I like alignment. I think it’s a useful shorthand for how various creatures behave. I like my monsters monstrous, so I can’t stand the idea of an orc paladin.✽ I wrote previously about changing from the traditional D&D nine alignments to just four alignments. But now I think a more useful way to think about alignment is by assigning them less restrictively.

Instead of saying a monster type is lawful-evil, as if every member of that group would think the same way, allow creatures to be their assigned alignment or one step away up, down, left, or right (but not diagonal). So “lawful-evil” can be LE, LN, or NE. “true neutral” can be be NG, LN, N, CN, or NE.

✽ If you really want an orc paladin, you could make him a polymorphed or cursed human who just looks like an orc. But playing a monster who doesn’t eat people is just silly; the point of monsters is that they eat people. It would be better to play a foreigner from a rival realm or something.