Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Dungeon Mastering as a Fine Art
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Ahnehnois" data-source="post: 6307872" data-attributes="member: 17106"><p>[MENTION=6694112]Kinak[/MENTION]</p><p>No doubt. Moderation in all things.</p><p></p><p>I tend to have plenty of opposition forces be people acting in their own legitimate self-interests. Some are of alien mentalities (or are just mindless) and simply don't conform to human notions of morality. Others are pawns of greater evil forces that do their masters' bidding out of fear. Sometimes, they're just opportunists.</p><p></p><p>The example I was thinking of is a case where I had an undead nemesis play something like The Dark Knight's joker; an anarchist bent on destroying the world's order by force and persuading or coercing people to his cause. I was certainly uncomfortable with the idea of portraying a character whose villainy was manifest in hooking children on drugs or convincing people to sexually assault or murder each other. But the long and short of it is that if I'd dumbed the character down, it would have been insulting the players' intelligence, and it would have taken away both the threat level of the creature's presence and the satisfaction of its demise.</p><p></p><p>The important thing in terms of DMing advice is to understand that portraying something is not endorsing it. With a player, this distinction is clearer, but given the far-reaching influence of the DM, it's hard to get that nuance down that just because the authority figure at the table is acting evil in the guise of one particular NPC, it doesn't represent the entirety of the DM's thinking.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ahnehnois, post: 6307872, member: 17106"] [MENTION=6694112]Kinak[/MENTION] No doubt. Moderation in all things. I tend to have plenty of opposition forces be people acting in their own legitimate self-interests. Some are of alien mentalities (or are just mindless) and simply don't conform to human notions of morality. Others are pawns of greater evil forces that do their masters' bidding out of fear. Sometimes, they're just opportunists. The example I was thinking of is a case where I had an undead nemesis play something like The Dark Knight's joker; an anarchist bent on destroying the world's order by force and persuading or coercing people to his cause. I was certainly uncomfortable with the idea of portraying a character whose villainy was manifest in hooking children on drugs or convincing people to sexually assault or murder each other. But the long and short of it is that if I'd dumbed the character down, it would have been insulting the players' intelligence, and it would have taken away both the threat level of the creature's presence and the satisfaction of its demise. The important thing in terms of DMing advice is to understand that portraying something is not endorsing it. With a player, this distinction is clearer, but given the far-reaching influence of the DM, it's hard to get that nuance down that just because the authority figure at the table is acting evil in the guise of one particular NPC, it doesn't represent the entirety of the DM's thinking. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Dungeon Mastering as a Fine Art
Top