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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 6622811" data-attributes="member: 6696971">When I read the first bolded bit, the second bolded bit immediately jumped into my head.  My guess is that our experiences are probably not too far out of the mainstream (if not representative of it).Your take (third bolded bit) is an interesting one and it wouldn't surprise me if this is some component of the "alignment bloodstream" that lends the overall "player-base body" toward a Chaotic bent.However, I would definitely say there is another component that is pretty pervasive and it is related to "alignment as stick/binder."  Historically, from what I've seen of new players coming to my table, there was almost universally a sort of (PTS?) aversion to Lawful alignments from experiences with games past.  The perception was honed that playing Chaotic alignments allowed for more/complete agency by the player over their thematic portfolio of their character (so long as it didn't hew too closely to the Lawful ethos).Finally, on this:   "...to the extent that I would be really surprised if a table could maintain an interesting discussion of the merits of Law and Chaos." I think system (including proper GMing in said system) has a fair amount to say about the (dis)functionality of Law vs Chaos questions in game.  Case in point, my current Dungeon World home game features a Lawful Dwarf with this alignment statement:Uphold the letter of the law over the spiritIt also features an Elf with this alignment statement:Break an unjust law to benefit anotherThey are allies, and very trustworthy of one another.  They have two bonds with each other, one of which is dedicated to said trust.  The second is related to the oft "butting of heads" that occurs between the two of them specifically related to the Law vs Chaos question.  A fair bit of my efforts involves finding ways to make this Law vs Chaos question central, putting the two PCs at odds with each other.  In more than one social conflict, we've had these two PCs using the Interfere move against each other to bring about strife, to remove potential leverage for a Parley move.  This has led to a lot of interesting play.  We've also had them simultaneously having the alignment statements of (L) Bring someone to justice and (C) Reveal corruption (dwarf/elf respectively) which led the dwarf away from the prior alignment statement of (L) Uphold the letter of the law over the spirit.The (1) lack of complexity, thus crystallizing of issues, in the DW alignment system, (2) the lack of alignment interfacing with all kinds of other system stuff, (3) and alignment serving as a carrot, xp for fulfilling when the End of Session move is made, rather than a stick is very helpful to these ends.</blockquote>

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