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<blockquote data-quote="Scruffy nerf herder" data-source="post: 8557231" data-attributes="member: 7034614">The way you describe uninteresting evil sounds the same as the issues with a player playing a lawful stupid (incredibly shallow lawful good) character. In both cases I would say that they're not real examples of either alignment.The players are normally good because they believe in the commonly accepted good. The villains aren't evil because they're evil, they're evil because there are other things more important to them than the &quot;common good&quot;. And what's a super crucial and interesting element is that the players sometimes will be presented with situations where their own convictions conflict with the common good.Good doesn't feel good and evil doesn't feel evil unless there's real weight behind how characters think and what they do. What passes for &quot;evil&quot; a lot of the time any more resembles &quot;natural evil&quot;, e.g. the xenomorphs in Alien.The main thing tripping people up when trying to handle this while making stories is they can't see the separation between &quot;natural evil&quot;, which is hideous to look at because it reflects how cruel and uncaring the world can be, and &quot;villainous evil&quot; where you're supposed to be troubled by how relatable a heinous person can be. The former is impersonal it dehumanizes. The latter is deeply personal it makes people think about what being human means.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Scruffy nerf herder, post: 8557231, member: 7034614"] The way you describe uninteresting evil sounds the same as the issues with a player playing a lawful stupid (incredibly shallow lawful good) character. In both cases I would say that they're not real examples of either alignment. The players are [I]normally[/I] good because they believe in the commonly accepted good. The villains aren't evil because they're evil, they're evil because there are other things more important to them than the "common good". And what's a super crucial and interesting element is that the players sometimes will be presented with situations where their own convictions conflict with the common good. Good doesn't feel good and evil doesn't feel evil unless there's real weight behind how characters think and what they do. What passes for "evil" a lot of the time any more resembles "natural evil", e.g. the xenomorphs in Alien. The main thing tripping people up when trying to handle this while making stories is they can't see the separation between "natural evil", which is hideous to look at because it reflects how cruel and uncaring the world can be, and "villainous evil" where you're supposed to be troubled by how relatable a heinous person can be. The former is impersonal it dehumanizes. The latter is deeply personal it makes people think about what being human means. [/QUOTE]

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