A chaotic good character would slow down, just in case. A chaotic evil one would speed up, just in case.

Matthew, I began to watch this series and I'm in episode 20 something. Can't believe you are still running this till today! Your channel is helping me DM my first table and you are the reason for it. Thank you so much! Greetings from Brazil

Matt:“Do you stop at a stop sign even when literally no one is around?” Me: “I’m an agent of chaos...”

Video request in this series - Neutrality vs. Balance. The character who is the utter pragmatist and could take any course of action based on motivation vs. the character who actively tries to make sure all things are kept in check on all sides.

Alignment change! I had a player that rolled a C/N Rogue. One day she decides to assault a dwarf banker woman, loot the vaults, and leave the dwarf for dead. Everyone was shocked during the following session when I asked the rogue for her character sheet, erased the N, and wrote E. I believe this is a trick I picked up from Matt. Here's the kicker, the player is my wife :P

You are speaking my alignment language, Matthew. I recently re-evaluated my method of assigning alignment and realized that many people determine alignment by what their character thinks is best for themselves but I think a much better metric is what values the character projects onto others. A self identified chaotic neutral player who only uses their personal freedom to be cruel and subjugate others would actually be Neutral Evil because to that character others’ freedom is without value. It helps form a more nuanced understanding of chaotic characters than the cartoonish types I’m used to seeing. My new shorthand for alignment is: Chaos - authority is internal/personal Law - authority is external/systematic Good - value autonomy and consent Evil - value subjugation and control Chaotic Evil = personal freedom exists to subjugate others. I.E. Might makes right, like in your example. Lawful Evil = the law exists to subjugate others. I.E. Class divide is natural & Slavery should be legal. If I ever need to explain what my Law/Chaos interpretation is, I can just link this video instead now. Thanks! ;)

"It's not my fault you haven't gotten around to it." Is that a... wangrod defense I hear?

I think my favorite description of law vs chaos is that the lawful character holds the society above the individual and the chaotic character puts the importance of the individual above society.

It's so perfect to me that one of the most enduring, widely known, and canonical elements of dungeons & Dragon (The alignment chart) was invented because a frustrated DM needed a solution for one of their players being a wangrod.

Great video. Just wanted to add my two cents. I think it is a bit reductive to say that lawful folks just follow the rules just because they are the rules. I think it would be better to say that they follow the law because they believe that the law itself is virtuous and they believe in the importance of the law and following it. I know that in essence these are really the same but using the former way to describe it is too simplistic, particularly when contrasted with how you describe chaotic.

I’m not a video-quality critic/perfectionist, but this video looks great!

I never really threw out alignment so much as we just sort of stopped using it. I really like this interpretation of Law vs Chaos though, it makes so much more sense than predictable vs not predictable.

For a more direct and 'societal' view of law vs. chaos, I like to look at the settling of the wild west. People forming communities with laws based on handshake agreements and traditions, all so that they weren't saddled with the laws of the country that was spreading to their necks of the woods.

The balance must be maintained. Blood and Souls! Blood and Souls for my lord, Arioch!

My approach to alignment: Good = NPCs well being takes primacy. Neutral = Your well being and NPCs take equal primacy. Evil = only your well being takes primacy. Lawful = defer authority to NPCs (lord, quest giver, etc). You work together. Neutral = NPCs and your authority are equally considered. You may seek them out tine to time. Chaotic = you are the law. You work alone. You will not plead to a militia or lord.

Excellent perspective on alignment. I too like the alignment system. Some of the best moments for me as a DM have happened when the players come up against their character's alignment, or when their story arc reaches a point where the character authentically changes alignment. Great stories come out of these self-imposed boundaries.

I consider Allignment is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules (cit)

9:44 The talk about the Law and Chaos being universal powers/forces reminded me of Preservation and Ruin in the Mistborn Trilogy, presented much the same way

I threw out alignment a long time ago, I never looked back and everything's fine. There. Prophecy fulfilled. (P.S. I actually did and it actually is.)

