Anyone consider writing a Chaotic Neutral/True Neutral MC?

Discount_Blade

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Then try to imagine how you treat other people even strangers in real life situation... like how do you solve yourself from the problem? (let's say, any parental problems or classmate dramas that you really don't involve into such things) is it better for you to avoid or talk each of them for better solution?

Well... I'll leave the answer to you.
Ah. I see, you were giving me scenarios to use for ideas. Sorry I misunderstood. But anyway you referencing good and bad which isnt what the post was getting at.

Also, to avoid this becoming a discussion on morality since it seems to be hinting at becoming such, I'll just be brutally honest and say I most likely wouldn't stick my neck out for strangers during a zombie apocalypse anymore than my MC would unless it was something important. Not because I'm a hero or want to be one. Believe me I don't. I would sleep just fine if the other side of New York State suddenly vanished, people and all. I've known several heroes in life. Heroes rarely meet happy endings.

Just wanna put that out so you know I'm not interested in real life morality discussions. Not saying you were, but just in case you were.
 
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Yiphen

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I think a nihilist fits pretty well overall with what you're looking for.
 

CupcakeNinja

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I am, and while most of my ideas for how the character will act will come from these two links:

1) True Neutral

2) Chaotic Neutral

3) Wild Card (And this was helpful too)

Does anyone else have any tips or just simply want to point out the pro's, con's, or anything really?

I want my MC, one of several, but the main main one, to be not evil, but not necessarily good either. He will come off as Chaotic Good at times, but mostly is out for himself, those he cares for, and to hell with the rest of the world. Gray morality. The best MC's in my opinion. So this likely means my MC will do some unpleasantly dark things at times simply because he can, and for no other real reason, but then turn around be a halfway decent guy to a little girl, (like paying for her ice cream that slipped and fell or some shit, but then he might come back later that night and rob the ice cream guy because he noticed he had quite the large amount of tips in that little glass jar thingy....)

Anyway, anyrthing someone might wanna add that could also be helpful to me, or someone else who intends to write an MC like this?

Also, here's a link for Chaotic Good and the other helpful, and sometimes even useful!! Blue and Orange Morality that can be used for Morally Gray types.
Characters like that are manipulators and always out for their own self interest sbove all. Make the guy open to helping others, but in return for favors or money or only if it doesnt harm his interests. He will not be a hero. He will kill when needed. He will abandon friends if he cant save them and knows it.

He will "try" but he wont go above and beyond for others unless he himself needs it for his own benefits.

Thats what neutral/chaotic and similar characters are like.

Wild cards just seem like random, whimsical bastards. They could be motivsted by their own desires and moods at the time, and could be easily provoked or very patient and forgiving. They are both in one amd you cant know which they will be at any particular point in time unless you understand their values and personalities

Least thats how i think of them. I was too lazy to see the definition of them. Teehee. So take it with a grain of salt.
 

Discount_Blade

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Characters like that are manipulators and always out for their own self interest sbove all. Make the guy open to helping others, but in return for favors or money or only if it doesnt harm his interests. He will not be a hero. He will kill when needed. He will abandon friends if he cant save them and knows it.

He will "try" but he wont go above and beyond for others unless he himself needs it for his own benefits.

Thats what neutral/chaotic and similar characters are like.

Wild cards just seem like random, whimsical bastards. They could be motivsted by their own desires and moods at the time, and could be easily provoked or very patient and forgiving. They are both in one amd you cant know which they will be at any particular point in time unless you understand their values and personalities

Least thats how i think of them. I was too lazy to see the definition of them. Teehee. So take it with a grain of salt.

Awesomeness.
 

TotallyHuman

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I am, and while most of my ideas for how the character will act will come from these two links:

1) True Neutral

2) Chaotic Neutral

3) Wild Card (And this was helpful too)

Does anyone else have any tips or just simply want to point out the pro's, con's, or anything really?

I want my MC, one of several, but the main main one, to be not evil, but not necessarily good either. He will come off as Chaotic Good at times, but mostly is out for himself, those he cares for, and to hell with the rest of the world. Gray morality. The best MC's in my opinion. So this likely means my MC will do some unpleasantly dark things at times simply because he can, and for no other real reason, but then turn around be a halfway decent guy to a little girl, (like paying for her ice cream that slipped and fell or some shit, but then he might come back later that night and rob the ice cream guy because he noticed he had quite the large amount of tips in that little glass jar thingy....)

