A
amerigoV
Guest
My own take on alignment:
Good characters help others, at personal cost or risk.
Evil characters hurt others, for their own personal gain or pleasure.
Neutral characters (on the Good/Evil axis) do neither.
Lawful characters seek to uphold the social order.
Chaotic characters seek to subvert or overthrow the social order.
Neutral characters (on the Lawful/Chaotic axis) do neither.
That's it. I like definitions which can be summed up in one sentence; my experience is that the longer your definition is, the less useful it's apt to be in play and the more arguments it engenders.
I wholeheartedly agree with these definitions. Lawful and Chaotic are leftovers from Basic and only server to confuse. If you replace with Societal and Individual, it solves a lot of problems. It finally puts the paladin where he belongs - a crusader for Good ("Buttkicking for Goodness!!!")
Also, tell my players that anything but Nuetral is an extreme. Neutral encompass 80% of all people. Playing LG/CE/etc means your life is driven by actions of that alignment. It likes getting an A in class - you have to get As on EVERYTHING, not just As most of the time*
* Well, back in my day, that is the way it was. I not sure about schools these days
