How do you handle evil?

[payn]

Am I supposed to feel sorry for a guy who seemed to make his living in attempting to assassinate district attorneys? There was a fight, Stilt-Man had his powered armor, and he lost.

Is Conan evil? Is Gimli evil to offer to "ease the passing" of a mortally wounded orc in exchange for information? Is Captain Jack Sparrow evil? Are mercenaries an inherently evil profession? To me, generally speaking, no. To show mercy on the battlefield is an example of good, but not showing mercy to an armed foe who had been fighting you isn't evil to me. But, as I already said in my OP, I have a larger view of neutral than most, and I reserve evil to represent heinous actions.

For me its a matter of degrees. Good characters are going to kill, though, in self defense or as a last resort only. If killing is a conflict resolution choice the character goes to often, they are evil.

I also dont give folks a hard time (unless they make a deal of it like a LG pally) if they push the boundaries of their alignment. I mean thats where the best role play comes from. When the character steps out and uncharacteristically engages an evil act that's worth examining. If they continue to do it, then that's an alignment shift.

 

[RuinousPowers]

Maybe I saw a different comic than you did. In the one I saw, Punisher blew Stilt-Man's legs off with an antitank rocket and then gunned him down after he was helpless and had surrendered. That's murder.

View attachment 152587


You do realize that when a soldier kills a foe after he's surrendered it's actually a war crime, right?

As I have already stated, I don't know the Punisher's lore, so I am not going to keep commenting on a 16 year old storyline. A bounty hunter who prefers to take his quarry in dead would not be automatically evil to me. And if we were talking about something like a LN Inevitable punishing murderers, there would be no talk of it being evil for killing murderers.

As Gygax said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is by no means anything but Lawful and Good. Prisoners guilty of murder or similar capital crimes can be executed without violating any precept of the alignment. Hanging is likely the usual method of such execution, although it might be beheading, strangulation, etc. A paladin is likely a figure that would be considered a fair judge of criminal conduct." All things considered, a bullet to the head is quite merciful (which would cause a paladin to lose their status and have to atone, as mercy is a NG trait, not a LG one.)

As I have stated, for the third time, evil is more heinous acts- usually perpetrated on the innocent. Superheroes and supervillains fighting in the street and one dies? Not necessarily evil. Two cowboys get into a drunken shootout and one dies? Not evil. Mercenaries killing each other in battle to collect a paycheck? Not evil. Robin Hood robbing the rich at sword point? Not evil.

 

[MGibster]

Heh, Frank Castle's pithy response there made me laugh.

Being evil is no excuse for not having a sense of humor.

 

[Maxperson]

So, to clarify, Punisher as a vigilante who ruthlessly eliminates criminals isn't evil. Just like a D&D mercenary who is hired to kill other armed combatants, regardless of their alignment, isn't necessarily evil.

And also to clarify, jay walkers, people who run red lights and litterers are not criminals, yet he still murders them and is still evil.

 

[Grogg of the North]

When you're evil...

Depends. A lot of the no evil PC stuff stems from legacy of pallys must be LG stuff. I mean thats a major clash between ideologies. A lot of folks also believe if they cant dick around the other PCs, they cant actually be evil. So, it really depends on the game. If teamwork is come and go and the players have room to operate independently, its usually fine. The more they have to work together the more they step on one another's toes.

The Paladin is the tough nut to crack. So are good clerics depending on setting, system, etc. And D&D is basically a game about heroes. I think a lot of the issues regarding evil can be resolved if you're up front with the other players. Hey, I want to play an evil character. Is this ok?

Noah Antwiler has a nice video on playing evil characters. Warning: Language.

 

[le Redoutable]

but Paladins are devoted to the widow and the orphan,
while Clerics are like Heralds ( say Saint Seya if you know the manga )
??

 

[MGibster]

If a player sings this for me they can be evil in any game I run.

 

[Jd Smith1]

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

View attachment 152591

No, this second meme is more the unpredictable, psychotic Chaotic Neutral type. Evil always has a reason to kill.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

Having read all of the responses and thought about them over the last couple of days, I'm curious to know how people respond to this kind of question:

About half of people answered that they're okay with their players choosing any alignment, and around half of people answered that they don't find evil very fun. My question for both of these groups (or anyone who interestingly chose both options), is do you mean this specifically in reference to D&D? Or TTRPGs in general? Have you played any RPGs that explicitly encourage an evil party, and if so, what did you think?

For me - my original post addressed it, but I will also say here - the genres I like to play (high fantasy, Superhero and the like) I want characters that are heroic and selfless because they choose to be, and be good guys.

I played it one game that was explicitly evil, quit at 2 month, and if the premise of a game is to play evil character I wouldn't ever play the game.