Anyway, anyrthing someone might wanna add that could also be helpful to me, or someone else who intends to write an MC like this?

Also, here's a link for Chaotic Good and the other helpful, and sometimes even useful!! Blue and Orange Morality that can be used for Morally Gray types.
An AI can fit into both as long as you don't humanise it.
Aliens too, as long as they are not humans but from space.
You get where I'm going? Most non-human-like characters can become chaotic neutrals
 

keitaro-sempai

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Click at my signature and check out my novel, My MC is basically a representative of true neutral
 

weakwithwords

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I could never fully wrap my head around those D&D classifications back then, much less now.

 

Vaerama

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I could never fully wrap my head around those D&D classifications back then, much less now.
I view them much like I do when people refer to characters by one particular trait and one alone (such as heroic, villainous... Tsundere, yandere... Machiavellian, principled): there's just so much more to people than their 'primary outlook'... and people's outlook is subject to change depending on the situation.

A man can be as lawfully minded, loving of order, and generally 'good' in his life... but when he falls on hard times: will he not steal to feed himself or his family? That's an incredibly chaotic thing to do, and the goodness of the matter is ever in dispute, as thievery would generally be regarded as an evil action, and no amount of dogoodery that the man might later do will ever erase the fact that he damaged he did to his fellows for his own selfish aims.

They don't ultimately say much about a character, and they're pretty constraining in my opinion: there are many enough blends of each of those 9 'rigid' categories that a thousand wildly distinctive characters with differing principles and histories might all at once fall into each of them.

People are more than just their principles/attributes, and Good/Evil, Order/Chaos aren't even particularly 'indicative' principles/attributes... the first set being entirely arbitrary, and the latter set comes to an equivalent conclusion: a person is either a tyrant regardless of what laws and customs they may or may not decide to follow today... or they're a total doormat with no pride, and they lie entirely outside the system of people who feel they have any right to self-actualization at all.

I actually really enjoyed a character in In Bruges (film), because he was an example of an extremely principled hitman. Sure, that could be considered 'lawful evil', but he was absolutely a criminal at theoretical odds with the state, so surely he could also be observed to be'chaotic evil'... but he had a family which he took care of, which meant that he had at least some neutral elements to him as well. He even makes a good and righteous stand about the accidental slaying of a child, which makes him in that moment potentially lawful good... only to then take that justice into his own principled hands in a case of possible chaotic good by delivering justice upon the perpetrator!

It's just useless, innit? :blob_popcorn: Don't constrict yourself or your characters needlessly, fam. :)
 

Discount_Blade

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just an apathetic dude with a buster sword tryna find meaning in life, y'know what i'm saying

i beat all these demons but not the one inside of me

i might void the world of evil but i can't void myself from emptiness

bro

Just can't make myself NOT read this in a Matthew McConaughey voice.
 

Discount_Blade

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Also, why do people feel the need to deconstruct everything? I know tropes and DnD morality classifications aren't all there is to a character. Why are people trying to become forum-sensei's?
 

AliceShiki

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Also, why do people feel the need to deconstruct everything? I know tropes and DnD morality classifications aren't all there is to a character. Why are people trying to become forum-sensei's?
Ah, I just never liked the alignment system I guess? It felt a bit too shallow to me. I wish they had removed it altogether in 5E.
 

FlutterOfCrows

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Also, why do people feel the need to deconstruct everything? I know tropes and DnD morality classifications aren't all there is to a character. Why are people trying to become forum-sensei's?
*Crow tilt head as ponder*Maybe because people presume d&d alignment is a solid fixture, its never really explained directly if its post to be a guideline, or just an aid for new players. So all it does, as it is very vague and broad is create controversy because its not easy to pin-down what it means. (lawful vs chaos is very broad, but good vs evil might as well be a pantry full of canned worms.) o>o I like it myself, but that's because i mostly use the Chaos and Lawful spectrum to understand how someone outside might interpret another's actions.
 
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