Tag: morality

May 14, 2009

Its Just A Game, Part II: Emotional Insulation and Player Characters

This is something of a follow-up to my last post. There have been times, in the past, when I’ve become too emotionally wound up with a character I’ve been playing. This happened more often when I was involved in LARPing where the immediacy and direct correlation between a player and PC was particularly strong. My playing style involves a degree...

January 15, 2009

Some thoughts on moral perception and nonhuman races

Human moral psychology is weird. In a game, most of us don’t think twice about killing enemies in the moment. It doesn’t really matter what that moment is, as long as it includes some danger (not necessarily to your PC) and/or urgency. On the other hand, if things are calmer (say, the enemies are captives, being reasonable and talkative, or...

November 24, 2008

Beyond Alignment: Adding Moral Complexity to your Game (Reprint)

Reposted from 9/4/07 This article first appeared in the Silven Trumpeter (Vol. 4, Issue 2, June 2006). Many people play roleplaying games in order to escape from the moral ambiguity of real life. They want to sit down, roll some dice, kill some goblins, take their stuff, and feel good about it. Perhaps the only personal growth that they are...

October 13, 2008

Consequences

As a GM, I don’t particularly like killing players. As a player, I don’t like the idea that my PC could die in a random or meaningless way. When news about 4e was coming out, I found the rumored removal of save or die effects to be heartening. I know this upset many people, but I didn’t really understand why...

August 13, 2008

Carnival Post: There goes the Zombiehood…

The Undead I don’t use a lot of undead in my games. There are a number of reasons for this. First is the zombie issue. Zombies are among the most commonly used undead, but (I know this is sacriledge among many) I don’t get excited about zombies. Zombie movies? They can be OK, but only if they aren’t about the...

May 11, 2008

Iron Man

Angela and I went and saw Iron Man last night. I was impressed for all the usual reasons – good acting, good story, great visuals, and enough fidelity to the source material that the deviations didn’t bother me. What’s more, the movie succeeded without the overabundance of supervillains that plague superhero movies these days. This is really heartening. Hopefully, it...

February 5, 2008

What if you don’t like carrots?

One assumption that I’ve been toying with is that PC advancement is tied to accumulated, earned experience points. For most, this is a no-brainer. I, however, lack a brain… so I had to question it. Once I did, I stopped and wondered… why, if D&D assumes an average rate of advancement of one level per 11 encounters, does it bother...

November 19, 2007

Morally interesting plot ideas

…and Depeche Mode (because I’m listening to my 1980s station on Pandora). Get the Balance RightPremise: The PCs set out against a foe only to find out that their foe is holding another potential foe at bay.The Problem: If the PCs defeat their enemy, they run the risk of setting loose another danger.Explanation: Two dangers are locked in a struggle...

November 6, 2007

Exalted: when virtues aren’t

White Wolf games have a habit of using dubious morality mechanics. As far as I can tell, this began with Vampire – as a method of tracking the loss of humanity and the dominance of a vampire’s inner beast. In Exalted, characters have virtue scores (nearly the same ones as in Vampire): Courage, Conviction, Temperance, and Compassion. Each of these...

October 1, 2007

Rites of Passage

So, last week I was at a conference that focused upon cultural competency with respect to social services. Yeah, it was as exciting as it sounds. The conference was in a hotel (right near O’Hare) that I knew I’d been in before. It took me a little while to realize that it was the home of WindyCon. Anyway, one of...