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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Is it possible to have a good-aligned final boss in a good campaign?
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<blockquote data-quote="Zaruthustran" data-source="post: 6406811" data-attributes="member: 1457"><p>I'd look at history for inspiration. Plenty of examples of medieval conflict where the combatants are, if not Good, not overtly Evil. </p><p></p><p>How about a nation where the king dies, with no wife, no siblings, and no heir. The rules of succession are vague. The king's two uncles both want the throne. They raise armies to fight. The PCs work for one of the uncles. Their foes are mostly other humans, who are mostly Good. </p><p></p><p>Or how about a region where the rightful king capitulates to a neighboring kingdom. The capitulation is totally lawful and would be of benefit to the inhabitants (increased trade, protection of a better army, etc.). Some folks don't agree with the capitulation and take up arms to resist it/stay independent. The PCs could be part of that resistance, or charged with putting it down. </p><p></p><p>Or a kingdom is colonizing a new land to exploit its resources and bring wealth back to the kingdom, thereby enabling it to better protect itself from its warmongering neighbors. The new land is inhabited by folks who don't want their resources shipped overseas. The PCs could be charged with securing those resources, or charged with convincing the colonists to leave.</p><p></p><p>The problem with this sort of campaign is you quickly get into discussions about D&D's alignment system and how that meshes with realistic motivations/cultures. If I'm Good, and you're Good, but we're soldiers for opposing armies at war and one us kills the other in battle... is that an Evil act? Sure doesn't feel like it'd be a Good act. Is it even possible to be Good, and be at war? I don't think D&D's alignment system is really robust enough to handle these questions. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> </p><p></p><p>As with all things, talk with your players before investing too much time in this. Might be, they just want to kill monsters and take their stuff.</p><p></p><p>EDIT: actually, looking over the 5e alignment section... it might work. If you presume that most humans are Neutral, and reserve Good and Evil for truly cosmic-level affiliation. In other words, go beyond the common D&D criteria of "All it takes to be Good is to not be Evil."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Zaruthustran, post: 6406811, member: 1457"] I'd look at history for inspiration. Plenty of examples of medieval conflict where the combatants are, if not Good, not overtly Evil. How about a nation where the king dies, with no wife, no siblings, and no heir. The rules of succession are vague. The king's two uncles both want the throne. They raise armies to fight. The PCs work for one of the uncles. Their foes are mostly other humans, who are mostly Good. Or how about a region where the rightful king capitulates to a neighboring kingdom. The capitulation is totally lawful and would be of benefit to the inhabitants (increased trade, protection of a better army, etc.). Some folks don't agree with the capitulation and take up arms to resist it/stay independent. The PCs could be part of that resistance, or charged with putting it down. Or a kingdom is colonizing a new land to exploit its resources and bring wealth back to the kingdom, thereby enabling it to better protect itself from its warmongering neighbors. The new land is inhabited by folks who don't want their resources shipped overseas. The PCs could be charged with securing those resources, or charged with convincing the colonists to leave. The problem with this sort of campaign is you quickly get into discussions about D&D's alignment system and how that meshes with realistic motivations/cultures. If I'm Good, and you're Good, but we're soldiers for opposing armies at war and one us kills the other in battle... is that an Evil act? Sure doesn't feel like it'd be a Good act. Is it even possible to be Good, and be at war? I don't think D&D's alignment system is really robust enough to handle these questions. :) As with all things, talk with your players before investing too much time in this. Might be, they just want to kill monsters and take their stuff. EDIT: actually, looking over the 5e alignment section... it might work. If you presume that most humans are Neutral, and reserve Good and Evil for truly cosmic-level affiliation. In other words, go beyond the common D&D criteria of "All it takes to be Good is to not be Evil." [/QUOTE]
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Is it possible to have a good-aligned final boss in a good campaign?
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