Which is REALLY the best alignment?

[I'm A Banana]

Real people are Lawful Stupid.

Get up, go to a job, do your little monkey work, come home, raise a family just like daddy did, get old, get bald, get fat, and die from heart failure at age 86.

All according to the pattern, all limited by the system (but fooled into thinking they have a choice!), all more interested in bagging the job and the wife than in living what life can be.

It's Lawful, and it's Stupid.

That's why the *best* alignment to be is Chaotic Neutral. Fight the power, f!$k the PO-leece, do drugs, stay out late, live fast, and die young, James Dean. Screw commitment, screw the Almighty Dollar, screw working at your little chimp job punching numbers for some faceless corporate overlord who knows how to live fast by sucking blow of the stomach of a hooker half his age.

Live for the moment, man, 'cuz the past is all in your head and the future is all an illusion.

/me goes back to watching his Doors documentary.

 

[Shades of Green]

As a player running a character, the best alignment to play is CN. It's a *game*! I spend enough time in real life toeing other peoples' lines; in the game I want the chance to shrug off the rules and do whatever I bloody-well like now and then; even if it gets my character killed in the process, the entertainment for all involved is worth it!

For this very reason I've voted for Chaotic Good as a player - I agree wholeheartedly with your reasoning for Chaotic, but I also think that, in most cases, playing the hero is a major part of the game - and is fun, too. If your character is Chaotic Good, you get to be the hero - but you get to be a hero your way.

As a GM, I think that Lawful Evil is the most interesting alignment for bad guys. If you're Chaotic Evil, you're just a monster. If you're Neutral Evil, you're just a thug (or a spoiled child, for that matter). If you're Lawful Evil, however, you're the villain - you scheme, you are focused and patient enough to carry through your schemes, and you probably know how to manipulate others and create organizations. In that case, the CE and NE guys get to be your minions...

Also, played well, a Lawfu Evil character might be a managable evil PC - sure, he's the bad guy, but he has honor and coud be a teamworker, and usually manipulates instead of immidiately backstabbing his teammates.

 

[Derren]

Neutral Good.

Most people who vote CG think that chaotic means "not lawful" when in fact it means that you are working activly against any form of organized structure.
CG is as "bad" as LG when it comes to balance personal agenda vs doing good.

 

[Shades of Green]

Neutral Good.

Most people who vote CG think that chaotic means "not lawful" when in fact it means that you are working activly against any form of organized structure.
CG is as "bad" as LG when it comes to balance personal agenda vs doing good.

Sure, a CG character follows agendas, but they are his own agendas, while an LG character usually follows the agendas of others. Ofcourse, as a DM, I like PCs with agendas - it gives me handy plot hooks. The one place in which NG beats CG IMO is i terms of managability - it has less potential to serve as an excuse for distruptive play, while still having a built-in plot hook (being a good, that is, a heroic alignment).

But I guess it all boils down to player and DM preferences.

 

[Wombat]

Best?

Simple!

Dropped alignment

 

[takyris]

Chaotic Good. All the paladinic good I want to roleplay, but I'm allowed to be snarky and bluff like a maniac at the same time.

 

[Dykstrav]

In the ideal sense... I think lawful good would be the best alignment. It'd be awesome if you lived in a world where everyone was not only good, but also willing to toe the line and pull their own weight in society. But at the same time, there would arise those who would seek to exploit the system (human nature, you know), which is why you'd need a healthy dose of chaotic good souls to oppose those exploiters and neutral goods to work both within and against the system when required.

I think one of the big misconceptions about lawful good is that lawful good characters are supposed to be intolerant and want everyone else to share their views. This isn't the case, a lawful good character should be willing to lead or follow as the situation demands. A lawful good character should largely be tolerant of others as long as they aren't evil, have some sort of role in the larger society (and societies do need rebels and outsiders to stay viable, so there's no reason a lawful good character would necessarily dislike chaotic or neutral goods), and generally make something of their lives.

But I didn't vote on which alignment is "best," because that of course depends too much on the character in the we're-playing-a-game sense.

 

[Aaron L]

Neutral Good.

Most people who vote CG think that chaotic means "not lawful" when in fact it means that you are working activly against any form of organized structure.
CG is as "bad" as LG when it comes to balance personal agenda vs doing good.

Yeah, it's really looking that way. People don't seem to understand that Chaotic Good is actively promoting disorder as well as Good, and is just as dogmatic about "rebellion" as Lawful is dogmatic about tradition.

 

[diaglo]

Lawful.

OD&D alignments rule!

rock on with your bad self.

 

[Desdichado]

I really dislike playing LG characters. But in real life, I strive to be LG for real.