D&D General an observed and slightly different alignment problem

[LuisCarlos17f]

"Order isn't frozen, it is dinamic". Goliath, in an episode of Disney's cartoon "Gargyles" about a Gray-gloo.

Do you remember the chaos in the town of Springield in that episode of Simpsons where James Brown was singing?

A true artist to create then this needs a lot of discipline. The machines can work because the pieces are in the right place.

My idea is D&D Law means honor, civilitation and discipline, and D&D chaos means Primal Forces, Nature, or only obeying rules linked with your personal allegiance (tribe, family, religion, brotherhood).

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

The system of alignment is pretty well-documented as coming from Moorcock and Anderson. D&D Chaos is probably a whole lot closer to Moorcock Chaos than Law is. You've got gooby mutations and hellish landscapes.

However, for D&D Law, it diverges in motivation and conceptualization from Moorcock Law. For example, Mechanus' is a place of balance, which Moorcock would I'd think ascribe to the forces of Neutrality more than Law. And technology isn't always the province of Moorcock Law (see Hawkmoon's foes, the Empire of Gran Bretan, users of technology but assuredly servants of Chaos).

The LN and CN planes should be the abodes of the Lords of Law and the Lords of Chaos from the Elric series respectively.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I always saw it as a literary theme:

Chaos was the 'wilds' - the unknown, the darkness, the wilderness. The things, generally, out of control of human hands and thinking.

Order was law, the known world, things you could see and control. Codes of conduct, written language, mathematics. Things that are quantifiable.

It doesn't always work for entire planes of choas and Law but it could.

 

[NotAYakk]

The story behind the Slaad I like is that it was an attempt by Mechanis to attack limbo. They created a biological organism to spread order in chaos.

The Slaad where the result.

 

[Krachek]

For physic scientist, what commoner call a random event is often ruled by strict law,
and what commoner see as organized event is just produce by random events.
So we got on a Ying Yang, A the root of law is chaos, at the root of chaos there is law!

 

[Hriston]

The system of alignment is pretty well-documented as coming from Moorcock and Anderson. D&D Chaos is probably a whole lot closer to Moorcock Chaos than Law is. You've got gooby mutations and hellish landscapes.

However, for D&D Law, it diverges in motivation and conceptualization from Moorcock Law. For example, Mechanus' is a place of balance, which Moorcock would I'd think ascribe to the forces of Neutrality more than Law. And technology isn't always the province of Moorcock Law (see Hawkmoon's foes, the Empire of Gran Bretan, users of technology but assuredly servants of Chaos).

Yeah, I don't like Mechanus. That's why I said it should be the home of the Lords of Law, and when I think Lords of Law, I don't think clockwork automatons.

 

[CreamCloud0]

I always saw it as a literary theme:

Chaos was the 'wilds' - the unknown, the darkness, the wilderness. The things, generally, out of control of human hands and thinking.

Order was law, the known world, things you could see and control. Codes of conduct, written language, mathematics. Things that are quantifiable.

It doesn't always work for entire planes of choas and Law but it could.

Ooh that’s a concept, imagine the planes of law as an endless horizon of civilisation, towns, roads, farms and structures of all kinds:wizard academies, holy temples, waterways, mansions. then the chaos planes as an endless unkempt wilderness, wild free magic and dangerous monsters.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I always saw it as a literary theme:

Chaos was the 'wilds' - the unknown, the darkness, the wilderness. The things, generally, out of control of human hands and thinking.

Order was law, the known world, things you could see and control. Codes of conduct, written language, mathematics. Things that are quantifiable.

It doesn't always work for entire planes of choas and Law but it could.

I would not call the known world or law particularly controllable able for most of us mere mortals.

Yeah, I don't like Mechanus. That's why I said it should be the home of the Lords of Law, and when I think Lords of Law, I don't think clockwork automatons.

describe the lords of law in more detail?

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I would not call the known world or law particularly controllable able for most of us mere mortals.

Nah, it's more of concept/theme than a tangible thing. Order is the things you can control and chaos are the things you can't.

Off the top of my head, If I were to try to siphon it into a pure ideal:

Chaos would be a place where nothing is stable and infinitely ever-changing and unknowable. A place that would drive a mortal insane.

Law would be a place where everything is understood and in its place, known and predictable to the last detail to infinity. A place that would drive a mortal insane.

 

[Hriston]

that would need a licencing agreement so not likely but a good idea.

Likely for what?

It doesn't need a licensing agreement in my or anyone else's home campaign.