Moral alignment is a fierce discourse in the tabletop RPG space. It's been soul-crushing to witness the TRPG community war over the handling of morality, with real-life biases still permeating what many view as their safe space in an all too prejudiced world.
It's a conversation that can get pretty heated, especially with big players like Wizards of the Coast sitting at the top of our best tabletop RPG list and desperately trying to please everyone with the latest changes to the Dungeons & Dragons 5e system (we'll get to that in a moment). It's had me lamenting not just the way certain species are associated with good or evil, but how good and evil are often so cut-and-dry in tabletop systems. So many still overlook the nuances of that glorious grey area that encourages players to see new perspectives, and empathize with those lashing out.
Then into my life wandered Grey Wizard's anime-inspired Break!! TRPG. This is a game that handles moral alignment in such an inspired way that it perfectly exemplifies how I feel morality should be approached in tabletop RPG design. Their system has reminded me why I started playing tabletop games in the first place – to get away from wretched preconceptions and see the world from a new perspective.
So I thought I'd have a chat with Break!! designers Reynaldo Madriñan and Carlo Tartaglia to see where their minds were at when designing the game, and what drew them to handling moral alignment the way they did. First, though, a bit of background.
The problem as it stands
In case you're not aware of how split the views on moral alignment in TRPGs are, on one side of the argument are those who believe fantasy species' moral alignment should be based on their physiology – an outdated and incredibly problematic worldview in any context. The usual justification is a permutation of "it's just a fantasy setting," because no fantasy prejudice has ever spilled over to affect a real human, no sir. From what I've seen, their reasoning tends to revolve around the need for at least one sapient species to be easy to dehumanise and use as cannon fodder. Because getting involved in an ethical quandary every session would be too puzzling over the usual riddles-three.
The other side rejects the bioessentialist view that morality should be based around a creature or character's genetic makeup, and should instead be established by their actions – the "content of their character" to quote Martin Luther King JR.
Race-based morality is something players saw a lot in tabletop RPGs when they first popped up, including previous versions of D&D. Back then, some races (now renamed species) such as Orcs were listed with an inherently evil alignment. And while there have been some changes throughout the years, the current 2024 Monster Manual has seen Wizards of the Coast add a disclaimer to the alignments listed beside each of the creatures in the compendium.
"The alignment specified in a monster's stat block is a default suggestion of how to roleplay the monster, inspired by its traditional role in the game or real-world folklore," it says. It then goes on to invite DMs to "freely change a monster's alignment to suit your storytelling needs." And while many have taken the changes to be a step in the right direction, one could just as easily see it as hand-waving the problem altogether.
Mending what was broken
As a ten-year project, Reynaldo and Carlo put a lot of thought into Break!! and especially into distinguishing it from its roots as a D&D B/X inspired system. Here, a mechanic known as Allegiance replaces alignment with a spectrum that oscillates between the Profound Dark and the Invincible Bright, neither of which are expressly associated with good or evil. Dark and Light are only given real significance as an aesthetic tool to flavour your character's actions or, more accurately, their spells.
In Break!!, the major force that pushes a character toward a certain Allegiance is their choice of magic. In other words, Allegiances are more like "Different wells of magic individuals draw from", Reynaldo notes. "I've always liked Light/Dark as odd mystical forces that need to be interpreted, rather than things that were inherently one thing or another."
Importantly there are no restrictions on which spells you can take in Break!!, with each new Rank of a magic user's Calling (similar to D&D's Class system) offering a host of both Light and Dark spells, each as devastating as the other.
The Heretic Calling, for example, gives players access to both Light and Dark 'Sealed Names' (self proclaimed Gods) that they can summon to help them on their journey. Because no matter which way you lean, you're always a Heretic to someone. This lack of restriction means your character may swing wildly between the two ends of the spectrum, leaving a lot of space for positive and negative character arcs to form and play out.
Reynaldo notes that their decision to separate Allegiance from morality altogether means you really "have to get to know an individual in-game to decide what kind of person they are rather than just knowing because they use a certain kind of magic."
What's fun is that leaning into either the Profound Dark or Invincible Bright too far will see your character gaining different Gifts – visible attributes that change your character's physiology – which, at either end of the spectrum, make them rather unsettling for the unaffiliated to behold. But the only real detriment to choosing one magic over another is that your character may become more susceptible to whichever magic they are less familiar with.
To defy the laws of tradition
Something that makes a huge difference is that players are presented with Callings as a base for their character design. It's the first thing you roll up, rather than starting your character creation journey with species. "We felt like the Calling being first was important as it's kind of the skeleton of your character that everything builds off of", says Reynaldo. And while it might seem inconsequential, it puts more weight into the content of character as opposed to their physiology.
When it comes to the way your character acts and what they're good at, their Species does come with some Outlooks that are seen less as absolutes, and more as wisdom passed down through their culture. These are meant to "Give players an idea of what their character could be like but can just as easily be ignored", says Reynaldo. The example he gives is that, while many Prometheans might act recklessly since they're able to regenerate limbs, a Promethean with the Jumpy quirk "Certainly does not share that aforementioned lack of concern for danger".
Even when you meet a mega boss monster as a wild encounter in the Outer World, their mood table could push the meeting entirely one way or another. A humongous, horned Giga Gruun might be found furiously stampeding in a boredom-induced rampage, but there's just as much chance that he'll be "accompanying a local child out on an errand".
All this is couched in the vagueness of the 'probable' history of the Outer World, which leaves a lot of stuff around morality and alignment open to interpretation. Was the Wondersmith really an evil betrayer, or is that just one scholar's version of ancient history? It's this nebulous lore that makes it easy to see the Bright and Dark forces as beliefs that clash, rather than undeniable good versus the definitively evil.
That is exactly the kind of thing I want to see from my TRPGs: nebulous alignment that encourages you to dive into a character's beliefs and reasoning, rather than judging them based on their external appearance. I hope more tabletop games take Break!! as an example, because this kind of nonsense makes my little goth heart very happy.
For more, why not check out some solo TRPGs or some free content I spotted for Break!!
