Which Good Alignment Do You Prefer to Play?
Mortianna
Member Posts: 1,356
This is the second of a series of polls to see how significant alignment tendencies are for us in role playing our PCs (and NPCs). While "messier," tendencies provide both complexity and subtlety to the standard nine alignment matrix. On the other hand, they can also add unnecessary tedium to the game.
The Evil and Neutral alignment tendency polls may be found here:
Which Evil Alignment Do You Prefer to Play?
Which Neutral Alignment Do You Prefer to Play?
Instructions: From the list below, choose the Good alignment you most enjoy playing.
*I didn't include Lawful Good (TN) or Chaotic Good (TN) because there are only 10 poll options. Feel free to indicate this in the comments if you prefer to play one of those alignments. There is an option in the poll for Neutral alignments that allows you to choose True Neutral with a tendency toward one of the four absolute alignments.
The Evil and Neutral alignment tendency polls may be found here:
Which Evil Alignment Do You Prefer to Play?
Which Neutral Alignment Do You Prefer to Play?
Instructions: From the list below, choose the Good alignment you most enjoy playing.
*I didn't include Lawful Good (TN) or Chaotic Good (TN) because there are only 10 poll options. Feel free to indicate this in the comments if you prefer to play one of those alignments. There is an option in the poll for Neutral alignments that allows you to choose True Neutral with a tendency toward one of the four absolute alignments.
- Which Good Alignment Do You Prefer to Play?176 votes
- Lawful Good (LN tendencies)3.41%
- Lawful Good6.82%
- Lawful Good (NG tendencies)6.82%
- Neutral Good (LG tendencies)5.68%
- Neutral Good19.32%
- Neutral Good (TN tendencies)1.14%
- Neutral Good (CG tendencies)7.95%
- Chaotic Good (NG tendencies)13.64%
- Chaotic Good23.30%
- Chaotic Good (CN tendencies)11.93%
Post edited by Mortianna on
4
Comments
I picked LG (LN) because I think it most closely describes Jean Luc Picard's alignment (remember the Prime Directive, number one!), and since he's my favorite ST captain.
Because whenever I play an evil character, I feel, good! >:D
I'm a bad roleplayer, alignment wise, I play my characters just like I would behave myself (except for the killing-to-do-good, it always strikes me as strange, but killing-for-the-good in a game is a nice vent for frustrations in daily life, like many people not thinking about the common good but about their own benefit in life).
In real life, these ideals from the game are something I do not live up to. I've had a lifelong drift toward neutrality, in the sense that I am mostly concerned with my own home and my own comfort, although I won't do anything dishonest or hurtful for those things.
I do usually play myself in the game. I like order, and I like knowing my place in a hierarchy when I'm working, so in that sense, I probably qualify as "lawful". I don't believe in literal "law" as a desirable end in itself, but I think it is better to live in an orderly society than a disorderly one, most of the time.
A corrupt government that hurts its citizens may require revolution, but I'm extremely glad I live in a post-revolutionary, stable, democratic society, which I believe deserves to be defended, even if I personally don't have the courage, the health, or the skill to do it. Paying my taxes and not causing any trouble would be the extent of my actual contribution.
So the labels of "lawful neutral" and even "true neutral" could also fit me. And I almost voted for LG leaning LN.
For the most part, Lawful beings try to operate within the established legal system as a means to their ends, whether those ends lead to good (LG) or evil (LE), or somewhere in between (LN). However, they will typically seek to change a system when it doesn't align with their moral alignment, the goal being the replacement of that system with their own idea of a properly ordered society.
Overall, I think there's a general decline of Lawful people in the world.
I am more or less in agreement with @Mortianna. I am young (mid-20s) and grew up in a generation dominated by a sense of chaos, where individuality is not merely encouraged, but demanded of people, where conformity is synonymous with boring, or worse to be feared or suspicious of (Communism), where chaotic rebels are role models in politics and popular media, where rebellion against 'the system', whatever that is supposed to be, is 'cool'. I am, with some irony, the 'rebellion against the rebellion'.
I am socially/politically conservative and the very term 'progressive' offends me, because it implies being conservative means 'anti-progress' and being liberal is forward thinking and positive. I am only opposed to certain changes that I do not regard as good progress. For example I am not religious, and have no opposition to homosexuality, but I do wish society was not so sexualised to the extent that sexual promiscuity is regarded as some sort of new norm, glorified in TV, magazines and movies. As a Chinese conservative, it bothers me how much China (most of the world really) is Westernising. I know it is probably inevitably in this new globalised age, but it saddens me how world cultures are being homogenised by the forces of capitalism, commercialisation and American soft power.
Anyways I digress a bit... Basically I have a natural affinity/preference for law, order and tradition. I see amongst my peers an eagerness to tear down what they regard as an unjust system, but no conception of what sort of order should replace it. In almost every situation, I regard the turmoil and chaos of revolution to be too high a price to pay for the vague hope of bringing about a better system.
Some real life examples from the world of politics:
1) As a young guy living in the UK (or most Western countries) with a working understanding of Western democracy and economics, it is clear to me that my generation has been royally screwed over by previous generations living at an unsustainable standard of living, made possible by ridiculous levels of government borrowing, which in turn was made possible by a political system where future generations have no say in decisions made today that will affect them directly. This generational conflict is actually one of the key academic debates in the merits/weaknesses of democracy. Anyway, despite this, I am totally opposed to the London Riots of 2011, labelled by some as a rebellion of the youth against 'the system'. However flawed the West's system of governance, however much it screwed me over personally, it is much preferable to general anarchy and some sort of forcible re-allocation of wealth and resources by mob rule.
2) As a Chinese guy with reasonable understanding of my homeland (access to both Chinese and Western media), I am aware of my homeland's very significant issues with official corruption and abuse of power, (lack of) judicial independence, inequality of opportunities and wealth etc... However, I recognise that an ordered China, however flawed, has enabled massive progress to be made in general living standards in the last 30-40 years, and lifted hundreds of millions of people out of basic poverty. The consequences of chaos in a country with 1.3 billion people, the factory of the world and significant nuclear arsenals scares me to such an extent that I think it is crazy certain governments/organisations/individuals think it is a good idea to encourage destabilising forces in China, whether for the pragmatic geopolitical objective of 'containing China', or for an idealistic objective like 'improving human rights'.
In both cases, I hope to see 'evolution' rather than 'revolution', which I believe would be disastrous for the welfare of humanity in the 21st Century.