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RP-ing and Evil Cleric (Faerun)
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6271633" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I feel that down this pathway madness lies.</p><p></p><p>If we start thinking about the <em>reality</em> of pre-modern and early modern monarchical systems of government, and the sorts of social relations and opportunities (or lack thereof) that are inherent in them, then isn't there a danger that we will conclude (as many people in the real world did and have) that they are not morally defensible? Which then leaves all our paladins, LG benevolent kings, etc somewhat adrift, with no home in the campaign world. That works if we want a Conan-style game - REH is (in my view at least) a resolutely modernist author - but an obvious feature of Conan is that there are no paladins and no good clerics, only sorcerers and warlocks (some of whom in D&D you might model as evil clerics).</p><p></p><p>That conclusion can be avoided by looking at the gameworld with our Tolkien-tinted glasses on: that is, we accept (as part of our suspension of disbelief) the truth of romantic conceptions of kingship, the middle ages etc. But in that case, there are not these masses of suffering people to further the worship of dark gods.</p><p></p><p>In other words, I think this is one of those places where the default approach of D&D - wanting to combine the romantic Tolkien-esque world of kings and paladins with the REH-ish world of dark gods and anti-clerics - reveals some of its internal tensions. My personally preferred solution is therefore not to look too closely at the logic of the setting, and accept it as what it is: a mish-mash that will not withstand close sociological scrutiny.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6271633, member: 42582"] I feel that down this pathway madness lies. If we start thinking about the [I]reality[/I] of pre-modern and early modern monarchical systems of government, and the sorts of social relations and opportunities (or lack thereof) that are inherent in them, then isn't there a danger that we will conclude (as many people in the real world did and have) that they are not morally defensible? Which then leaves all our paladins, LG benevolent kings, etc somewhat adrift, with no home in the campaign world. That works if we want a Conan-style game - REH is (in my view at least) a resolutely modernist author - but an obvious feature of Conan is that there are no paladins and no good clerics, only sorcerers and warlocks (some of whom in D&D you might model as evil clerics). That conclusion can be avoided by looking at the gameworld with our Tolkien-tinted glasses on: that is, we accept (as part of our suspension of disbelief) the truth of romantic conceptions of kingship, the middle ages etc. But in that case, there are not these masses of suffering people to further the worship of dark gods. In other words, I think this is one of those places where the default approach of D&D - wanting to combine the romantic Tolkien-esque world of kings and paladins with the REH-ish world of dark gods and anti-clerics - reveals some of its internal tensions. My personally preferred solution is therefore not to look too closely at the logic of the setting, and accept it as what it is: a mish-mash that will not withstand close sociological scrutiny. [/QUOTE]
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