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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sundragon2012" data-source="post: 2647503" data-attributes="member: 7624">Interesting question.Yeah, in fact I do set definate tones in my games.Generally speaking my games tend to strong polarities within a setting. I tend to allow for a definate sense of heroic good ie. a LOTR vibe in which folks, generally the heroes themselves and select NPCs are truly heroic and noble. Sometimes they are heroes due to strong principles fostered by an ideal, other times personal tragedy or experience has turned them into heroes (these are the player's choice). Sometimes the greatest heroes are absolute in their dedication while others dwell in the moral grey zone where ordinary folks become extraordinary because they must in order to survive.However, outside of the above heroic good, there is a dark underbelly to my games in which those who aren't the heroes are capable of suprising wickedness and corruption. There is the little evil of the human pick pocket, the greater evil of the human bandit chief and the horrid evil of the evil high priest. Duplicity, corruption, jockying for personal/political power, private vices of all types, meaness, petty cruelties....in other words the dirty reality of the world can be found anywhere heroes are not.Evil is everpresent and threatening though ultimately evil turns upon itself which is why the heroes have a chance at all. Dark cabals meet in hidden lairs and seductive sorceresses summon otherworldly horrors to do their bidding. Shambling horrors crawl out from nameless tombs seeking the flesh of the living and there is nothing more evil than a fiend. Heroes may be the good guys but they know that the cost of their life of righteous violence may come with a price either the obvious, death or the more insidious devolution of their own character due to a cynical hardness that can develop within those who are forced to always deal in death.Lights exist in the world ie. faith, loyalty, friendship, love, etc. and these things the darkness cannot abide and the heroes (PCs) know that these things can have real impact in my games. There may be no mechanics for the power of someone's faith in their god (outside a cleric or paladin) but I find ways to make such things matter. Making the right choices matters and evil has terrible consequences. There is always a cost but its a cost that many seem to be willing to pay.All in all my game is, atmospherically speaking, a mixture of Sword and Sorcery (Conan/Elric) and High Fantasy (LOTR/Dragonlance) and a strong introspective quality where who the heroes are matters sometimes as much as their choices. Overall I support and encourage being heroically good or at least an interesting neutral with strong personal motivation for being heroic (for those who desire a slightly morally ambiguous character). Forget evil. I ran a evil game biefly, but it stopped when the sacking of an elven village by the PCs (commanded by their employer) ended with putting elven women and babes to the sword by the mercenaries who were commanded to exterminate the survivors. One of my players exclaimed "hey this isn't fun" and I told them that my games are intense and they show the consequences of actions. He thought about it and decided he didn't want to play an evil game anymore. That game lasted 3 sessions. Everything has a cost.  <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=";)" /> Chris</blockquote>

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