The Most Annoying D&D Alignment Stereotype

[forsyth]

Even moreso than the tightass paladin, the stereotypical character type that pisses me off in D&D? The "Chaotic Neutral" person who uses it as an excuse to be all "WHEE I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT WITHOUT CARING." Or the people who think Chaotic Neutral = Psychopath. And the worse part is how so many of the official D&D books give that exact kind of stereotype in the descriptions of the alignments.

No. Just, no people. Come on. Chaotic Neutral is made up of two parts. The first is Chaotic, which means they don't care about laws. That DOESN'T mean they don't have at least some kind of their own code, or morals, or anything. It means they don't really care what society thinks. But it doesn't mean they're like Bizarro versions of lawful, who always have to break the laws, just because that was the law. They might flout the law when it suits them, and probably would, but they're not going to go running around and being crazy and breaking every law just because they can. Chaotic people have reasons, they're just reasons like "He looked at me funny" or "I was bored" or "I thought it'd be funny, did you see the Baron's face?" They don't have to be a jerk to everybody, or try and rip people off because only lawful tools pay for stuff. They just don't care what the regular law says, and do things because they want to.

Neutral's the other part. They're not good, but they're not really evil, either. Most of the time that gets used as an excuse like "Well you guys can't hate me, I'm not REALLY evil." Seriously, come on. Neutral means the person cares more about themself, but it doesn't mean they're completely selfish. They can have compassion, and friends they care about, but they can also be big jerks too. Like...most people, really.

So somebody who's Chaotic Neutral is going to put what they want before society and (most) other people, but they're still people and can put off doing things because of the consequences or because they'd feel bad about it or because it's too much work. They don't have to be crazy like the Joker or loony like a Toon. At least, not all the time. Because if you're always crazy, that gets predictable, and that's not really chaotic, now is it?

Comments

[kjatar.livejournal.com]

100% agreement on this one. I've had to outlaw chaotic neutral characters in my campaigns because of the stupid crud people keep trying to rationalize with it.

[forsythferret.livejournal.com]

And that's why it irritates me. Fors is pretty much chaotic neutral, for example. Oh well, this is why all our games have pretty much just totally ignored alignment as such for quite a while anyway.

[megpie71.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Yes, a chaotic neutral character *can* come across as insane (particularly if they play it up, which some of them will, simply for the yuks). But the easiest way of playing a chaotic neutral character is just to remember that they will answer any "But..." with "So?" They'll also tend toward the selfish and the self-centred - after all, if law doesn't matter, and neither does morality, what guides them aside from a sense of what would be best for them.

So, if you have a CN player in your party, the trick to getting them to go along with you is to know what they want, and point out how your party can make that possible - or at least, easier than it would be on their own.