream. So, I focus on creating a story first and then working in the mechanics.

That’s where alignment comes in.

What is Alignment?

Alignment is what we call our characters’ main personality indicators. In D&D, these are described in terms of a three-by-three chart that labels your character as two of the following:

• Lawful
• Chaotic
• Good
• Evil
• Neutral