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Using dreams to influence character's roleplaying of alignment
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<blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 1190684" data-attributes="member: 3146"><p>A few notes on the situation.</p><p></p><p>First, I think it's unreasonable to expect even the most truly good character to be unable to ignore suffering in their actions. There are many situations where people suffer and there is little that the good character can do to alleviate it. I don't know what the character's situation is at the moment but a paladin ought to be able to ride after the evil villains--even through the tent city of starving and destitute refugees--without having to stop and try to put every other wrong he sees right. To stop pursuing his goal would not usually lead the paladin to accomplish great things in his work with the poor. Instead, it will usually result in more harm as nobody else is able to take the role he abandoned and stop the villain and he doesn't solve much in the long term attempting to help the refugees.</p><p></p><p>There are also a good number of reasons why he might not act to save the poor. It's not fashionable to say so but many people who are poor and destitute are so not because of circumstances but because of destructive habits and behaviors that they choose. A gold piece to buy a room for the night and enough booze to pass out on the steps of the inn anyway won't help them. The paladin can feel regret over their situation but can't really do a whole lot about it--and the "not a whole lot" he can do about it will often interfere with his current mission.</p><p></p><p>What's important about these things is that, not only are there valid reasons for not acting; there are also valid reasons for not feeling. Just because someone rejects truth and wisdom and chooses a path that leads to their destruction does not mean that the paladin has to be miserable forever. To say that he ought to feel sorrow forever is to enable the bitter, hostile, and self destructive to forever withold joy from those who do actually want it. And that's not just.</p><p></p><p>All of that doesn't mean that the paladin should never feel compassion or that he shouldn't stop and remove disease from an orphan or pay a beggar boy good wages to carry his torch while in the city or hire him to groom his horse (of course there's no need for that in 3.5). And it doesn't mean that the paladin should not be distressed over the plight of the poor of the city in your campaign (although I would say that the paladin has no obligation to retain that distress as a constant emotional burden to the exclusion of other emotions). I have found D&D however, to center more around actions than emotions. It's not usually a game where a paladin ought to walk down the street, see a poor person and spout a pseudo Shakespearean solliloqy about how he wants to help but has few options in words that are a mix of Thomas Sowell and Plato.</p><p></p><p>As to dreams, I made quite a bit of use of them in a game I ran a few years ago. My advice is twofold:</p><p></p><p>1. Do it. It's cool and adds a lot to a game. It also adds to the feel of a more mythic reality instead of a modern world dressed up in armor and magic and helps make the game more King Arthur than Harry Potter.</p><p></p><p>2. Don't worry too much about being heavy-handed in dreams. If you don't go for the gospel of Matthew style angel appearing in the dream and saying something to the effect of "Bethlehem isn't safe for you; take Mary and Jesus and go to Egypt" but instead opt for something more symbolic (perhaps like the vision of the beasts in the biblical book of Daniel or the various symbols in Revelation) don't worry about being too obvious. If my experience is any guide, players are unlikely to grasp even obvious symbolism immediately. If you deliberately make it obscure, it's likely to be indecipherable. And overly obvious messages are a more forgivable (and easier to correct) error than inscrutable ones. If your players think they're too obvious, you can always make your next dreams a little more obscure.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Elder-Basilisk, post: 1190684, member: 3146"] A few notes on the situation. First, I think it's unreasonable to expect even the most truly good character to be unable to ignore suffering in their actions. There are many situations where people suffer and there is little that the good character can do to alleviate it. I don't know what the character's situation is at the moment but a paladin ought to be able to ride after the evil villains--even through the tent city of starving and destitute refugees--without having to stop and try to put every other wrong he sees right. To stop pursuing his goal would not usually lead the paladin to accomplish great things in his work with the poor. Instead, it will usually result in more harm as nobody else is able to take the role he abandoned and stop the villain and he doesn't solve much in the long term attempting to help the refugees. There are also a good number of reasons why he might not act to save the poor. It's not fashionable to say so but many people who are poor and destitute are so not because of circumstances but because of destructive habits and behaviors that they choose. A gold piece to buy a room for the night and enough booze to pass out on the steps of the inn anyway won't help them. The paladin can feel regret over their situation but can't really do a whole lot about it--and the "not a whole lot" he can do about it will often interfere with his current mission. What's important about these things is that, not only are there valid reasons for not acting; there are also valid reasons for not feeling. Just because someone rejects truth and wisdom and chooses a path that leads to their destruction does not mean that the paladin has to be miserable forever. To say that he ought to feel sorrow forever is to enable the bitter, hostile, and self destructive to forever withold joy from those who do actually want it. And that's not just. All of that doesn't mean that the paladin should never feel compassion or that he shouldn't stop and remove disease from an orphan or pay a beggar boy good wages to carry his torch while in the city or hire him to groom his horse (of course there's no need for that in 3.5). And it doesn't mean that the paladin should not be distressed over the plight of the poor of the city in your campaign (although I would say that the paladin has no obligation to retain that distress as a constant emotional burden to the exclusion of other emotions). I have found D&D however, to center more around actions than emotions. It's not usually a game where a paladin ought to walk down the street, see a poor person and spout a pseudo Shakespearean solliloqy about how he wants to help but has few options in words that are a mix of Thomas Sowell and Plato. As to dreams, I made quite a bit of use of them in a game I ran a few years ago. My advice is twofold: 1. Do it. It's cool and adds a lot to a game. It also adds to the feel of a more mythic reality instead of a modern world dressed up in armor and magic and helps make the game more King Arthur than Harry Potter. 2. Don't worry too much about being heavy-handed in dreams. If you don't go for the gospel of Matthew style angel appearing in the dream and saying something to the effect of "Bethlehem isn't safe for you; take Mary and Jesus and go to Egypt" but instead opt for something more symbolic (perhaps like the vision of the beasts in the biblical book of Daniel or the various symbols in Revelation) don't worry about being too obvious. If my experience is any guide, players are unlikely to grasp even obvious symbolism immediately. If you deliberately make it obscure, it's likely to be indecipherable. And overly obvious messages are a more forgivable (and easier to correct) error than inscrutable ones. If your players think they're too obvious, you can always make your next dreams a little more obscure. [/QUOTE]
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