Which Alignment do you Usually Roleplay As?

[Max_Killjoy]

Is "none" a viable answer?

[Illogictree]

Weirdly enough, Chaotic Neutral, it seems.

Well, to be clear, out of the handful of characters I've played in systems with Alignment as a thing, one's been Neutral Good, one's been Lawful Good, one's been Lawful Neutral, one's been Lawful Evil, and... two have been Chaotic Neutral.

To expand further, they've been two different flavors of CN. One was a belligerent cleric of Tempus (a war deity from Forgotten Realms) multiclassed as warblade, who was just plain aggressive and solved problems by punching them. The other, one of my two current IRL game characters, is an alchemist of the MAD SCIENTIST type.

Also bizarrely enough, both of these Chaotic Neutral characters have been female. I dunno if that says anything about me.

I think my theory is to come up with the characters' personality first, then pick which alignment they fit into. Usually I play characters, not alignments.

[Guizonde]

I think my theory is to come up with the characters' personality first, then pick which alignment they fit into. Usually I play characters, not alignments.

that's a good way to look at it, i don't like playing alignments either. overall, i tend to be on the good side, oscillating between neutral and chaotic. my most good character was a surly piece of work, a radiant servant of pelor who was pretty racist (dwarf, before you ask). it never stopped him from healing people in need or forgoing rewards when the people couldn't pay up. he was well on his way to becoming a living saint, despite the fact that he was one foul-mouthed doctor. he was neutral good. his speeches were usually chaotic surly. shame that campaign ended and i couldn't keep the character sheet.

my paladin of heironeous was a pragmatist, completely devoted to her god and willing to do good as she could, but she never charged blindly into a fight. she scouted, performed recon, and gave herself all the edges possible to hit harder in the name of her god. not your usual loyal good paladin, especially for 3.5 standards.

now, i'm playing an inquisitor, so alignments are out of the equation. he started cg, and is slowly going down to ce because of a mishap involving a cursed book. that said, his methods ping ce, his personality pings cn, and his goals ping full-on neutral good. it's the only reason the team's paladin hasn't smited me yet. the team just assumes i'm doing it in the most evil way possible for the biggest good payback. the "necessary evil", if you will. it's pretty friggin' tough to roleplay, but then again, i did draw inspiration from wh40k's radical inquisitors. the only reason there are so many alignments attached to this character is because the dm insisted on figuring out what alignment my character was at any time for the purpose of damage reduction. we don't think too hard about it, because explaining it in alignment terms is really complex.

[Corneel]

I tend towards Chaotic Neutral (individualistic, independent types that do tend to have a heavy dose of self-centered-ness or narcissism, and often outcasts in some way with trust issues. And daddy issues. So yeah, issues).

However, once played in an evil campaign where I played a NE character, a Tiefling Necromancer. His evil was more in the total disrespect of the sanctity of life than any active malice though. More of a dispassionate callousness.

[Wraith]

I tend to be some flavour of neutral. Often Lawful Neutral, as I tend to interpret that as being the guy who gets given a mission by the NPC and goes off to do it, because that's the story that the GM wants to tell me and I feel that someone in the party ought to push for a course of action that isn't constantly being murder-hobos and/or wandering off track looking for compacts with Dark Gods and the likes.

Neutral Good also works, though it lets me be a more reckless kind of character - the one that is intent on doing the Right Thing, which usually drives plot or creates plot hooks, while not necessarily riding the plot railroad without some expressions of creativity on my part.

My most fondly remembered character, on the other hand, was very much a Neutral Evil equivalent; a thief who tolerated the rest of the party only because they were in as much trouble with the authorities as he was, but ultimately weren't as competent when it came to backstabbing antagonists and taking power to overcome obstacles. He wasn't the sort to sell them out directly, but there definitely came a point where he found a way to advance his own personal gain without them, and took it.

[Jama7301]

I bounce between Neutral and Lawful Good.

