Probably the biggest confusion I see, other than the good/evil that you addressed, is chaos as random/silly.
That is a whole topic. I see a lot of players, especially thieves, who claim chaotic alignment because they want to be silly. It gets reinforced by the DND memes and nine-grid alignment chart jokes where chaotic neutral is always some version of a clown/joker.
Yes indeed! I had a lengthy conversation with one newish player a few months back, to the effect that "Chaos is Bad, so don't sign up for it if that's not what you want, but also you can do chaotic/silly/anti-authoritarian things while being any alignment." We avoided the Bard problem in that group a session later, when the Bard got castrated by a giant spider to the incredulity of the players . . . "that's seriously a table entry?"
Probably the biggest confusion I see, other than the good/evil that you addressed, is chaos as random/silly.
That is a whole topic. I see a lot of players, especially thieves, who claim chaotic alignment because they want to be silly. It gets reinforced by the DND memes and nine-grid alignment chart jokes where chaotic neutral is always some version of a clown/joker.
Yes indeed! I had a lengthy conversation with one newish player a few months back, to the effect that "Chaos is Bad, so don't sign up for it if that's not what you want, but also you can do chaotic/silly/anti-authoritarian things while being any alignment." We avoided the Bard problem in that group a session later, when the Bard got castrated by a giant spider to the incredulity of the players . . . "that's seriously a table entry?"