That was a fun way to talk about the d&d alignment chart. Crazy to think this aspect of original DnD has spread so far across the popular culture. Those people making Harry Potter, Star Wars and Game of Thrones alignment charts probably have no clue it originated in Lake Geneva!
My DM thinks that most people are LG. I'm probably more NG, but I see his point. I don't think Sauron is CE, though; he's pretty orderly in his evilness. :P
Started off wanting to be the good guy, doing the right thing, and things went into a different direction. Since my teammates all feel into the realm of being good, I decided to have a chaotic character to throw in there to spice things up. It’s been a blast and highly recommend trying it out if you already haven’t.
I love the way you gathered info on alignment and presented it in a way that is a roundabout psych eval lol. Hopefully this doesn't mean I'm evil on real life lol
LOL Zachary! I think the fact that you're even concerned if you're "evil" automatically disqualifies you from being perceived as such. (Unless of course, that was your ploy all along . . .)
This is a wonderful article J.Q. about a subject that I spent a lot of time thinking about back in the day and, strangely enough, quite recently as well
When I started playing, I thought, a bit like yourself that Lawful Good characters were just too “goody two shoes” for me so most of my characters were Neutral Good to have that bit of an edge. However, the longer I played the more I found them moving towards True Neutral which, as you can imagine, caused a few ructions in party!
In real life, I probably am somewhere between Neutral and Lawful Good even if the latter isn’t cool. I follow rules. That’s who I am these days, for better or worse. 😁
Interestingly, we had some sales training at work a few years ago with Sandler and they did profiles on us all. And, for all their fancy words and money we spent, it was basically giving us an alignment. I could have brought in my Players Handbook and saved the company a fortune! 😆
Lastly, your Chaotic Good characterisations are really interesting. Not sure I agree with them all but makes me think! 👍🏼
Thanks, Dan! You bring up an interesting connection between alignment and personality tests, which I am fascinated by. I was tempted to explore that a little further in this article, but figured it was long enough already!
Thanks for sharing your insights (and personal alignment history). I think Lawful Good is as cool as you make it, and you're obviously a cool guy! The ongoing survey results are really interesting to me. At this time, it looks like there are as many Lawful readers as Neutral - with Chaotic not being too far behind.
I didn't reveal it in the article, but I feel I'm most like Neutral Good (but with some leanings towards the Chaotic!)
This was a fantastic read! I never had enough (or maybe the right type of) friends to play D&D as a younger guy, but I did play the Lone Wolf (Joe Dever) gamebooks. I realized that the way I played my character was mostly how I viewed myself acting in a similar scenario. As I moved through the books, however, I realized that I could act unjustly and benefit from it. There is even a powerful weapon in the series that is super-tough to attain unless you bend the rules a bit and I found out later that the author put that item in the series to gauge how many of us were cheating. LOL
I love it, Jim, thanks for sharing that! When I decided to start on my writing journey a few years back, I picked up a book by a recent author on how to write your own Interactive Fiction books (choose-your-own-adventure style) and was surprised to find out there's always been a whole subset of IF readers who purposely and consistently like to choose the "wrong"/"bad" choices just to vicariously live out those "what-if's" - even trying to achieve "death" just for the fun of it. It makes sense - what would be the real-world consequences? ☠
Like you, I would try to play as if I were myself - and as if someone were watching (and judging!), but would have to adapt my strategy for the books I was reading back in the day. Lone Wolf and Fighting Fantasy were notorious for seemingly "logical" choices leading to bad results, so I began to loosen up on my Lawful-Good-aligned avatar quite a bit. (That's really funny about the honeytrapped weapon in the Lone Wolf series!) ⚔
Nowadays, when I read gamebooks, I do like to go back and explore other choices just to see what could happen and how the authors handle the branching routes. 🌿
Yes! Keep your finger on the last safe page branch and then try a different route to see what occurs. On my action chart I also like to keep track of "insta-deaths" and I seem to remember Line Wolf falling into a deep crevice and then finally plummeting to his death after a few days as being one of the more gruesome endings!
That was a fun way to talk about the d&d alignment chart. Crazy to think this aspect of original DnD has spread so far across the popular culture. Those people making Harry Potter, Star Wars and Game of Thrones alignment charts probably have no clue it originated in Lake Geneva!
Good points, and thanks! It was also interesting to see that Gary drew from alignment systems of Poul Anderson and even somewhat from Moorcock.