Yes, you stop, cause if you roll through, a hidden cop will chase you down and pull you over. Then you’ll have to pay $150 bucks to the Man when you are already struggling with other bills. And your insurance payments will go up. This happened earlier this month.

Also consider the Shin Megami Tensei series for its focus on the Law vs Chaos conflict.

To me, law vs chaos is about how much you follow your society’s rules, so in the dune example paul is acting chaotically. When it comes to an entire society, it would be about how well the society fits into the dominant culture, so small goblin tribe within large human kingdom

I remember when I started playing D&D (i was 16, 22 solar cycles ago) and I always choose to play a chaotic good Ranger, it took long time to me and a bit of soul searching to to embrace my true alignment and from there learn to role play different from who I was, I learned I was Lawful Good and start playing a paladin with a lot more success for me and the party. D&D has been a great tool for my growing as a person and I truly appreciate your work Matt, I’m telling you from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU. I’m looking forward more of your work which is great and inspired me to go and master myself again after many years away from the game.

I LOVE Law vs Chaos war. It’s amazing and as a result I love the blood war, it’s just so interesting to have such a polarising difference that isn’t “Hi I’m your protagonist” and “Hi, I guess I’m the antagonist then”

2:33 end of spoilers for dune. I literally just started reading it so I just skipped until I hoped he was done XD

"Remember the story of the 'Good Samaritan.'" "...I am the ill intent."

My favorite representation of a chaotic group is the nomadic tribe with no sense of personal ownership. Fun to put players in something like that, "The big fellow you saw yesterday in the loincloth is now wearing your cloak, you left it outside and he was cold and thought it looked pretty neat." "Thr old guys by the fire are passing around your flask, for what it's worth they seem really happy you thought to bring booze."

Matt: *describes a society so wrapped up in tradition that they follow it even though it clearly is a bad idea* Also Matt: This is a great example of a chaotic society Matt you’re already familiar with the best example of a Chaotic society, it’s the Culture.

Matt, can you make a video about encounters against really big creatures?

Matt, you’ve given me a lot of joy. whenever dnd gets too complicated for me, i come back to your videos and i’m reminded of the simple fun i had at the table my first session. you remind me it’s all about having fun and you inspired me to start my favourite hobby. thanks a bunch!

Sir, you are incredibly insightful and knowledgeable. These are traits you have always shown. However your recent content has evolved. Your videos are shorter, yet your ability to teach and express has not suffered. This is rare and it is why you are truly in a league of your own. Easily the most succinct, coherent and articulate creative mind I have had the pleasure of listening to. Talking about a subject that is close to my heart. And for that, thankyou.

Thank you so much for still making these videos Matt, they inspired me to begin playing and become a DM. As I felt obstacles in my DMing experiences, your insight certainly helped me hurdle those obstacles and ultimately made the bonds between my Friends much stronger. I also took a huge interest in reading history and fantasy novels. Being able to channel out my creativity really got me out of a very dark place. I’ve been DMing for almost 2 years now and I never enjoyed anything more. Thank you so much

You're completely right. My girlfriend, out of nowhere, started talking about alignments. Now, I just recently introduced to her to RPGs (something very far from D&D), so it really came as quite a surprise. It turns out she had no idea it comes from tabletop RPGs at all. She's just seen the meme on tumblr all the time!

@Matt Colville I used to not like lawful neutral because it seemed bland but now it is one of my favorite alignments

Great arguments. Thank you, sir.

This helped me really define Law and Chaos. Thank you! Keep these videos coming!

My campaign currently defines the alignments as the following: lawful vs chaotic as a social behavior (lawful = community over individual, chaotic = individual over community) and good vs evil as an individual behavior (good = selfless, evil = selfish).

