I'm rolling a halfling that is very generically somewhere between Frodo and Samwise. I am pleased with my character's abilities, but bored by the RP potential. Is there a fun way to roleplay a fuddy duddy do-gooder? How can you spice up a run-of-the-mill lawful good archetype?
Why does your character want to do good? Is it in a futile attempt to right a past wrong? Maybe they're seeking atonement for a previous life of villainy. Maybe they're lawful because they've learned in the past that they can't trust their own judgement since they're naturally wicked and trying to turn over a new leaf.
Or maybe is your character naive to the world, hopelessly optimistic and seeing the potential for good in the morally greyest scenarios? Maybe they're lawful in the way that they remain true to the spirit of the law despite its letter at times.
Maybe instead of a generic do-gooder, they have a specific goal. Frodo and Sam weren't just out on an adventure; they had to destroy the ring to protect their home. Maybe you're character is trying to save a kidnapped family member, or is looking for the cure to a mysterious illness that's been growing in their home town. Maybe their family's honor is impuned by the actions of an ancestor that've recently come to light, and only by recovering an ancient artifact can the character redeem their family.
Good doesn't have to be boring, just treat it as the connective tissue around the skeleton of your character's backstory and reason for adventuring.
Why does your character want to do good? Is it in a futile attempt to right a past wrong? Maybe they're seeking atonement for a previous life of villainy. Maybe they're lawful because they've learned in the past that they can't trust their own judgement since they're naturally wicked and trying to turn over a new leaf.
Or maybe is your character naive to the world, hopelessly optimistic and seeing the potential for good in the morally greyest scenarios? Maybe they're lawful in the way that they remain true to the spirit of the law despite its letter at times.
Maybe instead of a generic do-gooder, they have a specific goal. Frodo and Sam weren't just out on an adventure; they had to destroy the ring to protect their home. Maybe you're character is trying to save a kidnapped family member, or is looking for the cure to a mysterious illness that's been growing in their home town. Maybe their family's honor is impuned by the actions of an ancestor that've recently come to light, and only by recovering an ancient artifact can the character redeem their family.
Good doesn't have to be boring, just treat it as the connective tissue around the skeleton of your character's backstory and reason for adventuring.
I've always described "lawful" as it doesn't necessarily mean you obey laws (i mean, you *can* do that, if you want), but rather it more appropriately means you follow a creed, pact, order, or a discipline of some kind as to how you conduct yourself, so someone who is Lawful, these are your Captain America, Superman, Darth Vader, or Din Djarin style characters. As far as "good", good is nothing more than a perspective. When Village A and Village B wages war against each other over a land dispute, which village are the good guys and which village are the evil guys is all about your perspective, because if you're from Village A, then everyone from Village A are the good guys and everyone from Village B are the evil guys. But if you aren't rooting for either village, you can view these two villages from an external point of view and judge them dispassionately and fairly. Both of them could be considered good because they're "fighting for or defending their village", but both of them could be considered "evil" because they're killing each other over nothing.
Anywho, a lot of people have been kinda miffed over the past decades because Lawful Good Paladins are generally played as being a "stick in the mud goody-two-shoes" for any group, and this is where the term "Lawful Stupid" comes from, because people take the "doing good for the sake of doing good" thing too far and now the Rogue and Bard have a babysitter. Someone playing Lawful Stupid can ruin games, so when you're playing as Lawful Good, try to avoid this trope at all costs.
As far as some non-fuddy-duddy Lawful Good characters to look to for inspiration, Gandalf was a pretty interesting Lawful Good character. Pick just about any Jedi, they're all lawful good. Hermoine Granger and Spock are also equally iconic characters. Spock was kinda fuddy-duddy-ish, but he's still a beloved and interesting character.
I define law vs chaos in terms of how much a character plans ahead and how much they follow their plans. A lawful good character will take actions to do good in the long term, even if the short term actions aren't good, a chaotic good character will try to do what's good right now, even if that isn't the best in the long term.
