D&D General "True Neutral": Bunk or Hogwash

[Artamo]

Another idea: how much of Greyhawk neutrality was merely an explanation for players doing murderhobo-y stuff in Gygax’s dungeons?

“Oh we just let loose eight gods held in stasis within Castle Greyhawk, both good and evil? Ummm, yeah we meant to do that…NEUTRALITY!”

 

[Hriston]

Maintaining the status quo seems like a pretty solid motivation, especially when the consequence of one side or another winning is the end of the multiverse, at least as we know it. True neutrals are just trying to keep this going.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Maintaining the status quo seems like a pretty solid motivation, especially when the consequence of one side or another winning is the end of the multiverse, at least as we know it. True neutrals are just trying to keep this going.

Anyone looking at 2026 and saying "yep, this is all going great" needs a stern talking to, at a minimum.

 

[Hriston]

Anyone looking at 2026 and saying "yep, this is all going great" needs a stern talking to, at a minimum.

Would you say that's because 2026 is out of balance and headed towards disaster? Or do you think the time is ripe for the final conflict that will settle this, once and for all?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Would you say that's because 2026 is out of balance and headed towards disaster? Or do you think the time is ripe for the final conflict that will settle this, once and for all?

 

[CleverNickName]

When rolling up new characters, I always tell my players to choose Neutral for their alignment unless they have a reason to choose otherwise. This begs the question, "why would I choose to be Good or Chaotic or whatever," and in my opinion? Getting the players to ask themselves that question is the whole point of having alignment mechanics in the first place.

 

[Brendan Byrd]

Anyone looking at 2026 and saying "yep, this is all going great" needs a stern talking to, at a minimum.

Grumble…mutter…Planescape…
…mutter, grumble…Fated…

< tangent >

The “Rule of Threes” was a great excuse to start drawing triangles instead of lines/axis.
< /tangent >

 

[Voadam]

There was a great deal said about it in Living Greyhawk Journal Vol. 1 #0:

View attachment 429503

This position was also reiterated in the Epic Level Handbook:

View attachment 429504

Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.

That is pretty wild, the journal puts him actively as a "shadow player for malevolence" and the epic level handbook says "just as often he has worked the side of infernal forces."

The 3.0 Living Greyhawk Gazetteer is similar but milder on the characterization of his bad stuff as merely "darker plots".

Mordenkainen the archmage (N male human Wiz20+) formed the Circle of Eight as a tool to manipulate political factions of the Flanaess, preserving the delicate balance of power in hopes of maintaining stability and sanity in the region. Mordenkainen's view of "enforced neutrality" is not tit-for-tat equality, but rather a detailed theoretical philosophy derived from decades of arcane research. He has fought ardently for the forces of Good, most recently during the Greyhawk Wars, but just as often has worked on darker plots to achieve his ends. In all things, the Circle of Eight prefers to work behind the scenes, subtly manipulating events to ensure that no one faction gains the upper hand.

 

[Hriston]

From the TN perspective, the second option guarantees the pendulum will swing too far in one direction or another. They would rather be the counter balance that maintains the equilibrium of the system, kind of like Keynesian economists.

 

[billd91]

The good gods also dropped a meteorite on a city, killing everyone, after a god king tried to purge the lands of evil.

Pretty rickety morality all the way around on Krynn.

It’s very Old Testamenty, which isn’t really surprising considering the other real-life religious parallels invoked in Dragonlance.