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<blockquote data-quote="Redwizard007" data-source="post: 8407324" data-attributes="member: 7024098">I get what you are saying. Monolithic evil, at least among non-outsiders, is often poorly done. I entirely agree that the various monster manuals do a piss poor job of outlining why a whole race is largely evil. The always evil entries were even worse. The solution that seems obvious to me is larger entries for &quot;monsters&quot; that have a culture. It would give room for more nuance, and actually explaining how the culture functions while remaining evil (or chaotic.) There is one major problem with that. Page count. Turning the MM into MToF means less actual entries. That is a bad thing, but if it led to properly fleshed out societies AND more frequent MM supplements then it would be a win all around. I do disagree with you about not being able to make always evil societies functional. Salvatore did a pretty solid job fleshing out the drow in his novels. It's believable, at least if you don't poke to hard. I will always hate him for making dwarves comic relief, but that's another topic. There are also real world examples that I won't touch in this thread. Suffice it to say that evil, even chaotic evil, people and societies are not bound to wantonly comit rape, murder, and arson just for the lolz. They still experience love, form friendships, and have individual and group taboos. They just have varying degrees of &quot;I'm getting mine&quot; as a primary motivation.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Redwizard007, post: 8407324, member: 7024098"] I get what you are saying. Monolithic evil, at least among non-outsiders, is often poorly done. I entirely agree that the various monster manuals do a piss poor job of outlining [I]why[/I] a whole race is largely evil. The [I]always evil[/I] entries were even worse. The solution that seems obvious to me is larger entries for "monsters" that have a culture. It would give room for more nuance, and actually explaining how the culture functions while remaining evil (or chaotic.) There is one major problem with that. Page count. Turning the MM into MToF means less actual entries. That is a bad thing, but if it led to properly fleshed out societies AND more frequent MM supplements then it would be a win all around. I do disagree with you about not being able to make [I]always evil[/I] societies functional. Salvatore did a pretty solid job fleshing out the drow in his novels. It's believable, at least if you don't poke to hard. I will always hate him for making dwarves comic relief, but that's another topic. There are also real world examples that I won't touch in this thread. Suffice it to say that evil, even chaotic evil, people and societies are not bound to wantonly comit rape, murder, and arson just for the lolz. They still experience love, form friendships, and have individual and group taboos. They just have varying degrees of "I'm getting mine" as a primary motivation. [/QUOTE]

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