Quote Originally Posted by StandardDeviant View Post
An idea, drawing mostly on Moorcock, that I've been tinkering with, is to use the law/chaos conflict as the deep metaphysics underpinning a game universe. Both sides are utterly alien in nature and intent. The mortal (and, indeed, divine) world exists as the battleground on which the great powers fight their proxy wars. A direct confrontation would result in the absolute destruction of everything. This has (probably) happened before. So, again per Moorcock, Law and Chaos play an endless, insane series of games, with gods and mortals as their pawns.
Neither side should be allowed to win. Law seeks a static universe: crystalline, symmetric, mathematically pure, utterly inimical to life. Chaos, on the other hand, wants to rule reality according to whim and whim alone. And the whims of chaos are...chaotic. As in: "Hey, look at those mortals, aren't they cute? Let's give them some balloons! Yay! You know what would make those mortals even cuter? Turning them inside out! *splorch*"

Good and evil are only meaningful or possible so long as the two sides remain balanced--or stalemated, which amounts to the same thing. If either law or chaos pulls too far ahead, little things like life and free will cease to exist. And, yes, the aims of both factions are "evil" by any normal standard, but both are necessary to keep the world up and running. And either side can present itself as "good" and make a convincing case, by pointing out the flaws of the opposition. As a really simple example, "There's too much crime here! Go Law!" and "The government is oppressive! Go Chaos!" are arguments that could simultaneously gain traction pretty much anywhere.

Since law and chaos are ontologically prior to the world's deities, the gods themselves are participants in the game, whether they know it or not. Just as with mortals, they may find themselves naturally aligned more closely to one side or the other, largely as a matter of personality.

The upshot of all this is that it can be used as the backdrop for a variety of different campaign worlds, with different flavors depending on the rules of engagement that law and chaos have settled upon in a given realm. In a more hands-on universe, you might find supernatural beings representing either side duking it out directly. Individuals might deliberately swear allegiance to one side or the other. The gods might have chosen sides. At the other end of the spectrum, the gods themselves may be unaware that a cosmic conflict between stability and change is being played out in a universe they honestly believe themselves to govern. Either way, you've got a ready source of conflict built deep into the foundations of the game world, which is a good thing, I think.

Finally, I'd like to take a quick look at neutrality. One might be neutral by virtue of apathy: unaware of or uncommitted to the great game, indifferent to social and political struggles along the axis. On the other hand, one might be actively neutral. In a world where the metaphysical conflict is played out openly, a neutral party would strive to keep the sides balanced, opposing either side as necessary, should they seem likely to pull too far ahead. On a political level, an actively neutral individual would strive for the optimal middle ground between, say, individual liberty and rule of law. Possibly, there exist actively neutral supernatural entities trying to keep the Law vs Chaos fight from wrecking everything. Or possibly not.
Right, that's exactly how I've seen it. There's a constantly shifting competition between the two cosmic forces which has resulted in matter and life and everything else existing. So long as they keep eachother going, life and the universe exists as a delicate balance. deities or people that are aware of this would take a neutral stance and try to maintain the status quo. Others are convinced by varying conditions and arguments that one side is preferable over the other and are pawns in the game. Most people and creatures just live their lives without declaring a side, experiencing varying degrees of both order and chaos as is natural.