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Message: <blockquote data-quote="threshel" data-source="post: 2185372" data-attributes="member: 5164">I take my online name from the first character (a druid, natch) I made to specifically explore this issue, although he spells his with a capital "T".  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Considering that last night was the first time I've had a chance to play him in roughly five years, I like the timing of this thread.His philosophy is that Good and Evil, Law and Order are the forces which pull the world into round.  While "The Balance" is an issue, it isn't the motivation.  In his mind, a round wheel makes the ride smoother, but it ain't what pulls the cart.  He's more concerned with the cycle of life and decay that drives the natural world.  And here is where we get to what "Neutral" means in the game.Neutral is a place to put anyone not involved in the cosmic tug of war.  All of it's various meanings are valid, because what it really means is "I have priorities that don't lay along either of those two axes."  An animal hunts and kills for food, a farmer aids a traveller or not depending on how far it takes him out of his way to market, or the inhabitants of a city pressure their leaders to turn away a tide of refugees in fear of famine and disease from overcrowding.  The motivations in these instances are narrowly focused and usually involve choices in the gray areas.  I think that people who have problems with alignment in D&D may be too rigidly defining "neutral."  I like John Morrow's explanation above.Neutral in the story isn't usually expressed using that word.  My druid sees the promotion of the life side of the cycle labeled "good" and the decay side labeled "evil."  "Law" is an anthill, "chaos" is merely the pattern the leaves make as they fall.  He defines his beliefs based on what drives the cart, which to him, is the cyle of life.  Too much Good = Stagnation.  Too much Evil = Desolation.  What he does not do, however, is define his purpose by detecting alignment.After all, it's an organic process, this tending of the world.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />J</blockquote>

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