I dont believe I mentioned CN anywhere.
Having a personality does not mean CN. If a character can not behave like a real person because of a squiggle on a character sheet that looks like this: "CG" then I'd say someone is missing out.
I'd consider myself N in real life. I've done LG things, I've done CG things, I've done MANY LE things, and I've done some nasty stuff I shouldnt have done thats probably NE. I've done some NG stuff too. Does this mean if I were a character, I ought to be CN? No. It means I am me, and being N doesnt mean I act the same way all the time. Different stimulus and circumstances motivate me differently and cause different reactions. In some cases I respond well, in others, I get nasty. Does this mean I'm not a believable character in real life?
Clearly thats preposterous.
On the subject of alignment, I play characters with personalities, who are in depth, and have goals and motivations. If a character does something LE, and is normally NG, chances are its still in personality.
Further, since you and Karinsdad are so into citing the source material, lets cite some source material myself:
SRD said:
Alignment
A creature’s general moral and personal attitudes are represented by its alignment: lawful good, neutral good, chaotic good, lawful neutral, neutral, chaotic neutral, lawful evil, neutral evil, or chaotic evil.
Alignment is a tool for developing your character’s identity. It is not a straitjacket for restricting your character. Each alignment represents a broad range of personality types or personal philosophies, so two characters of the same alignment can still be quite different from each other. In addition, few people are completely consistent.
Note the phrasing of several key areas.
1) Alignment is a tool for developing your character’s identity. It is not a straitjacket for restricting your character.
2) Each alignment represents a broad range of personality types or personal philosophies, so two characters of the same alignment can still be quite different from each other. In addition, few people are completely consistent.
All of the statements I have made very simply fall into both of these categories. I find all attempts to make alignment into a straightjacket by using the rules citations to be an egregious misquoting of the rules themselves, which in fact, state the opposite.
for almost all PC's I play, as I have now stated many, many times, I work WITH the DM, and the other players, to play something that works in the group. Since our group is mature, and does not use the alignment rules as a straightjacket, and is happy enough to work together for common benefit, we have no issue deciding these things together, and further, why in the nine hells should I care even if I am "given an alignment change". Even as a Paladin, and losing my paladin powers, if its in character to do the action, I'm going to do it. I wouldnt act out of character for some in game benefit. Either the character is who it is, or I'm there to roll dice and nothing else.
I can play World of Warcraft any time I feel like not roleplaying, so I don't see how being there to roll dice works for me.
If I were a fighter, or a rogue, would it offend you if I were playing in your game if I left alignment off the sheet entirely? I mean, if you said, "I dont care what alignment you play" and I simply went ahead and played a character, you could tell me my alignment for me, and then change it whenever you felt it was differing from the original, right? Would anyone care what the alignment actually was, if the character was internally consistent? I sure wouldnt.
Anyway, alignment is not a straightjacket, per both the phb, the dmg, and the srd, so nobody I know in RL, or online(ENWorld IRC) actually uses it as such, and therefore I find all this straightjacketing into the alignment written on your sheet to be bizarre, contrary, and further demanding you behave according to exact stricture of the alignment written in the phb, per Karinsdad's post on what each alignment says, word for word, and if you deviate you are somehow playing the alignment wrong, baffles me. I'm done arguing about it, mostly, because its now dramatically offtopic, but suffice to say, I don't understand where you guys are coming from, and evil characters are easily playable in groups where the character is playing, not some archetypal alignment system/scheme is played. I dont know what would happen if everyone had to behave as an exact archetype, I have no experience with it, and couldnt begin to conceive of a fun character in that milieu.
