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Emphasizing Law vs. Chaos
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<blockquote data-quote="Asmor" data-source="post: 3830311" data-attributes="member: 1154"><p>I had an epiphany in the shower: The key to emphasizing law vs. chaos over good vs. evil is de-emphasizing the latter.</p><p></p><p>Right now, when you think good vs. evil, you tend to think of good people as really good and evil people as really evil.</p><p></p><p>However, most people aren't really that extreme... What if the difference between good and evil was the difference between giving a spare copper to a beggar versus not giving a spare copper to a beggar? Just little differences...</p><p></p><p>So, here's what I've come up with.</p><p></p><p>Lawful neutral believes that the rules are the rules, and they should almost always be applied, and be applied equally.</p><p></p><p>Lawful good is willing to bend the rules a bit to help people. For example, a lawful good act would be a tax collector looking the other way when one of the peasants is a bit short because of the drought.</p><p></p><p>Lawful evil generally likes the things that come from a lawful society, but not so much when they impact on its own standard of living... An example of a lawful evil act is lying a bit about how much cheese you sold so that you can pay lower taxes. Lawful evil believes that rules are made to enhance their own lives.</p><p></p><p>Chaotic neutral believes that freedom should almost always trump order, law and tradition.</p><p></p><p>Chaotic good is willing to follow some rules and traditions when it recognizes that they really are generally helpful... For example, a chaotic good character might set up a school in her village, because she believes that the children of the community will be better off in the long run learning how to read.</p><p></p><p>Chaotic evil breaks the rules because it wants to. Not so concerned with high idealism, chaotic evil just wants to get drunk and swear a lot and not get in trouble for it.</p><p></p><p>As an alternative, and simpler definition, a neutral character is lawful/chaotic because they think that law or chaos is just "right." A good character follows law or chaos because he believe law or chaos is best for society as a whole. An evil character follows law or chaos because she believes it's best for her own self-interest.</p><p></p><p>Of course, this leaves Neutral Good, Neutral Evil and True Neutral... which I'm personally fine with. If I wanted to emphasize law vs chaos, I'd require the players to pick one or the other anyways. And frankly I've never liked True Neutral.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Asmor, post: 3830311, member: 1154"] I had an epiphany in the shower: The key to emphasizing law vs. chaos over good vs. evil is de-emphasizing the latter. Right now, when you think good vs. evil, you tend to think of good people as really good and evil people as really evil. However, most people aren't really that extreme... What if the difference between good and evil was the difference between giving a spare copper to a beggar versus not giving a spare copper to a beggar? Just little differences... So, here's what I've come up with. Lawful neutral believes that the rules are the rules, and they should almost always be applied, and be applied equally. Lawful good is willing to bend the rules a bit to help people. For example, a lawful good act would be a tax collector looking the other way when one of the peasants is a bit short because of the drought. Lawful evil generally likes the things that come from a lawful society, but not so much when they impact on its own standard of living... An example of a lawful evil act is lying a bit about how much cheese you sold so that you can pay lower taxes. Lawful evil believes that rules are made to enhance their own lives. Chaotic neutral believes that freedom should almost always trump order, law and tradition. Chaotic good is willing to follow some rules and traditions when it recognizes that they really are generally helpful... For example, a chaotic good character might set up a school in her village, because she believes that the children of the community will be better off in the long run learning how to read. Chaotic evil breaks the rules because it wants to. Not so concerned with high idealism, chaotic evil just wants to get drunk and swear a lot and not get in trouble for it. As an alternative, and simpler definition, a neutral character is lawful/chaotic because they think that law or chaos is just "right." A good character follows law or chaos because he believe law or chaos is best for society as a whole. An evil character follows law or chaos because she believes it's best for her own self-interest. Of course, this leaves Neutral Good, Neutral Evil and True Neutral... which I'm personally fine with. If I wanted to emphasize law vs chaos, I'd require the players to pick one or the other anyways. And frankly I've never liked True Neutral. [/QUOTE]
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