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Alignments.

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 3:17 pm
by Aren
Two questions:

1. Do players actually RP their alignments?

I've heard that (most) players just pick chaotic neutral or neutral to be "smite immune". <- This is just what I've heard. So take it with a grain of salt.

2. Are there any ramifications to not RP'ing your alignment?

Re: Alignments.

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 3:33 pm
by With The Sky Below My Feet
1. Yes
2. Yes

You're expected to play your character at all times. Including your alignment.

If you have a feeling someone is not playing their alignment, report it.

DMs will occassionally supervise individual characters and see if they act according to their alignments. If you're hoping for an RPB raise, not playing your alignment is probably not a good indicator for you deserving such. RPB docks are also possible, in some cases.

Unfortunately, you can argue that it can be easy to justify your character's evil ways and label them CN.

This whole point shouldn't really exist, but there's a subculture that comes with a 'must win' mindset.

Re: Alignments.

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 3:34 pm
by One Two Three Five
Yes to both, as far as I know. The chaotic neutral thing is A. kind of a meme (though it does and did happen, but not on the 'most' scale) and B. kind of moot now that stacking prot from evil and good gives you mind protection vs neutrals.

That's not to say there aren't outliers that roll a neutral and play them as Basically Evil, but it's not as widespread, I would think, as we like to say it is. And the people that do that are, uh, probably doing other things that'd get them negative dm attention, anyway.

Re: Alignments.

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 3:51 pm
by The GrumpyCat
Szaren wrote:Two questions:

1. Do players actually RP their alignments?

I've heard that (most) players just pick chaotic neutral or neutral to be "smite immune". <- This is just what I've heard. So take it with a grain of salt.

2. Are there any ramifications to not RP'ing your alignment?
1) In my expeirence, yes, yes they do.

2) Yes there are. In most cases it's more taken into account in RpR rating terms than anything else, but we do sometimes offer/suggest shifts of alignments. We rarely do enforced alignment changes, and generally when we do it's just a few points, not entire shifts. I mean I won't say it never happens, but it is rare.

Re: Alignments.

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 4:09 pm
by Gods_Kill_People
Yeah, but if your a LG cleric committing mass genocide on the local orphanage...you should PROBABLY expect an alignment shift and a chat with the friendly neighborhood DMs about your plans for your char!

Re: Alignments.

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 4:39 pm
by Aren
With The Sky Below My Feet wrote: Unfortunately, you can argue that it can be easy to justify your character's evil ways and label them CN.
That's the thing. CN is just one of those: "I do whatever I want" kind of alignment - and as you say, has an easy time justifying all kinds of actions.

But thanks for giving me your two cents on the matter guys.

Re: Alignments.

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 4:51 pm
by Queen Titania
I personally recommend this site as alignment reference, I find it's explanations neat.

http://easydamus.com/chaoticneutral.html

There's a line on when you are going to evil that even CN won't draw. Haer'Dalis from BGII was constantly getting into trouble across all the planes, but he's clearly neither good nor evil despite being a tiefling. And if you find yourself in-between, you may want to pick the good or evil axis over the neutral. We've shifted CN's before, as rare as we do alignment shifts for being more clearly evil.

Re: Alignments.

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 9:24 pm
by Iceborn
Players actually roleplay their alignments, yeah.

Alignments, out of all the many mechanics that we have, can be confusing and obscure when we delve into situations with many philosophical interpretations, so it's hard to determine when somebody may be breaking alignment because there are too many factors to consider in the narrative.
For that precise reason, you'll also rarely see people being shifted from one to the other.

Now, as an actual protip:
You will hear salt from all manners of characters. New players, veterans, occasionally even DMs complaining about one thing or another, exaggerating and overdramatizing something.
While there are players that irrevocably may play solely to fulfill some power fantasy and will take the MOST OPTIMAL path at every turn, the vast majority of players in Arelith tend to find a good balance between their builds and the theme of their character.

CN is an alignment that may seem to have fewer restrictions. Some players may find this appealing, and thus it may be more common to see CN characters. I don't really know. We don't have any public statistic about the alignment selection in the server, though I'm curious to see one now.

Re: Alignments.

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 10:58 pm
by -XXX-
Playing a consistently inconsistent free spirit can be actually more challenging than playing a generic cookie cutter LG paladin.

Re: Alignments.

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 11:20 pm
by Sab1
Not to turn this into a CN thing, but if all a CN does it hang out with evil and do evil things then they aren't neutral, but evil. CN is the one day you may build an orphanage and next week you might burn it down type.
Yes the server is good for people playing their alignments, but like any place you will be left scratching your head at times.

Re: Alignments.

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2018 12:03 am
by Shadowy Reality
Remember that there are multiple ways to play each alignment. No two characters with the same alignment will act the same or have the same set of morals (or lackof).

Playing CN is not as easy as it sounds, as someone else mentioned previously. It is much easier to fall into the TN category.

Re: Alignments.

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2018 1:27 am
by flower
CN is about own freedom.

If CN commits evil acts without being forced to protect own freedom then he is not chaotic neutral.

It is not a lunatic who will burn orphanage down just because of sudden move of mind, no. That is CE.

CN will kill to keep himself free and feel no regrets but he won't jump aside the road to kill random farmer on field.