[blockquote][b][url=/profile/Felkros]Felkros[/url] said:[/b]

You both bring up some good points. I think you're right, it depends on intention.

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Totally agree. Intention and the causal tree need to be thoroughly examined before justice can truly be served.

[blockquote][b][url=/profile/GwenUlfblod]Tear of Mara[/url] said:[/b]

That moment when you post a discussion in a section and the Host of said section post something as well...

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Ah no worries, it just shows that RP is alive and kicking, which is something I very much approve of!

I think there's a difference between greater good and immediate good. The latter makes me think more lawful good - handing in bandits and protecting peasants from bears, but the former is a lot more ambiguous. Preventing crime by barbaric means (ala Phil's example) is an example of this, but it can get a lot darker. Killing a village to make sure a disease doesn't spread? Yeah a few families might die, but the empire will be saved! It depends on the laws that govern the character than dicates where on the spectrum they are. If the king orders it or if the plague is cast upon the village by the enemy god to yours, I'd say the character is just, just Lawful Good. But 'the greater good' can get into Neutral Good (which basically comes down to maths - 1 village vs 1 empire) or Chaotic Good (You mean we get to kill people and save them?! Well this day just keeps getting better and better), and again it has a lot to do with context as to where they stand.

[blockquote][b][url=/profile/Zonnonn]Zonnonn[/url] said:[/b]

[blockquote][b][url=/profile/GwenUlfblod]Tear of Mara[/url] said:[/b]

That moment when you post a discussion in a section and the Host of said section post something as well...

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Ah no worries, it just shows that RP is alive and kicking, which is something I very much approve of!

I think there's a difference between greater good and immediate good. The latter makes me think more lawful good - handing in bandits and protecting peasants from bears, but the former is a lot more ambiguous. Preventing crime by barbaric means (ala Phil's example) is an example of this, but it can get a lot darker. Killing a village to make sure a disease doesn't spread? Yeah a few families might die, but the empire will be saved! It depends on the laws that govern the character than dicates where on the spectrum they are. If the king orders it or if the plague is cast upon the village by the enemy god to yours, I'd say the character is just, just Lawful Good. But 'the greater good' can get into Neutral Good (which basically comes down to maths - 1 village vs 1 empire) or Chaotic Good (You mean we get to kill people and save them?! Well this day just keeps getting better and better), and again it has a lot to do with context as to where they stand.

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I know that was just a simple joke, for I didn't see your thread, and I know you approve of it. :)

Yeah, I after writing my lore piece I am doing with Paws, I kind of like the whole Zealot Lawful Good side, you could say. Like what Paws mentioning cutting a thieves hand for stealing is lawful because one of Zenithar's rules is "thou shall not steal"so that is technically being Lawful and Good, and if I did ever play a Lawful character I would make as such. I do like your example and now I get how Lawful can have two sides the Zealot Extremist side and the not so Zealot side.

If we take it just by D&D standards Lawful Good characters are the cool guys type :P . They will uphold the rules and laws which keep free, safe and benefit all the good people and some of their characteristics are that they are honorable and more often than not compassionate. They will follow the rules/laws to right any wrongdoing and will punish those who break them but they will do so with the factor of honor and compassion in the equation not just go around enforcing the laws as strict as they are allowed to and punishing as heavy as they can even the pettiest of "bad actions".

Commentor's Note: Chaotic Good and Chaotic Neutral Rulz though! :D

I think a lawful good is actually quite difficult to play right. By "play right" I mean becoming a whole other part of the scale most people refer to as "lawful stupid" where you take your alignment too far and just uphold the law for seemingly no reason other than to uphold the law, you will force your code onto others and serve as judge, jury, and executioner if any of those are broken, just swearing in front of these idiots may end up with you losing your tongue (most of them aren't that severe but you get the idea). Other times they'll do whatever they can to help regardless of the consequences, such as helping a farmer find his chicken while a giant's stomping all over a town. To be a good lawful good you must know when to make the right sacrifices for the greater good and you can't expect everyone to follow your code (unless you work with local laws, in which case that's fine), you must also create punishments equal to the crime and make the situation right, for instance in that "thief steals bread to feed his family" scenario mentioned here I imagine the lawful good character would pay for the bread himself then send the thief on their own way after maybe giving them a small fine that can be payed at a later date.

[blockquote][b][url=/profile/Ebonslayer]Ebonslayer[/url] said:[/b]

I think a lawful good is actually quite difficult to play right. By "play right" I mean becoming a whole other part of the scale most people refer to as "lawful stupid" where you take your alignment too far and just uphold the law for seemingly no reason other than to uphold the law, you will force your code onto others and serve as judge, jury, and executioner if any of those are broken, just swearing in front of these idiots may end up with you losing your tongue (most of them aren't that severe but you get the idea).

