Good, Evil, and Neutrality

The duality of Good and Evil has dominated Western civilization like no other pairing. In DnD it is no less vexing and interesting. There is no way that I could give you a list of actions, each categorized as Good, Evil, or Neutral. There aren’t enough hard drives in existence to hold that list. I have, however, tried to give a few guiding principles that will help you to decide if your PC’s and NPC’s are acting according to their moral alignment.

Good

            Whenever you ask someone to define what makes a good person, they often will outline their own personal qualities, or the precepts of their god or goddess. Sometimes we need to step back from ourselves and see Good on a more objective level, or else you will be forcing the character in your campaign to be like you, rather than following an alignment.

            The Players Handbook sums up Good by saying “Good Characters and creatures protect innocent life.” (PHB Pg.88) Well, true, but what exactly does that entail? It rings of the judgment Gabriel makes in “The Vampire Lestat” when she says that the sole purpose of Good in western civilization is to fight Evil.

            Stop and think of some Good people. The first that come to my mind are Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa, two people that gave up their own lives and their own interests to work for the oppressed. They gave so much in the service of others, one even his life. So, Good must mean that you work to enhance the well being of others, right?

            Now stop and think of World War II and the battle against the Nazis. Now, I can (and will) make an argument that the Nazis were evil. Was attacking, bombing and killing hundreds of thousands of people in Europe in order to defeat the Nazis Good? It sure wasn’t about enhancing the well being of others. Yet it was a Good campaign and a Just War against horribly Evil opponent. How can killing people be Good? To bring this back to DnD, how can a character that claims to devoted to Good, go out and slaughter people on a daily basis?

            Here is an important difference that comes up again and again in discussions of alignment. Good and Evil act themselves out on a both a small and large stage in a character's life but the one principle that ties them together is Empathy. Empathy is the ability for you to put yourself in someone else’s place, understand what they are enduring, realize that you wouldn’t want that to happen to you, and then taking steps to prevent it or alleviate it. Just as importantly, the urge to change things that are happening to other people is often a greater urge than pursuing your own interests.

            When Good characters confront someone, or something being put into a position that they themselves would not want to be in, the characters should take some action to change things, if they can. This can be something as minor as a Good aligned merchant giving some down on their luck adventurers a break on his prices, or as large as a party making the defeat of an Evil mage the sole focus of their lives.

            The other side of Good is Gabriel’s definition: the protection of Good people, and the defeat of Evil. This is how seemingly Good people can go about murdering sentient creatures, and still keep that halo. In the Forgotten Realms campaign, a nation of Good creatures has formed a country called the Silver Marches, and an orc barbarian is trying to form an army to kill, rape, and slaughter the Good people. Under these conditions, it would be perfectly Good for a group of adventurers to go out into the forest, hunting down and killing Evil goblins.

The basic rules of Good are as follows:

1) Support, aid, and protect non-Evil creatures.

2) Defeat and destroy Evil

Evil

If Good was difficult to describe, Evil is easy: “I’m in it for number one, and everyone else is just a tool for me getting what I want.”

            Have you ever anyone say “He’s a complete sociopath.” Of course, they’re exaggerating usually, because complete sociopaths are some of the most evil people there are. Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahlmer to name just a few. When a group of psychologists examined various sociopathic people they found a curious common trait: a complete lack of empathy. To a sociopath, a person has the same meaning and relevance as a chair or a table or a car. They see people as tools and pawns that either help or hinder their quest to achieve their own goals. The ones that help are treated as any useful object would, the ones that do not help are tossed to the side, and the ones that hinder are destroyed.

            Ok, now think of your various Evil figures in history. Nazis, for example, were willing to set up an entire government bureaucracy dedicated to rounding up people, exploiting them completely for manual labor, and then slaughtering them when they were no longer useful. That’s evil (actually Lawful Evil).

            To take it to a DnD example, Vecna, the undead lich demigod of Oerth, takes over countries, oppresses the people, and actually prefers his subjects dead, since then he can animate their bodies and they can do the work without requiring food or rest periods. That’s evil.

            The main driving force of most evil people is their own wants and needs. This is why most evil parties/campaigns collapse into an orgy of inter-party bloodletting. Evil people don’t work well with others, unless it is identifiably within their personal interests. Lawful Evil people usually can form organizations because they can demonstrate that it’s followers will benefit (increase in personal power/status) if they play along. This is also why Chaotic Evil people only band together when a strong leader is present. He can make the other Chaotic Evil People understand that they will get something if they play along (increase in personal power/status), or get something if they don’t play along (dead).

            Some Evil people can also see Evil as an Ideal that they seek to practice and perfect. They are rare, and are usually affiliated with an Evil god in some way, or call the Lower Planes their home.

The basic rules of Evil are:

1) Only look out for number one.

2) Other sentient creatures are only tools for getting what you want. If they help, work with them, if they hinder, eliminate them.

Neutral

            Neutral people fall into two groups: Conscientious Neutral, and Ignorant / Apathetic Neutral.

Conscientious Neutral

            Conscientious Neutral people see the universe as a place where everything must balance. Just as there is summer, there is winter; predator has prey; Good has Evil. People who hold this view believe that neutrality is a responsibility to keep these two forces in check. They will fight with Good when Evil is dominant, only to fight on the side of Evil a decade later when Good is dominant. To allow either side to control the whole ball of wax would throw the whole universe out of kilter and bring ruin on us all.

            The usual example of this is the Druid, especially since this ideology draws heavily on the natural world for it’s precepts. And why wouldn’t they, most animals are neutral themselves.

Ignorant / Apathetic Neutral

            A television interviewer once asked a guy on the street: “What is your opinion about the ignorance and apathy on the part of the American voter.” To which the man on the street replied “I don’t know, and I don’t care.”

            This sums up the vast majority of people who are neutral. They aren’t looking to help the downtrodden or wronged, but they also aren’t looking to trod on or wrong anybody either. “Me and Mine” are a guiding principle for this kind of neutral person. They’ll step up to help someone who has a personal connection to them, but everyone else is on their own. In the same fashion, they will attempt to harm someone who has hurt them or someone that they have a personal connection to, but otherwise they won’t hurt anyone else. They don’t want evil people to come to power, but they also don’t want some goody two shoes telling them how to live their lives either. They just want to be left alone.

            Most of the people that your PC’s will run into fall into this category. They are the people living in the villages and towns who aren’t caught up in the titanic struggle of Good Versus Evil, they just want to get their crops grown and harvested, their kids grown and married off, and perhaps a warm spot by the fire when they get old.

The basic rules of Neutrality are:

1) Good and Evil must be balanced to maintain the universal order.

2) Only worry about “Me and Mine”

Good and Evil                    Chaos and Order

Chaotic Good    Chaotic Evil    Chaotic Neutral

Lawful Good    Lawful Evil    Lawful Neutral

Neutral Good    Neutral Evil    Neutral