How do you handle evil?

[Scruffy nerf herder]

Of course there are neutral acts - they're things you do that don't have a moral component. A lot of them are pretty routine. Getting your chores done, selling your surplus at the market, using the chamber pot.... all things you do without significant moral character or implication.


Why would that not be evil? Does evil really have to be done to innocent people for it to truly be "evil"? Evil can't prey on other evil?

Naturally you should feel free to correct me if I have this wrong, but you're assigning neutral actions this constraint of "it must not have moral implications".

The problem for that assumption is: one can choose not to act, not to support the proponents or agents of either side of an issue/cause/group/conflict. One can also have ethical ideas that don't conform to notions like "good" and "bad". E.g. a vassal can be loyal to his retainer out of a sense of believing in the law, his society, etc. regardless of whether that society itself is very good or evil. His motivations are neutral but they don't exist in a vacuum, the same person is still considering all of the same ethical issues and questions about good and evil as anyone else around him, he/she is a person after all.

 

[RuinousPowers]

I typically use the Law/Chaos only axis of alignment as presented in Original D&D (1974), so it isn't usually an issue for me. On the rare occasions that I use the all out alignment spectrum, I usually only restrict characters from choosing Chaotic Evil as an alignment (because in 20+ years of playing D&D, I've never seen anybody choose that alignment not turn out to be a total jerk).

I love that despite not having an alignment called Evil, they still had Detect, Protection from, and Dispel Evil spells.

 

[le Redoutable]

it all depends on the professor who teaches his student;
good treatments brings confidence, etc

 

[jdrakeh]

I love that despite not having an alignment called Evil, they still had Detect, Protection from, and Dispel Evil spells.

It's important to note that Law and Chaos are literal cosmic forces in the implied game world of OD&D, with "alignment" indicating which a character is aligned with (hence the term "alignment" as it turns out). Good and evil, on the other hand, are just behavioral hallmarks. In later editions, of course, all alignments became behavioral hallmarks and the idea of using them to represent allegiances to literal cosmic powers pretty much disappeared.

 

[dytrrnikl]

I could care less. I just make any players aware that depending on what they do, it’s probably going to cause friction with the group and lead to consequences within the game. Beyond that, have at.

 

[Morrus]

How do GMs handle evil.

Don't ask me.

I told you why you're wrong; you just won't stop and grasp it.

I have. I don't take you seriously because you can't, or won't, accept simple facts.

You're welcome.

Time to leave the thread. That's two days in a row you've gotten warnings for insulting other members.

 

[aramis erak]

When discussing this subject in different places, I've heard all kinds of responses. But the weirdest of the common responses is that playing evil characters is bad, and if you want to play an evil character you are a bad player.

And yet, you left out, "Playing evil is bad, but doesn't make one a bad person."

If playing evil does make one a bad person, then most GMs are axiomatically bad people.

I don't want players playing inherently evil personality characters in games I run. Not because I think it makes them a bad person, but because so few do it right.

 

[le Redoutable]

if there were no bad guys, there would be no place for LG to enter the Paladin's path

 

[nevin]

You don't. You're free to assess the fake Hollywood punisher all you want, including calling a serial murderer neutral instead of the evil that he is. You just aren't assessing The Punisher.

I could justify all of the punishers actions using any Lawful Alignment. What does a paladin do when the people running the lawful world turn out to be evil politicians?

 

[Maxperson]

I could justify all of the punishers actions using any Lawful Alignment. What does a paladin do when the people running the lawful world turn out to be evil politicians?

Lawful works with his code, but then he ends up LE. We aren't discussing that axis here, though. We're talking about whether his actions are evil or not.