I've always described "lawful" as it doesn't necessarily mean you obey laws (i mean, you *can* do that, if you want), but rather it more appropriately means you follow a creed, pact, order, or a discipline of some kind as to how you conduct yourself, so someone who is Lawful, these are your Captain America, Superman, Darth Vader, or Din Djarin style characters. As far as "good", good is nothing more than a perspective. When Village A and Village B wages war against each other over a land dispute, which village are the good guys and which village are the evil guys is all about your perspective, because if you're from Village A, then everyone from Village A are the good guys and everyone from Village B are the evil guys. But if you aren't rooting for either village, you can view these two villages from an external point of view and judge them dispassionately and fairly. Both of them could be considered good because they're "fighting for or defending their village", but both of them could be considered "evil" because they're killing each other over nothing.
Anywho, a lot of people have been kinda miffed over the past decades because Lawful Good Paladins are generally played as being a "stick in the mud goody-two-shoes" for any group, and this is where the term "Lawful Stupid" comes from, because people take the "doing good for the sake of doing good" thing too far and now the Rogue and Bard have a babysitter. Someone playing Lawful Stupid can ruin games, so when you're playing as Lawful Good, try to avoid this trope at all costs.
As far as some non-fuddy-duddy Lawful Good characters to look to for inspiration, Gandalf was a pretty interesting Lawful Good character. Pick just about any Jedi, they're all lawful good. Hermoine Granger and Spock are also equally iconic characters. Spock was kinda fuddy-duddy-ish, but he's still a beloved and interesting character.
In general for LG it's important to remember that the character does not simply suspend reason and judgement in deference to a handful of rules. The character believes in some kind of larger framework of rules/laws/etc as the best means of doing good in the world. They'll be actively judging how they can best do good while holding to their principles and can even occasionally admit that they need to bend their principles if staying within them is going to cause a great deal of harm. Granted, it does need to be an exceptional event when they do that; if they bend the rules frequently then they're closer to Neutral Good.
Alignment is a very loose concept in 5E, you're free to roleplay your character how you wish. The typical behaviors can vary significantly and you don't have to be perfectly and consistently faithful to it
Alignment: A typical creature in the game world has an alignment, which broadly describes its moral and personal attitudes....These brief summaries of the nine alignments describe the typical behavior of a creature with that alignment. Individuals might vary significantly from that typical behavior, and few people are perfectly and consistently faithful to the precepts of their alignment.
A good way to flesh it out is to give your character personality traits, ideals, bonds and flaws less fuddy duddy do-gooder and more detestable, loathsome and worthy of hatred.
Alignment is a very loose concept in 5E, you're free to roleplay your character how you wish. The typical behaviors can vary significantly and you don't have to be perfectly and consistently faithful to it
Alignment: A typical creature in the game world has an alignment, which broadly describes its moral and personal attitudes....These brief summaries of the nine alignments describe the typical behavior of a creature with that alignment. Individuals might vary significantly from that typical behavior, and few people are perfectly and consistently faithful to the precepts of their alignment.
Yes, allignment is DEscriptive, not PREscriptive. Ultimately, you don't have to do anything "because it's your alignment." Instead, ultimately, do what you want, but if your typical behavior begins to stray away from what is described by your alignment, then your alignment has changed.
I mostly only concern myself with alignment during character creation, when I'm getting a feel for the building blocks of a character's personality. It is also a useful tool when creating a character that is unlike yourself in personality. If I'm playing a cruel, bloodthirsty pit fighter, alignment serves as an occasional reminder. My hypothetical chaotic evil character doesn't need to be murdering puppies left and right to still be chaotic evil, but when i think of their attitude, and how they would act without the constraints of society around them, I can make it into something that falls under the descriptive term "chaotic evil."
Alignment is a very loose concept in 5E, you're free to roleplay your character how you wish. The typical behaviors can vary significantly and you don't have to be perfectly and consistently faithful to it
Alignment: A typical creature in the game world has an alignment, which broadly describes its moral and personal attitudes....These brief summaries of the nine alignments describe the typical behavior of a creature with that alignment. Individuals might vary significantly from that typical behavior, and few people are perfectly and consistently faithful to the precepts of their alignment.
