Dungeons & Dragons & Bangkok: An Alignment Chart for the City [S5.E31]
Greg and Ed confess to their past as Dungeons and Dragons-loving young geeks. Who would have thought? The boys take inspiration from an old blog post of Greg’s where he applied D&D’s famous moral alignment chart to Bangkok. Moving through the list, Ed provides his feedback as each example is presented. Greg begins by explaining the system (for those of you who were less geeky or simply missed D&D generationally). Then Greg gets into his examples. Who best represents ‘Lawful Good’ in Thai society? Well, most monks seem to be the obvious answer, and both guys think so, with the important ‘most’ caveat. However, some other alignments prove more tricky. Who or what represents ‘Chaotic Neutral’ in Thai society? What about ‘Lawful Evil’? The boys re-hash Greg’s old answers and see if they still apply today. Listen in for a discussion of all nine different alignments, but the lesson of the day is that it can be very insightful to examine Thailand through a variety of different lenses, be it the Seven Deadly Sins or something more contemporary, such as the moral universe of the most popular role-playing game of all-time. Don’t forget that Patrons get the ad-free version of the show as well as swag and other perks. And we’ll keep our Facebook, Twitter, and LINE accounts active so you can send us comments, questions, or whatever you want to share.