What Alignment is Most-Often Played Incorrectly?

[Lansert]

I voted Chaotic-Evil.

No one ever tries to be evil, they always just make excuses for their horrible actions. No one wants to break the law, it just gets in the way of their grabs at money, power, and hot women.

[gbbishop]

I voted Chaotic-Evil.

No one ever tries to be evil, they always just make excuses for their horrible actions. No one wants to break the law, it just gets in the way of their grabs at money, power, and hot women.

i hear you for the evil part though i think there are exceptions... the "no one wants to break the law" bit... breaking laws is fun why wouldn't you want to do it?

[Kajae]

Because breaking big laws means that you face ostracization and imprisonment/execution, while breaking small laws is uninteresting and an all-too-common occurrence anyway.

[My lil secret]

i voted Lawfull good, most people see LG as goody goody, but those of us whom have played LG know that it is actualy the most evil aligenment you can play, often useing a gods name or personal beleifs to do horrendice things, wich most players tend to forget about. Too many go around doing good for the sake of good insted of developeing a strong personality LG is ment to be.

[Kaizen]

i voted Lawfull good, most people see LG as goody goody, but those of us whom have played LG know that it is actualy the most evil aligenment you can play, often useing a gods name or personal beleifs to do horrendice things, wich most players tend to forget about. Too many go around doing good for the sake of good insted of developeing a strong personality LG is ment to be.

this would be misguided and zealous Lawful Evil.

[Gorri]

I agree with the recurring sentiment that I am hearing about the D&D alignment system being... hrmmm... oh inadequate, ineffectual, misguided, misleading... perhaps useless. Two simple points to make my case:

What alignment would you say the medieval crusaders were? (please have an actual knowledge of the history of these folk before responding and not some fairytale BS that our society and popular culture has given to them).

If I have a character that belongs to a religious cult that so happens to prey on some certain section of society for religious purposes. Kills women and children of this sect without conscience. Robs them and takes the spoils back to the church in the name of their bloodthirsty god (after perhaps skimming a little off the top). Bullies all those that are weaker and crush all those that do not bend to thier will.... Yet by code of "honor", would never disobey the laws of the higher ups in that cult and have a clear sense of duty... what alignment am I talking about? CE? LE, NE, LN, LG, crusaders?

Fact is, my characters are usually a bit more complex than the simplicity that the alignment system is made for. To members of his clan he would appear LN (follows the laws of his tribe to the 'T'), to his friends, NG (is generous and helpful to those who are generous and helpful to him unconditionally), to society as a whole CN or CE (wants to see civilization as a whole burnt to a crisp and washed out into the sea like the piles of dung it so uncannily resembles). Don't matter to me much.. I am playing my character and not an alignment.

My two senses.

[Doubtful]

Argh! A zombie thread! Break out the shovels!


That aside - The alignment system is what is is, it will directly affect only a handful of characters, most of whom deal with the divine. Keeping it divine is right as your average everyday person (that includes most adventurers) will have absolutely no idea what-so-ever what their alignment is!

It's a mostly OOC mechanic that relates to divine things that don't exist IRL, so don't even bother to compare the two. Use it as a rough thumbnail for your characters world view, but don't get hung up on it.

Edit: And Kaizen is correct.

Double Edit: I realize saying it's an OOC mechanic could be misconstrued - Obviously it should relate to the characters alignment and can be brought in game, but for the most part it should be considered an unknown variable.

[Kaeldorn]

Not if you can detect it

Even then it can probably be disputed, though.

[Doubtful]

Not if you can detect it

Even then it can probably be disputed, though.

Divine stuff.

It's like the Deity field.

[Shedboy]

I heard an interesting statistic the other day. Not sure how true it is, but got me thinking about alignments. Of course its all debatable on the very wise can foresee all outcomes etc.

MaoTse Tung Chinese despot killed 20 millon people in his revolutions - terrible! A better horse to back than Chang kai shek who was a rapist and a pedaphile, but then Taiwan did alright in the end.

Mahatma Ghandi and his side kick killed 20 mill per decade due to economic mismanagement.

Mahatma often regarded as the good dude vs Mao the antibad guy dude.

Seems its about survival not alignment. Them vs us. Some people just like to think they are LG and others think they are the real LG. I suppose some thing good is actually evil because its founded on crappy misguided values such as affiliation and compassion verses domination and power.

What is good is open to interpretation. Its all relative, but i guess like a ruler, you gotta start somewhere. determine the start point, the intervals and say .. yep that's a centimeter or an inch or a Sundren Triumvirate LG alignment

[Artemis]

I would say neutral since it is easier to play and develop them over time. Events and roleplay may lead them to their proper alignment. I do that a lot so that I can balance out my character.