Stereotypes about alignments

[atemu1234]

I'm forming a list of stereotypes about alignments. Feel free to list personal stories with stereotypes, I'd get a kick out of it.

IE:

Lawful Neutral: I once played a Lawful Neutral NPC as an OCD, kind of jerkish character.

[Venger]

LG (http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/731/143/3e3.jpg): The babysitter pally who is busy telling everyone else what they are and aren't allowed to do. Often a genocidal butt who goes around killing goblins and orcs just because.

LN (http://www.thegreenhead.com/imgs/robby-robot-genuine-7-foot-life-size-1.jpg) Beep boop, what is this emotion of which you speak? Basically a Vulcan as RPed by someone who's never seen an episode of star trek before. Ignores human elements when it comes to deciding what to do (e.g. do we side with the king or the rebellion, etc) in favor of doing moral arithmetic problems in order to determine what the "most neutral" course of action is. Often taken to its "logical" conclusion and end up doing good and evil acts in equal measure seeking out "balance."

TN (http://www.nerdig.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/nerd-sleep.jpg) The player who's too busy doing homework/checking facebook/playing LoL to roleplay. the alignment of apathy held by those who think deeandee is an mmo where you just beamspam attacks. Rallying call: "wake me up when there's a combat."

CN (http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs8/i/2005/364/7/9/CHEESE_MONKEY_by_LoRd_CoNNoR.jpg): CHEESE MONKIE RANDUMB! The player who is forever quoting stale internet memes in lieu of actual dialogue when it's time to RP. inevitably has a pet that will do SUCH WACKY THINGS GUISE. often used to bandodge when a short-sighted DM will start a game saying "No evil alignments allowed," in order to do whatever evil acts one wants and write it off as "just playing my alignment lol"

CE: (http://moviesofmyself.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341ca2da53ef0133f64a0c03970b-400wi)
DM: "You walk into the inn. The bartender says-"
CE: "I stabs him lulz."

tl;dr: alignment is a trap. play your character, not their alignment, and just use those dumb letters to adjudicate who gets hit by blasphemy and such.

[Tragak]

tl;dr: alignment is a trap. play your character, not their alignment, and just use those dumb letters to adjudicate who gets hit by blasphemy and such. No, stereotyping alignment is a trap. Play your character with their real alignment, not the stereotypes of that alignment, and just use those dumb stereotypes to recognize who's not playing in good faith and such.

[Venger]

No, stereotyping alignment is a trap. Play your character with their real alignment, not the stereotypes of that alignment, and just use those dumb stereotypes to recognize who's not playing in good faith and such.

well yeah. wasn't the OP asking us to post stereotypes about alignment?

[Tragak]

well yeah. wasn't the OP asking us to post stereotypes about alignment? Yes, and I thought that your examples were very good. It just also seemed like you were saying "Using alignment poorly doesn't work, therefor don't use alignment" not "Using alignment poorly doesn't work, therefor don't use alignment poorly."

[Venger]

Yes, and I thought that your examples were very good. It just also seemed like you were saying "Using alignment poorly doesn't work, therefor don't use alignment" not "Using alignment poorly doesn't work, therefor don't use alignment poorly."

Thanks. Oh, I see. Let me clarify:

Just as the examples of alignment I posted are stereotypes of how those alignments behave, my statement at the end was also intended as a comment on alignments if they are played like the examples I gave. It was intended as though the examples were in fact an exhaustive list and as a result the system doesn't work.

Make sense?

[Astralia123]

I guess it is better to figure out your character's personality first, and then decide his/her alignment later.

Personalities are far more complicated than mere alignment. Think of Alignment as a statistical tendency of your character's choices. Most characters would not ALWAYS choose to commit evil or to do good deeds when faced with choices.

[Venger]

I guess it is better to figure out your character's personality first, and then decide his/her alignment later.

Personalities are far more complicated than mere alignment. Think of Alignment as a statistical tendency of your character's choices. Most characters would not ALWAYS choose to commit evil or to do good deeds when faced with choices.

yah. alignment should be descriptive and not proscriptive

[LTwerewolf]

Too many people treat alignment as a shackle rather than as a reflection. No Bueno.

The general alignment stereotypes are: lawful stupid (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LawfulStupid), chaotic stupid (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChaoticStupid), stupid good (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StupidGood), stupid neutral (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StupidNeutral), and stupid evil (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StupidEvil).


Generally when people choose to play a stupid alignment, the other half of their alignment gets lost in translation and defaults to evil. This includes paladins that take a "if it pings evil, we're to light it on fire, including children" approach.

[Sam K]

TN1: "Blah blah balance blah blah no I won't go on the adventure that everyone else is thrilled about because there's something in it that doesn't affect the blah blah balance blah blah!"

TN2: Bob Bobson the player playing Bob Bobson the character, that puts all his skillpoints in whatever Bob Bobson the player is good at. In all fairness, many of us started out gaming this way.

CN:
DM: "The ancient red dragon king that you stumbled over actually looks amused at the idea of level one adventurers trying to sneak in and steal its treasure. It agrees to let you go unharmed.... this time!"
CN: "I ask it how many vagias it has?"
DM: "Err... it frowns and...
CN: "I stab the dragon."
DM: *rolls dice* *stares in disbelief* "You killed it... with one stab... leaving it's vast treasure unguarded...
CN: "I set fire to the treasure. Then I have sex with the dragons corpse."
Party: "Wait, don't!"
DM: "Ok, the treasure is on fire!"
CN: "I have sex with the treasure. Then I go build a treehouse. Then I stab myself. Then I stab the treehouse."

CE:
Fighter: "I block the demons path so it can't reach our casters, but still try to leave a clear shot for the wizard."
CE Wizard: "Empowered disintegrate on the fighter."
Fighter: "What the f*ck?"
CE Wizard: "Sorry dude, not my fault. I HAVE to kill you because I'm CE so I have to betray anyone who trusts me! Really wish I didn't have to do that, this fight looks winnable and the demon has sweet loot."
DM: "Ok, the fighter is dead. The demon looks amused, and approaches you, sword raised. You have one round before it reaches you, what do you do?"
CE Wizard: "Nothing, that was my last spell. Guess the demon kills me. Really sorry dude, but that's what my character would do! He's chaotic evil so he has to betray you."

LG: :miko: with some snuff porn involving goblin babies and healing them up from -9 hp to -1, just to torture them some more. It's OK because "Goblins aren't good anyway!"

[TheIronGolem]

[Lawful Neutral] Often taken to its "logical" conclusion and end up doing good and evil acts in equal measure seeking out "balance."


That latter part is much more in line with the True Neutral stereotype in my experience, especially since in 1E druids were explicitly stated to be that way in the fluff and were required to be TN.

[Honest Tiefling]

Chaotic Good is Chaotic Neutral that is only slightly less likely to randomly stab people/inanimate things. Theft is still on the table however.

[LTwerewolf]

Chaotic Good is Chaotic Neutral that is only slightly less likely to randomly stab people/inanimate things. Theft is still on the table however.

"I steal everything that isn't bolted down, pack it up, leave, and come back with bolt cutters."
"You're Chaotic Good"
"Well I'll give someone a copper on my way home then."

[OldTrees1]

LG:
Stubborn slayer subverts scripture to slay savage species.
Translation - LG is cast as stubborn but usually puts the Moral(GE) axis above the Ethical(LC) axis, and frequently engages in D&D sponsored genocide.

CE:
While(true){Tell DM("I attack");}
Translation - Continue attacking every turn. Slaying enemies, allies, bystanders, animals, plants, Earth ...


Yeah, stereotypes tend to mislabel alignments.