I'm sick of Neutral Good! - or, how to play alignment well?

[randomling]

All right, people, I'm looking for a little advice here.

The default alignment for characters that I play is Neutral Good. I can't think of a single character I've played that (despite the alignment written on the character sheet) I haven't played as NG to a greater or lesser degree. And I'm bored of it!

I seem to have a difficult time breaking out of the pattern, though. Despite a decent grasp on the personalities and alignments of the characters, I always seem to drift back in the direction of NG.

Current PCs I've got are:

Cailin White, 12th level rogue. She's an ex-alcoholic, former army scout who's quite hardened and bitter from her various experiences. I feel like she should be played Neutral, not NG.

Serena Allman, 10th level psion. A devotee of an NG goddess of love and wisdom, Serena has a strong sense of personal duty and (in my head) actually tends towards LG. And yet I find myself downplaying the lawful aspect of her character.

Jez Hest, 3rd level fighter. Jez is in a Midnight game, and is a rebel in every sense of the word, fighting against the authority of the Shadow in the only way she knows how: by the sword. I picture her as chaotic good, but can't seem to get a handle on playing her chaotically.

Does anyone have any ideas how I could play these characters closer to their alignments? I'm thinking of adding particular quirks that would fit with the alignment - Serena's sense of duty and honesty is lawful - but can't seem to quite get a handle on it.

Help?

 

[francisca]

All right, people, I'm looking for a little advice here.

(snip)

Does anyone have any ideas how I could play these characters closer to their alignments? I'm thinking of adding particular quirks that would fit with the alignment - Serena's sense of duty and honesty is lawful - but can't seem to quite get a handle on it.

Help?

Well, it sounds to me like you have listed a core trait for character that defines the alignment you have on your sheet and wish to play. I'd write those one sentence summaries you've provided in red ink on your character sheet. Whenever a bit of roleplay come up, read it to yourself, and use it to define your char's action.

For instance, when the rouge is approached by a beggar, show indifference. Life is full of hard knocks. She made it through, scarred to be sure, but she made it. Tossing your hard-won coin to the beggar is just prolonging his misery. The beggar needs to pull himslef up by his bootstraps and make it, or get out of your way and crawl back to the gutter and die.

Serena is easy. Everything in life is ordered. Everything is done by the numbers, in an uncomprimising way. Period.

Of course these are simple examples. I think if you start simple like this, it will become second nature.


Question: In RL, do you consider yourself NG? Are you having trouble separating your char from you?

 

[Driddle]

Study a bit of Freud, Jung, Murray, etc. ... Allow yourself to shift more into other aspects of your id or superego. Act on the urges and drives of your Shadow, for example, or constrain yourself by extensive social standards.

That's a good place to start. Then pick up some Social Psych texts for hints on how to treat others in your group ...

 

[randomling]

Question: In RL, do you consider yourself NG? Are you having trouble separating your char from you?

Yeah; that's exactly it. What Serena/Jez/Cailin would do is sometimes very different from what I would do. And that's when the problems crop up.

(The other difficulty is playing in challenging groups where I feel the other players have much stronger personalities than me. In that situation I tend to sink back into "myself", or just shut up altogether.)

 

[Nifft]

IMC, Lawful = values organizations, while Chaotic = values individuals.

Serena Allman: she will uphold her church and protect those who are officers of it, even if they do wrong in her eyes. She will attempt to purge internal corruption using internal church methods.

Jez Hest: respects people, not laws. She would challenge the sherrif to a fist-fight, and if he won fairly and honorably, she'd abide by the spirit of his laws. Perhaps not the letter...

Cailin White: has little faith or respect for either people or laws.

-- N

 

[francisca]

Yeah; that's exactly it. What Serena/Jez/Cailin would do is sometimes very different from what I would do. And that's when the problems crop up.

(The other difficulty is playing in challenging groups where I feel the other players have much stronger personalities than me. In that situation I tend to sink back into "myself", or just shut up altogether.)

Well, your character gives you the perfect outlet then. Don't sink back into yourself. Play your character. In-game, the character's personality should come through. There is no risk for you, as you are simply expressing what you character would do, and the stronger personalities of your fellow player's be damned.

If you find that the other players personalities are supressing your in-character roleplay via out-of-character banter and/or body language, ask your DM to do a bit of round-robin discussion with the characters in-character, that way your character will have a chance to express herself and suggest courses of action.

I have a player in my current group who is a bit of an introvert. Every once in a while, I do a bit of a poll with an NPC, who says something like, "Illagor seems to not be speaking his mind. Speak up boy!" A few sessions in a row of doing this, and he has come around nicely.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Now this is just a suggestion, but you could try playing a character of a totally different alignment than yourself, just to stretch your role-playing muscles. LN or CN comes to mind, but if you're adventerous, you could go for LE or NE. I've seen such character blend in with good-aligned parties while keeping the good characters clueless. They're willing to go along and help out on "good" quests, but for entirely different motivations.

 

[Storminator]

I find NG to be the "go along, get along" alignment. If you're trying to play efficiently, you tend to fall here. NG generally does the right thing, so it doesn't cause the group grief. But it's willing to bend the rules if it gets results. It goes for plot hooks, but it avoids dangerous temptation.

So are you trying to avoid trouble? Maybe that's why your characters drift.

Try making your party's life difficult, in an appropriate way. You're lawful? Don't rush off to solve the problem, alert the proper authorities, check the facts, arrange for back up, then head out. So the bad guys get a jump on you and are prepared when you get there. You did things the right way.

You're N? Demand money. Don't just fall for the nearest plothook, demand compensation up front, and again when you're vital to success.

You're CG? Kick in the damn door! No time to check for traps or overhear the evil plans. And when you've found the bad guys, put 'em to the sword. They don't need a trial, hell! they're the bad guys.

Any of that help?

PS

 

[Psion]

My advice: don't worry about it.

Despite what some people think, alignment is not so much a personality mechanic as a magic mechanic. It sounds to me like, regardless of the fact you feel you play them all as NG, each has distinct personality and goals. Alignment definitions are WAY to broad to worry that any two people in the same alignment are too similar.

 

[MerakSpielman]

On the other hand, if you're not getting the feeling that they have different personalities, you might need to select specific, unique personality traits of each character and deliberately overplay them.

Recovering alchoholic? Make an in-character statement EVERY time booze comes up, every tavern, every flask of wine looted from enemies... or maybe she constantly expresses worry that potions contain alchohol... or even have her go on a bender if a quest doesn't turn out so well. You could voluntarily choose to have her treat alchohol as a drug, following the addictive drug rules in the BoVD. Also, ex army scout? Is she bitter for being kicked out? Perhaps she has a problem with army people she meets now and refuses to cooperate with them. She might insist that she's still a really good scout and demand that she's allowed to scout even when it's not necessary, just to prove her worth to the group.

You get the point. Whatever personality elements you've decided a character has, play them to the hilt. Bring them up so often it starts to irritate your fellow players - at this point, you can tone it down because they'll pick up the slack and start making worried comments when booze or army situations come up. If they behave differently to your character because of the traits you've drilled into them, you've succeed in creating a unique, memorable personality.