The question you asked your player is a good and simple exemple, very efficient. Just sharing a thought about Dune on the other hand :)... I consider in the case of Dune that the Fremen are a Loyal society. The rules are very important. But a few things have changed. Paul Atreid is an anomaly that lead the society toward "chaos". As Liet Kynes did before him. The change in the rigid society involved by the change in environnement and a few key characters is precisely a part of the story. Liet Kynes made the change in the world but the society was still pretty much the same. Stilgar is ready to accept the combat, even at the cost of his life : it's the law. If that's not Loyal, what is ? Paul is the one who broke the old rules, opening new possibilities and teaching them that rule might not be adapted to all situation, which makes sense as the situation is changing for the first time in a loooong time. I have a hard time calling it a "chaotic society" in its core without any example of "rules might be flexible" prior to these triggers. (and later on Paul will kinda go back on his work by following the rule about blind people, at this point he has become more of a Freman than he was originally). (and the Emperor is the one who brings the society to the extreme of Law, hoping to breed perfect Chaos... I guess ? Not sure we can summarize the golden path that way, but alignment are fun to think about ^^)

God i'm hungry for any video coming from this channel, either running the game or campaign diary. both feed me, and aid me to best plan my campaign,which the greatest inspiration for it,has been matt. this would immensely help my campaign, especially in dealing with the Town's Mafia. Thank you so much Matt.

Aaaa. Such casual philosophy on good and evil. And here people just accept it. It's lovely. I'd love to see you talk on ethics.

I love the Eternal Champion series. Moorcock masterfully crafted such a unique world that I borrowed the plane of law for my campaign. Though the outer plans are the only places that are defined by alignment. Where as the people on the prime material are free to do as they wish, so their actions define their alignment. Great video as always Mr. Colville. Can't wait until the next one.

I think alignment is fantastic to determine a baseline for players. Not everything you do will correspond to your alignment and of course there will be outlier decisions that you make. Alignment feels like it serves roleplay and with personality traits, bonds, flaws, ect, your character gets framed. It gets easier to role play a fake persona when you have generalizations to grasp from.

I wanna throw this out there, my interpretation. Lawful and chaos represents flexibility of a person’s interpretation of code. Someone lawful is strict to their code, with little to no exception. As you mentioned with Copper, he cared more about the order than his own interpretation of the situation. Robin Hood feels that the king is wrong, so rather than following code, he created his own personal, flexible code that satisfies his desires rather than the law around him. Lawful doesn’t have to mean you follow the laws of a country. It can be the personal code you follow. A monk following his teachings can still be lawful if he breaks the law of a city, because he had to follow his teachings.

Thank you for sharing your light with the world Matt ❤️

Thank you so much for the in depth look at law vs chaos. It has always been harder for me to explain to my players than it has been to explain good vs evil. Thanks for the tools to have that conversation! Love your content.

Very good! Love this perspective!

Excellent thought-provoking discussion of a very "D&D" topic that has wider societal implications. Thank you!

"There's a great moment in the novel Dune". LOL, yeah, it starts on the first page and ends on the last. One of my fav moments ever. Hey Colville, your videos are great. I wish that you were my neighbor so that when you and your pals are playing cool games I could press my face up against the glass of a window and watch from the outside, until someone felt bad enough for me and suggested that I join, but first i have to clean my insane face smears off the window.

Due the straight-jacket problem, I see alignment now less about how your character behaves in a given scenario but more about which cosmic forces they align with. I think the original “teams” idea makes sense and keeps it from devolving into subjective (and conflicting) interpretations of alignment. In a Moorcockian sense, I don’t think a Chaotic society is possible.

Ah, a Matt Colville video to start the morning. Almost no better way

This makes so much sense. Thanks Matt!

I'm new to D&D and completely hooked! Thanks for such a great series of tips and tricks to pull from, I can't wait to start a campaign as DM!