[Malifice]

I attempt to avoid CN unless it's a must for the character.

But I prefer CG and LE.

[RFLS]

I'm partial to LE and LG, emphasis on L. There's no greater force in a world than a person that can't be bought, bound, or bartered.

[Mordar]

Almost always Good, generally closer to Lawful than Neutral (but never jackbooted, if you know what I mean). Maybe 20% of my characters have been something other than LG or NG, and most of the time they would be CG or N (because it was sometimes required).

I like characters who "grow" from N to G (regardless of the other descriptor) when such a thing is allowed (e.g. doesn't interfere with class rules, that kind of stuff).

ASIDE: Why in the world do people who don't like pizza and never eat pizza always respond to "What pizza do you order when you order pizza?" with crap like "I only eat salad." Clearly it is a pizza poll, so respond about pizza or skip the dang thing. You don't get frequent flyer points for answering...or do you?

- M

[2D8HP]

...Why in the world do people who don't like pizza and never eat pizza always respond to "What pizza do you order when you order pizza?" with crap like "I only eat salad." Clearly it is a pizza poll, so respond about pizza or skip the dang thing. You don't get frequent flyer points for answering...or do you?

- M

You haven't heard about the V.I.P. lounge?

Um...

Just forget I said that.

[bc56]

I do things all over the spectrum. There's a lot of CG, N, and LG, but there's also an LE druid and I'm interested in trying an LN character sometime. I choose my alignment after the character is complete, in order to match the personality I give them.

[Caracalla]

I've always liked playing all over the alignment chart, but when I was a kid my favorite characters were always Chaotic. These days the ones I like best tend to be Lawful. I also notice as I've gotten older my favorite characters tend to be more Neutral on the moral scale, whereas when I was younger I'd play solidly Good or Evil characters depending on the campaign.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

Me, I tend to play NG, or if we're being edgy, NN.

And to people who say they don't like alignment systems: play NN. That's what it is to have no particular moral or ethical behaviour. If every now and then you break into chaotic / evil / good / lawful acts, whatever. Just don't make a habit of it, and you'll be able to stay as "alignment free" as D&D allows.

[Ashiel]

So I'm curious to know which alignments people typically play over others and to try and get a good idea of this I'm going to go to various forums around the internet and post this straw poll in the hope that I'll get a decent amount of results. Mostly because I'm just curious and I'd like to get some sort of answer about which ones are the most popular.

Poll Link: http://www.strawpoll.me/14736660

Please use the link to vote and feel free to post what you voted here! :)

I voted Neutral Good, but these days I play a lot of alignments, and I'm equally fond of Lawful Good, Lawful Evil, and Neutral Evil, though no matter the alignment I tend to play them fairly reserved. What I mean is I tend to play them as people first, and even my evil PCs have compunctions against doing evil things wantonly.

I'm also very fond of starting at evil alignments and shifting to good alignments as part of a character's development.

[Red Fel]

Heh heh... Ahahah... HAHAHAHAHAHA!



Lawful Evil is the only logical answer. Let me just do this here...

*fills out survey*

... seven percent? SEVEN PERCENT?!

We're the third lowest on the list! How does that happen? I mean, Neutral Good beat us! Neutral Good - the alignment of hippies everywhere - beat the alignment of stylish villainy! And Chaotic Neutral? How did we lose to "Don't mind us, we're not really CE?" And how did the best literally damned alignment lose out to True Neutral?! How is that even possible?

Have I taught you all nothing? Has my time here been spent in vain? Have none of you read my handbook? Shameless plug, check my sig.

I just... I don't... I can't. I cannot even.

I'm going to go over there and drown some puppies or something.

Grumble grumble... stupid survey was probably broken... grumble grumble...

[Honest Tiefling]

[B][COLOR="#800080"]
... seven percent? SEVEN PERCENT?!

We're the third lowest on the list! How does that happen? I mean, Neutral Good beat us! Neutral Good - the alignment of hippies everywhere - beat the alignment of stylish villainy!

