Personally, i consider the Chaos/Law-Good/Evil alignment variants to be .. lacking:
Redundant at best, and utter rubbish at worst.

So, i'm considering different ways of defining the moral compass and or broad personality for characters.
Technically, i only know of 5 different ways, of which i have only really tested 2 or 3 myself, while the 5'th is more of a "pet idea" that i have.
The ones i know, is:
* Free:
The Player decides freely, and the choise has limited or no effect on the game.
* Archetype-based:
The chosen archetype decides moral compass and/or personality, and breaking from the set rules is penalized
* Nature or Nature/Demeanor:
Anyone that has played Old World of darkness knows of this. Following ones Nature/Demeanor is encouraged and somtimes neccesary, because one regains Willpower from doing so.
* The seven Sins:
Similar to nature/demeanor, but limited to the seven deadly sins, and used in New World of Darkness.
* Divinities/Divine Principles:
My "pet idea", think in terms of pleading allegiance to a divinity (The abramic one god is not an option), or a principle/concept, or anything inbetween that may be available in the intended setting.
Law exist at least as a principality, but the "opposing force" is not Chaos, but rather Rebellion ... but really, it may even get opposed to Family, Unity, or Wisdom.
Why? Because Law is Law, not Justice, not Right, not Mercy, it is Law, at Judge Dredd-level if given enough leeway.
  Depending on setting, one may opt for Nordic Myth, Greco-Roman, or Celtic.
If one wants to go into the abramic-religous area, one may get aligned to an Archangel or similar, or one might even go religous mystic and align to a Sephiroth of the Kabbalah.
..... Or make up a whole new set of divinities for a different world.
This kind of alignment will affect moral compass and/or personality, but it may, if the setting allows, also affect far more, like magic, damage given/taken in some areas and /or vs certain opponents.

... Soo ... opinions on the different variants? Pehaps you know a variant i havent listed?

Here's a Simpsons based system (sort of, he at least uses Simpsons characters to illustrate what he means)

http://adventuresingaming2.blogspot.com/2012/10/fairy-tales-dispositions-versus.html

But personally, I like the D&D system. It's fitting of both mythology and politics (which is basically a struggle between more government and less government)

I had a thread on something similar that might be interesting, or not, awhile back.  http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=19345

My Design Archive thread also had a bit more discussion in post # 69.
http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?p=501506

To summarize from that, some options for alignment are:
*Runequest Cults type culture or religion specific codes of conduct. The mechanics for these back there were I think fairly vague. Adding mechanics to them would probably give you something like the Paths in Vampire: the Masquerade, where each Path had its own Hierarchy of Sins.
*Numerical alignments of one kind or another: HarnMaster gives characters a single "Morality" score, while games like Pendragon (or more obscurely SenZar) have multiple personality ratings for characters that can control their behaviour.
*Merits/Flaws in some games (from GURPS to Savage Worlds) can generate a sort of moral compass for characters – e.g. you can pick up some bonus points for flaws like Honest or Heroic or what-have-you. Or Bloodthirsty  and various compulsions toward bad guy stuff if you want to go in the other direction.

What do you want Alignment to be? Does it reflect Cosmic Truth, encoded into existence? Or is it simply the many, many cultural and personal behavior codes that people adopt? Start with what you want Alignment to be, and proceed from there.

(Fair warning, retrofitting another alignment system onto D&D seems like it'd take a lot of work (depending on the version of D&D you start with).)

Bloody Stupid Johnson covered a lot of options, to which I'd only add a few (most from Torg, an obscure, out of print game):

• FATE Aspects can be used to reflect personal morality.
• In the Aysle cosm for Torg, alignment was a skill, reflecting how Honorable or Corrupt you were, and each level gave you specific benefits. (Belonging to a religion also gave you benefits to different kinds of magic.)
  
• The Nile Empire, also part of Torg, had Good and Evil Inclination, and rules for converting a character from one to the other.
  
• Orrorsh, another cosm in Torg, had Corruption, an evil alignment without any corresponding good. Wicked actions increased your Corruption, and higher levels were reflected in spiritual disfigurement and (eventually) the character becoming a monster.
  
• The Space Gods cosm (yes, yet another part of Torg) had a tripartite alignment, based around the peculiarities of that culture, and characters got substantial bonuses to many skills based on what their alignment was.
  

Sorry for the Torg-blast there, but each of those alignment systems was unique, and each might provide inspiration for a different direction you could go in.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;612621I had a thread on something similar that might be interesting, or not, awhile back.http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=19345
My Design Archive thread also had a bit more discussion in post # 69.http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?p=501506
To summarize from that, some options for alignment are:
*Runequest Cults type culture or religion specific codes of conduct. The mechanics for these back there were I think fairly vague. Adding mechanics to them would probably give you something like the Paths in Vampire: the Masquerade, where each Path had its own Hierarchy of Sins.
*Numerical alignments of one kind or another: HarnMaster gives characters a single "Morality" score, while games like Pendragon (or more obscurely SenZar) have multiple personality ratings for characters that can control their behaviour.
*Merits/Flaws in some games (from GURPS to Savage Worlds) can generate a sort of moral compass for characters – e.g. you can pick up some bonus points for flaws like Honest or Heroic or what-have-you. Or Bloodthirsty  and various compulsions toward bad guy stuff if you want to go in the other direction.

Thank you, this is really interesting, i may look at the links later

Quote from: Daddy Warpig;612626What do you want Alignment to be? Does it reflect Cosmic Truth, encoded into existence? Or is it simply the many, many cultural and personal behavior codes that people adopt? Start with what you want Alignment to be, and proceed from there.

(Fair warning, retrofitting another alignment system onto D&D seems like it'd take a lot of work (depending on the version of D&D you start with).)

