Societies: Lawful and Chaotic; What Are They?

[Tarril Wolfeye]

Just out of curiousity, does anyone know the class skills off hand?

Samurai class skills: Climb, Craft, Diplomacy, Iaijutsu Focus, Intimidate, Jump, PERFORM, Profession, Ride, Sense Motive and Swim.

 

[Chrisling]

I must be too weak for these boards! Once more, I find myself in the position of wanting to respond to more stuff than I have the patience or will to actually do. On the other hand, I don't want to slight what I think are good arguments! Oh, no! So I've decided that I'm probably out of what's left of the discussion.

Thanks, people, it's been interesting and I've learned a lot. Some of it will definitely see play in my Planescape game!

 

[S'mon]

I've only been able to read about half of the posts in this thread, but I think I have a different angle. The difference between Law and Chaos is RESPONSIBILITY.

What do I mean by that. A lawfull person is responsibe to others and accept (or even looks for) new responsibilities. Responsible to family, business associates, deity, community, or nation. The more responsibilites you accept the more "Lawful" you are. A Lawfull society is one which is responsible to it's members, or where all it's members are responsible to each other.

A chaotic person avoids responsibility or is irresponsible. They don't make commitments, or don't keep them. The are responsible to no-one but themself, and sometimes not even themselves. A chaotic society is where people try to get more than they give.

A Lawfull Good character would save a group of children from goblins and escort them back to safety.

A Chaotic Good character would save a group of children from goblins and tell them the village is out of my way so I can't go with you, but if you hurry you might make it there before dark.

This seems like a Lawful Good definition of the Alignments, ie a very anti-Chaotic definition. CG would be no more likely to abandon children than LG, IMO. I say that 'cos I'm NG.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

This seems like a Lawful Good definition of the Alignments, ie a very anti-Chaotic definition. CG would be no more likely to abandon children than LG, IMO. I say that 'cos I'm NG.

I'm glad you touched on this, S'mon. I would have, but I figured I had lost all my credibility on Good & Evil from my earlier post on the subject.

IMO, all good characters would escort the children home, unless there was an INCREDIBLY pressing concern elsewhere.

Like, for example, the character is carrying information about an impending attack on his city. This, in fact, is a good way to illustrate the difference between Lawful motivations and Chaotic motivations. The Lawful Good character who is rushing home with this vital information is thinking, "I must get there in time to save the city!" The Chaotic Good character is thinking, "I must get there in time to save Uncle Bob, Jim the Baker, Sarah the innkeeper, and Hammish the butcher!" It's a difference in focus.

As another example, the Lawful character would have an easier time accepting the death of an individual who died protecting the city- "At least he died for a noble cause." And the chaotic character would say "$#^@ your causes! It's all these &#%$ "causes" that get people killed!" A Lawful Good character would look at "Saving Private Ryan" and say, "It's wrong that so many should die for the sake of just one." And the Chaotic Good character would respond, "Have you even thought about his poor mother?! Heartless prick."

btw- Thanks to Tarril Wolfeye for the skills list. I appreciate the emphasis on PERFORM Isn't it weird how a secondary or tertiary aspect of a character can grow into a focus? I really like that. I guess that's why I don't try to plan out my character from day one, so I have room to exploit interesting things that crop up in his personality.