That was a super useful explanation. Thanks

I just started watching this series. I've built a campaign setting wherein the Central Tension in the universe is Law versus Chaos. I really liked the video and it gave me some awesome ideas and it totally broke my cosmology! . . . so . . . thanks for that. In the planescape, REALITY was built by the Lawful Good and Lawful Evil entities in the form of the Celestial Kingdom and Hell. Chaos seeks to destroy reality but I shoehorned the Chaotic Good entity as Death that wants to destroy REALITY to rebuild a planescape based on good with Law and Chaos as the internal forces that keep the new reality in existence while it is EVIL that they are united against. It was weak, and your take on wilderness and the WILD being Chaos makes the Corellon analog Chaotic Good and creator of the Feywild etc, and Death as Neutral on the Alignment chart being a force of entropy and the "Natural Order". Cosmology is stronger now, but I gotta rewrite that history and fix the rest of the world to make that new setup work... So yeah... I got a bunch of work to do to make my setting more better. Thanks! great work on these. =]

"Peace/Out" - still the best sign off on KZfaq. Thank you for all the excellent advice, Matt!

Ah, a fresh hot cuppa Colville, excellent!

Excellent discussion thanks matt

Super useful. How Matt describes alignment are the words I couldn't find.

Great video on a great discussion! I often correlate Law and Chaos to "Structure" and "Fluidity" in thought pattern (paradigm?) when explaining it to my Players. When the suggestion of "Chaos being random", I point out that it's better described as "fluid" or "more informal", since water is also fluid, but makes up streams and rivers... They don't adhere strictly to specialized patterns, and from nearly any scale or scope can appear quite "chaotic" and even sort of "random"... BUT the water still gathers together and moves in great mass eventually at great force... Still, you can toss even heavy stones into it and the water very informally "moves around" them... Ice is crystalline in structure, and can be very hard... BUT in all it's rules and structures, there's SOO much variety still readily available... However, throw even a not-so-heavy stone at ice and either it bounces right off, or deforms that structure permanently... ANYWAYS... themes of alignment are great if not taken TOO seriously in the RP department... and you have solid sound advice. ;o)

Fantastic analysis, I hadn't thought about the relevance of Stilgar to the concept of DnD Law/Chaos. Very interesting, but more importantly very practical!

Hey Matt! Great video again. I'm binge-watching them from the beginning and they're incredibly engaging. Great stuff for DM's of all Levels. Congrats! Recently I've been thinking on the Law-Neutral-Chaos axis as "I follow the Law" - "I follow the law unless inconvenient" - "I openly challenge the law". Brings a certain punk-rockness to my games i think. Take care!

I Just ran my first campaign as a dungeon master, and I have to say, these videos have help a lot! Thank you so much!

Colville, you are awesome. Thank you for the inspiration.

I like your interpretation of alignment! I don't really use it to any capacity in my games, but the way you describe it seems very useful for figuring out how a group/society of people acts and having a clear and easy explanation should it ever come up with my players. So, thanks!

Great quality content and visually clean cut.

This was as usual, a very helpful episode, thank you, been struggling with choosing some of my characters Alignments.

Very well articulated. I am sometimes surprised at how some people are not able to grasp the concept between lawful and chaotic alignment. It seemed quite evident to me the very first time I picked up a D&D book.

Law vs chaos allways seemed more defined and logical to me as a conflict than good vs evil. Mainly cause "good" and "evil" usually are pretty vague in definition and also change from society to society. Aztec culture viewed human sacrifice as good because it nurtured Huitzilopochtli for his fight against his siblings who wanted to kill their mother and by doing so would end the world. Our modern western society would most certainly consider it evil (even though christianity is build on the story of a human sacrifice come to think of it).

My favourite law vs chaos distinction is external vs internal codes. Basically, if I made my code, my personal rules, and follow them unflinchingly, I would describe myself as Chaotic (though not chaotic). Similarly, if I were to follow a set of rules someone else made, that would be Lawful, even when it contradicts other codes or laws

DeadAussieGamer has some videos on alignment and I like his point: "Don't swing for the fences. " Your law vs chaos world reminds me of author L.E. Modesitt, Jr. I thoroughly enjoyed the depiction and magic of that world.

