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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Zardoz" data-source="post: 3968807" data-attributes="member: 704">Source?I had never heard of Law / Chaos being removed, at least not from a direct source.In any event, I think that many of the arguments against Law / Chaos axis being kept for 4th edition are reasons why they ought to be kept.  My logic is as follows.1)  People who end up in pen and paper role playing games beyond a casual basis will always end up in useless arguments about rules minutia.2)  Because Law and Chaos are so loosely defined, they give many more options in how they are applied then Good and Evil.  This lets the actual definition be worked out on a per game basis.  It falls to the DM to decide if Lawful means "Always follows orders when delivered from a legitimate source of authority" or if it means "Tends to be honorable or predictiable".  The extents of the Law / Chaos are easier to customize to th needs of a game.  It is much easier to make that axis either Law / Chaos as a critical and campaign defining element, or to treat it as a vestigial and minor distinction.3)  In a game system where Good and Evil have in game mechanical consequences (such as Protection from Evil, Holy Word, Smite Evil), using the extremes of Lawful and Chaotic behaviour, a DM can create interesting ethical / moral dilemmas that are not as easy to justify without them.  It is much easier to create an organization that is racist and commits atrocities but is still technically 'Good' when you are provided with the Law / Chaos axis.The simple fact that Law / Chaos raises potentially interesting questions is a good thing.  The fact that gamers tend to spend too much time debating their merits is just a sin that gamers need to find some other hobbies to round out how they spend their time.I cannot recall any instance where a debate about the distinction between something like Lawful Good and Neutral Good took any significant amount of time in a game.  I will concede that the Chaotic Neutral alignment is the most frequently abused excuse for random, silly, distracting, and idiotic behaviour.  However, such behavior would happen from the offending gamers in any case.END COMMUNICATION</blockquote>

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