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Message: <blockquote data-quote="steeldragons" data-source="post: 5688591" data-attributes="member: 92511">Pentius this is Quickleaf. Quickleaf, Pentius.The answer is still Yes. The assassination is an evil act. The paladin's war is not. Are your arguments (killing one vs. killing and bringing horror and trauma to thousands) valid? Absolutely. In the real world. In the real world I would back you both 100%. We're not talking about a real world. We're talking about characters in a fantasy world.Good and Evil, Law and Chaos are real and palpable forces of the cosmos within the structure of the [or at least my] fantasy universe.The paladin's war is not evil because the paladin is LG. He would (or should) only be going to war in defense or for some righteous/valorous/"morally superior" cause...most likely divinely condoned if not actually divinely incited. The war, itself, is an instrument of Law and Order to increase the "forces the Good" and/or bring down some great Evil.Now, yes, as you both rightly point out, what happens in and after a war is often ugly, definitely chaotic and evil. But, ya know, this is a fantasy fiction we're talking about. In a "just war" led by a LG Paladin in the cause of the forces of Good...yes, what happens in the war is regrettable, but the ultimate cause of the Paladin's war is Lawful and Good.The assassin? Taking a life for a few coins to line her pockets. <pulls out the big stamp and red ink pad>*STAMP!* Evil. The fact that the assassination stops a war from taking place does not somehow negate the act nor transmute it into one of Good....and pretty much across the board, the callous taking of life is viewed as a Chaotic act, as well. Not necessarily the case for our assassin here, their motivation could just as easily be "profit" rather than "promoting evil or chaos" or perhaps the assassin even feels morally justified because her killing prevents a war. So she's riding the "clear conscience" train. That's great for the assassin. The act is still Evil...and, at the very least, non-Lawful if not outright Chaotic.That is not to say there is no "grit". Yes, games can easily fall into moral ambiguity and situations may or may not arise that question a characters beliefs or ethical certitude. How much a particular group enjoys those kinds of scenarios/plot elements is up to the individual group/people.But generally speaking, Good and Evil are readily recognizable (and even "detectable" if they're not <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> and "Right" and "Wrong" are pretty universal...in a fantasy world. Well, I admit I have no experience with "public play" situations. Off the top of my head, I would suggest having a write-up of "Good/Evil, Law/Chaos" and what their meaning is in the game world, with the Alignment definitions and their general attitudes. Should all fit on a page, I would think.Then, have a couple of extra sheets written up describing specific class orders/codes of conduct. No more than half a page, should be fine if I had to make a guess. I'd say, do one for druids and maybe two order of paladins for different gods (so whether someone wants a "god of battle" type deity or a "goddess of light and justice" type deity, you're covered), maybe one for monks if you use them.So then, if someone comes in who wants to play a Paladin, hand him the page with the tenets/code/commandments of the Holy Knights of <insert deity name of choice>Shinyhappypeopleholdinghands</insert> and away you go. Everyone's on the same "moral" page.Indeed. Shall we? Let's do. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />-SD</blockquote>

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