My DM thinks that most people are LG. I'm probably more NG, but I see his point. I don't think Sauron is CE, though; he's pretty orderly in his evilness. :P
Interesting insights, Bill - thanks! That categorization struck me as a little off too (about Sauron). 👁
Started off wanting to be the good guy, doing the right thing, and things went into a different direction. Since my teammates all feel into the realm of being good, I decided to have a chaotic character to throw in there to spice things up. It’s been a blast and highly recommend trying it out if you already haven’t.
lol! That makes sense to me (and sounds like a fun suggestion!)
That was an awesome read!!
Thanks Damon - glad you enjoyed it! (Sorry for the delay in responding)
I love the way you gathered info on alignment and presented it in a way that is a roundabout psych eval lol. Hopefully this doesn't mean I'm evil on real life lol
LOL Zachary! I think the fact that you're even concerned if you're "evil" automatically disqualifies you from being perceived as such. (Unless of course, that was your ploy all along . . .)
Lol evil genius in the making
😈
Neutral zones are so fun to play as. I love witty characters, so riding the gray areas is a great balance to adventures. Great post!
Thanks, Hollywood! Good point about the options that gray areas give to neutral characters.
This is a wonderful article J.Q. about a subject that I spent a lot of time thinking about back in the day and, strangely enough, quite recently as well
When I started playing, I thought, a bit like yourself that Lawful Good characters were just too “goody two shoes” for me so most of my characters were Neutral Good to have that bit of an edge. However, the longer I played the more I found them moving towards True Neutral which, as you can imagine, caused a few ructions in party!
In real life, I probably am somewhere between Neutral and Lawful Good even if the latter isn’t cool. I follow rules. That’s who I am these days, for better or worse. 😁
Interestingly, we had some sales training at work a few years ago with Sandler and they did profiles on us all. And, for all their fancy words and money we spent, it was basically giving us an alignment. I could have brought in my Players Handbook and saved the company a fortune! 😆
Lastly, your Chaotic Good characterisations are really interesting. Not sure I agree with them all but makes me think! 👍🏼
Thanks, Dan! You bring up an interesting connection between alignment and personality tests, which I am fascinated by. I was tempted to explore that a little further in this article, but figured it was long enough already!
Thanks for sharing your insights (and personal alignment history). I think Lawful Good is as cool as you make it, and you're obviously a cool guy! The ongoing survey results are really interesting to me. At this time, it looks like there are as many Lawful readers as Neutral - with Chaotic not being too far behind.
I didn't reveal it in the article, but I feel I'm most like Neutral Good (but with some leanings towards the Chaotic!)
This was a fantastic read! I never had enough (or maybe the right type of) friends to play D&D as a younger guy, but I did play the Lone Wolf (Joe Dever) gamebooks. I realized that the way I played my character was mostly how I viewed myself acting in a similar scenario. As I moved through the books, however, I realized that I could act unjustly and benefit from it. There is even a powerful weapon in the series that is super-tough to attain unless you bend the rules a bit and I found out later that the author put that item in the series to gauge how many of us were cheating. LOL
I love it, Jim, thanks for sharing that! When I decided to start on my writing journey a few years back, I picked up a book by a recent author on how to write your own Interactive Fiction books (choose-your-own-adventure style) and was surprised to find out there's always been a whole subset of IF readers who purposely and consistently like to choose the "wrong"/"bad" choices just to vicariously live out those "what-if's" - even trying to achieve "death" just for the fun of it. It makes sense - what would be the real-world consequences? ☠
Like you, I would try to play as if I were myself - and as if someone were watching (and judging!), but would have to adapt my strategy for the books I was reading back in the day. Lone Wolf and Fighting Fantasy were notorious for seemingly "logical" choices leading to bad results, so I began to loosen up on my Lawful-Good-aligned avatar quite a bit. (That's really funny about the honeytrapped weapon in the Lone Wolf series!) ⚔
Nowadays, when I read gamebooks, I do like to go back and explore other choices just to see what could happen and how the authors handle the branching routes. 🌿
Yes! Keep your finger on the last safe page branch and then try a different route to see what occurs. On my action chart I also like to keep track of "insta-deaths" and I seem to remember Line Wolf falling into a deep crevice and then finally plummeting to his death after a few days as being one of the more gruesome endings!
😂 LOL!