Different Alignments being friendos

Veeky Forums

As we know, parties with wildly varying alignments can sometimes lead to some issues.

I was contemplating ways around having wickedly violent disputes between PCs, and ways to solve them in-game without necessarily forcing them to cooperate via mutual enemy or Bigger Bad or what have you.

And then I thought "huh. What if they were friends? Like, bros and such?"

Like, LG Paladin and CE Barbarian being friends.

I seem to recall in one of the Baldur's Gate games that this happens- a crazy CE dwarf warrior is very friendly and attracted to a LG female character, and they get on well enough, the LG character even gaining sympathy for the CE character.

What are ways that you could attempt to foster friendships with people of such varying alignments, Veeky Forums ?

pic slightly related, as everyone gets annoyed with their friends.

This was posted last alignment thread, might help.

>a crazy CE dwarf warrior is very friendly and attracted to a LG female character
Well, as you just pointed out, one way to sell a believable opposite companionship is to make one a woman. In the context of most RPG settings people won't actually imagine woman characters having the same motives or concerns a similar man character would have, they're just THERE and no-one will ever call bullshit on them showing sympathy or tolerance to even a monster midget with dark swirling clouds over them because inhuman compassion is what woman are for, and even if you're afraid you can't sell it just DON'T MENTION THE WOMAN HAVING ANY VIEWS TOWARDS THE OPPOSING CHARACTER. UNLESS YOU POINT THEM OUT THE PLAYERS WILL JUST FORGET THE WOMAN IS THERE.

cont.

However, if you're playing with a more progressive crowd (that actually WALKS THE WALK, that is, not one of those "hurr hurr i'm feminist so i can't be racist, i'm one of you see please accept me" plebs) and your heart is set on E/G companionships that don't rely on deceit on either character's part or strong mutual goals to warrant tolerance consider loosening your stereotypes on what the alignments mean. For instance: two graduates of the Paladin academy have been best pals since adolescence. One of them wants to be a Paladin for the social esteem, to so their children will be in a social class higher than the one they grew up in, and for the power--they fear being powerless, have no true concern for the safety of others, and actually aren't then that "Lawful", they think of themselves as a self-motivating individual affecting the world with their will and not as someone using the system to meet their ends. They want to gain power at literally any means necessary but have never had to do anything "bad" to get it. They're NE or CE. Their friend is much more charitable than them, they judge the success of a society by the quality of life of all it's citizens, feel more hurt empathetically then they do at their own losses, and hate any act that diminishes the productivity of society. They few policies and societies as incredibly important tools for governing and protecting society and will defend and enforce order and policy at any cost. They're LG. The only thing stopping these two gals from being pals is one of them is has less empathy, and lots of RL friendships are like that.

And that was made by someone with no understanding of alignments.

Like, not even in the ballpark.

>What are ways that you could attempt to foster friendships with people of such varying alignments, Veeky Forums ?

>Step 1
Forget about paladin and blackguards. They're not just of a certain alignment, but honorbound to kill others of a different alignment

>Step 2
Make sure there's no open conflict or feud.

>Step 3
Make the evil restrained evil

In my setting, not!Charlemagne has a CE borderline psychopath among his not!Peers despite being himself LN with good tendencies. Why? Because the guy in question is a horribl, horrible person but too talented to waste. So the two came to an agreement: the CE faggot is allowed to be as cruel, bloody and merciless as he wants... within certain borders. Mostly not!Charlemagne points him in whatever direction he wants things to die.

It's a mutually benificial relationship: not!Charlemagne gets a strong warrior under his command that doesn't harm his own people, and the CE faggot can slaughter to his hearts content AND get rewarded for it rather than punished.

>Paladin
>NE or CE

Maximum over triggered.

Literally the only time this is an issue is when the LG is a paladin. Not all LG characters are paladins.

Also CE doesn't mean lol randum shitmeister. It means you 1. Do not follow societies laws or preconceptions and 2. are Selfish rather than Altruistic.

Selfish people can have friends. Selfish people LOVE friends. Heck they'll even do a lot for their friends - said friends make them feel good about themselves.

CE people do what feels good for them, with no regard for others. This doesn't mean that what feels good for them is ALWAYS harmful to others. Just that they have no qualms about crossing that line.

Alignments are so stupid. It's just opinion unless in setting things like negative and positive energy exists, which case good and evil should be very clear.

Here's a fairly good example of different alignments being pretty good friends, strangely enough. And despite the circumstances in the end.

Both Walter and Jonathan are thrown into their position, and despite their wildly different status and disagreements with each other, they get along fairly well. This is in part because they're members of the same order (Both Samurais) cast into a situation foreign to them in which they must rely on each other, and partially because only others like themselves can relate to what they're going through. A lot of their friendship comes about as a result of their similar situations bringing them together.

Even at the end, Jonathan is at least lamenting the fact that all of his friends have been torn apart by ideals and competing factions, suggesting he wishes that things could've remained as they were and never forced the group's hand to take sides.

Post the devil in the Semen Demon form she takes in that game