Yes, allignment is DEscriptive, not PREscriptive. Ultimately, you don't have to do anything "because it's your alignment." Instead, ultimately, do what you want, but if your typical behavior begins to stray away from what is described by your alignment, then your alignment has changed.
I mostly only concern myself with alignment during character creation, when I'm getting a feel for the building blocks of a character's personality. It is also a useful tool when creating a character that is unlike yourself in personality. If I'm playing a cruel, bloodthirsty pit fighter, alignment serves as an occasional reminder. My hypothetical chaotic evil character doesn't need to be murdering puppies left and right to still be chaotic evil, but when i think of their attitude, and how they would act without the constraints of society around them, I can make it into something that falls under the descriptive term "chaotic evil."
Agreed and handled in such fashion, alignment become a mere behavior label that may be better left out since its superflous. For PCs at least, as i believe it has a place for deeply evil stuff such as fiend and undead creatures as well as unholy or desecrated place for exemple. That's why i like how 5E handled Detect Evil & Good spell and Divine Sense feature.
I'm rolling a halfling that is very generically somewhere between Frodo and Samwise. I am pleased with my character's abilities, but bored by the RP potential. Is there a fun way to roleplay a fuddy duddy do-gooder? How can you spice up a run-of-the-mill lawful good archetype?
The best way I've found to spice up RP regardless of alignment is using this Framework
NEED - This is what your character needs to be happy, and ready to just live their life rather than risking life and limb adventuring.
WANT - This is what your character wants in the short term that they think will make them happy.
LIE - This is something your character believes either about themselves or about the world that prevents them from achieving their need, or that makes them mistake their want for their need.
The Character's arc is defined by them abandoning the LIE and then achieving their NEED.
For Samwise Gamgee, he needs Frodo to be happy and safe. He wants to go back to the Shire. The lie he believes is that he's just a nobody that can't change anything about Sauron or the Ring quest. His arc starts when he leaves the Fellowship with Frodo, climaxes when he carries Frodo up mount doom, and concludes when he sees Frodo sail into the West.
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I'm rolling a halfling that is very generically somewhere between Frodo and Samwise. I am pleased with my character's abilities, but bored by the RP potential. Is there a fun way to roleplay a fuddy duddy do-gooder? How can you spice up a run-of-the-mill lawful good archetype?
Why does your character want to do good? Is it in a futile attempt to right a past wrong? Maybe they're seeking atonement for a previous life of villainy. Maybe they're lawful because they've learned in the past that they can't trust their own judgement since they're naturally wicked and trying to turn over a new leaf.
Or maybe is your character naive to the world, hopelessly optimistic and seeing the potential for good in the morally greyest scenarios? Maybe they're lawful in the way that they remain true to the spirit of the law despite its letter at times.
Maybe instead of a generic do-gooder, they have a specific goal. Frodo and Sam weren't just out on an adventure; they had to destroy the ring to protect their home. Maybe you're character is trying to save a kidnapped family member, or is looking for the cure to a mysterious illness that's been growing in their home town. Maybe their family's honor is impuned by the actions of an ancestor that've recently come to light, and only by recovering an ancient artifact can the character redeem their family.
Good doesn't have to be boring, just treat it as the connective tissue around the skeleton of your character's backstory and reason for adventuring.
I think this is all excellent advice!
I've always described "lawful" as it doesn't necessarily mean you obey laws (i mean, you *can* do that, if you want), but rather it more appropriately means you follow a creed, pact, order, or a discipline of some kind as to how you conduct yourself, so someone who is Lawful, these are your Captain America, Superman, Darth Vader, or Din Djarin style characters. As far as "good", good is nothing more than a perspective. When Village A and Village B wages war against each other over a land dispute, which village are the good guys and which village are the evil guys is all about your perspective, because if you're from Village A, then everyone from Village A are the good guys and everyone from Village B are the evil guys. But if you aren't rooting for either village, you can view these two villages from an external point of view and judge them dispassionately and fairly. Both of them could be considered good because they're "fighting for or defending their village", but both of them could be considered "evil" because they're killing each other over nothing.
