Man in the Funny Hat
Hero
Though indubitably posted for its amusement this is EXTREMELY close to the truth (probably wherein lies its effectiveness as humor).hong said:
Demihumans, humanoids, and many monsters are (in a hoity-toity, psychobabble bull sort of way) simply standins for actual humanity in some form. Some are intended specifically to highlight certain aspects of our humanity (or inhumanity as it were). Some are merely a nebulous "other/not-human" representative that exists ONLY to be killed WITHOUT needing extensive moral and ethical justification. Such is often the way of fantasy, yes? The witch in the fairy tale is "wicked". It matters not why - it just IS. Accept that for what it is and move on.
Yeah, you can play D&D and in the process actually actively explore questions of racism, ethics, morality, philosophy, etc. and how they relate to The Real World. But that's not why evil things exist in the game. Evil things exist in the game of D&D so that the PC heroes can simply beat the crap out of them WITHOUT needing much justification beyond "He/it was the wrong alignment."
To specifically address the idea of murder - take a Websters definition of murder:
"The unlawful and malicious or premeditated killing of one human being by another."
Most D&D combat is going to be human (or the closest human stand-ins being core PC races like elves and dwarves) killing things that are increasingly NOT human, even if having human-ish physical forms, and even if sentient. The game presents them as "definitively" evil, vile, undesireable creatures that can and should be disposed of with little concern.
Most combats are not going to be premeditated, but occur at the drop of a hat when you have two armed and INHERENTLY opposing sides who then RACE to kill the other as fast and efficiently as possible. Well, maybe the PC's are seeking such encounters by virtue of seeking what such creatures often possess/guard/obstruct access to - treasure, both mundane and magical. Yet again, the apparant design and intent of the game is not to DRAW ATTENTION to the issues of the morality and ethics of the behavior, but to HANDWAIVE it in favor of the action, horror, and gore that fantasy leans toward.
It certainly isn't the suggestion of the rules that such behavior is unlawful (as in: against written codes of law, as opposed to a general philosophical bent opposite that of chaos). Killing the evil or merely undesired human-ish THINGS and taking their stuff - and enjoying the process of doing so - IS what the game is designed around. That's no more inherently abhorrent than any R-rated action movie, or cop-themed TV show where the good guys shoot the bad guys or otherwise kill them in ever-more interesting and amusing ways.
Lastly, it certainly isn't done maliciously (most of the time
) where the characters do this simply because they enjoy perpetrating as much thinly-justified lethal violence as possible as opposed to actually ridding their world of threats and menaces of varying degrees and becoming rich and famous in the process. Perhaps even seeking riches and fame as a primary goal and accepting that as a secondary benefit The Bad Guys get thinned out.So, is success in D&D dependant on Murder? Not even slightly. Yes, this is largely because of how D&D defines (or studiously does NOT define) its own morality, but nonetheless... Real-world morals and ethics are NOT directly applicable to the morals and ethics of a D&D world which freely misuses and ignores real-world issues, nor are the morals and ethics of D&D directly applicable to the real world. To do the latter even to a minor degree will almost certainly define you as a sociopath and get you incarcerated and psychoanalyzed for the remainder of your life for your resulting actions and failure to comprehend and obey real-world social, moral, ethical, and philosophical norms as well as written law.
Last edited:
