I don't think "neutral" in this case mean that you have no ideology or believes, or having no strong feeling in any direction (Futurama anyone?), just that it cannot be classed as good or as evil. All neutrals certainly do not share the same ideology (or gods for that matter), and I don't believe that that has been claimed by the game. It should be seen as a collection of ideologies that is not "good" or "evil". Just as good or evil alignment should be seen as a collection of more or less "good" or "evil" philosophies respectively. Two good (or two evil) characters does not necessarily need to share the same believes or worship the same entity.

I get the impression that your card is more to the "good" side where it should be more to the "middle" to better correspond to the characters that share that alignment, that is all.

I think the thing about Alignments in Talisman is that they are not theological or idealogical, and based more in general "behaviour".

I do not really know much about sub-Alignments in RPGs but I would really think of Good, Neutral and Evil in Talisman as Lawful Good, Neutral Good/Neutral/Neutral Evil and Chaotic Evil.

There is a place for belief within these Alignments so praying would be okay as you could be praying to a variety of Gods or whatever.

Think of it as Good people help the old lady across the road, Evil people push the old lady out in front of a truck and Neutral people might do one or the other or neither.

I believe you are right about thinking more that Neutral is about Balance, but in Talisman it is simply known as Neutral!

EDIT - That's what you get for going for a quick bath between starting a post and finishing it! I think basically this is what Hinnyboy is alluding to!

Most certainly there are multiple ways to interpret it as you like... just as I have. As to the old woman, the Neutral would probably just go about its own business... or judge what to do by some other method, ethics (codes of conduct), or morality (free reasoning of right and wrong). After all, even Evil can reason what is right in way we might not like; maybe it would save the old woman for some other purpose.

I don't think there's any way to equate Lawful and Chaotic (or Lawful vs Anarchic, or Order vs Chaos) in Talisman. It doesn't fit. Let's face the facts. The way the characters are actually "played," on the Lawful/Chaotic axis, at best they are ALL Neutral. Even the Priest and Prophetess and the like would lean to that or Chaotic. A Lawful (or Orderly) holy person doesn't run around trying to get a Talisman, gain the Evil (oh yes) Crown of Command, and then use it to wipe out everyone else... irregardless of their victims' Alignment.

The Priest winning makes him good... or lawful? Naw, you can't get me to buy that stale sawdust cookie.

Anyway... that's what inspired the card and its final design. Our group and some others have animists (vs. monotheist, henotheist, polytheist, etc.) who enjoy the hint of "nature/balance" to be played with what the Neutral card and ITB have to offer. And neither are anymore heavy handed in ideology than the base game itself.

JCHendee said:

I use our home laser printer, and it has minimal, acceptable levels of drift when doing 2 sided. Then I take it down to Staples and use the lightweight laminate there, and cut the pieces out at home. I'm quite satisfied with the whole process! Any card that I laminate is not in the card deck, they are standalone cards, so it has no bearing on the deck mechanics. I am very much thinking about printing out some of the cards from the new Space Expanders deck and might have to take a different approach for the purchase deck cards. I noticed a local comic shop had some FF sleeves that look very much Talisman sized...

Neutral might also choose to help the lady across the road based on aesthetic conditions, she might look better on that side of the road, or looks just fine where she is

@JC - See! I told you I didn't know much about sub-Alignments!

I was just using them as an example of how "I" interpret the main Alignments in Talisman. Which is most likely (obviously!) not how they really work.

Basically, my post was to say how I don't see Neutral as a "nothing" Alignment. In fact, you could say that it has the most freedom in that you can decide to take the Runesword AND the Holy Grail!

One thing I would say however, is that there is certainly room for a little more in the Alignment stakes. Perhaps it might be an idea to leave Good and Evil as they are, but give Neutrals the choice of which "path" to follow.

This would mean that they might be able to carry/have the Runesword and Holy Grail, but they would need to make the decision about which they would be able to use. This goes back to the Neutral Good/Neutral Evil mentioned before.

Thoughts?

Yup, that's certainly more in keeping with how the rest of Talisman works. If we look at Events and Strangers, let alone objects and spaces, the game is certainly always trying to push for the bipolarism. Back to the black hat, white hat westerns and the old "pick a side already" attitude. Too bad that even in that it doesn't really mean anything other that what you can use.

....I use our home laser printer, and it has minimal, acceptable levels of drift when doing 2 sided. Then I take it down to Staples and use the lightweight laminate there, and cut the pieces out at home. I'm quite satisfied with the whole process! Any card that I laminate is not in the card deck, they are standalone cards, so it has no bearing on the deck mechanics....

Ah ha! I have a Staples down the street where I do my photostock print outs, fronts and backs separately, then slip them into sleeves. But my inkjet has a bit too much drift for printing front and back. I think lasers probably do a little better in that... maybe?

Man, I hate the inconsistency of how this forum uses its own generated quote tags. Something that simply shouldn't be this way.

Hey JC,

I am a graphic designer and I bow for you my friend.

Great job