Wonderful video Matt!

Thank you for that question. Ive always had issues handling Law and Chaos in this game, and that stop sign question really made it click. Thank you for that.

the best law vs chaos example in story telling is Rush's Cygnus book II

One of my favorite topics. lets go!

Excellent video! You went on for quite some time, but it is not without reward. Your thoughts have depth and lots of books and crannies to explore. Here is a crannie I offer in exchange: A 4x4 grid to replace the 3x3, forcing players away from the neutral options, and granting players a foothold to their character.

That's an interesting take on the Good-Evil dichotomy. As far as I can see it, someone that does not go out of their way to alleviate suffering is not necessary evil. Rather neutral. Someone evil is someone that is willing to go out of their way cause suffering, with the lawful/chaotic dichotomy relating to the conditions under which they are willing to cause such suffering. A lawful evil character will conquer and slaughter a rival tribe if he believes it to be the best course of action for his tribe. A chaotic evil character will conquer and slaughter for fun/personal glory/lunacy, and will relish as his own men die for him. A neutral evil character is someone in the middle, the treacherous type, one who will do his tribe's best interests and so long as they do not interfere with his own. Which possibly makes them more dangerous than either extreme.

Heck yea, Matt! This video is just what I needed!

Great discussion Matt. I've always been a bit of an alignment fan and, oh yeah, folks get all kinds of wrapped up in it. It's easy to drop if needed but I like to still use it. Each facet of D&D have pros and cons of course. Thankfully, it's easy to tailor the game to what players and DMs alike prefer.

On the notion of Good and Evil: while I agree with your definition of Good (help others for no reward and with risk, irrelevant of who they are), I'm not sold on your definition of Evil (help only members of their community). The latter definition strikes me far more as Neutral, one that is conditional or abstract. I personally would define Evil as helping others only for their own benefit. While this can overlap (community members can be useful, therefore worth preserving), I think the difference is worth pointing out.

I've just been starting out as a GM, but the thing that I like to think about alignment is that it is more descriptive than proscriptive. If your sheet says lawful good, but you do evil things, that's fine, but you have to change the alignment on your character sheet. I think I would always allow the players to take any action they want, but not without consequence. "You're a Paladin pledged to the God of Law and Goodness... Your alignment wouldn't really allow you to cut down the entire town just because they insulted your Deity. The consequences could be dire. Are you sure?" "Yes. They can't insult my deity and get away with it!" "Okay... Go ahead." "I attack the nearest townsfolk." "You cut down two easily with just a single swipe each, the blood splatters across your armor, and as you go to swing for a third, you feel your armor become heavy and then stiff. It glows with holy power, holding you in place. Your holy symbol shatters and you feel all connection to the celestial fade. You drop your weapon as it burns in your hand, even starting to melt the gauntlet you were holding it with before you even have a chance to drop it willingly. You take 3d10 holy damage and drop your weapon to the ground. You can't see it yet, but you can feel a pulsing, horrible, red, puckered burn across the palm of your hand. The crowd is either running away or looks on in horror and confusion and as you now stand there like a statue and witness your once silver and gold armor turn jet black. Your cape seems to catch a wind that isn't there as it flaps behind you turning from pure white to blood red. Only one person has come closer to you, the wife of the man you just cut down. She looks up at you and awkwardly picks up your weapon, which appears to be as light as a feather in her hand. She swings it like a bat... You awake in a jail cell in prison garb as a guard bangs the bars with a metal polearm. Despite it being just yesterday, it feels like years since you were a Paladin. You remember your skills in weaponry, and you maintain your ability scores and hit points, but you lose all your abilities and any bonuses related there to. You forget everything about the deity you were pledged to, even its name. You remember only vaguely that you were once pledged to a deity. You must find someone to train with in a new class. They must be chaotic neutral or chaotic evil." The guard raps on the bars of your cell with a metal polearm, "Wake up, Buttercup. You have a one-time performance to get to. It'll end with applause... I'm sure you'll get a kick out of it. Hehe, he'll get a kick out of it. Get it, Sam?" Sam, the other guard signs, "Yeah, I get it. His feet will be kicking in the air. I told you it's not funny if you explain it." The first guard throws a piece of bread through the bars, "Sorry we didn't get you a better last meal. You'll give us a break, though, right?" He laughs loudly and looks at Sam again. "Yeah, yeah. I get it, Joe." To the rest of the group, "It's up to you if you want to save him..."

