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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mlund" data-source="post: 4460231" data-attributes="member: 50304">See, while my own beliefs about what is Good and what is Evil overlap with the D&D system to some extent, they certainly differ. When running D&D I'll apply D&D's system, not my own. I don't apply D&D game rules about Good and Evil to determine what is Good and Evil in Real Life either.Actually, I'd argue that the circumstances actually determine whether or not an action is evil. Cutting a man's leg off to save him from a bear trap can be a good thing. Cutting a man's leg off to save yourself the walk to get help to pry the trap open and save his leg and his life is a wicked act.Avoiding maiming the man has moral value. It isn't as high a value as saving the man's life, though. So the consequences, motivation, and availability of alternatives all determine the morality of the act in question. Maiming the man is undesirable, but it may be necessary to preserve a higher moral value, and thus not evil.Theft in a society with a wealth-based economy causes a far different sort of harm than theft in a society with a sustenance-based economy. In one the thief violates a man's right to property. In the other a thief threatens entire families with death by starvation. If both societies value innocent life above all, would you not expect the one in which theft threatens innocent life to respond with a much harsher punishment than the one in which theft has little or no threat to innocent life?Good and Lawful Good are distinct from each other in 4th Edition in that Lawful Good believes that ordered societies and laws will  provide significant benefits to their citizens - including preserving the lives and freedoms that Good characters and Lawful Good characters both value. Because of this, Lawful Good characters often interpret assaults on law and order within their society as assaults against the continued survival of innocents.Both alignments share their primary values, but the Lawful Good outlook perceived consequences and contexts that the Good outlook may not necessarily acknowledge.Good: "The man destroyed part of an aqueduct."Lawful Good: "Execute him."Good: "But he destroyed a building, not a person."Lawful Good: "Tell that to the people in the city that aqueduct provides water to while they are suffering from plague, starvation, and thirst this summer while the aqueduct is under construction."Good: "Oh ..."At the same time, Good characters will probably have keener vision when it comes to the undesirable elements that crop up in an ordered society - including the curtailment of liberties, the inevitability of bureaucratic corruption, etc. Lawful Good characters are vulnerable to falling into the mentality of "the Status Quo is still a net positive - don't rock the boat." - Marty Lund</blockquote>

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