LogFAQs > #911110564

darkknight109 posted...

In my experience, people completely misunderstand what "Chaotic" means on the alignment chart (and, admittedly, that's a terrible name for what the designers were going for). Chaos doesn't mean lolrandom, it means a willingness to ignore law and order in favour of an in-built moral code.

It's why I've broken down Alignment into the same system, just described slightly differently.

Usually, the Good-Evil axis in D&D is referred to as the moral axis, and Law-Chaos is referred to as the ethical axis. I prefer to think of them as motive versus method.

Good-Evil is your motive, WHY you do the things you do. It breaks down into your general outlook being selfless (Good), selfish (Neutral), or sadistic (Evil). The Good character is going to do selfless things because they think helping others is what people are meant to do, whether because they're a naive soul who thinks everyone is secretly good at heart, or merely someone who admits the world can be a craptastic place filled with assholes, but hope that their positive example can inspire others to rise above and aspire to do and be more as well. The Evil character is going to do everything in their own self-interest, but they're also going to either be completely callous to the suffering other others, or actively amused/excited by the suffering other others. The Neutral is going to be self-interested, but not necessarily heartless - which means they may tend towards mercenary behavior that ignores the fact that others are suffering, but they might also attempt to minimize that suffering if it doesn't interfere with the plan.

Law-Chaos is your method, HOW you do the things you do. It breaks down into the ways you accomplish your goals. Law is the person who tries to work within existing structures, systems, and networks, while Chaos is the character who cuts through existing obstacles directly, like Alexander cutting the Gordion Knot. Law is the more tactical mind, Chaos the more impulsive one - but a Chaotic person isn't entirely random or chaotic than a Lawful person is locked into a robotic logic loop where you can short-circuit their AI by asking them paradoxes. Lawful people can lie, Chaotic people can obey laws. But the MAJORITY of their actions will follow certain assumptions - either to worth within the system, or against it (this is basically what the morality system in Mass Effect was supposed to be, with Lawful Paragon and Chaotic Renegade being two paths to getting the job done - but then they ruined it by also putting "Good" options into Paragon and "Asshole" options into Renegade). And Neutral is what you get when you have someone who always tries to assess the situation before reacting - who will occasionally work within the rules but also occasionally work outside of the rules, usually predicated on which of the two methods will be more productive and effective in the long run.

Thus, Chaotic Evil is someone who is self-centered and who definitely gets off on causing others pain (or, at least, is completely immune to feeling guilty about the pain they cause others), and who is willing to take the most direct, non-complicated path to their goals (which in D&D often means violence, but it isn't necessarily ALWAYS violence). They're impulsive but not irrational or uncontrollable. They can be a villain or even an antihero, and that doesn't mean betraying the party is inevitable (just spend five minutes writing up backstory to explain why these characters are all long-time friends and not just assholes who met in a bar 20 minutes ago, and you're gold). They can easily fit into a party if all of the players (and especially the CE PC) are relatively mature.

The problem is, a lot of immature people play RPGs. And assholes will be assholes no matter what character they're playing.


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