Coldfusion
4th November 2012, 05:56 PM
Character Alignments and Builds
A GUIDE BY COLDFUSION
For many examples, I will be using several characters to demonstrate.
What is a Character Alignment?
Character alignment is essentially how your character behaves. Is your character a good guy or a bad guy? Maybe your character is a mix between the two? Character alignment is a good tool to use in order to keep your character consistent. Consistent characters are 9 times out of 10 better than inconsistent characters.
What is a Character Build?
Character Alignment is your character's behavior mentally. Character Builds are similar in the sense that they govern what your character can do. Pretty much this says whether or not you are superman. The degree of building tells how much of superman you are. Good characters will be balanced out between the three major areas: Physical, Mental, Social. More on this later.
Character Alignments
This is the part where you choose how your character will behave almost all the time in a roleplay. There are seven categories. Generally, if your character has a major change in their life, they remain within their alignment class. A consistent character would not change from Lawful Neutral to Chaotic Evil. The only exception to this rule of thumb is a True Neutral character, which can change to either Lawful or Chaotic class once, as a rule of thumb.
Alignments are formatted as such: [Alignment Class] [Alignment Type]
Alignment Classes: Lawful, True, Chaotic
Alignment Types: Good, Neutral, Evil
Lawful Good
Lawful Good characters are really good people. They tend to be in the business of helping people and tend to make great soldiers, police officers, doctors, etc. A lawful good character does not do what they do in order to make some sort of personal gain - they do it because it is the right thing to do. These characters have a strong moral character. Truth, honor, and the welfare of others is all-important. They are convinced that order and laws are absolutely necessary to assure that goodness prevails. Lawful good beings will not want to lie or cheat anyone, good or evil.
Benji Lackland is a lawful good character because he became a news reporter to help spread the word and get the news to people, not to be a mobster on the side.
Lawful Neutral
Lawful Neutral characters have the tendency to go either way - Good or Evil. But, no matter what, they always obey the law. Those of this alignment view regulation as all-important, taking a middle ground betwixt evil and good. This is because the ultimate harmony of the world--and the whole universe--is considered by lawful neutral creatures to have its sole hope rest upon law and order.
James Field is a lawful neutral character because he joined the LSPD to help people. He helps people a lot of the time, but if he is paid enough, he will sometimes help criminals smuggle drugs with a police escort
Lawful Evil
Lawful Evil characters are often more evil than Chaotic Evil characters, from my experience. This is because they often have the power to make more of an impact on a roleplay than a character in a chaotic evil position. Lawful evil is sometimes called "diabolical," because devils are the epitome of lawful evil. Creatures of this alignments are great respecters of laws and strict order, but life, beauty, truth, freedom, and the like are held as valueless, or at least scorned. By adhering to stringent discipline, those of lawful evil alignments hope to impose their yoke upon the world. Obviously, all order is not good, nor are all laws beneficial. Lawful evil creatures consider order as the means by which each group is properly placed in the cosmos, from the lowest to the highest, strongest first, weakest last.
President Nimrod Halforth is a Lawful Evil character because he is the President of the United States and has never broken a law in his life. He passes laws all day every day. However, on the side, he is also an underground mob boss who has people executed who don't believe in his presidential message.
True Neutral
True Neutral is an interesting character alignment because True Neutrals can sway either way. They can act as Lawful Evil or Chaotic Good, which are very different personalities. Some neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run.
Tyrone James sat by and watched the riot with the LSPD shooting the rioters, who were killing each other. The side who was in the right was not clear, so Tyrone decided to not take a side and thus, he watched the madness erupt.
Chaotic Good
Chaotic Good characters have good intentions for their world, however they execute their ideas in a not-so-legal way. They tend to push their agenda regardless of who stands in the way. Chaotic good characters are strong individualists marked by a streak of kindness and benevolence. They believe in all the virtues of goodness and right, but they have little use for laws and regulations. They have no use for people who "try to push folk around and tell them what to do." Their actions are guided by their own moral compass which, although good, may not always be in perfect agreement with the rest of society.
Governor Lenny German was a chaotic good character because he intended to reform healthcare by cutting off benefits to all elderly people, which caused mass uproar and controversy.
Chaotic Neutral
Chaotic Neutral characters tend to go either way - Good or Evil, similar to Lawful Neutral. They acknowledge the world and it's surroundings and see that the way to change it, either for good or evil, is through chaos and anarchy. Above respect for life and good, or disregard for life and promotion of evil, the chaotic neutral places randomness and disorder. Good and evil are complimentary balance arms. Neither are preferred, nor must either prevail, for ultimate chaos would then suffer. This view of the cosmos holds that absolute freedom is necessary. Whether the individual exercising such freedom chooses to do good or evil is of no concern.
