Alignments June 1990 One of the basic structures of the game, is the concept of alignment. Alignment is the way the game uses to differentiate between the 'good guys' and the 'bad guys'. This file give information about the five alignments that occur in the game. Lawful - Most of the players are of this alignment. Lawfuls are not supposed to attack each other, and the game exacts penalties for players that kill lawful players and creatures. For the most part, this penalty is having your alignment changed to neutral, and having to get forgiven. A lawful character or creature will have no symbol in front of their name. Lawful creatures and computer controlled humans (referred to as NPCs, non-player characters, such as the priest and sheriff) will not attack other lawfuls, but will attack any other alignment. Neutral - This alignment is the alignment of thieves, and players who kill lawfuls. A neutral will have a '!' in front of their name. Thieves, however, have the ability to mask their alignment so that they will appear lawful to all but knights. There are also a few creatures in the game with this alignment. Neutral characters and critters will be attacked by both critters and NPCs of all other alignments. If you are lawful and kill anything else that is lawful, you will turn neutral. This can be very inconvenient, and sometimes dangerous, since the lawful npc's and creatures in town will attack neutrals on sight. Also, if your weapon is lawful, you will not be able to use it until you get forgiven. If the lawful that you killed was human, you will have a karma point, which will show up when you use the 'show stats' command. Chaotic - Most of the computer generated creatures are of this type. Characters can not become chaotic. Chaotics will not attack each other, but will attack all other alignments. Chaotics have a '*' in front of their name. Evil - Both players and creatures can become evil. Evil players are created by taking 4 karma points (see the file 'karma.ref' for more information). Evils will attack all others, including other evils. Evil players will not be resurrected when killed. Evils have a '+' in front of their names. Amoral - There is one last alignment saved for the game masters and some of their creations, Amoral. Like lawful creatures, Amoral creatures have no symbol in front of their names. The special attribute about Amoral creatures is that they cannot be effected by spells or weapons. Amoral creatures are special purpose creatures who will not attack you. Self Defense - This is not an alignment per se, but it is similar. When another player has set your self defense flag, intentionally or by accident, or by stealing from you and getting caught (see karma.ref), there will be an '@' in front of their name. You will receive a message saying " has attacked you!" This means that you may attack and kill the player without turning neutral or taking a karma point. This allows you to defend yourself without being penalized. Note that this does not necessarily mean that the player intended to attack you; accidents happen quite often when area spells like fireball or icestorm are being used, thus you should not automatically attack someone when you see this message unless you have reason to believe that they really intend you harm. If the attack was unintentional, you can remove the '@' symbol by petting the person; otherwise self defense will remain in effect until you exit the game completely (quitting to conference rooms will not remove it), or until another player attacks you.