Realignment: Chaotic Neutral

     Of all the alignments, I think Chaotic Neutral is the one I have the hardest time with. One reason is because the alignment is so hard to define, but also partly because the type of people who tend to play CN also tend to be problematic players.
     If we were to break down the component parts of this alignment, as we've done before, what we find a personality type that would be tricky to play. We're talking about somebody who is either morally ambiguous or otherwise uninterested in specific ethics (the neutral on the good-evil axis) but is in favor of chaos. This is a person who doesn't care about right or wrong, but does care about making sure there isn't any kind of law, rules, or orderliness.
     Perhaps it is my upbringing in a civilized, industrialized Western country, but this sounds an awful lot like a villain to me. This sounds like some kind of crazy anarchist, somebody who's only purpose is to spread lawlessness. They might not have "evil" in their alignment, but it strikes me that this person could do evil all the same.
     Which is often the problem with CN players. In most all of the games I run, I try to keep things nonevil. Any other kind of good or neutral alignment is okay, but I tend to discourage evil alignments because evil PCs are not good team players. And in my opinion, people who do not play well with others, should not, well, play a game with others. But then there's the person who chooses to play CN because it's something of a loophole. Yes, it's neutral, but it also gives you free reign to do virtually whatever the hell you feel like without being unfaithful to your alignment. I've had several discussions with players where I had to explain that torturing prisoners is an evil act, not something a CN player would do.
     Then again, I don't know if I can even say that with certainty. For somebody who is chaotic with no regard to good or evil could justify torture because it struck their fancy at the moment. Which is generally the attitude you get from a CN player: with this alignment I can act randomly with impunity.

Although, admittedly, sometimes being plain crazy can be fun.

     I think PCs need to have more personal philosophy and psychology than that. Only seriously mentally ill people are going to be as unpredictable and volatile as CN characters tend to be. So let's look at some other options for playing this alignment.
     First, you can take a view of chaos that does not conform to my own admitted biases against the alignment. Chaos does not have to just mean the opposition to law. Chaos can also be seen as synonymous with freedom (in the Unearthed Arcana D&D supplement, the Paladin of Freedom is a CG variant for the class). Perhaps a CN person believes that nobody should be constrained by anything, be it law or custom or concept of higher morality. A hippie in true fashion, this type of character would espouse freedom not just from governmental bodies, but also from ethical restrictions. This person would probably not be out to hurt anybody; in fact, they would feel that unfettered expression is the key to the good life for everybody.
     Second, neutrality on the good-evil scale does not have to be a conscious choice on the characters part. You could always have a person who is just wishy-washy, or who's concepts of good and evil are utterly skewed from the norm (and this kind of mental skewing would also keep in line with a chaotic mentality). What if things they think are "good" and "evil" are not what most of us do? If you take a step back, that's easy to imagine. For instance, there are people who believe that the killing of an evil being is a good act, while others would say that killing for any reason is wrong, and thus an evil act in itself. It's hard to say that either viewpoint is incorrect. For example: the "woodland avenger" type of druid or ranger, who kills a man that chops down a tree. Most of us would see this as an evil act, because human life is greater than plant life. But the druid/ranger might argue that the tree has been alive for hundreds of years and has just as much right to life as a human. The point is there is neutrality because the good-evil axis is covered by too much gray area.
     For all my fellow GMs out there, just keep this in mind when a player wants to whip out the CN at character generation, and hopefully we can all (myself included) broaden our perceptions of this alignment.