No example provided. Self-explanatory
Chaotic Evil
Chaotic Evil characters, in reference to The Dark Knight, "want to watch the world burn". They are pure evil, often satanic, figures who are evil and do horrible things just for the hell of it. In reference to SARP, everyone plays as this type of character, which is why I made this guide - to educate people about different kinds of characters. The major precepts of this alignment are freedom, randomness, and woe. Laws and order, kindness, and good deeds are disdained. Life has no value. By promoting chaos and evil, those of this alignment hope to bring themselves to positions of power, glory, and prestige in a system ruled by individual caprice and their own whim. The chaotic evil creature holds that individual freedom and choice is important, and that other individuals and their freedoms are unimportant if they cannot be held by the individuals through their own strength and merit. Thus, law and order rends to promote not individuals but groups, and groups suppress individual volition and success.
Hitler was a chaotic evil character. He nearly exterminated the jews just for the hell of it (well, actually a great cleansing of Germany... But, at it's core it was for the hell of it).
Character Builds
As I explained briefly before, Character Builds are not how your character necessarily behaves mentally or decision-wise. Your character builds essentially determines how much of Jesus, Superman, etc. you are.
A basic character build is broken into three sections: Physical, Mental, and Social.
Physical
Physical traits with a physical-heavy build would be the ability to do flips or lift a very heavy object. Physical-heavy characters tend to be fighters of some sort.
Mental
Mental traits with a mental-heavy build would be the ability to confuse someone with big words or something along those lines. Mental-heavy characters are often the mastermind behind the conspiracy, the guy in the group with the "brains". Mental-heavy builds also make good doctors, nurses, and lawyers as these are all jobs which require a significant amount of brains to do (since all three require a lot of college in real life).
Social
Social traits with a social-heavy build would be the ability to lead. Leadership is a direct descendant from Social Skills. Someone who is very sociable would, in turn, have the ability to communicate well with people.
Characters are not just dedicated in one field, though, are they? Imagine it like this: You have thirteen points of traits to spread out over these three categories. Yeah, you could put ten on Physical and make yourself super strong character wise, but then you only have three for Mental and Social. That would make you a really strong, buff, retarded, socially-awkward dude.
This can also be used to avoid powergaming. If you are super strong and super smart and an excellent leader, that is obvious powergaming. However, if you are just really smart, but scrawny (weak) and socially comfortable (not a leader type, but you can hold up in a conversation without falling to pieces from awkwardness) - this is an example of a very well balanced character.
The "Perfect" Character
In this section I will detail a so-called "perfect" character explained by this guide. You can use this for reference if you'd like...
Name: Xi Li Su(pronounced: Zee-Lee-Soo)
Age: 35
Nationality: Asian (second generation asian-american)
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Explanation: Xi Li Su is an assassin on the side. He is a respected community activist and the president of the local parent-teacher association as well as a state representative for his town. He has been known to take long business trips. On these business trips, he commits vile acts of treason by killing political leaders who have done horrible things to good people. He believes that expunging people who do bad things is the way to being order and peace to the world. When he returns from his trips, however, he returns to his persona of good and his image of being a great person and law-abiding citizen.
Build:
- Socially adept. He is very sociable, as a result he is a community leader and a state representative (politician).
- Mentally able. He is not super smart. If you had to translate his level of intelligence into a grade, he'd get about a C+ or a B-.
- Physically able. He can defend himself when he's in a pickle, but he can't lift cars or anything. He is not a ninja and cannot do backhand springs or any of that asian magic. Because of this flaw, he hired a man he saved from Vietnam to protect him in melee combat situations.
Explanation: Xi Li Su works within a team. One of his partners is Ju Mi Hai, who is pretty much the tracker and the guy who watches the targets before Xi Li moves in to take them out. Xi Li also works with another person when he is in the field. The person's name is unknown, but he is super strong and very quick. The unknown man is so strong that he had to register himself as a lethal weapon. He protects Xi Li with his life, since Xi Li saved him from communist Vietnam.
As you might be able to see, Xi Li Su has a slight curve when it comes to his character build. He is a little bit higher on the social skills, but not so high on mental or physical traits. So, his strong point is leadership and social things. If he was a SARP Character, he would be a family leader who doesn't kill people - only inspires people to kill people and gives out orders/requests.
