The Chaos Game

AI Art by @nightcafestudio

You know how a lot of modern games go...

Don't play an evil campaign; you will upset other players.

We have the default assumption of the heroic adventurer.

We don't recommend these alignments...

Games where some players are evil usually end up in fights and are not recommended.

Some players may be upset by specific themes or concepts, so we want to warn you...

I am an adult. I watch Game of Thrones and other shows. I read fantasy novels with a lot of dark stuff in them. My group is okay with this, or I play solo. I play Grand Theft Auto or other video games where you play an anti-social bad guy.

Some games feel like they have gotten so safe they are written with the "happy adventuring party" mindset for the entire game. As games get more mainstream, they are written more for children, and we see how we can play the roleplaying game reduced to the safest ways to play. Even some OSR games have fallen into this "all ages" mindset and assume the default "neutral or good" aligned party.

It is all about adventuring from level one to the maximum number, right?

Chaos is an Option

ACKS has three alignments, law, neutrality, and chaos.

Note that a character’s choice of Alignment doesn’t determine whether or not he takes care of his children, cheats on his wife, or steals from the merchant’s guild. It is concerned only with the weighty issue of where his allegiance lies in the grand struggles of existence. To have an alignment of Lawful or Chaotic is to have chosen a side in this perpetual struggle.

-ACKS, page 37

So the alignments are not strict guardrails of behavior, and you can deviate from what your alignment says you should do, based on your character and personality. Alignment is the side you choose in the eternal war between order and chaos, or if you choose neither. And the game allows you to play any alignment.

You can build a chaos kingdom and rule over beastmen in you like, or play as one. Some of the modules have opportunities to team up with one faction of the dungeon's monsters against other factions, and if they like you enough - guess what? You now have a tribe of monsters following you around you can use as a small army, provided you pay to upkeep them and figure out where they will live. There may be roleplaying work needed as well in managing and befriending them, but if you are chaos-aligned, that is what you can do.

Chaos does not just walk into a dungeon looking for loot; they are also looking for recruits.

They got some serious strut in ACKS.

But no! Monsters in rooms are there to kill! They are challenge ratings and encounters! What about XP and treasure! You are ruining the balance of this encounter and all future ones in this module if you can befriend an encounter and use them in campaign play!

An even lawful character could befriend the monsters and help them out. A lawful alignment could let them go after the fight, but a lawful alignment could be used to betray the monsters and wipe them out, saying that the world does not need more chaotic creatures to be let loose to terrorize others.

This may seem like a brutal example, but ask yourself, could you see a lawful character in a gritty fantasy novel or Game of Thrones-type show do this? I totally could. It would be one of those "shocking moments," but it would not be outside the character's alignment in the war between chaos and good.

Wait? Lawful can break a promise and betray others?

Is Chaos acting more lawful here?

Yes, and it shows a fascinating way of looking at alignment, and I love it. Alignment is not an "uh-uh, no, you can't!" Alignment is your allegiance to the perpetual struggle. Whatever you justify are your choices, and if you can justify heinous acts under lawful, well, those are your character's choices and live with the consequences.

This is also life. Lawful nations and rules make horrible choices to do evil in the name of the greater good every day. In many games, alignment is a reason to turn your brain off and let alignment choose your actions. In ACKS, alignment is the ultimate justification for your actions.

Working Together of Apart

Lawful and chaotic characters can work together towards a common goal, and alignment is not a barrier to cooperation or being in the same party. At low levels, alignment will be more of a guide to behavior, but at higher levels, when choices are being made about what world the characters wish to create, alignment becomes more critical.

If one of your associates begins creating a chaotic stronghold, and you are the lawful scion of good - how do you react? You may be forced to fight each other, often on the battlefield, with the forces you built in each of your kingdoms.

A traditional role-playing game would typically paint this as a bad thing. Please don't fight! Work together! Keep the party happy and unified!

In ACKS, these are your endgame stories. You used to work together, but now friends have become enemies, and the final battle shall decide everything. This is cool, and the epic conclusions of both these characters' stories shall be played out on the table.

Perhaps when the party is split along law and chaos arcs, the players without characters in each story can roll up new ones and play on the other side for a while, and vice versa. Don't fear splitting the campaign; embrace it and go with the story. ACKS has domain management systems, and you can always back burner a few characters and say, "they are running their kingdom," and play others.

Or, law and chaos may find ways to work together as they build their holdings. Perhaps they are far apart and never interact. But the characters always know each other and can call on each other for aid if the cause - or price - is right.

Alignment is Much More

If alignment in most B/X and D&D style games is a glass of water, in ACKS, it is an ocean. It is OK to play chaos; you can mix party alignments, work together, fight, work apart, or mix things up. An alignment is a storytelling tool that gives you reasons for what you do, but it doesn't control them.

What matters here is the story.

And every part from the beginning to the end.