(10-08-2013, 05:18 PM)Nimarhie Wrote: I've always found the alignment system rather stilted... it's too black and white, when life is more chaotic good/evil with maybe a bit of neutral tossed in to confuse people.
People look at the alignment system and see True Good as being an untouchable saint, which is how I have always thought they were represented. You don't drink, don't swear, don't bang hookers (lol), you don't take rewards for good deeds and on and on and all. It's more of a caricature of good than anything else. Just like True Evil has always been portrayed as moustache-twirling men in tophats and black capes... or raspy robotic voices with a fetish for choking people.
In that sense, both sides of the coin are boring and unimaginative. But if you allow the pure-as-the-driven-snow True Good person to have something... broken with them, like they have a psychological flaw, or they secretly like poking nymphs (in *that* way) at night... in barns; then you have a more interesting character. Vader's back story in the prequels made him an interesting villain, instead of the rather 2D villain he was in the original trilogy. He had a spark of good in him smoldering away for 20 years (?) that ultimately led him to save his son in ROTJ.
tl;dr: True Good - generic and boring; true evil - never played well enough and also generic and boring.
All of the alignments are left, at least in some degree, to individual interpretation. Even if you go exactly by the standards established in D&D, they vary (sometimes considerably so) in each edition of the game. It's assumed that most people, in the D&D world as well as real life, are neutral--usually true neutral, but of course, those with criminal or delinquent tendencies lean more to chaotic neutral and the straight-shooting, hardcore law-abiding citizens toward lawful neutral.Â
But the alignments don't have to be black and white--after all, nothing in life is. I think everyone has their own idea what is chaotic good, lawful evil, etc., even if they are all loosely similar definitions, hence why people like to debate which alignment certain characters would fall under.Â
And, of course, no character must constantly follow their alignment every moment of their life. Evil can have their moments of kindness toward those they care for, good can act out of line when they've been pushed too far and hit rock bottom, etc. Despite having an "alignment," characters still have moods, and outside factors will influence their feelings and actions. Just as we "act out of character" sometimes in real life, so can our characters.
The alignment system can be pretty rigid if you go exactly by-the-book, but I think it's meant to give some leeway (at least, it certainly works better if it does, and I think that's how most of us use it). I know that, in regard to my character Faye, for example, I consider her "lawful neutral." I didn't make her to be lawful neutral and I don't alter her actions to fit the description of lawful neutral--I just believe that lawful neutral best fits with her thoughts, morals, and her usual pattern of behavior.
![[Image: NCtCate.png]](http://i.imgur.com/NCtCate.png)