Hippies ****ing love Tolkien, so really not surprised there. I mean, using roleplay to explore new and exotic worlds of fantasy? Kinda seems like the next step. But then again, I have a slight bias in my DnD experience due to living in Hippieville.

Also, lawful is just so...Restrictive. Blah blah blah honor. Blah blah blah can't do that, lawful. Blah blah blah can't visit the brothel on a whim or light people you don't like on fire whenever you want. Do you really think that player characters, who act like a herd of cats, are going to tend to LAWFUL? I mean, the basic MO of any given group of players is to find something and break it, be it rules, decency, the DM's sanity, any sort of railroading or plot, etc. Demons don't have anything on the sheer destructive power of a bored player.

[Red Fel]

Hippies ****ing love Tolkien, so really not surprised there. I mean, using roleplay to explore new and exotic worlds of fantasy? Kinda seems like the next step. But then again, I have a slight bias in my DnD experience due to living in Hippieville.

Also, lawful is just so...Restrictive. Blah blah blah honor. Blah blah blah can't do that, lawful. Blah blah blah can't visit the brothel on a whim or light people you don't like on fire whenever you want. Do you really think that player characters, who act like a herd of cats, are going to tend to LAWFUL? I mean, the basic MO of any given group of players is to find something and break it, be it rules, decency, the DM's sanity, any sort of railroading or plot, etc. Demons don't have anything on the sheer destructive power of a bored player.

See, that's just it - PCs are naturally destructive, horrible people with whom you would never be friends in real life. Evil is perfect for them!

And yet, on that list, all three Evil alignments formed the absolute bottom! People would rather play True Neutral! True Neutral! I mean, say what you want about the Tao of Murderhobo, Tief, but at least it's an ethos!

Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a rip about style?



Mark it LE!

[TheYell]

And Chaotic Neutral? How did we lose to "Don't mind us, we're not really CE?"

CN is the alignment of unthinking animal lust and gluttony, so really, not a surprise that it beats the alignment of actually having any kind of plan and sticking to it, in raw popularity.

Now suck it up! Wolves and sheep, remember? Wolves and sheep! What care you for the whims of the herd?

[Honest Tiefling]

See, that's just it - PCs are naturally destructive, horrible people with whom you would never be friends in real life. Evil is perfect for them!

And yet, on that list, all three Evil alignments formed the absolute bottom! People would rather play True Neutral! True Neutral! I mean, say what you want about the Tao of Murderhobo, Tief, but at least it's an ethos!

Ah, but you forget that the game itself is a valid target for the average PC. See, not only is True Neutral far more powergaming, but you avoid the issue of people telling you that you are playing your alignment wrong. Try to help an orphanage for prestige or just because murdering a bunch of children prooooobably isn't all that helpful? NOPE! You are evil and therefore can't do anything nice. Resist the urge to attempt to murder your friends in the night? NOPE! EVIL! Try to act like a actual human being! NOPERINO! EVIIIIILLLLL!

Also, there is something quite amusing to be able to perform evil acts while not getting hit with all of the downsides. Just try to detect my alignment, paladin! Not to mention, if your party has an inability to work together to form concepts as a group (Just like a herd of cats high on catnip), true neutral becomes a lot easier to adjust to whatever table you sat down to.

Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a rip about style?

It's probably the difference between people who play power ballads during the game while chugging beers and those who enjoy classical music and wine. One man's style is another man's 'tool'.

[Seto]

Alignment, like other descriptors such as race and class, are the things I try to change when I play different characters, so as to experience a lot of different roleplaying challenges. So far in D&D 3.5 I haven't yet played LN or LE, and I've played every other alignment once. I guess I most naturally gravitate towards Chaotic rather than Lawful characters, and towards Good rather than Evil. As expected, I'm also comfortable with Neutrality.
My longest running character was CG turned CE for the last few levels (lycanthropy).