• FATE Aspects can be used to reflect personal morality.
• In the Aysle cosm for Torg, alignment was a skill, reflecting how Honorable or Corrupt you were, and each level gave you specific benefits. (Belonging to a religion also gave you benefits to different kinds of magic.)
  
• The Nile Empire, also part of Torg, had Good and Evil Inclination, and rules for converting a character from one to the other.
  
• Orrorsh, another cosm in Torg, had Corruption, an evil alignment without any corresponding good. Wicked actions increased your Corruption, and higher levels were reflected in spiritual disfigurement and (eventually) the character becoming a monster.
  
• The Space Gods cosm (yes, yet another part of Torg) had a tripartite alignment, based around the peculiarities of that culture, and characters got substantial bonuses to many skills based on what their alignment was.
  

Sorry for the Torg-blast there, but each of those alignment systems was unique, and each might provide inspiration for a different direction you could go in.

The part i bolded, is a really good question, i have to say that it is a little bit of both that i'm thinking of, and that it would be up to the GM and the setting how much it goes in one or the other direction.

The TORG examples are great, what i remember from TORG myself (mainly the odd mix of genres and settings, and the plot behind them all) i mainly liked.

Ok, it seems that the title of the topic has confused you (and perhaps others as well), see, personally i'm not interested in D&D, so this list is for any "game in progress" where the D&D-styled alignments do not fit, or if anyone wants to replace it.

Personally, i'm making a kind of multigenre-game that is to be divided into a few different games, in one, alignment may be barely important, in another it may just affect morals, and in another, it may be as if one has pledged servitude to a divinity.
Or perhaps i should have the same set of Alignments in the entirety of the multi-genre-games.

Quote from: JeremyR;612218Here's a Simpsons based system (sort of, he at least uses Simpsons characters to illustrate what he means)

http://adventuresingaming2.blogspot.com/2012/10/fairy-tales-dispositions-versus.html

But personally, I like the D&D system. It's fitting of both mythology and politics (which is basically a struggle between more government and less government)

As i told Daddy Warpig above, this list is not mainly for D&D-playing, but for a different game, a different setting.

.... Perhaps i should have mentioned that clearly in OP ...

d20 Modern's Allegiance system. Everyone has three Allegiances, which can include the traditional L/G/C/E, Balance, or any other set of virtues or loyalties.

Even better, everyone has three Allegiances they serve and one they oppose.

Of course, given my own preferences, I'd like to see each character's unique moral code represented as an Aspect, a la FATE, so you'd have High Concept, Trouble, and Alignment as your "fixed" Aspects before you chose your free Aspects.

I absolutely love the old TMNT Palladium style.  They took different terms to give a moral compass to the character, and listed a "commandments" style list including such things as Will take bribes if no one is looking, and will not kill an unarmed foe.  They were broken down to give a better explanation than l/g/c/n/e.

Quote from: rway218;620276I absolutely love the old TMNT Palladium style.  They took different terms to give a moral compass to the character, and listed a "commandments" style list including such things as Will take bribes if no one is looking, and will not kill an unarmed foe.  They were broken down to give a better explanation than l/g/c/n/e.

Really, to me, the Palladium style for their TMNT&os as well as Heroes Unlimited (it was the same) is just another D&D-style alignment system.
The detailing ....
I mean, the detailing does not work, in the basic TMNT&os Rulebook, there is even a villain that directly breaks that same alignment system!
What was it now ... He is "Principled" towards humans, but Malicous or something such towards mutated animals.
..... And is there any possibility for a Player character to "mix alignments" in any way at all?
No, there is not.
I never could find a set where the "Commandments" fit a character i'd play with ....

Quote from: Catelf;612086* The seven Sins:
Similar to nature/demeanor, but limited to the seven deadly sins, and used in New World of Darkness.

It might be more accurate to say that the moral compass is actually measured by Morality and its splat-specific alternatives. For instance, even the amoral Fae have their Vices and Virtues (although their Willpower gains for those are reversed), but no Morality equivalent whatsoever.

By the way, the upcoming nWoD rules revisions will apparently replace Morality with "Integrity" that acts more like a sanity mechanic, and the Vices and Virtues with a wider selection of personal options.

I liked Paul Mason's use of Motivations, described in detail in Imazine issues 26 and 27 iirc.

In Dangerous Journeys Gygax trimmed down the 9 fold AD&D alignment system to 5 ethoi. One thing he did was eliminate the neutral stance between good and evil, noting that Good and Evil are not philosophies you adopt, but things you do. You cannot be Good, Evil, or Neutral, you can do good, evil, or both.

So in DJ you have the ethoi of; Gloomy Darkness (Lawful Evil), Shadowy Darkness (Chaotic Evil), Balance (Neutrality), Moonlight (Chaotic Good), and Sunlight (Lawful Good), the second referring to how people holding that ethos tend to behave. An adherent of Gloomy Darkness believes that order and discipline, and is willing to hurt people to see that the necessary order is upheld. An adherent of Shadowy Darkness harms others to keep himself free of outside control, and is convinced that everyone needs to be wary of the world and the dangers within it.

Note too that people in real life often contradict themselves. We do good for the people we know, and will do evil to those we don't know. It is my impression that we are all sociopathic to some others, though mostly not to those we are familiar with. We can, and do, both good and evil, and that is the way we are.

I like the LotFP alignments; Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic. Raggi says in the descriptions that the alignments are largely meaningless; all mundane characters are effectively Neutral, Magic Users are Chaotic, and Clerics are Lawful. Alignments only exist in the game because certain spell effects affect certain alignments (which I haven't come across yet)

Perhaps i should have explained better what i mean with D&D-styled .....