Alignments
Good Alignments
Good-aligned characters are the out-and-out heroes of the Rifts setting. They generally place a high value on life and liberty, as well as law and order. Just because a character is of good alignment, however, does not mean he's a saint or without bad habits. Good characters can be irritating, obnoxious and arrogant, even prejudiced and full of annoying quirks. Likewise, they may find themselves stepping outside of the boundaries of the law in their quest to combat evil and injustice. But when push comes to shove, these characters can always be trusted to do the right thing, especially in a life and death situation.
Selfish Alignments
Selfish characters are not necessarily evil, but they always have their own best interests at heart and their opinions in mind above all others These are the mercenaries, rogues, vigilantes, and anti-heroes of the world.
Evil Alignments
All evil characters are not necessarily bent on universal genocide or dominating all other living creatures. Nor are all evil characters sadistic, cruel, ugly, or untrustworthy. Many evil characters may actually seem kind or likeable.
Evil alignments are a step beyond the self-gratification of the Selfish alignments. Evil characters are ruthless individuals who are willing to say or do anything to achieve their goals. Most commonly, evil characters have goals that either entail making people suffer, or cause suffering as a side effect (A side effect the evil character knowingly and callously disregards). Human life has little meaning to them, and friends tend to be (but not always) people to use and discard when they are no longer of any value. Evil-aligned characters do not automatically slay any good-aligned person because of different ethics and philosophy. All the better to use good to achieve their own goals, for the ends always justify the means.
Evil alignments are a step beyond the self-gratification of the Selfish alignments. Evil characters are ruthless individuals who are willing to say or do anything to achieve their goals. Most commonly, evil characters have goals that either entail making people suffer, or cause suffering as a side effect (A side effect the evil character knowingly and callously disregards). Human life has little meaning to them, and friends tend to be (but not always) people to use and discard when they are no longer of any value. Evil-aligned characters do not automatically slay any good-aligned person because of different ethics and philosophy. All the better to use good to achieve their own goals, for the ends always justify the means.
No Neutral Alignments |
There is no such thing as an absolute true neutral alignment in Rifts. A character with an absolute, true neutral position could not make a decision, fight tyranny, hurt others, go adventuring, or take any action of any kind without leaning toward good, evil, or self-gratification. It is humanly impossible, and therefore is eliminated from the context of this game. There are some philosophers out there who might disagree with this, but that's a topic for another forum and not a factor in the Rifts RPG.