D&D alignment, of the SDMB and your own, with polls!

When playing games or MMORPG and the like, I have noticed I play Chaotic Neutral.

I would like to think, IRL, that I am Chaotic Good…but if young, healthy and no restraints I fear I would be CN.

You can understand Lawful Neutral or Chaotic Neutral, right? That’s someone who’s neither evil nor good. And you understand Neutral Good and Neutral Evil, right? That’s someone who’s neither chaotic nor lawful. Well, True Neutral just means that you’re both morally neutral and ethically neutral.

He seems like a textbook Chaotic Neutral, to me.

But there are some fictional characters who are much harder to classify. For instance, Jazz Bashir, from Andy Weir’s Artemis. Her general view of society’s laws and conventions is in favor, because it gives her an edge when everyone else is restrained by them and she isn’t, and she makes her living in petty crime. That seems pretty clearly Chaotic… but she also has an ironbound sense of business ethics: If she accepts a contract, then she will carry it out, and if she’s not willing to carry it out, she’ll never accept it. Which is pretty strongly Lawful.

I can imagine it, I just can’t imagine it as an individual who isn’t massively lacking in motivation to the point of disinterest. Which normally fails in an RPG/Fictional story as a character of note. Which is why I gave the examples of the balance seekers and how often even the manuals themselves would have secondary notes.

Eh, player characters in the same party often have the same motivation, even with radically different alignments. In an adventure to save the world, for instance, everyone, good, evil, lawful, or chaotic, wants the world to be saved. Why not neutrals, too? Likewise for smaller stakes: Anyone can want to go after someone who killed their family, for instance.

The difference is often not so much in motivation, but in methods. An evil character might want to blackmail or torture someone to secure their cooperation, while a good character might befriend them or try to appeal to their better nature. And a neutral character might try both, in different situations, or not object too strongly when their party-mates do either.

I like to think I’m chaotic good. I fight for what I believe is right but firmly believe most rules are pointless and stupid.

I’m inclined to regard Western civilization as a whole as more Lawful Neutral - some good, some evil, but always an emphasis on rules and law. Dunno if that makes me less cynical than you or perhaps just less perceptive :wink:. To me the Third Reich was perhaps closer to a true embodiment of LE.

But I’ll add that I used to play AD&D and still do play variant crpgs and I’ve still always regarded LN as a shit alignment.

I saw one of those Facebook t-shirt marketplaces that had witty shirts for every alignment.

I think the one that fits me is stated very nicely. Paraphrasing, it said: Chaotic Good - Best intentions, questionable methods.

I’m inclined to go be ultimate effects in this case, and the ultimate effects of current Western Civ are a nett negative, just for climate change, pollution and habitat destruction. All with their roots in the selfishness that D’nD says is the definer of Evil.
I’m not giving places like China or my own country a pass either (LE/CE respectively, if you were wondering), but this board is hardly representative of either of those.