Week 6 Thoughts - Alignment

I don’t really use alignment in my D&D games, but I think it’s fun to think about sometimes.

If you’re not familiar, alignment was used in older editions of the world’s most popular roleplaying games to give players a guideline for how their players should act. Lawful good characters upheld virtuous codes of conduct, supporting the poor and downtrodden in the process. Chaotic players — both good and evil — did whatever seemed right to them at the moment. Neutral players tried to find balance.

That was the idea, at least. Sometimes, alignment became something of an excuse to justify certain actions, especially on the more chaotic end of the alignment spectrum. “It’s what my character would do” is the defense you usually hear when a player is doing something misguided that may hurt the rest of the players at the table, but seems good or funny to just one person.

This kind of player popped up so consistently at so many tables that dungeon masters developed a term for it: chaotic stupid. 

Right now, I feel like the Packers have a little chaotic stupid in them. They’re their own worst enemies. The Packers are the reason the Packers lost to the Browns. The Packers are the reason the Packers tied with the Cowboys. It’s the Packers and their chaos that are holding them back.

And a fair bit of stupid, to be honest. They have problems on special teams because of the guys they've chosen to play there. They struggle to put teams away because they’ve decided to structure their offense in a way that doesn’t maximize every possession. They’ve played two close games because they’ve failed to be aggressive in key moments.

Fortunately, a lot of chaotic stupid comes down to personal choice. All the Packers have to do to escape the world of their own chaotic stupidity is to just…stop. Stop doing stupid things and the chaos will diminish.

Easier said than done when the habits are as baked in as they are in Green Bay, but it can be done. And if the goal for this year is to just avoid being stupid, it could carry the Packers a long way.

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