Anywho, a lot of people have been kinda miffed over the past decades because Lawful Good Paladins are generally played as being a "stick in the mud goody-two-shoes" for any group, and this is where the term "Lawful Stupid" comes from, because people take the "doing good for the sake of doing good" thing too far and now the Rogue and Bard have a babysitter. Someone playing Lawful Stupid can ruin games, so when you're playing as Lawful Good, try to avoid this trope at all costs.
As far as some non-fuddy-duddy Lawful Good characters to look to for inspiration, Gandalf was a pretty interesting Lawful Good character. Pick just about any Jedi, they're all lawful good. Hermoine Granger and Spock are also equally iconic characters. Spock was kinda fuddy-duddy-ish, but he's still a beloved and interesting character.
I define law vs chaos in terms of how much a character plans ahead and how much they follow their plans. A lawful good character will take actions to do good in the long term, even if the short term actions aren't good, a chaotic good character will try to do what's good right now, even if that isn't the best in the long term.
This is all super helpful! Thank you!
If you're willing to read a bit, I've got a great link to a very comprehensive post on the intricacies of LG.
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?448799-To-March-Into-Hell-for-a-Heavenly-Cause-A-Lawful-Good-Handbook
In general for LG it's important to remember that the character does not simply suspend reason and judgement in deference to a handful of rules. The character believes in some kind of larger framework of rules/laws/etc as the best means of doing good in the world. They'll be actively judging how they can best do good while holding to their principles and can even occasionally admit that they need to bend their principles if staying within them is going to cause a great deal of harm. Granted, it does need to be an exceptional event when they do that; if they bend the rules frequently then they're closer to Neutral Good.
Alignment is a very loose concept in 5E, you're free to roleplay your character how you wish. The typical behaviors can vary significantly and you don't have to be perfectly and consistently faithful to it
A good way to flesh it out is to give your character personality traits, ideals, bonds and flaws less fuddy duddy do-gooder and more detestable, loathsome and worthy of hatred.
Yes, allignment is DEscriptive, not PREscriptive. Ultimately, you don't have to do anything "because it's your alignment." Instead, ultimately, do what you want, but if your typical behavior begins to stray away from what is described by your alignment, then your alignment has changed.
I mostly only concern myself with alignment during character creation, when I'm getting a feel for the building blocks of a character's personality. It is also a useful tool when creating a character that is unlike yourself in personality. If I'm playing a cruel, bloodthirsty pit fighter, alignment serves as an occasional reminder. My hypothetical chaotic evil character doesn't need to be murdering puppies left and right to still be chaotic evil, but when i think of their attitude, and how they would act without the constraints of society around them, I can make it into something that falls under the descriptive term "chaotic evil."
Agreed and handled in such fashion, alignment become a mere behavior label that may be better left out since its superflous. For PCs at least, as i believe it has a place for deeply evil stuff such as fiend and undead creatures as well as unholy or desecrated place for exemple. That's why i like how 5E handled Detect Evil & Good spell and Divine Sense feature.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LawfulGood may be useful
The best way I've found to spice up RP regardless of alignment is using this Framework
NEED - This is what your character needs to be happy, and ready to just live their life rather than risking life and limb adventuring.
WANT - This is what your character wants in the short term that they think will make them happy.
LIE - This is something your character believes either about themselves or about the world that prevents them from achieving their need, or that makes them mistake their want for their need.
The Character's arc is defined by them abandoning the LIE and then achieving their NEED.
For Samwise Gamgee, he needs Frodo to be happy and safe. He wants to go back to the Shire. The lie he believes is that he's just a nobody that can't change anything about Sauron or the Ring quest. His arc starts when he leaves the Fellowship with Frodo, climaxes when he carries Frodo up mount doom, and concludes when he sees Frodo sail into the West.