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If you consider any of these actions to be Evil, then have you not also made a decision about morality for your game, mechanical alignment or not? A Paladin carrying out a "clearly evil" action (whatever we consider those actions to be) and remaining in a state of grace seems jarring for the...

"Free the Shire" seems like quite a downgrade from the preceding activities of our Hobbit friends. While my comment carries more steps, your note moves from "Save the Barony" to "Save the World". Would it then move back to "Save the Shire", or only ever upwards? I find games tend to the...

Whether we slap the NG label on the character or simply allow the player to say his character is a decent fellow who does the best that a good person can do, is devoted to helping others and works with legitimate authority but does not feel beholden to them - he believes in doing what is good...

Sure. The storylines seem very similar, though, where your earlier post indicated they were not. Sure. I don't find Tolkein's works grow ever more epic, though. The return to the Shire is for much lower stakes, really. Much episodic fiction recognizes that the stakes cannot continually...

As seems typically, you take a very binary vision. Taking a life is an evil act. Defending the innocent is a good act. So is taking a life to defend an innocent, or risking an innocent’s safety in order to preserve a life good or evil? It contains elements of both, and thus it is not a...

While I don't disagree, I find it odd that you can first claim the story elements are dissimilar, then state both as "freeing [some NPC's] from the influence of [a bad guy]. So we and the enemy have bigger bonuses and a larger number of nameless, faceless NPC's are affected by our success or...

How can there be examples you reject when there is no answer to the questions? Your rejection of a given moral stance requires there be an answer. Whereas I believe those of us that are using alignment are not stating that each and every question has an objective answer for each alignment...

How can the coins be Imperial Currency when the characters find them in use everywhere they go, whether travelling across the borders of many nations, investigating ancient ruins or even crossing dimensions and planes?

Bolded for emphasis - therein lies the problem. If it is an effective tactic, why would the PC's not attempt it often? If it is difficult to impossible, why would they try at all? It seems like it would become much like Bull's Rush, Disarm, Trip, etc. - either the character is constructed...

MarkB's comment is very accurate - do characters really feel epic (in other genres, SuperPowerful) when their opposition's power increases in lockstep with their own?

Two issues seem juxtaposed here. The first is whether the characters are "decent people" who do not cut the throats of their prisoner, but spare his life, perhaps set him free, etc. The second is whether that decency has positive, neutral or negative in-game consequences. If the GM has the...

I seem to dimly recall 1e had called shot rules - you took a -4 penalty to target a specific area, but it had no extra effect. It was a "skilled play" reward as some monsters could be targeted at spots that had a worse AC (often more than 4 points worse), such as the Bulette's back when its fin...

Are you aware that there are gradations between "zero" and "automatically"? No, I do not believe that players will automatically choose the most expedient option over playing in character. Neither do I believe it is automatic that alignment will be used by the GM as a stick to beat players...

Yup, it was an example from an actual game...

WAITAMINNIT! The helpless prisoner tied to a chair, and the NG fighter's assertion he should be killed so he does not report back to his master, WAS an example from an actual game, wasn't it?

And who decides whether the player is acting in good faith? Your immediate reaction was to assume he was not, since he was not acting the way you envision a Paladin acting. Character actions are not forbidden under mechanical alignment - they simply have consequences. In a game where Good...

No, he cited an example where the use of a less than honourable tactic by a 4e Paladin would provide him with a mechanical advantage. Why can’t the player believe that the Paladin honestly believes that the use of poison to facilitate the defeat of an evil opponent is an acceptable and...

So, again, presume good faith on the part of the players (and no similar presumption for the GM), the mantra I have come to associated with Hussar. And yet... Why are you presuming bad faith on the part of this hypothetical player? Can he not have concluded that, in the interests of Good...

I remain confused as to what, exactly, the failure was. Was there a failed roll early on which caused the familiar to either activate spontaneously? Did a later failed roll cause the familiar be harmed, or to have a reduced recovery rate, in resolution of the PC's actions? I thought the...

I think this is a good question - is the result slavery through the generations, or indentured servitude of the current generation, who took the actions resulting in the enslavement? Let's turn that around - does the fact that a given practice was the normal practice for some period of human...