User:Reveilled/Chaotic Neutral
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Chaotic Neutral is an alignment in the Alignment system of Dungeons and Dragons. It commonly represents individualists who operate free of any laws but their own feelings of right and wrong, and those with an explicit commitment to chaos.
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[edit] Principles
[edit] Individualists
A chaotic neutral character follows his whims. He is an individualist first and last. He values his own liberty but does not strive to protect the freedom of others. He avoids authority, resents restrictions, and challenges traditions. A chaotic neutral character doesn't intentionally disrupt organizations as part of a campaign of anarchy. To do so, he would have to be motivated either by good (and a desire to liberate others), evil (and a desire to make others suffer), or be lawful neutral. A chaotic neutral character may be unpredictable, but his behavior is not totally random. He is not as likely to jump off a bridge as to cross it.
[edit] Strongly Chaotic Characters
However, some Chaotic Neutral characters, such as the Xaositects, do act in as random a manner as possible. Such people will regularly change their appearance, their attitudes to things and people, as well as the way they speak (anything from accent to grammar). These characters see Chaos as the most important force in the universe (similar to how strongly Lawful Neutral characters may see Law as a force to be encouraged and upheld regardless of consequences). As a result, these characters might intentionally disrupt organisations as part of a campaign of anarchy on the simple basis that they are organisations and lawful entities opposing chaos. Such characters may appear insane to those not similarly inclined towards chaos.
[edit] Changes in Definition
[edit] First Edition
In the First Edition AD&D, the stronger version of Chaotic Neutral was the one given as the example of the Alignment. This was accompanied by a True Neutral-like belief in balance between good and evil, and a desire for balance between these two forces in order for Chaos to flourish.
[edit] Second Edition
In Second Edition, the concept of Chaotic Neutral as an alignment where characters would act in a completely random manner was taken perhaps to an extreme. They are described in the Player's Handbook as “almost totally unreliable”, and as the alignment of “lunatics and madmen”. The illustrative example of the alignments’ opinions on how to split treasure involves the chaotic neutral character flipping a coin to decide his actions.
[edit] Third Edition
In Third Edition, however, the alignment was expanded to include those characters who had a strong independent streak without a desire to cause others harm or to help strangers to whom they had no attachment. Such characters carry a commitment to personal independence rather than one to randomness and disorder.
[edit] Roleplaying Chaotic Neutral
Because of the perception of Chaotic Neutral as an alignment of random actions and lunatics, it was long considered one of the hardest alignments to properly roleplay. This is perhaps still true of the strong form, but roleplaying an individualist Chaotic Neutral character is no harder than other alignments.
[edit] Individualist Chaotic Neutral
A Chaotic Neutral character’s own personal code of ethics will affect just how the character acts, but generally, Chaotic Neutral characters will undertake tasks or quests, but will expect to be compensated for performing the job, and will often expect extra based on the risk involved. This need not be a pecuniary reward, but a Chaotic Neutral character is unlikely to risk his life for a favour unless the character sees similar value in what could be asked in return to what is being asked for. Some Chaotic Neutral characters strongly oppose stealing any legitimately gotten property from someone, regardless of that person’s actions (though they may be willing to steal objects which a person has acquired immorally), while other make a judgement on whether stealing is permissible on the basis of the character of the person being stolen from. Also, some characters may require payment for any task they perform, while others may perform tasks for no payment to protect innocents if the task does not place him in danger (e.g., a 1st level CN character would require payment to defend a village from Orcs due to the danger involved, while some high-level CN characters might perform the service for free due to orcs posing no threat to the character), or at the request from the character’s friends or family (thus, a CN character might require less or no payment to defend a village from orcs if his friends or their friends or family live there).
[edit] Strongly Chaotic Neutral
Characters who hold a conviction to act chaotically are perhaps difficult to roleplay because of the requirement that they consistently act inconsistently. Changing a character’s feelings or opinions on a matter spontaneously can be hard for the roleplayer to do if they are not able to come up with new opinions on the spot, or if they have chosen initially to act on what they believe to be the best course, and thus are reluctant to change to an attitude they do not like. If the character has a tendency to scramble his speech as Planescape’s Xaositects do, this can be hard for some players to do spontaneously. Players may also be reluctant to disrupt the organisation of the party, which can make roleplaying a character committed to promoting chaos either very difficult or inconsistent.
[edit] References
- Gary Gygax (1978) Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Players Handbook (1st ed.)
- Cook, David "Zeb" (1989) Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Players Handbook (2nd ed.)
- Tweet, Johnathan (2003) Dungeons and Dragons Players Handbook (3.5 ed.)