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That's probably Lawful Neutral territory, not Lawful Good. LN is my all-time favourite alignment, but I digress.

Aside from that and Lawful Stupid, LG is probably relatively simple to roleplay... most of the time. The real dilemmas come from when "Lawful" and "Good" misalign. If the Order of the Light commands all its Paladins (you) to put an entire village (of heathens, for example, but let's say innocent heathens) to the sword, what do you do? An entire city? I think different LG characters will answer this in different ways, which is beautiful.

The Lawful Good are usually the "Knight" type of people with noble characters and compassion. This compassion is targeted not only on the good people but also to the people that did something wrong which means they will punish in order to uphold the "laws" but they will not go overboard. What Ebonslayer is describing I think is Lawful Neutral and maybe on the boundary of Lawful Evil.

[blockquote][b][url=/profile/Solyeuse]soly[/url] said:[/b]

That's probably Lawful Neutral territory, not Lawful Good. LN is my all-time favourite alignment, but I digress.

Aside from that and Lawful Stupid, LG is probably relatively simple to roleplay... most of the time. The real dilemmas come from when "Lawful" and "Good" misalign. If the Order of the Light commands all its Paladins (you) to put an entire village (of heathens, for example, but let's say innocent heathens) to the sword, what do you do? An entire city? I think different LG characters will answer this in different ways, which is beautiful.

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I reckon scale is the biggest issue you can face when roleplaying Lawful Good. Like you said, there's a difference between killing a hundred people in a village and ten thousand in a city, where is the line drawn? Who draws it, the character or the force that steers them?

[blockquote][b][url=/profile/Zonnonn]Zonnonn[/url] said:[/b]

[blockquote][b][url=/profile/Solyeuse]soly[/url] said:[/b]

That's probably Lawful Neutral territory, not Lawful Good. LN is my all-time favourite alignment, but I digress.

Aside from that and Lawful Stupid, LG is probably relatively simple to roleplay... most of the time. The real dilemmas come from when "Lawful" and "Good" misalign. If the Order of the Light commands all its Paladins (you) to put an entire village (of heathens, for example, but let's say innocent heathens) to the sword, what do you do? An entire city? I think different LG characters will answer this in different ways, which is beautiful.

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I reckon scale is the biggest issue you can face when roleplaying Lawful Good. Like you said, there's a difference between killing a hundred people in a village and ten thousand in a city, where is the line drawn? Who draws it, the character or the force that steers them?

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I'm kind of wondering, after reading through this discussion, if the alignment system works or if my own is out of wack :D I think for most of us life is fairly on the Good aligned scale. We get up, we go to work or school/uni, we try and avoiding getting in too much trouble. That degree of "too much" sort of helps dtermine the Law side of things. In the vast majority of cases we obey the law because, well, I guess it's stupid not to. Smoking a bit of weed here, or downloading something there, speeding a bit to get somewhere two minutes earlier than we would have done... are these breaches what determine the L part of LG? Or can someone be as LG as it gets but also enjoy the occasional pub lock-in?

It could be the scale thing Zon mentions. Luckily most of us don't encounter such large-scale decisions, but when we do they can profoundly shake us. I was sort of working towards something but I've forgotten what it was. I think it was, could a regular guy who is lawful good and does his best to do right by those he loves and the law of the land find he is actually chaotic good or even something else in the face of extreme stress? 

[blockquote][b][url=/profile/Paws]Paws[/url] said:[/b]

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I'm kind of wondering, after reading through this discussion, if the alignment system works or if my own is out of wack :D I think for most of us life is fairly on the Good aligned scale. We get up, we go to work or school/uni, we try and avoiding getting in too much trouble. That degree of "too much" sort of helps dtermine the Law side of things. In the vast majority of cases we obey the law because, well, I guess it's stupid not to. Smoking a bit of weed here, or downloading something there, speeding a bit to get somewhere two minutes earlier than we would have done... are these breaches what determine the L part of LG? Or can someone be as LG as it gets but also enjoy the occasional pub lock-in?

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This is what I'm talking about! In my opinion, the little discrepancies like you mentioned would be fine for a hero such as the Dragonborn - they've got bigger things to worry about than someone cutting a few corners, and if they do it and it helps them in their ultimate goal than it could be justifiable. But the 'busybody' LG would be more concerned. I guess they'd be more concerned with the day-to-day issues that pale in comparison to a world ending threat, but can still be a nuisance to others like what you mentioned.