Well the results are in on yet another poll and the results are quite hopeful, speaking as a DM. The top results were all leaning towards a good and overall mostly neutral perspective. This is good for a new DM to know, because if your party has a large proportion towards good or lawful, then your story flows
First was Chaotic Good with 33%. I have always found that PC’s that play Chaotic Good are looking for the freedom to play their character however they want but have an overwhelming tendancy to help the little old lady cross the street, even if it is by dancing naked in said street to distract the traffic. My Chaotic Good characters tend to be not the most inteligent players out there, but there is just something unyielding-ly fun about playing a character that to save the princess from falling to her death will run towards the edge, tying a rope off as he does and swan dive off the edge.
There was a three-way tie for second between Neutral Good, True Neutral, and Chaotic Neutral with 14% each. These results tell me that PC’s in general tend to prefer morally ambiguous characters. This allows the player to do almost anything they want. Neutral Good characters in my past campaigns have done anything that they want, as long as they can somehow, even if it is extremely far fetched, justify it to themselves. The best was something along the lines of “I had to eat that baby, he was the head of an evil organization in a prophetic dream my cousin had!”. Chaotic Neutral seems to be for people who want to play an evil character but not have to deal with the “penalties” of actually being evil. True Neutral is one of the hardest alignments to play because it is the most ambiguous. The PC who chooses this alignment has to be careful with how they play. You cannot lean to far in any direction. Things happen just because they happen and you take any path set before you.
Judging by the lack of Lawful Good, it looks as though people are not terribly fond of Paladins in their party. I find that a lot of fun can be derived from toying with the character so set in their beliefs that they know nothing but. I was a little disappointed that no one likes playing Chaotic Evil, but they are also very hard to play. What are your thought on the results?
I actually prefer to play evil characters, however most DMs that I have encountered have expressly forbid any of the evil alignments. My favorite alignment is in fact chaotic evil, but I found your blog the day after the poll had closed. I strongly dislike the Lawful Good alignment and even more strongly dislike the Paladin class as a player who chooses to play a Paladin immediately restricts the character choices and options that the other players have.
Sometime by the end of the week, as school and work permits, I am going to write about the Chaotic evil alignment and why it is a good thing to have chaotic evil characters in a party. I’ll be sure to drop back by here with a link as soon as its up.
By: Katallos on October 5, 2009
at 11:25 am
I would love to read it. I have never played as or with a CE player and would be very interested in the pro’s of having one in the party.
By: Alterus on October 5, 2009
at 11:32 am
I just posted my article about the evil alignments, comments and questions are certainly welcome.
http://katallos.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/on-alignment-part-1-the-evil-alignments/
By: katallos on October 6, 2009
at 6:26 pm
As a DM, I’m often wary of ‘chaotic’ anything characters. For me, they most often just lead to players trying to justify their abberant behaviour with their alignment, “Of course I pushed the guard off of the tower and pick-pocketed the duchess – I’m chaotic!” Unfortunately, it usually just means that the rest of the group have to spend half of the time getting that one player out of trouble.
Sure, everyone loves the unpredictable scamp, but players often just use the alignment when they want more spolight. A lawful or neutral character can also tie the rope to himself and leap off of the ramparts to save the falling princess, and a swashbuckling pirate need not be chaotic. The alignment has, undeservedly, become synonymous with charming rogues…. ugh, anyways, I’m rambling.
Personally, I chose Lawful Evil as my favoured alignment. There’s a lot of scope for fun there, as the player may have to act against what his or her character ‘wants’ in order to fulfil their obligations (an evil sorceror bound to aid the lawful good paladin, for example).
By: Esspkay on October 6, 2009
at 4:48 am
[...] deeds as good characters. Why then do so the majority of people, supported by Alterus’ post here, favor good [...]
By: On Alignment Part 3: Good « Katallos's Realm on November 1, 2009
at 6:42 pm