Whenever you need to justify your actions, why not Zoidberg?
Alignment Charts: if you have seen one of the memes or have played Dungeons and Dragons (from AD&D to 3.5/Pathfinder) then you know what they mean. While most of the memes accurately depict characters from television shows to comics, most of the time they do not accurately depict D&D characters, because players either exacerbate one or two ideas of the alignment instead of playing at the multitude it allows. Two tabletop examples are Chaotic Neutral and Lawful Good. Another issue comes down to when a player's actions should shift alignment and when is it alright for your character to make these actions. While that is dominantly based on your DM and how rich the roleplay is in your campaign, alignment shifts should have meaning, even if a character is atoned to change alignment. Curses and such are a much more rapid effect, but a player can roleplay the differences in either gradually or instantly. So let's cover the two most well known instances of how alignment can be used terribly during a standard Dungeons and Dragons (or Pathfinder) game.
Chaotic Neutral's horrible nickname is Chaotic Stupid. In games I have run and played in, players tend to take the Chaotic Neutral as a logical reason to avoid all law, rummage around the town and kill anyone who doesn't agree with them. They burn down orphanages, steal food and clothes from children and murder and maim party members whenever they can. Does that mean they are playing the character wrong? No, not at all. It is obvious that they wanted to play Chaotic Evil and their Dungeon Master had either declared "No Evil" or the player really doesn't understand how Chaotic Neutral works. Chaotic Neutral is about being free from laws, completely, and ignoring the mandates of kings and lords. It is the ideology of the bandit; the idea of ruling over yourself. In comparison to Chaotic Good, a character would break laws to benefit someone he doesn't know or knows very loosely to hopefully make their life better. A Chaotic Evil character despises laws, fights dirty in combat by using nefarious purposes to get an advantage and sometimes hungers for blood. More importantly greed can be considered part of Chaotic Evil, the reason behind this is due to Chaotic characters acting on impulse.
On the other spectrum of alignments we have Lawful Good. Lawful Good is usually dominated by the Paladin character class and where Chaotic Neutral attracts players that tend to perform horrible acts, sometimes players who play Lawful Good perform these same actions. Lawful Good characters hold the exemplary ideals of a true hero: Just, follows the laws and rulers, even if these rulers are unknown evils and help the common man in times of need. A Paladin, and the Inquisitor in Pathfinder, have Detect Alignments or in this case Detect Evil. Some players abuse these forms of detection and claim that any evil performed therefore dictates that a non-player character, monster or chicken must be pure evil. The problem comes down to the spell Detect Evil. Detect Evil shows that the more evil a subject is, the more powerful the subject is and the greater the evil or good aura that creature possesses. One of the major problems happens when a party Paladin uses Detect Evil on his party and finds out that someone is Evil. The problem comes down to how the Dungeon Master handles the situation. Does your DM allow for hostile party actions? If yes, then that leads to problems in itself. If not, the spell states clearly that only Demons, Undead, Devils, Clerics, Paladins (and Anti-Paladins) and finally Blackguards have auras. Other classes do not have an aura and emit a smaller blip, but not enough to mark them any worse than a child stealing an apple from cart or a merchant lying and selling fraudulent items.
While your party is debating the ever-intricate parts of how the Lich had created an orphanage as his phylactery, you question who is making the campfire for tonight.
Alignments are tricky and while they are a vital part to a character they should not be the defining point or core concept to your character. Some characters, by class, are forced to take certain alignments. Druids are forced to be any aspect of Neutrality, Paladins must be Lawful Good, Barbarians are any non-Lawful. Monks on the other hand are Lawful. So, let's cover what all of the alignments mean in one sentence to get a "complete" idea of how they ideology works:
Lawful Good: An avatar of justice and strong-arm of law, you follow laws and edicts to create an example others can follow.
Neutral Good: Where laws and chaos meet, you cherry pick when you accept and follow laws to do what is right.
Chaotic Good: Laws and edicts slow down others, so you act without delay to help those in need without worrying how your actions will be seen by guards, rulers or archaic traditions.
Lawful Neutral: Laws are in place for a reason, you follow them and others should too, and those that break the law should be punished.
True Neutral: You are like a leaf in the wind; some days you are seeking to help others and then the next day you are hunting down a trusted friend.
Chaotic Neutral: Laws and regulations stifle everything you stand for and those that oppress deserve to die.
Lawful Evil: Laws are finite and if you have broken any edict, then you must pay for crimes accordingly.
Neutral Evil: Blood-thirsty and willing to let other fails as long as you advance, you exploit every method possible to advance.
Chaotic Evil: You are ultimately power-hungry and when you are challenged poison, traps, assassins, destroying someone's reputation or killing their family is not below you.
And for some consolidation here are some character concepts that work efficiently with certain alignments:
Lawful Good: Crusader, protector, mentor, leader
Neutral Good: Doctor, guard, teacher
Chaotic Good: Vigilante, bounty hunter
Lawful Neutral: Judge, mediator
True Neutral: Anything your heart wishes (depending on class restrictions)
Chaotic Neutral: Bandit, bounty hunter
Lawful Evil: Torturer, executioner
Neutral Evil: Serial Killer, vigilante (Dark Knight-esqe), scam artist
Chaotic Evil: Murderer, arsonist, assassin
While judging your character's alignment is the hardest task in Dungeons and Dragons, don't let it prohbit you from making your own ideal character. A Ranger that is Lawful Evil and has favored enemy as humans could be considered a bounty hunter who chases down those of his same kind for money. He doesn't fear killing people and if the bounty reads dead or alive, you would expect the prior to the latter. Another example would be a Neutral Good Rogue who breaks open cellars to make enough money to house a npc friend who has a gambling addiction. There are many ways to make your characters, but remember: No one likes Chaotic Stupid and no one likes the Lawful Stupid Paladin. Branch out and discover new archtypes, ideas and concepts that you want to play without ruining the fun for everyone else.
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