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<blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8405999" data-attributes="member: 6779196">So, I want to dive into this a little further. I recognize that many people find the label of “evil” useful (I’m not going to get into big E vs. little E here, I don’t think it’s really relevant to the point). But I struggle to understand why. Maybe you can help me make sense of it.Let’s look at a more specific example, instead of talking in broad, abstract terms. And let’s use an example that’s less loaded than always-evil races. Let’s say instead we’ve got a villain. Call him Stroud Van Shmarovich. Now, Stroud is clearly a bad guy, who does lots of bad things. He’s a tyrant who rules over the duchy of Blargovia, oppressing its people and menacing one woman in particular - Aileen - who he wants to force to become his bride. And imagine also that he’s a vampire, so he literally feeds on the blood of Blargovians to sustain himself, and he will theoretically rule forever if someone doesn’t kill him. So, the adventurers have to track down a magic spear (cause it’s like a big stake!) and kill him to save Aileen and free Blargovia.What does it matter whether we describe Stroud as evil or not? Does it change the adventure in any way?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Charlaquin, post: 8405999, member: 6779196"] So, I want to dive into this a little further. I recognize that many people find the label of “evil” useful (I’m not going to get into big E vs. little E here, I don’t think it’s really relevant to the point). But I struggle to understand why. Maybe you can help me make sense of it. Let’s look at a more specific example, instead of talking in broad, abstract terms. And let’s use an example that’s less loaded than always-evil races. Let’s say instead we’ve got a villain. Call him Stroud Van Shmarovich. Now, Stroud is clearly a bad guy, who does lots of bad things. He’s a tyrant who rules over the duchy of Blargovia, oppressing its people and menacing one woman in particular - Aileen - who he wants to force to become his bride. And imagine also that he’s a vampire, so he literally feeds on the blood of Blargovians to sustain himself, and he will theoretically rule forever if someone doesn’t kill him. So, the adventurers have to track down a magic spear (cause it’s like a big stake!) and kill him to save Aileen and free Blargovia. What does it matter whether we describe Stroud as evil or not? Does it change the adventure in any way? [/QUOTE]

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