How does a chaotic society function?

Tonguez · Dec 30, 2004

Those of you with Chaotic socieities in your game how do you have them function and keep functioning long term?

The closest I have is my Orcish mobs where leadership and even ongoing membership (ie survival) is determined by your ability to fight for dominance. Life is brutal and short in such a society. The way I balance this is by having strict gender seperation in Orc society - the mobs are all male and are kept out by the all female clans (who are neutral) and not as prone to violence. Reproduction is by 'ritual rape' i whenever a clans meets a mob

Also Have there been any real world examples of 'functioning' chaotic societies?

NOTE 1: - imho Tribal society is not chaotic - often they have strict hierachies and lawful practices just on a small scale

NOTE 2: - Disfunctional states (like Liberia et al) are probably not good examples of Chaotic society as chaotic shoul not = disfunctional (unless you can prove otherwise

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Mallus · Dec 30, 2004

Step outside. Look around.

2WS-Steve · Dec 30, 2004

I think both the Libertarian, minimal laws, and Anarcho-Syndicalist, no laws but we all get along, pictures could model Chaotic Good states. Although, any state would be composed of a plurality of viewpoints and thus not be purely one alignment or another.

ivocaliban · Dec 30, 2004

I myself have often wondered how demons in D&D ever manage to accomplish anything in vast numbers.

Crothian · Dec 30, 2004

I think it was in a book called Dungeons by AEG way back in the early days of d20 that had a nice section of describing possible societies by alignment.

Hunter Simon · Dec 30, 2004

2WS-Steve said:
no laws but we all get along,

What planet does this happen on?

Hunter Simon · Dec 30, 2004

I think the problem is that when we think of alignment we tend to think in absolutes, so that "lawful" means "hardass" and "chaotic" means "wild".

But ever since AD&D 1e, the creators of D&D have tried to stress that alignments represent tendencies, not absolutes. This is true for both individuals and societies.

At the risk of opening a huge can of worms, I would point to the current situation in Iraq. At present, I would describe Iraq as more of a "Chaotic" (in D&D terms) society than anything else. But a "Chaotic" society does NOT mean "absolute chaos". It means that chaos predominates. A "Lawful" society does NOT mean "everyone obeys the law". It means that there are laws, and most people obey them, and they are usually enforced.

Just my $ 0.02.

VirgilCaine · Dec 30, 2004

I think the problem is that the definitions of Chaos and Law are confusing and nonsensical.

Buttercup · Dec 30, 2004

Crothian said:
I think it was in a book called Dungeons by AEG way back in the early days of d20 that had a nice section of describing possible societies by alignment.

Well, I happen to have that book, so I took a look through it just now. Nope, the section you're thinking of isn't there. But I do remember seeing something like that in an early D20 book, and I'm sure I've got it.

So if anyone recalls the title, I'll dig through my D&D bookcase for it.

Ankh-Morpork Guard · Dec 30, 2004

VirgilCaine said:
I think the problem is that the definitions of Chaos and Law are confusing and nonsensical.

Either that, or people's interpretations of the alignments as being absolute. There are exceptions. A Chaotic society would still have laws, but likely very few and very broad. Things more like giving freedom as long as it doesn't hinder the freedom of others.