Breaking Down the Character Alignment System: Lawful Neutral

*Originally published on 3/11/12


Just beneath the boy/girl scouts that make up the lawful good characters, we have the lawful neutral. Where the lawful good characters were fairly straight forward, admittedly, this one is a bit hazier. Ironically enough, the TvTropes page for this alignment makes a point to say that this is one of the easier alignments to play. Sadly, I lack the first hand experience to comment one way or the other, but let's have a closer look and find out together, shall we?

Much like the lawful good characters, lawful neutral adhere to a personal code of conduct. While said code of conduct dictates the behavior of lawful good characters, the code of a lawful neutral is the only code that matters.

In general, there is a bit of overlap as most lawful neutral characters won't kill unless necessary and do adhere to their word, but they don't have the same altruistic streak that lawful good characters do. Instead, they choose to obey the letter of the law, whether it is one dictated to them by government or one that they establish themselves.

You'll often find that a lot of authority figures fall under this trope. Often times, cop and government officials fall under this particular alignment as they are interested in preserving order, but don't see a higher purpose beyond that. They'll fight to preserve said system, but won't let personal feelings get in the way one way or the other.

As the name implies, they are generally impartial. They do what they have to do and as long as it serves their code, than they aren't going to bother listening to pleas or giving it a second thought because, as far as they're concerned, they're doing the job that they're supposed to.

It's interesting to note that there are times where even characters that are generally viewed as antagonists, if not villains, can fall under this category too. This, of course, depends on the nature of the protagonist, but it is an odd quirk of the alignment.

It may not be as easy to quantify as its predecessor, but once you get the hang of it, lawful neutral characters are fairly straightforward in their own way. It is a common archetype across all media which should give new players a general idea of how this particular alignment works.