definitelybeholderrpgideas:

mymymarceline:

definitelyqueerrpgideas:

mindfulwrath:

I figured out a simple guide to the alignment chart last night

Lawful: Rules matter more to me than individuals.
Chaotic: Individuals matter more to me than rules.

Good: Other people’s well-being is more important than my own.
Evil: My own well-being is more important than other people’s.

Neutrals: My opinion of what is more important is determined on a case-by-case basis.

So a Lawful Good character’s guiding moral philosophy might be “I follow the rules because the rules keep people safe, even if they are sometimes inconvenient or harmful to me or other individuals.” A Chaotic Evil character’s guiding moral philosophy would be like “Screw the rules and screw you.”

This is a very succint way of explaining a long post from a few months ago. It is also kind of how it was originally written, and is what I use. No more “Is he chaotic neutral or chaotic evil” questions.

It also makes Evil a playable alignment

I always viewed Lawful denoting that you adhere to a certain set of codes. That can be your own strict moral code, the laws of a group, or the will of your god. I think it’s real lame to just assume that being lawful denotes that you simply care about a system more than people. If your specific laws do, then yes. But they don’t have to.

It’s also important to remember that alignment is just a general label that best represents a character. It shouldn’t define your character, your character should define your alignment.

When defining the Alignments, one should look at examples of said alignments. For example, Tiamat, the 5-headed Queen of Dragons, is Lawful Neutral, but she sure as hell isn’t gonna let someone else tell her what is right and wrong. You can take this to mean that a Lawfull Evil character wouldnt follow the rules of others, but would follow their own rules, keep their word, and be trustworthy, though with evil intent. Basically, they’ll further their evil goals, but pay their depts, as opposed to a Chaotic Good character, who would do what they think is right, no matter the cost and screw whoever gets in their way.

In my opinion, think of the Lawfull-Chaotic side as the character’s limits, how far are they willing to go to get what they want, and the Good-Evil side which as the overall motive, NOT as the choice-by-choice action.

So if you want to kill a tyrant no matter the cost, you’re Chaotic Good. If you’re a crime lord who maintains a strict sense of order and a somewhat low-profile, you might be lawful evil. If you’re a peasant just trying to survive in a harsh society, you’d probably be true neutral.