Chaotic Stupid

"I drop my trousers and piss on the king!"

Chaotic Stupid is yet another of the "stupid" alignments. Where Lawful Stupid characters adhere to a restrictive code of conduct beyond the point of reason, Chaotic Stupid characters are marked by their refusal to abide by any such code, even where it would be reasonable to do so. Some Chaotic Stupid characters take this even further, and will actively break whatever the local laws and customs are, because "I'm chaotic, tee hee!" Another common symptom is mistaking "chaotic" for "whatever random action pops into my head", leading to the synonym of randumb. This provides a criterion for distinguishing Chaotic Stupid from Stupid Evil -- a Stupid Evil character will take actions to cause harm, while a Chaotic Stupid character will just act out.

Much as Lawful Stupid is inescapably linked to the paladin class, Chaotic Stupid is one of the stereotypical bad ways to play rogues.

Examples

• Kender. They are "Chaotic Stupid: The Species", as they steal anything that isn't nailed down, and then have the temerity to giggle and act cute about it.
• In a rare example of Chaotic Stupid not being a totally bad thing, Chaos and the Orks from Warhammer 40,000 (and the Orcs and Goblins of Warhammer Fantasy Battle) can exhibit some of this when their own chaotic natures cause them to fight among themselves and collapse any army that threatens the status quo.

How to be Chaotic without being Stupid

As any alignment thread on /tg/ will show you, defining the "Lawful/Chaotic" axis in a way that is totally orthogonal to "Good/Evil" is very tricky. There is also the matter that any sane character will have some internal code of conduct, so it is not possible to define Lawful as "follows some laws, any laws" and Chaotic as "follows no laws whatsoever". One potentially useful interpretation of that axis that can avoid stupidity or strawmen is to think of Lawful as emphasizing working "by-the-book" for the whole (with the nature of that book separating Lawful Good from Lawful Evil), and Chaotic as emphasizing individual freedom to achieve one's own desires (with the nature of those desires separating Chaotic Good from Chaotic Evil). A way to be Chaotic without being Stupid, therefore, is to determine the character's goals, and have them achieve those goals by whatever method they think is best. This might mean following the rules, if playing nice with the Paladin to stay out of jail is a prerequisite for that goal, but if breaking a few laws is what it takes, then so be it.