[Mordaedil]

Depends on my character really? I've played Neutral Good, Chaotic Good, Lawful Good, Lawful Evil, True Neutral, Lawful Neutral, Neutral Evil... I guess the only thing I've never played is Chaotic Evil, because I hate to be disruptive to play.

[LadyFoxfire]

I usually go Chaotic or Neutral Good, because I like to have my characters help people, but I also like to have the option of using shady methods to serve the greater good. Sometimes the best way to prevent a war is to assassinate a warmongering noble.

[Guizonde]

I usually go Chaotic or Neutral Good, because I like to have my characters help people, but I also like to have the option of using shady methods to serve the greater good. Sometimes the best way to prevent a war is to assassinate a warmongering noble.

it's not really a genocide if you torch an orphanage of daemons...

hold on, brb. my dm has just knocked my alignment down from about 15km away.

[RazorChain]

“‎"Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos...”

“Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it! You know, I just... *do* things.”

[Mordaedil]

it's not really a genocide if you torch an orphanage of daemons...

hold on, brb. my dm has just knocked my alignment down from about 15km away.

Funnily, demons don't really have babies, so the equivalent would be torching a slave pen filled with dretch.

[PopeLinus1]

Chaotic neutral.

[Flicker Nicker]

My Three most common alignments have been in order of commonness Lawful Neutral, Lawful Evil, and Lawful Good. I've probably played True Neutral the least. My favorite two characters of my career though was Neutral Good Druid named Fluffy Bunny from spending as much time as possible in wild shape, casting spells from the rouges messenger bag. Just to play someone that nice...and my Chaotic Evil charter for someone with complete liberation, he was almost neutral evil if it wasn't for the love of over kill and respecting anyone who remained an individual even good people. Also a chaotic evil party member that it took the party almost the entire campaign to figure out he was evil and eating souls for more power...ha... that was great.

[Metahuman1]

I tend to go Chaotic Good or Neutral Good. I find true neutral most often too Wishy-Washy and easy to persuade to do things I don't want to play a character doing, and CN has such a horrible rep most GMs won't even think about accepting a character submission with that alignment.


I've zero interest in playing an evil character 90% of the time. It's, at most, a once in a blue moon urge, and only in a game that's designed with the assumption I'm there to bugger everything up, and often against people/things that are objectively worse than me anyway.


And I will only grudgingly play lawful characters as long experience has taught me the fastest and easiest way to get completely and utterly hosed by the DM being less than a perfect DM is to start your alignment with the word Lawful, and not end it with Evil.

[AtticSpace]

These days I mostly lean LG, LN, or NG (leaning lawful) because I'm a contrarian at heart and 3 players in my group won't budge from CN. Seriously, they were new players before we started playing together and the last 7 characters they have cumulatively made have all been CN with the exception of one that was nominally TN because it was a druid and one paladin that was still played as CN. The paladin promptly lost his powers and died, and it was back to a CN fighter.

I think it's because me and the other person who switch off DMing both have a no evil pcs rule and they all want to play evil. I'm actually planning an evil only campaign to get it out of their system so they branch out (hopefully).

[AshfireMage]

I've been all over the map, although I think I tend slightly Chaotic. My last few characters:

Chaotic Good
Neutral Evil
True Neutral
Chaotic Evil
Floats between Neutral Good and True Neutral but leans more towards the latter


At least, if we're going to assign that style of alignment to all my rpg characters, rather than just the D&D ones. The astrisks are just my attempt to classify the ones from other systems into something resembling a proper alignment. If I was doing it based on the actual systems, it would look something more like

Chaotic Good (D&D 3.5, tiefling sorcerer)
Neutral Evil (D&D 3.5, drow warlock/cleric of lolth)
System with no alignment or equivalent mechanic (homebrew, half-demon berserker)
Humanity 4, Nature Child, Demeanor Bon Vivant (V20, Follower of Set)
Humanity 7, Nature Soldier, Demeanor Rogue (V20, Tremere)