Changelog:
11/3/12: Fixed BB Code on Hitler Reference
11/4/12: Moved to Guides and Tutorials section
A GUIDE BY COLDFUSION
For many examples, I will be using several characters to demonstrate.
What is a Character Alignment?
Character alignment is essentially how your character behaves. Is your character a good guy or a bad guy? Maybe your character is a mix between the two? Character alignment is a good tool to use in order to keep your character consistent. Consistent characters are 9 times out of 10 better than inconsistent characters.
What is a Character Build?
Character Alignment is your character's behavior mentally. Character Builds are similar in the sense that they govern what your character can do. Pretty much this says whether or not you are superman. The degree of building tells how much of superman you are. Good characters will be balanced out between the three major areas: Physical, Mental, Social. More on this later.
Character Alignments
This is the part where you choose how your character will behave almost all the time in a roleplay. There are seven categories. Generally, if your character has a major change in their life, they remain within their alignment class. A consistent character would not change from Lawful Neutral to Chaotic Evil. The only exception to this rule of thumb is a True Neutral character, which can change to either Lawful or Chaotic class once, as a rule of thumb.
Alignments are formatted as such: [Alignment Class] [Alignment Type]
Alignment Classes: Lawful, True, Chaotic
Alignment Types: Good, Neutral, Evil
Lawful Good
Lawful Good characters are really good people. They tend to be in the business of helping people and tend to make great soldiers, police officers, doctors, etc. A lawful good character does not do what they do in order to make some sort of personal gain - they do it because it is the right thing to do. These characters have a strong moral character. Truth, honor, and the welfare of others is all-important. They are convinced that order and laws are absolutely necessary to assure that goodness prevails. Lawful good beings will not want to lie or cheat anyone, good or evil.
Benji Lackland is a lawful good character because he became a news reporter to help spread the word and get the news to people, not to be a mobster on the side.
Lawful Neutral
Lawful Neutral characters have the tendency to go either way - Good or Evil. But, no matter what, they always obey the law. Those of this alignment view regulation as all-important, taking a middle ground betwixt evil and good. This is because the ultimate harmony of the world--and the whole universe--is considered by lawful neutral creatures to have its sole hope rest upon law and order.
James Field is a lawful neutral character because he joined the LSPD to help people. He helps people a lot of the time, but if he is paid enough, he will sometimes help criminals smuggle drugs with a police escort
Lawful Evil
Lawful Evil characters are often more evil than Chaotic Evil characters, from my experience. This is because they often have the power to make more of an impact on a roleplay than a character in a chaotic evil position. Lawful evil is sometimes called "diabolical," because devils are the epitome of lawful evil. Creatures of this alignments are great respecters of laws and strict order, but life, beauty, truth, freedom, and the like are held as valueless, or at least scorned. By adhering to stringent discipline, those of lawful evil alignments hope to impose their yoke upon the world. Obviously, all order is not good, nor are all laws beneficial. Lawful evil creatures consider order as the means by which each group is properly placed in the cosmos, from the lowest to the highest, strongest first, weakest last.
President Nimrod Halforth is a Lawful Evil character because he is the President of the United States and has never broken a law in his life. He passes laws all day every day. However, on the side, he is also an underground mob boss who has people executed who don't believe in his presidential message.
True Neutral
True Neutral is an interesting character alignment because True Neutrals can sway either way. They can act as Lawful Evil or Chaotic Good, which are very different personalities. Some neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run.
Tyrone James sat by and watched the riot with the LSPD shooting the rioters, who were killing each other. The side who was in the right was not clear, so Tyrone decided to not take a side and thus, he watched the madness erupt.
Chaotic Good
Chaotic Good characters have good intentions for their world, however they execute their ideas in a not-so-legal way. They tend to push their agenda regardless of who stands in the way. Chaotic good characters are strong individualists marked by a streak of kindness and benevolence. They believe in all the virtues of goodness and right, but they have little use for laws and regulations. They have no use for people who "try to push folk around and tell them what to do." Their actions are guided by their own moral compass which, although good, may not always be in perfect agreement with the rest of society.
Governor Lenny German was a chaotic good character because he intended to reform healthcare by cutting off benefits to all elderly people, which caused mass uproar and controversy.
Chaotic Neutral
Chaotic Neutral characters tend to go either way - Good or Evil, similar to Lawful Neutral. They acknowledge the world and it's surroundings and see that the way to change it, either for good or evil, is through chaos and anarchy. Above respect for life and good, or disregard for life and promotion of evil, the chaotic neutral places randomness and disorder. Good and evil are complimentary balance arms. Neither are preferred, nor must either prevail, for ultimate chaos would then suffer. This view of the cosmos holds that absolute freedom is necessary. Whether the individual exercising such freedom chooses to do good or evil is of no concern.
