Breaking Down the Character Alignment System: Lawful Good

*Originally published on 3/11/12



When approaching certain RPG's you are bound to run into what is called the "alignment system". This is basically a way of categorizing the type of character you'll be playing, not so much in terms of race or class, those are already established, but more in terms of how your character ranks in terms of morality.

The hard and fast nature of the alignment system varies depending on what game you're playing and who is running the campaign, but it serves as a handy guide for how a character of your type should act in any given situation. Now, I'm not that well versed in RPG's, but nevertheless, I thought I would take a crack at trying to explain each of the individual alignments and, hopefully, help put to rest some of the arguing that continues to this day.

We'll start with what is probably the most well known, and easily established of the alignments of this system, the "lawful good" alignment.

This is basically for your Superman or Captain Marvel type characters. The icons of goodness that fight to protect others and stand by a strong moral code that dictates proper behavior.

Lawful good characters hold life as sacred and place great value on each individual. They also strongly believe that the stronger and more fortunate members of society have an obligation to help the weak and the downtrodden.

By promoting this code and advocating it to others, they try to make the world a better place. Lawful good characters are meant to act as shining examples of honor, truth, and nobility. They're the idealistic do gooders that act as icons of proper behavior.

While in most circumstances, lawful good characters adhere to the laws of the government, if they find that said government is performing acts that violate their moral code, like say instituting slavery or cheating others for their own personal gain, lawful good characters feel an inherent obligation to combat it.

It should be noted, however, that while lawful good characters will combat corrupt systems like the one mentioned above, they would work within the system to fix it, as opposed to resorting to more extreme measures to send a message.

As said before, this is one of the more straight forward of the alignments. Really, you just act like your typical superhero. Do good deeds and fight to help and protect others.