Bacon Bits
Legend
Thank you for this. Admittedly I played with the idea of presenting my players with such a moral dilemma, but something in the back of my mind kept telling me not to. You have perfectly articulated what my subconscious was warning me from doing, which is playing the players, not the characters.
As you say, in a world where such things as Lawful Good and Neutral Evil actually exist, our own moralities don't really have a place. It's a made up world where Orc babies are, to their core, evil, and a Lawful Good character should have no qualms about dealing with them accordingly, but given that understanding, why put them in that position to begin with?
Again, thank you for your post. You've given me many things to think about, and many new, hopefully interesting plots for my game are beginning to form...
It's not even that orcs have to be irredeemably evil, really. It's just that the culture, laws, and religions in place that the characters are familiar with would have almost certainly already addressed the problem in some way. It doesn't matter if the answer is that you kill them or you let them go. It's that there ought to be no dilemma to the decision. Just like how the rules for this situation are already super clear cut in our world (until they pick up a weapon) they would probably be equally clear in theirs.
The biggest problem is if Corellon Larethian and Moradin and Pelor (or Illmater or Helm or whomever) disagree, but even then there would likely be a known compromise. The alternative, that there is no compromise, means the players are now expected to, what, resolve a conflict of doctrine between deities? That's moderately unreasonable, isn't it?
I mean, sure, some people like that type of game. I would argue that D&D is not the right game for that style of play, however. IMX, people play D&D to escape that weight of topic.