How DO you play a LG character well?

[Celebrim]

Oh please can we not have this thread degenerate into yet another discussion of the meaning of law and chaos. I _know_ that the indefinate meaning of those two are at the heart of every debate in D&D, but can we just not get at the heart of this debate for a change?

We've had this discussion before, and we are neglecting one which we haven't had (or at least I haven't had), which is 'What does a Lawful Good individual do when thrust into a remote area in which the Laws and Customs of the land are markedly different than his own?'

I'm not familiar with Gor. I've never had a desire to read the books. They've always looked a little seedy to me. So I only know of thier contents by way of overhearing references to them. I can't speak to the particular culture involved.

I for one don't think that a Lawful Good person is going to be terribly offended by slavery _in and of itself_ unless he comes from a culture that has strongly outlawed slavery for some special cultural or historical reason. Slavery _in and of itself_ is not IMO in opposition to a lawful code. You can be lawful good and not see something wrong with slavery provided that the slaves are well cared for, are not looked down upon or degraded, and have some set of rights enherent to thier station, and that their station was considered an honorable one. One can imagine situations where slaves were considered to be full members of a lords household, and treated as family members, albeit ones of lower station. One can imagine sets of laws that protected slave households from the worst sorts of abuse that come with the custum of slavery, and strong peer to peer social pressure that discouraged the worst sorts of abuse that masters put thier slaves too.

I don't know anything about Gor, but lets assume that at some level, whatever society that the Paladin finds himself in IS NOT as described above. What does the Paladin do?

I'm inclined to think he doesn't just change his code to cope with his change in geography. He may exercise varying degrees of wisdom when evangelizing the locals, but I would think he would feel duty bound to alter the situation because (as far as he is concerned), morality is not relative and all social codes are not created equal and all beliefs are not equally valid.

I hate to even bring up Chaos in this, but I have had the experience of playing a CN with a good LG player, and we had the interesting conflict of the LG player being less offended by slavery (as an existing social institution) than my character was. The reason was that my character, to the extent that he had a set of moral beliefs, believed very strongly in the rights of the individual (to do whatever he or she pleased), and so of all the evils in the world enslaving or imprisoning someone was (to his mind) the most evil (and maybe the only evil to his mind). This is particularly interesting because here in the US, slavery is also reserved as being 'the most evil thing' for special historical reasons (and quite valid ones I don't hesitate to add), so in this situation was my CN more 'good' than a 'lawful good' or were one of us not fully understanding the alignment?

 

[Particle_Man]

chaos/law

My take on it (and this varies so much that one
simply has to check out what one's dm's view is).

Good is trying to help those in need, not just
yourself (evil) and not just yourself and your
close friends and family (neutral).

The law-chaos axis, GIVEN that one is good, determines what means one determines to be acceptable in achieving these goals. A lawful
character does not think that the ends justify
the means. Superman took an oath not to kill, and
since that time, he does not kill, period. (Even though he puts people in prison, they escape, and they kill other people). He is
the classic LG hero for modern mythology. A lawful good character will tend to work within the
system when possible, unless that system is itself
so corrupt that this is impossible. A LG character will prefer to work in groups, and organized groups at that. They tend to be traditionalists. The old ways of doing things work, no need to rock the boat. Thus a LG culture (like dwarves) would likely be very conservative, and have set ways of doing things. If you want a modern day example, think of police officers in their ideal form. They carry guns, but aren't supposed to shoot people unless there is a clear and present danger or unless there is no other way to bring a known felon down. And note, cops tend to work in groups, be more conservative, etc. Cops are meant to work for the public good.

Now the NG character tries to promote good, but will not always adhere to laws, and will be more likely to break them, if an immediate good can be accomplished by doing so.

A CG character will probably not obey a law, if she thinks that the law does not accomplish any good result in a particular case, and if she thinks she will not get caught breaking it. She is much more open to discovering new ways of accomplishing the goal of reducing suffering in the world. Robin Hood is a good CG hero. He flagrantly breaks the law, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor (the myth of the 1920's gangster also would be CG heros (although REAL gangsters rarely, if ever, gave to the poor)).

So your LG character would have some (good-enhancing) code and stick to it, since that character would believe that following that code is the best way to achieve the most good, in the long run. You should work out that code with your DM. Probably the code of your church would ask as a good baseline.

As for the "villainous" PC, first you have to ask your DM what your character would notice, (no meta-gaming!). But when or if your character notices the other character doing evil stuff, then you will be bound to stop it (most likely by reporting it to the local authorities and, if necessary, assisting them in bringing the felon to justice (and acting as a witness at the trial)).

 

[Gizzard]

Especially for Clerics and Paladins, I find it easiest just to give the players the "dogma" section from the description of the god they choose to worship. (I've been using the FRCS, Pelor is probably in Dieties and Demigods?) Anyway, its a paragraph or two about what that particular god believes in and therefore how his worshippers should act.

Approaching it this way gives a bit more of a grounding than just saying "Lawful Good."