I have a character of Lawful Good alignment that I want to play one day, but I am not the best of roleplaying and I do not want to fall into the trap of being "Lawful Stupid." Can you guys give me some pointers? If it helps you guys, my character is a Light Cleric of the Silver Flame.
Well, I would start by deciding for yourself what it means to be lawful good. That said, in general I would play LG as "Tries to do the right thing without breaking the rules".
This difference frequently doesn't matter in dungeon crawls, because a lot of monsters are conveniently not protected by law, but it tends to be more of a problem in social encounters -- if there's a (you presume) Evil Nobleman causing problems, a CG character will probably feel free to break into his house and go rummaging around for evidence, whereas the the LG character will probably want a warrant or similar authorization before going in. This can be inconvenient, but the benefit is generally better reactions from authorities (also, while this rarely comes up in games, a lower chance of embarrassing yourself by harassing someone totally innocent).
Alignment is descriptive not prescriptive, at least in my eyes.
Rather than saying "My character is LG, ergo he must do X" think along the lines of, "My character does X, ergo he is LG."
Let the alignment you've got in mind help build the idea of the character you're playing, but don't be strictly beholden to it. And remember that your character will change as you meet the party and start playing. One of the characters I'm running a PBP right now was initially meant to be an elf of few words but then realized, "No, that's not practical. Let's make him a bit more verbose." Could still keep some of the concepts behind it, but adjusted to better fit things.
So if you've got an LG thing in mind, what about the LG alignment is drawing you to it? Think of those and build on them. Then the issues you're seeing, what are those? Think on those and find a justification for why your LG character wouldn't do those Lawful-Stupid things.
Know I'm not helping the most with specifics, but it's a broad topic. So just trying to give some general pointers on how to think of things.
First define for your character the Morale Code they subscribe to. It can be religious, philosophical, cultural, or code of conduct. Remember that laws are not consistent across all lands; your character should only focus the Moral Code that defines themselves. The challenge here is how does your character negotiate their set of ethics with the variations with in other societies. This is how you capture your Lawful component.
For the Good component, I would recommend being altruistic. Keep it that simple.
Where the fun comes in is that the world of the game will often make it impossible to achieve the ideal Lawful Good scenario that your character envisions. This not failure; this how things work. Your character does their best. When they fall shy, they feel remorse or regret; maybe even feel the drive to enact a penance. When they succeed, they rejoice and celebrate.
Alignment is descriptive not prescriptive, at least in my eyes.
All of this post, but especially this part.
Alignment is way too vague to describe a personality. (It also has other problems.) Captain America and Mr. Rogers are (arguably) both LG, and they are vastly different people, with very different moral codes.
Also, the main way to avoid "Lawful Stupid" is to not do stupid things just because your alignment/moral code say you should. Does that mean you'll sometimes get caught in moral quandaries? Yes, and that's where character happens.
Who is this person? What do they want in life, both for themselves, and for the world? They're part of some presumably religious order, the "Silver Flame". What about its precepts appeals to them? What's something they're less sure about? Are they content to serve, or do they aspire to lead? Given their choice, would they slay evil, or attempt to reform it? If nobody would ever know, would they betray their principles to get the thing/goal they most want?
Ask those questions, and more. It's fine not to have answers for them, and you're not bound by those answers you tell yourself. You may conclude that, once you've worked over your character's moral code, that they're not LG, by whatever definition of LG you use. Once they've seen actual play, they may not stay LG. Both of those are fine.
Also, a lot of a character's personality is not their moral code. You're going to spend much more of your roleplaying time interacting with PCs and NPCs in situations with no particular ethical weight. Spend at least as much time thinking about what you want them to be like. Loud, quiet, thoughtful, reckless, etc. -- these are the meat of roleplay.
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I have a character of Lawful Good alignment that I want to play one day, but I am not the best of roleplaying and I do not want to fall into the trap of being "Lawful Stupid." Can you guys give me some pointers? If it helps you guys, my character is a Light Cleric of the Silver Flame.
Well, I would start by deciding for yourself what it means to be lawful good. That said, in general I would play LG as "Tries to do the right thing without breaking the rules".
This difference frequently doesn't matter in dungeon crawls, because a lot of monsters are conveniently not protected by law, but it tends to be more of a problem in social encounters -- if there's a (you presume) Evil Nobleman causing problems, a CG character will probably feel free to break into his house and go rummaging around for evidence, whereas the the LG character will probably want a warrant or similar authorization before going in. This can be inconvenient, but the benefit is generally better reactions from authorities (also, while this rarely comes up in games, a lower chance of embarrassing yourself by harassing someone totally innocent).
Alignment is descriptive not prescriptive, at least in my eyes.
Rather than saying "My character is LG, ergo he must do X" think along the lines of, "My character does X, ergo he is LG."
Let the alignment you've got in mind help build the idea of the character you're playing, but don't be strictly beholden to it. And remember that your character will change as you meet the party and start playing. One of the characters I'm running a PBP right now was initially meant to be an elf of few words but then realized, "No, that's not practical. Let's make him a bit more verbose." Could still keep some of the concepts behind it, but adjusted to better fit things.
So if you've got an LG thing in mind, what about the LG alignment is drawing you to it? Think of those and build on them. Then the issues you're seeing, what are those? Think on those and find a justification for why your LG character wouldn't do those Lawful-Stupid things.
Know I'm not helping the most with specifics, but it's a broad topic. So just trying to give some general pointers on how to think of things.
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First define for your character the Morale Code they subscribe to. It can be religious, philosophical, cultural, or code of conduct. Remember that laws are not consistent across all lands; your character should only focus the Moral Code that defines themselves. The challenge here is how does your character negotiate their set of ethics with the variations with in other societies. This is how you capture your Lawful component.
For the Good component, I would recommend being altruistic. Keep it that simple.
Where the fun comes in is that the world of the game will often make it impossible to achieve the ideal Lawful Good scenario that your character envisions. This not failure; this how things work. Your character does their best. When they fall shy, they feel remorse or regret; maybe even feel the drive to enact a penance. When they succeed, they rejoice and celebrate.
All of this post, but especially this part.
Alignment is way too vague to describe a personality. (It also has other problems.) Captain America and Mr. Rogers are (arguably) both LG, and they are vastly different people, with very different moral codes.
Also, the main way to avoid "Lawful Stupid" is to not do stupid things just because your alignment/moral code say you should. Does that mean you'll sometimes get caught in moral quandaries? Yes, and that's where character happens.
Who is this person? What do they want in life, both for themselves, and for the world? They're part of some presumably religious order, the "Silver Flame". What about its precepts appeals to them? What's something they're less sure about? Are they content to serve, or do they aspire to lead? Given their choice, would they slay evil, or attempt to reform it? If nobody would ever know, would they betray their principles to get the thing/goal they most want?
Ask those questions, and more. It's fine not to have answers for them, and you're not bound by those answers you tell yourself. You may conclude that, once you've worked over your character's moral code, that they're not LG, by whatever definition of LG you use. Once they've seen actual play, they may not stay LG. Both of those are fine.
Also, a lot of a character's personality is not their moral code. You're going to spend much more of your roleplaying time interacting with PCs and NPCs in situations with no particular ethical weight. Spend at least as much time thinking about what you want them to be like. Loud, quiet, thoughtful, reckless, etc. -- these are the meat of roleplay.