D&D 5E I thought WotC was removing biological morals?

[Faolyn]

O RLY?

Ya rly. Even your quote calls it an option, and that table has it specifically for rogues, not for all classes.

It hasn't been the main source of XP since 1e.

 

[Alzrius]

Ya rly. Even your quote calls it an option, and that table has it specifically for rogues, not for all classes.

It hasn't been the main source of XP since 1e.

Yeah, it was an option and not a main source of XP, but you said it "isn't in 2E," and it is.

 

[Umbran]

Now, if only there was a real world ...

Mod Note:
And you are done in this discussion.

 

[Malmuria]

Ya rly. Even your quote calls it an option, and that table has it specifically for rogues, not for all classes.

It hasn't been the main source of XP since 1e.

I think 2e is sort of a transition to a more combat focused game. In any case, the point is that classic dnd offered opportunities for role play in ways that are mitigated or dampened in other editions of the game, not that you can't do it in 5e. The 5e dmg is very vague on non combat xp; this is one area that could be cleaned up and expanded in a 6e dmg that, unlike the current one, is not fit for a trash can already on fire.

 

[Alzrius]

I think 2e is sort of a transition to a more combat focused game.

I think some of that was due to 2E going out of its way to tag a lot of its content as optional. From spell components to individual initiative (rather than group) to the use of critical hits, you can barely flip through the 2E DMG and not see blue boxed text talking about options. It was their way of presenting modular variability.

Insofar as XP went, I agree that by that point people had already been moving toward XP for killing monsters as the primary method, but 2E didn't discard alternative options; indeed, it went out of its way to outline them:

 

[Shades of Eternity]

They should have made redcap a disease that hits gnomes, kinda like a zombie plague.

It gives a facet to those guys with big noses and makes it possible to cure them as well as fight them.

 

[Malmuria]

I think some of that was due to 2E going out of its way to tag a lot of its content as optional. From spell components to individual initiative (rather than group) to the use of critical hits, you can barely flip through the 2E DMG and not see blue boxed text talking about options. It was their way of presenting modular variability.

Insofar as XP went, I agree that by that point people had already been moving toward XP for killing monsters as the primary method, but 2E didn't discard alternative options; indeed, it went out of its way to outline them:

omg why does 5e have nothing like that! especially because it's such a commonplace now to see other games with individual xp triggers

 

[Steampunkette]

Even if I were trying to save a kingdom/village/etc, am I to assume that my problems are of greater importance to those creatures?

If such an item has the power to change my entire life or the lives of the people from wherever I categorize as "home," I'm inclined to believe that being deprived of such an item would have a detrimental effect on those from which I take the item.

It's gonna be context dependent, of course.

But there are times when it's morally justifiable and times where it isn't. And a blanket "All X are evil" may make it easier on some people who don't like to think of context or morality as a part of a story... but it tends toward supporting racist ideologies.

Big part of why I support the Unaligned concept for outsiders like Redcaps or Elementals or Angels/Devils/Demons.

 

[billd91]

Assuming this is true for any given world, yeah, it doesn't put any of the gods in a good light.

Well, it’s not like Gruumsh is a reliable narrator.

 

[billd91]

This is definitely very third-hand knowledge, but last Friday one of the people in my group (who is other gaming groups as well) was discussing someone whom he had to kick out. That person started in on "all orcs are always evil" and apparently his attempts to defend that belief involved bringing in "real life statistics" and from there revealed actual real-world racist beliefs, which is when he got kicked.

Obviously, I wasn't there to hear what went down, but I trust the person who told me this story not to lie. To me this indicates that yes, there are some people who use real-life racist beliefs to justify in-game racist beliefs.

If someone wanted to take a more Tolkienesque take in orcs with them as corrupted copies or derivatives of other natural creatures, and wanted to do a more binary morality/monster stomp game, that might be one thing. Trying to pull in ”real life statistics” and real world racist beliefs is quite another. Sheesh!