The 5e alignment system is a useful shorthand and a misleading trap. The Outer Planes as presented in the 2014 Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide only make the alignment system’s problems worse. The perfect overlap between alignments and planes—and the total lack of alternative Outer Planes—reinforces the alignment system’s worst inclinations: easy stereotyping, reductionist thinking, and a restriction of creative possibilities.

So what the heck are you supposed to do?

I admit, the alignment system is a useful shorthand, and I use it as such. Two words spoken between jargon experts convey a great deal. During character creation, I still think about where my characters fall in the alignment spectrums.

But as a shorthand the alignment system is also inherently reductionist. And, especially when paired with the metaphysical justification of the Outer Planes, it discourages any examination of nuance. How do you categorize a character who is obsessed with protecting their community and generous to their neighbors, but who has a pathological hatred of another group of people? According to the Forgotten Realms setting, they’re probably Lawful Good or Lawful Neutral and a member of the Lords’ Alliance. According to our own world’s history, they might be a member of the KKK.

Simply calling someone Lawful Good or Chaotic Evil too quickly sorts them. That label does nothing to judge the morality of their actions. It may be better to say that these alignments are a description of a character’s outlook rather than a summation of their true identity. But 5e (and D&D historically) confuses the issue by using the term alignment for both run-of-the-mill mortals and creatures which embody and personify those alignments, without much mechanical distinction.

The PHB vaguely acknowledges the flexibility of the alignment label on p122 when it says, “These brief summaries of the nine alignments describe the typical behavior of a creature with that alignment. Individuals might vary significantly from that typical behavior, and few people are perfectly and consistently faithful to the precepts of their alignment.” However, the PHB then goes on to say that the evil races “have strong inborn tendencies that match the nature of their gods,” and that half-orcs “feel the lingering pull of the orc god’s influence” and are more likely to be evil and violent. 5e is trying to have it both ways.

Because of this muddled messaging and the perennial moral absolutism of 5e’s default setting of the Forgotten Realms, 5e’s alignment system decisively sides with Nature over Nurture. It only leaves room for the exception that proves the rule (I’m looking at you, Drizzt). As you might expect, this justifies stereotyping and reductionist thinking. It is used by PCs (and storytellers) to excuse mass murder, as long as the people being killed are the ‘evil’ ones.

I’m down with escapist fantasy, but… I don’t want my game system to tell me that I should feel warm and fuzzy about massacres as long as I choose the right target.

All these issues with the alignment system might not be so bad, if the system weren’t backed up by a direct connection to the game’s default afterlife. The description of the Outer Planes comes complete with implicit rewards for being Good and punishments for being Evil. It also suggests that anyone whose alignment doesn’t match the alignment of the Outer Plane they’re on will feel uncomfortable. Personally, I suspect that not being tortured by devils or caught in a never-ending cosmic war matters more than a plane’s vibe.

Worse, there’s an Outer Plane for every alignment—and that’s it. That’s all the Outer Planes. 5e’s alignment system describes a full paradigm of morality, implicitly describing all morality that exists, and then offers a full paradigm of Outer Planes linked to that system on a one-to-one basis. It doesn’t make room for anything else (which you might already know I hate). This implies that the linked moral paradigm is universal and absolute, and further empowers it as a tool for categorizing and stereotyping.

This is why I put so much energy into throwing out and rewriting the Outer Planes for my games. I hate dealing with the implicit baggage of the alignment system, and the default Outer Planes only make all of that worse. My recommendation to every storyteller is to read as much of that setting material as they can stand (because some of it is neat, and if your players have read it they might assume that it exists in your game), and then to throw out most of it and make your own stuff.

So go have fun. Throw it all out, scrawl your own new details over the old ones, and do whatever you have to in order to make the Outer Planes yours and break out of the alignment trap. Whatever you make, I’ll bet it’s better than locking yourself inside the existing system.