D&D General Some thoughts on Moral Philosophies in D&D

[DemoMonkey]

"Granted, some of the Grognards and Elder Players are still waaaaay less progressive than current WotC, which is way less progressive than the younger generation..."

Define the cutoff age for "Grognards and Elder Players".

(Because really, a conversation about moral philosophy isn't nearly a controversial enough topic.)

 

[Steampunkette]

Half-orcs came from Tolkien.

If you look back into the Monster Manual and PHB, you will see that the origin story of the original half-orc is better left ... unstated.

Oh, trust me, I know their unsavory history in those books. I played Half-Orcs as a kid 'cause I wished I was big and strong.

That said. I don't mean "They were invented by TSR" I mean "TSR made them a player race as an Orc-Lite for people to enjoy a non-evil Orc"

 

[Steampunkette]

"Granted, some of the Grognards and Elder Players are still waaaaay less progressive than current WotC, which is way less progressive than the younger generation..."

Define the cutoff age for "Grognards and Elder Players".

(Because really, a conversation about moral philosophy isn't nearly a controversial enough topic.)

I'm pushing 40 and I'm more progressive than WotC has ever been.

YMMV.

But just due to the ravages of time, the community is just gonna get more and more progressive.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

That said. I don't mean "They were invented by TSR" I mean "TSR made them a player race as an Orc-Lite for people to enjoy a non-evil Orc"

Mmmm.... yeah, no. Pretty pretty sure that's not exactly the thought process. If that was, they probably wouldn't have made Assassin the go-to class for half-orcs.

As much as I might defend some of the older stuff, I certainly wouldn't say that they (in this case, Gygax specifically) were catering to fan outcry or being more progressive. It just wasn't ... something they were doing.

For that matter, we have to remember that back then, it was much not uncommon to have evil characters; there was an entire playable class that was restricted to evil characters only!

 

[Mind of tempest]

I'm pushing 40 and I'm more progressive than WotC has ever been.

YMMV.

But just due to the ravages of time, the community is just gonna get more and more progressive.

that is unknowable but on the likely side of predictions given that I am 22.

 

[DemoMonkey]

"the community is just gonna get more and more progressive."

Oh, the sweet optimism of youth.

As long as we are digging up Ancient Greeks ... metaphorically, I hope... Cynicism needs to be in this discussion somewhere.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I'm pushing 40 and I'm more progressive than WotC has ever been.

YMMV.

(As an aside, I do not know that is very helpful to refer to corporations as "progressive." In this example, we would be talking about Hasbro, not the wholly-owned subsidiary of WoTC. Corporations are sharks- profit maximizing sharks, eating consumer dollar and pooping out shareholder profits, and to the extent that certain activities and/or stances might be profit-maximizing, they are likely to take them, within the bounds of their imperfect knowledge. But I would not say that most corporations are, exactly, profiles in courage. Taking a public stance that is broadly popular, like, "We think discrimination is bad," is simple. Saying, "We believe that all people deserve to live on the fruits of their labor, and will no longer use independent contractors, will support unionization, and pay a living wage" is .... well, that's not something that a profit-maximizing shark does.)

 

[Mind of tempest]

(As an aside, I do not know that is very helpful to refer to corporations as "progressive." In this example, we would be talking about Hasbro, not the wholly-owned subsidiary of WoTC. Corporations are sharks- profit maximizing sharks, eating consumer dollar and pooping out shareholder profits, and to the extent that certain activities and/or stances might be profit-maximizing, they are likely to take them, within the bounds of their imperfect knowledge. But I would not say that most corporations are, exactly, profiles in courage. Taking a public stance that is broadly popular, like, "We think discrimination is bad," is simple. Saying, "We believe that all people deserve to live on the fruits of their labor, and will no longer use independent contractors, will support unionization, and pay a living wage" is .... well, that's not something that a profit-maximizing shark does.)

unless that is the last way to still get food to continue the metaphor.
it will likely depend on public opinion and societal trends of the time we will know more towards the end of 5e life span.

 

[Voadam]

As long as we are digging up Ancient Greeks ... metaphorically, I hope... Cynicism needs to be in this discussion somewhere.

You need the gen-x point of view?

 

[Jaeger]

Moral Relativism
This is a rough one. Moral Relativism seeks to undermine Deontology, Consequentialism, Virtue Ethics, and all other moral systems by creating a relativistic approach. Which is to say: A Deontological Society is only good in the context of their own ideals, and would be considered Evil by the standpoint of another social group with an inverse position on what is or isn't "Good" and "Evil".

Which is... true..? But also utterly bat-smackingly irrelevant at the gaming table.

This is default D&D cosmology.

The gods are known 100% no doubt to be real.

They each have their own different codes of conduct/ things that they like their followers to do.

There is absolutely no reason for a PC to do anything more than the bare minimum that their god requires to enter the promised afterlife.

Their specific gods code is the only code of conduct PC need to concern themselves with.

They need only follow others mores and values as pragmatic actions due to external threats of corporal punishment.

Players who dive into this particular end of the pool of moral relativism are almost always going to be iconoclastic disruptors.

So most PC groups then.

.