Player vs. PC Law & Chaos

[Scott]

Over on K&K Gene posted a Dragon quote from EGG related to the different evil alignments. I found one section very interesting:

Players can assume the role of a good or an evil character without undue difficulty, but in my experience the orderly or disorderly tendencies are another matter altogether. Law and chaos seem to be more ingrained in the actual personality of a player, and these bents are thus not as easily acted out. While you, as DM, will order the NPCs of lawful, neutral, or chaotic evil alignment, your players will tend to assume alignments which actually fit their personalities as respects order versus anarchy, so you must observe such activities quite closely. It is common for players to seek the best of both worlds by claiming the benefits of one alignment while using the processes of the other in order to gain power. Thus, a player might well claim to be lawful evil in order to receive the
assistance of an archdevil, and thereafter blithely go about setting up a totally independent and free-wheeling empire of evil which has nothing to do with the aims of Hell. Such liberties cannot be allowed . . . .

This has been my experience as well. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen lawful players scheming to get the most/best of the treasure, or chaotic characters that insist on distributing magic items in a way that brings the most value to the party as a whole. I always thought the Lawful PCs (Robilar, Tenser, etc.) in Gary’s game acted in a decidedly chaotic manner.