Discussion Main / ChaoticStupid

Umm, it sure seems that Chaotic Neutral was described as Chaotic Stupid in that second edition rulebook I had. Not only did it say that it was the alignment of lunatics and madmen, and that it was a very difficult alignment to play, but that the one thing that you can rely on about a chaotic neutral character is that they cannot be relied upon, and that they apply chaos to all their actions equally. Flipping a coin at each dungeon intersection and deciding which way to go based on the outcome is one of many chaotic neural acts. So is going right every chance this time because it's Thursday. While they won't randomly backstab their friends (that would be an evil act, not a neutral one), sitting down to do their hair in the middle of the battle is not out of the question. Neither is running at the dragon screaming your lungs off (and predictably getting roasted). Some people did forget about the not being evil part, but the rule book all but stated that if you weren't causing disruption or doing some stupid stuff you weren't being chaotic enough to qualify. Insanity isn't required (though it is definitely within the alignment) but being unreliable definitely was. This WAS fixed in third edition, where chaotic neutral meant freedom from restrictions, without loss of instinct of preservation, not C Loud Cuckoolander.

I haven't removed it, because I haven't read any of the relevant comics and so can't judge its accuracy, but based on the examples given Deadpool doesn't sound Chaotic Stupid (in the examples given, his crazy methods are successful), just nuts.

Table top games. There is a scene in Expedition to the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk where the players finally get the key to the tower of magic. They go up to the wizards who are preventing anyone from entering the Tower of Magic. You present them with the key. The wizard in charge says something about the key being found and to unlock the tower. He takes the key, puts into an obsidian skull, turns the key. The mouth of the skull opens and a butterfly emerges. At which point he exclaims that it is the butterfly of enlightenment and they must go follow it, he drops the key the and the skull to go chase the butterfly and all the other Zagyg cultists go with him.

I removed the following two examples from Live-Action TV as they seem to be merely stupid, not chaotic, as currently described:

• Sam's mother on iCarly: The woman drove her car after getting eye surgery, causing her to crash through a wall at the school. Also, Sam and Melanie were born on a bus because she took one while having labor pains instead of calling a cab.
• Worse than the I Carly example, an episode of CSI had a man whose stepdaughter died after ingesting hazardous material because he decided to take the bus to the hospital instead of calling an ambulance. Then, instead of admitting what had happened to the authorities, he left her body outside in a pseudo shrine so it appeared she'd been murdered.

In both cases, the characters made poor, but not off-the-wall choices of transportation in a time-sensitive situation. Choosing the bus over faster options in an emergency is stupid, but not chaotic. By my understanding, Chaotic Stupid would be something like going to hitch up a dogsled instead of calling a cab/ambulance, or deciding to skip the hospital entirely in favor of playing the kazoo.

Can anyone familiar with these shows please either rewrite the example to show that they fit Chaotic Stupid and put it back on the page or confirm that they are not examples? Thanks.

Beavis and Butthead are they really Chaotic Stupid or just plain stupid?

Thinking we should remove that, but I'd like some input first.

Can we create a Troper Tales page for this? Who doesn't know some overgrown teenager who thinks that any rule is bad and flips the bird to any and every authority figure they come across, not realizing that it might make it hard for them to get/keep a job?

People are confusing this with Stupid Evil.