The Nature of "Lawful"

[Lord Pendragon]

One player may decide that his PC is lawful because he is, in fact, law-abiding. He believes that there must be Order in society, and going against that Order is wrong. So if he then does that, he's commited a Chaotic act. Then, if another character claims his character is Lawful because he's rational and disciplined, a uncharacteristic and emotion action would likely be Chaotic. Basically, the player defines how his character is Lawful.

Re-reading this portion of my post, I thought it important to clarify something. It may seem like my system makes use of subjective definitions, even though I previously demanded an objective definition of Lawfulness. However, it's not so much that each player defines Lawful for his own PC, but rather that each character chooses the aspect of Lawful that his character particularly embodies. Just as I wouldn't consider a paladin to be commiting an evil act by withholding Mercy if his concept had always been Divine Wrath, I would not penalize the fighter for breaking laws, if his concept had always been Personal Discipline.

As Elder-Basilisk pointed out, the alignments are filled with contrary concepts, even Good and Evil. Mercy vs. Justice, etc. etc. I do not shift a PCs alignment unless he acts contrarily to those aspects of his alignment he professed to follow. I don't hold him accountable for all aspects.

 

[Mokona]

Murder

Not all killings are murder. Murder is killing an innocent person. Killing a criminal due to be put to death is an execution. Execution is not illegal it's justice.

If there is a law against executing criminals without a conviction then the Lawful character acted against the law of the land. If the the character were lawful good the law of the land needs to be judged to decide if the law of the land is good, neutral, or evil. Violating illegitimate laws (not the case presented here) is still a lawful act depending on the good/neutral/evil axis of the character and the law in question.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Both.

It was lawful insofar as he followed his own rigid code. It was chaotic insofar as he broke the laws of the land.