No example provided. Self-explanatory
Chaotic Evil
Chaotic Evil characters, in reference to The Dark Knight, "want to watch the world burn". They are pure evil, often satanic, figures who are evil and do horrible things just for the hell of it. In reference to SARP, everyone plays as this type of character, which is why I made this guide - to educate people about different kinds of characters. The major precepts of this alignment are freedom, randomness, and woe. Laws and order, kindness, and good deeds are disdained. Life has no value. By promoting chaos and evil, those of this alignment hope to bring themselves to positions of power, glory, and prestige in a system ruled by individual caprice and their own whim. The chaotic evil creature holds that individual freedom and choice is important, and that other individuals and their freedoms are unimportant if they cannot be held by the individuals through their own strength and merit. Thus, law and order rends to promote not individuals but groups, and groups suppress individual volition and success.
Hitler was a chaotic evil character. He nearly exterminated the jews just for the hell of it (well, actually a great cleansing of Germany... But, at it's core it was for the hell of it).
Character Builds
As I explained briefly before, Character Builds are not how your character necessarily behaves mentally or decision-wise. Your character builds essentially determines how much of Jesus, Superman, etc. you are.
A basic character build is broken into three sections: Physical, Mental, and Social.
Physical
Physical traits with a physical-heavy build would be the ability to do flips or lift a very heavy object. Physical-heavy characters tend to be fighters of some sort.
Mental
Mental traits with a mental-heavy build would be the ability to confuse someone with big words or something along those lines. Mental-heavy characters are often the mastermind behind the conspiracy, the guy in the group with the "brains". Mental-heavy builds also make good doctors, nurses, and lawyers as these are all jobs which require a significant amount of brains to do (since all three require a lot of college in real life).
Social
Social traits with a social-heavy build would be the ability to lead. Leadership is a direct descendant from Social Skills. Someone who is very sociable would, in turn, have the ability to communicate well with people.
Characters are not just dedicated in one field, though, are they? Imagine it like this: You have thirteen points of traits to spread out over these three categories. Yeah, you could put ten on Physical and make yourself super strong character wise, but then you only have three for Mental and Social. That would make you a really strong, buff, retarded, socially-awkward dude.
This can also be used to avoid powergaming. If you are super strong and super smart and an excellent leader, that is obvious powergaming. However, if you are just really smart, but scrawny (weak) and socially comfortable (not a leader type, but you can hold up in a conversation without falling to pieces from awkwardness) - this is an example of a very well balanced character.
The "Perfect" Character
In this section I will detail a so-called "perfect" character explained by this guide. You can use this for reference if you'd like...
Name: Xi Li Su(pronounced: Zee-Lee-Soo)
Age: 35
Nationality: Asian (second generation asian-american)
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Explanation: Xi Li Su is an assassin on the side. He is a respected community activist and the president of the local parent-teacher association as well as a state representative for his town. He has been known to take long business trips. On these business trips, he commits vile acts of treason by killing political leaders who have done horrible things to good people. He believes that expunging people who do bad things is the way to being order and peace to the world. When he returns from his trips, however, he returns to his persona of good and his image of being a great person and law-abiding citizen.
Build:
- Socially adept. He is very sociable, as a result he is a community leader and a state representative (politician).
- Mentally able. He is not super smart. If you had to translate his level of intelligence into a grade, he'd get about a C+ or a B-.
- Physically able. He can defend himself when he's in a pickle, but he can't lift cars or anything. He is not a ninja and cannot do backhand springs or any of that asian magic. Because of this flaw, he hired a man he saved from Vietnam to protect him in melee combat situations.
Explanation: Xi Li Su works within a team. One of his partners is Ju Mi Hai, who is pretty much the tracker and the guy who watches the targets before Xi Li moves in to take them out. Xi Li also works with another person when he is in the field. The person's name is unknown, but he is super strong and very quick. The unknown man is so strong that he had to register himself as a lethal weapon. He protects Xi Li with his life, since Xi Li saved him from communist Vietnam.
As you might be able to see, Xi Li Su has a slight curve when it comes to his character build. He is a little bit higher on the social skills, but not so high on mental or physical traits. So, his strong point is leadership and social things. If he was a SARP Character, he would be a family leader who doesn't kill people - only inspires people to kill people and gives out orders/requests.
Changelog:
11/3/12: Fixed BB Code on Hitler Reference
11/4/12: Moved to Guides and Tutorials section