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Musings on the "Lawful Jerk" Paladin
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<blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 7351409" data-attributes="member: 6801845"><p>Well, I would probably never put anyone into the trolley situation in a game unless one of the options was to throw the brakes, risk derailing and possibly dying unless you can somehow manage to avoid catastrophe.</p><p></p><p>I think one of the mistakes 4E made was to try to force moral relativism into a fantasy game. I get it that for some campaigns it works for orcs to be humans with a skin condition and bad dental work. I also don't have a problem with orcs being an evil race.</p><p></p><p>An analogy. Nobody is going to feel bad if you disinfect a vial that is contaminated with ebola. Nobody talks about how sad it is that the poor baby ebola viruses just want to replicate and grow. Is ebola evil? Well ... in a sense it is. It's entire existence revolves around destroying life. In another sense it's not evil because it's not sentient (same with my cat who would <em>love</em> to get at those birds in the back yard*).</p><p></p><p>But what if a sentient creature, let's call them an orc, was hard wired to kill and destroy all other sentient life. That the only reason for their existence is destruction, and the only reason they don't kill is because of selfish reasons. They never know love or compassion as we understand it, they raise children because they have to, not because they love them, etc. It's not nature versus nurture, raise an orc baby in a loving environment and it will still kill you in your sleep if it can just because that's how it gets it's jollies.</p><p></p><p>Is that orc evil? I would say yes. They are not human, and to assume they would ever go arm-in-arm singing kumbaya with other sentient creatures if given a chance does not fit the base assumption of what an orc is. Now, I will be the first to admit that it may be a gross over-simplification to say that, but then again that's what D&D is all about. For many people it's a fantasy game with a simplified moral structure so we can roll some dice, eat junk food and have fun hanging out without having to concern ourselves with the moral quandary of leaving orphaned baby orcs after slaughtering their parents. Because no matter what we do, that orc baby will grow up to be an evil force of murder and destruction. In other words, an orc.</p><p></p><p>*Hmmm...maybe cats are evil.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Oofta, post: 7351409, member: 6801845"] Well, I would probably never put anyone into the trolley situation in a game unless one of the options was to throw the brakes, risk derailing and possibly dying unless you can somehow manage to avoid catastrophe. I think one of the mistakes 4E made was to try to force moral relativism into a fantasy game. I get it that for some campaigns it works for orcs to be humans with a skin condition and bad dental work. I also don't have a problem with orcs being an evil race. An analogy. Nobody is going to feel bad if you disinfect a vial that is contaminated with ebola. Nobody talks about how sad it is that the poor baby ebola viruses just want to replicate and grow. Is ebola evil? Well ... in a sense it is. It's entire existence revolves around destroying life. In another sense it's not evil because it's not sentient (same with my cat who would [I]love[/I] to get at those birds in the back yard*). But what if a sentient creature, let's call them an orc, was hard wired to kill and destroy all other sentient life. That the only reason for their existence is destruction, and the only reason they don't kill is because of selfish reasons. They never know love or compassion as we understand it, they raise children because they have to, not because they love them, etc. It's not nature versus nurture, raise an orc baby in a loving environment and it will still kill you in your sleep if it can just because that's how it gets it's jollies. Is that orc evil? I would say yes. They are not human, and to assume they would ever go arm-in-arm singing kumbaya with other sentient creatures if given a chance does not fit the base assumption of what an orc is. Now, I will be the first to admit that it may be a gross over-simplification to say that, but then again that's what D&D is all about. For many people it's a fantasy game with a simplified moral structure so we can roll some dice, eat junk food and have fun hanging out without having to concern ourselves with the moral quandary of leaving orphaned baby orcs after slaughtering their parents. Because no matter what we do, that orc baby will grow up to be an evil force of murder and destruction. In other words, an orc. *Hmmm...maybe cats are evil. [/QUOTE]
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