Are groups capable of dealing with good vs good conflict?

[Dareoon Dalandrove]

Last night I ran d20 modern game and there was a little strife. Here's the lowdown: One player is a moraue (sp) that had become involved with an npc that had "animalistic qualities". She was hanging out with her boyfriend while the others were site seeing in Italy. So growing hungry they stopped to get a bite to eat. Not long after they had been seated the place was crowded. When their meals had arrived a man sat down with them. He told them that is name Father Giancarlo, a priest from a unique sect of the catholic church. he said that he had a persposal for them. In exchange for the safety of the party member he wanted their help in catching an evil abomination. The church veiw is that creatures like that are an afront to god and they wipe them out. This sect is made up of hunters (think John Capenters Vampires). So going with the lesser of two evils he was willing to let the PC go. After one player threatend to "snap the priests neck" the group was confronted with the fact that the place was filled with gun toting preists they decided to go along. So the church arms the pcs and they march into a techno dance club in Italy to do battle with the forces of darkness. For the most part things start out normal. The female Pc is thinking that the other pc's are here for her and her boyfriend and he tries to lead her to safety. The group is exposed to "acts of god" (one of the preists was an alcolyte and cast bless). Two of the pcs start shooting as soon as the "target" shows himself again. A third PC (the one that threatend the priest changes his mind about the plan and turns and charges the Priest (he get brought down with the holy might of the fathers automatic weapon). On the whole The target of the group changes from man to wolf before their eyes and attacks the head pries after he dispacted a player. The female player stays on the side of her boyfreind, now in wolf form savaging the preist. After a crit the priest is no more and the battle is pretty much over. Now here is how things stand the female pc is flipping out at the other characters for joining a religious cult and tring to kill her (nobody shot at her). Outside of the nightclub she shoots at another player when he chases after the wolf. Overall everyone said they liked the adventure but were confused on who the "bad guys" were. One pc (the one that was brought down) was sure that the priests were, the same with the female pc. The other three pcs didn't care they just wanted to protect their teammate. I wanted to muddle things so that it was more like life. It all depends on the side that your on on who is bad and who is good. The night ended with a lot of argueing, to be honest I don't know how much was in character and how much was angry people.

So has anyone else tried a situation where is was good vs good? Holy wars are common maybe a two LG churches battleing it out with the pc's caught in the middle.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Yes I have. But when I do, I try to make sure that the players/PCs understand what's happening. So long as they know that they're dealing with two good but possibly misguided forces, then they can begin to deal with the situation and there aren't usually any angry people. It's when the moral "rules" are obscured that people start to lose their tempers, I find.

Most players are willing to deal with moral ambiguity and tough choices. But they aren't as happy at being "tricked" into shooting/slashing/killing good people. It's a kind of moral railroading, I find. So your group may be angry because they were confused and attacked "good" people, when they were under the impression the priests were "bad."

Rule of thumb (IMO, of course): feel free to present the players with ambiguous gray NPCs, but make sure the players understand that they are gray, and don't assume they're black or white.

 

[D'karr]

Everything doesn't have to be black and white. That is what makes these types of games so interesting.

 

[Shadow64]

As a member of the group that was part of the fiasco I have to say it was one of the most unique and fun game nights in a while.

From everyone’s point of view they are in the right. The priests are doing their duty (although from a standpoint outside of their faith they are making things too black/white in regards to the female pc and her "boyfriend".), some of the team members are being loyal to another team member and doing what they feel needs to be done to protect her, one team member does not like the fact the priests are threatening the female pc at all , and the female pc believes that her "boyfriend" is a good guy and trying to help people. As Dareoon said it is all about viewpoints. The priests are right, the team members trying to protect her are right, the team member who wants to take the priests out are right, the female pc are right.

At the end of the night accusations of joining a cult, being a patsy, following stupid orders, believing crazy priests, etc. were flying around willy-nilly. Which, in "real life" is exactly what would happen if something like this did occur. I don't think any of it was aimed at the players (or at least not to much) per se, but aimed at the characters.

I think something like this would (and in our case i think will) change the dynamic of a group, but hopefully they can work it out. I really don't know what will happen at the next session, but i think it will be interesting.

 

[Angcuru]

I think there was a famous Good vs. Good situation about 7 centuries back. Y'all might have heard of The Crusades?

 

[S'mon]

I think there was a famous Good vs. Good situation about 7 centuries back. Y'all might have heard of The Crusades?

Or Bad vs Bad?

 

[Merlion]

I dont think we should really veer into that area.(the Crusades).
I do have a question tho...is the werewolf boyfriend good? as in is his alignment good of some kind does he do good things not hurt people etc? Do thease priests actualy find out about the exact nature of a specfic being before they start shooting/stabbing/blasting? If the answers are yes and no then the priests are at best very misguided good guys in need of some prioty exmination.

 

[Angcuru]

Or Bad vs Bad?

Touche'.

 

[Shadow64]

I do have a question tho...is the werewolf boyfriend good? as in is his alignment good of some kind does he do good things not hurt people etc? Do thease priests actualy find out about the exact nature of a specfic being before they start shooting/stabbing/blasting? If the answers are yes and no then the priests are at best very misguided good guys in need of some prioty exmination.

OK - from what I know out of character the Werewolf is a "good guy". He wasn't born one, but was made one in some weird experiment. Well, he escaped and now he tries to help other creatures like him, I would imagine this covers both other were-creatures and moreaus.

In character all i know is that the Catholic Church (yes - do not the capitialization) said that he was a monster and that he was a "bad man". They also think that the female pc's character is a "monster" of some sort and that they would normally kill her, but we made the deal to keep her safe. I mean, it seems fair enough - kill a bad man and keep a friend alive. Now - some of us are wondering why she is lumped in with the same catagory as the werewolf, but we haven't gotten around to that in game.

I think the angle the priests are coming from is that things like werewolfs are monsters. Period. No if's and's or but's, they are against the law of nature (and thus also against Gods Law) and because of this they should be destroyed. I think a parallel can be drawn between what happened at the end of John Carpenters Vampires movie. One of the hunters was a good guy, but also a vampire. James Woods let him leave, but told him that he would come after him, because he was a vampire. I would imagine the same holds for the churchs feelings on moreaus. I don't recall right now what the catholic churchs real world dispostion on genetic engineering is (especially in regards to genetic engineering on humans), but i think the one in the game does not like it. So, just as they see werewolves in a bad light, so do they see genetic engineered humans (ie - moreaus). They are an abomination and should be destroyed. Yes - it is a very harsh line to draw, but I think the arguement could be made that when you fight evil (as they see supernatural beings and moreaus) you do not give it any quarter or show any mercy.

 

[Merlion]

yea if the vast majority of such creatures are known to definitly be evil then yea their not going to go to the trouble of investigating every one of them. Makes sense.
I like the term "Moreaus". I assume thats based on the Island of Doctor Moreau?