Sometimes the truth hurts..

Mistah J · May 9, 2010

Hello,

I've got a player who has decided their Lawful Good character always tells the truth.

The player is an experience roleplayer and really enjoys the drama of "fighting the good fight." I'd like to help him by giving this truth-telling concept some depth.

I'm looking for some fantasy setting situations in which telling someone the truth is not an easy thing. Here is an example of what I mean:

A local farmer believes his son died a hero in the last war and wants the party to retrieve his personal effects. In truth, he was executed by his own side for being guilty of treason.

So, what other situations are there that would make telling the truth a tough choice?

Thanks

roguerouge · May 9, 2010

When I played a LN assassin who took a similar vow, I found lies of omission to be a beautiful thing, along with the Costanza clause: "It's not a lie, if you believe it's true." So, in this case, you bring the farmer the possessions and say nothing. If pressed, you say he was a hero, as, after all, I'm sure the traitor was a hero ... to the other side.

JoeGKushner · May 9, 2010

Go with modern head lines.

Churches that preach piousness hiding hideous truths about what their priests do to children.

Politicians and nobles who vow to hunt down those who persue a certain life style while doing so themselves.

Friends who entrust the character with secrets that no one else must know but are against the law.

Nagol · May 9, 2010

"Does this dress make me look fat?"

Nagol · May 9, 2010

Joking aside, the worst situaitons are those where the character is acting as a go-between.

Ruler A hates Ruler B and has ranted at length in front of the paladin about Ruler B's inexperience, idiocy, and incompetence.

Paladin is talking to Ruler B and the ruler is going on about a new plans. Ruler B asks "I know Ruler A is an expert in this field. I'd love to know what he thinks about my planning. I bet he's impressed!"

fba827 · May 9, 2010

two (simplfied) examples from a recent video game (Dragon Age).

Putting it in spoilers just in case someone is playing Dragon Age, but truth be told, none of the examples I am giving is related to any sort of major plot, just incidental side quests,.. and even then, a lot of the detail is left out for the sake of simplifcation.

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A mother believes his son stranded in a 'bad area' while everyone else tells her the son is dead since no one could survive in that monsterous infested bad area. Since the PCs are going that way, the mother asks the PCs to keep an eye out for the son and bring him back if they find him.
Of course, later, they find him, but he's been made crazy by the effects of the bad area. He doesn't want to return to the surface world, and despite his insanity he knows that his mother knowing of him in this state would make her suffer, so he tells the PCs to just tell his mother he is dead.
PCs are left with the delima: forcing the crazy PC back to the surface (which may well result in the PCs killing the boy unintentionally), lieing and telling the mother that the boy is dead to spare her, or telling the mother the truth that the boy is alive but insane which in turn will cause her serious grief.

Another example:
a traveler is attacked in the woods by werewolves. the husband of the traveler wants to find his wife but can't get anyone in town to go with him to search. the PCs go in to the woods and find the wife, she was in fact turned in to a werewolf as a result of the attack. she ends up asking the PCs to put her out of her misery before she runs around killing and converting others

do the PCs lie and say the traveler was kiled by the attack, do they tell him that she was changed to a werewolf, do they lie say they never found her at all? etc. a choice that leaves the husband without hope will cause him to rush off to hunt werewolves on his own and get him killed....

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but the common idea in both those scenarios is...
something bad happened to someone.
do they tell the family of the true (grumesome) fate which in turn will either case major grief, suicide, etc. or do they spare the feelings and tell some twist such as not having found the person at all or that the person died in some honorable way, etc.

Alzrius · May 9, 2010

I'm reminded of the character of Malik el Sami yn Nasser, from Troy Denning's Forgotten Realms novel Crucible: The Trial of Cyric the Mad.

Accidentally placed under a spell by Mystra, he's an evil character that's unable to lie - by word or by deed - for the rest of this life. It's pretty amusing watching him trying to get along after that.

He also appears in a sequel short story "Honest and True" in Dragon #245, and in the Return of the Archwizards trilogy (also by Denning), The Summoning, The Siege, and The Sorcerer.