I thought I had allowed for what you said.
Fanatic-Templar Send a noteboard - 21/09/2011 04:33:30 PM
You come the closest only when you're talking about someone playing something along the lines of 'true' neutral. 'Lawful' neutral and 'chaotic' neutral are completely different animals all together.
Wouldn't those be included, like the Druid example, in the category of alignments that are not focused on the general definitions of good and evil. Someone who is Lawful Neutral or Chaotic Neutral is not actually taking a position on the good/evil scale, they're just ignoring it in the pursuit of their own moral imperatives, in your example, the order/chaos axis.
Your definition also does not mesh with any sort of depth to any decision. While a person might, on a metascale, prefer the status quo, decision by decision, in the heat of a moment, or even in planning for future events, decisions get made that could never be, as you are actually describing them, truly passive. A person could have a neutral outlook on life, but has a role/profession/situation that demands or rewards action and clear decisions. Such a person is not always tied down by ideas of good or only self-serving personal interest.
Yeah, but in this case he's not so much pursuing a neutral alignment as avoiding taking a stand on a good/evil alignment, it's that whole avoidance/status quo motif I mentioned previously. As you say it, in your example the neutral character's role/profession/situation force him into a decision, which is a reactive outlook. I did not mean that a neutral character could not take active action or even change the world in one way or another, I simply meant that a neutral character - if his alignment is defined by his position on the good/evil axis and not by some alternative code - would have no desire to.
The first rule of being a ninja is "do no harm". Unless you intend to do harm, then do lots of harm.
~Master Splinter
Victorious in Bergioyn's legendary 'Reverse Mafia'. *MySmiley*
~Master Splinter
Victorious in Bergioyn's legendary 'Reverse Mafia'. *MySmiley*
My companions! Lend me thine vast expertise
20/09/2011 03:56:19 PM
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I don't think I know anything that matches what you want.
20/09/2011 04:39:22 PM
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You are a horrible human being.
*NM*
20/09/2011 08:24:05 PM
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I'm morally grey! Women love me, and men want to be like me. *NM*
20/09/2011 09:15:31 PM
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It'd be pretty difficult to specifically reward you for being a 'gray' character. (Two games)
20/09/2011 05:02:28 PM
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Take Knights of the Old Republic, for example
20/09/2011 05:08:04 PM
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That's not so much an alignment as just metagaming the system.
20/09/2011 09:27:49 PM
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Maybe I didn't explain right
20/09/2011 11:19:51 PM
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I'd say that's evil.
21/09/2011 03:00:32 AM
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of course, then you get into question of whether actions like that example are evil
21/09/2011 04:03:03 AM
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That's actually a pretty narrow view of Neutral when it comes to Alignment or Morality.
21/09/2011 02:19:34 PM
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I thought I had allowed for what you said.
21/09/2011 04:33:30 PM
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You might want to try The Witcher series.
21/09/2011 05:16:05 AM
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Grey decisions are good but...
21/09/2011 06:19:04 PM
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they don't reward it because, for the most part, they don't want you taking a middle ground.
21/09/2011 07:10:48 PM
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Well that's just stupid. Tired of picking the 2 sides over and over *NM*
21/09/2011 08:02:11 PM
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Neutrality is often boring or selfish. Good stories seldom have truly neutral protagonists. *NM*
22/09/2011 06:27:05 PM
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Are you kidding?
22/09/2011 06:54:19 PM
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There's a difference between doing "bad" things for a good purpose, and being neutral. *NM*
22/09/2011 09:12:16 PM
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I have an on-topic comment as well as a general rant on game morality systems.
21/09/2011 06:43:21 PM
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if they wanted to make the conversation mechanics more complicated...
21/09/2011 07:14:21 PM
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