I've dabbled in interpreting Law and Chaos as Deontology and Utilitarianism, or alternatively tradition and modernity. I think there are lots of ways that law and chaos can be interpreted and in so doing, used to illustrate the important axis of a setting.

I think similar on these things, but a bit more abstract. A cool thing, I think, is the idea that a Chaotic Warlord can conquer a territory, and they would make rules not because of any external pressure/belief, but only for self-preservation. If someone in their territory follows "the rules" and becomes a threat, the Warlord will then change the rules, because he fundamentally is not beholden to them. After the Warlord dies, if the kingdom they carved persists, and even grows, people might feel beholden to the last set of rules the Warlord left because "it works". These later leaders would be bound by tradition and law, unlike the warlord. Hence, a chaotic person can not only have a society, but can create the basis for a "Lawful" society in their wake.

I can't help but Upvote when he talks about how great Dune is, so like within the first 30 seconds of the video.

I'm glad that by both mine, my players, and now your standards I am a firmly lawful evil character myself.

Still making great content 👏 I too like the Chaos vs. Law dichotomy, and commonly use it in my story writing and the games I DM.

This is super helpful. Much more helpful than your previous alignment videos in my opinion.

The most honest answer i can give to your opening question is, usually 😂

Country road stop signs whip by me like BRRRR

Matt, you previously and repeatedly talked about Bards in your games being a source of legitimacy for the law and for the rule and title of people. could you explain how you implement this in your game, and specifically how you go about giving this authority to a player?

I have to say, this has changed my stance. Bravo, sir.

I think this is really quite interesting and has really made me understand d&d alignment. However I was thinking that if elves are chaotic, they would want the best person in charge, but I also don't see them fighting to the death nor caring about having the strongest person as a leader. So I wonder how elves would go about picking their leaders

Reading "Three Hearts and Three Lions" by Poul Anderson gave me a whole new outlook on this. In that book (without too many spoilers), the faerie world represents Chaos and the human world represents Law (or Order). One focuses on magic and emotion and whimsy and, well, fairy tales; the other on science and structured societies and the world we know today. It's one of the inspirations for the alignment system used by Gary Gygax.

You know when I think about it there's actually a great analogy for law-chaos alignment in science. Specifically states of matter, Solid= Lawful as it has a fixed form and volume. Neutral= Water, it has a fixed volume but will freely change its form depending on container. Then there's Gas=Chaotic, it has no fixed form nor fixed volume.

I only wish he included neutral alignments in this video. I thought his example of Tom's good vs evil question for example to be more of a neutral response than an evil one. And does slowing down a bit and/or making a pretense of stopping count as chaotic since you didn't stop, lawful because you still slowed even if you didn't blow past it at full speed or neutral because you essentially compromised neither stopping or ignoring it.

Hey, this ties very nicely into some stuff I'm writing for a new one on one campaign! Neat!

I watched this until 3 mins in before I realised it wasn't about the video game Chaos: Reborn (what I searched for and this was the first hit) still enjoyed!

That book on the top shelf just right of Matt's head. National Geographic's "Picture Atlas of Our Universe." I had that as a kid and LOVED it. I'm off to see if I can buy another copy. :)

Actually useful info, thanks

I threw out alignment a long time ago and never looked back. Everything is fine

Anything you say interests me. Please never stop talking.