D&D General Inherently Evil?

[Lyxen]

Hey, if you wanna tell me to go fornicate with myself, just do it, man. No need to pretend like you're being civil.

Actually, I was waiting for you to produce some reasonable argument(s)...

 

[Vaalingrade]

Nobody sounds like they are making an excuse to eat a non-human sapient being. At least not to anyone reading things rationally. Arguing it's not cannibalism is not an argument or excuse.

Arguing is not argument. okay.

Either way, it's a pointless semantic... I guess argument isn't argument so... discussion that sounds like the words are being said through a Hannibal Lector mask.

"Me eating slurrrpy halflings is not slurpp technically cannibalism."

Edit: why is the autocorrect in Firefox 'cannibalisms'?

 

[Vaalingrade]

The part where it helps you roleplay your character, help define his personality ?

So none of the mechanical rules we are discussing. Got it.

 

[Steampunkette]

Actually, I was waiting for you to produce some reasonable argument(s)...

Dismissing arguments because you can rationalize minimizing their impact in relation to the scope of the game rather than the scope of the topic actually being discussed does not mean the argument is unreasonable. It just means you're gonna move the goalposts.

Telling someone you'll listen to them when they accomplish something you have no intention of accomplishing, yourself, which happens to be something they're in the active process of -trying- to achieve as an argument to ridiculousness is not "Waiting for a Reasonable Argument". It's just a petty ad-hominem attack on someone else's credentials and "Worthiness" to discuss something.

Feigning reasonableness and civility in the wake of it doesn't make it reasonable.

 

[Lyxen]

So none of the mechanical rules we are discussing. Got it.

As mentioned, I have never played in AD&D with a group that applied all the mechanical rules of alignment, and I've been playing AD&D almost since it came out (well, with the time it took to arrive to France). The only restriction that we really had was on the classes, and that was a minority of cases.

After that, of course all the detect evil/good, know alignment, and items restrictions were in effect, and these have certainly be toned down in particular in 5e, but isn't it minor compared to the basic principle of having alignment, its structure and the fact that it's a record of your actions to basically see where your soul is going to end ?

 

[nevin]

How would you design a biological race that is Inherently Evil? I think the main way would have to be through some supernatural imperative.

Maybe a race of goblins that are so biologically territorial that they fly into murderous rages whenever someone trespasses on what they believe to be their territory? They might not be necessarily evil when left alone, but default to behavior considered to be evil at the slightest attempt at interaction (barring magical sending spells, etc).

Perhaps a race of elves that look like withered and wretched hags, but gain extraordinary beauty and vitality when they sacrifice someone? This doesn't seem quite inherently evil, but strongly incentivizes evil behavior through biological means (as opposed to cultural means).

A race of dwarves engineered in a wizard's laboratory to breed true, and who experience incredible pleasure when they betray and trample on others, or violent nausea when they act in an altruistic manner? This is similar to the incentive above, and comes from a biological source, but would it still be cultural? Since it's a series of positive and negative reinforcements that guides their behavior towards evil acts?

How would you do it?

Perfect Beauty to suck in all the Shallow hals of the world

 

[Maxperson]

Arguing is not argument. okay.

Not an argument for cannibalism. A typo. Sue me.

Either way, it's a pointless semantic... I guess argument isn't argument so... discussion that sounds like the words are being said through a Hannibal Lector mask.

It's not semantic. You are accusing me of arguing in favor of or making excuses for eating sentient races when I didn't do anything remotely like that.

"Me eating slurrrpy halflings is not slurpp technically cannibalism."

It's not cannibalism, technically or otherwise. If it's not your species, it's not cannibalism.

 

[Oofta]

I think the core concept of alignment has been pretty stable throughout the history of D&D since the 70s. The implementation of how it affects spells and specific classes has been greatly reduced for 5E. How DMs use it has always varied from table to table.

It's a tool. A quick shorthand for defining [edit] moral compass alignment [/edit] and motivation that works reasonably well for a lot of people. I think alignment is worthwhile. If you don't, ignore it. But it's about as core to the identity of D&D as HP and AC. I have yet to see anything that could easily replace it.

It also doesn't really have anything to do with the thread topic. People have been talking in terms of good and evil for millennia and will likely continue to do so.

 

[Seramus]

No. Hidden variable hypothesis/arguments were definitively debunked with the 2015 bell tests. QM indeterminancy is not an expression of our lack of information, it is a fundamental aspect of physical reality.

The bell test disqualifies local hidden variables, but it has nothing to say (pro or con) about global hidden variables. Nor is it intended to do so.

 

[Steampunkette]

I think the core concept of alignment has been pretty stable throughout the history of D&D since the 70s. The implementation of how it affects spells and specific classes has been greatly reduced for 5E. How DMs use it has always varied from table to table.

It's a tool. A quick shorthand for defining alignment and motivation that works reasonably well for a lot of people. I think alignment is worthwhile. If you don't, ignore it. But it's about as core to the identity of D&D as HP and AC. I have yet to see anything that could easily replace it.

It also doesn't really have anything to do with the thread topic. People have been talking in terms of good and evil for millennia and will likely continue to do so.

Oh, I definitely agree! I think it's very useful as an RP Tool. I think the OG writers who systemized it really hard kinda screwed it up.

Which is why -so many people- didn't bother with those aspects of the system.