Editing Always Chaotic Evil (section)

==Modern Practices==
All that being said, goblins and orcs and the like are still sword and spell fodder, but nowadays the conflict is more likely to be economic ("they want goods, humans have goods, they try to take goods by force"), cultural ("they want us off what they consider their land") or religious ("the Blood God demands Blood, and they think your little hamlet looks like it can supply a large quantity thereof"), and non-combatant orcs are likely to be treated as well as any other enemy non-combatants.

Criticisms often applied to games moving away from Always Chaotic Evil or players/gamemakers shifting towards more "acceptable targets" include the idea that, without such races, there is no conflict or quest to be had. Not is only this [[That Guy]]-levels of lazy thinking, it plays into [[Murderhobo|very common stereotypes]] about tabletop gaming, and all but ''confirms'' the over-reliance on always-evil races to generate conflict instead of actually weaving an interesting/organic conflict into the narrative of a game, like a good or even half-decent DM ''should''. That said, there is some merit in trying to avoid slipping off the other end of the spectrum by creating racially-independent substitutes (e.g. aforementioned slavers and Nazis) that still end up being [[Stupid Evil|one-dimensionally or impractically evil]]. This is the other half of the issue: even ''with'' actually-irredeemable evil factions, including those that aren't as humanoid, they should still ideally be decently-written and presented in order to hold players' interest beyond using them as pincushions (or at least making said skewering feel properly cathartic and rewarding), and while not ALL instances of Always Chaotic Evil monsters should be jettisoned, this can easily be achieved without relying too much on them to begin with.

Note that most games define good and evil through a human-survival morality, which denotes a fundamental respect for life (well, at least human life; we're pretty shitty toward other forms of life, to say nothing of how we treat our own kind). Morality as we know it doesn't really apply to non-human creatures who are as far above us as we consider ourselves above bacteria, or at least conduct themselves as such. (Think [[beholder]]s, [[illithid]]s, etc.) They may see us as the same kind of vermin or parasites we ourselves routinely destroy to preserve our own survival, if they even acknowledge us as sentient at all. Even if their minds are similar enough to us to have some concept of morality, their moral codes might make absolutely no sense, as is the case with the True Fae in ''Changeling: The Lost''. (The tropers call that and the Tyranid example "Blue and Orange Morality", by the way.)

By that token, even Stupid levels of Always Chaotic Evil can be entertaining and well-done if handled right, as seen with the [[Orks]] of WH40K - an entire race with a literal biological imperative towards fighting, war and destruction implanted by [[Old Ones|their creators]], and yet they don't draw flak for nearly the same reasons. Why? Because they're a unique and oft-hilarious take on orcs IN SPAAAAAAACE written by British people that draw heavily from 80's British culture, and they pull off the "rowdy lot of brutish thugs with a ramshackle civilization" thing without resorting to ''ethnic'' stereotypes. (It helps that said Old Ones ate shit before they could start on the <s>Orks'</s> Krorks' psychic control mechanisms.)

The constraints induced by applying a race's alignment on such a hardline basis, particular Chaotic Evil, is also what aided in the long-standing popularity of one archetypical Chaotic Good Male Drow, [[Drizzt Do'Urden]] (for better or worse), and that can of walking worms is opened on his own article.