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'Justice' in 5E
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<blockquote data-quote="NotAYakk" data-source="post: 8175246" data-attributes="member: 72555"><p>In D&D, there is a difference between evil and Evil.</p><p></p><p>In the "1st world" 20th century, we have the infrastructure to capture and contain people indefinitely, and the wealth to make that cheap.</p><p></p><p>But in most D&D worlds, you don't have that infrastructure and wealth. And many of the capital-E evil foes you defeat are more akin to serial killers and beings individually powerful enough to overthrow entire governments than most of the criminals in the first world. And in other cases, they are akin to an invading irregular army.</p><p></p><p>Societies will generally permit the killing of partisans, leaders of dangerous and active rebellions, and serial killers far before they'll just let them go.</p><p></p><p>I mean, as an example, a Night Hag is a being who literally sucks life out of people for fun and food. Imagine someone with the military power of a Sherman tank but as stealthy as a thief who goes around drinking people's brain juice, in a world where there is functional immortality from backups, but she also corrupts those backups.</p><p></p><p>Now imagine a world where there are 100s of different types of monsters who do that kind of thing all over the place. "Good" being "kill the evil beings" starts making a lot of sense. "Good" meaning "if someone makes a pact with soul-eaters and delivers on it, they should be offered a chance to repent and be killed". "Good" meaning "I will sacrifice myself to keep the forces of darkness at bay" works.</p><p></p><p>Law-chaos axis can be equally as brutal. On one side, you have civilization builders, the rule and road and wall and castle. On the others, people who prefer to live in the wilderness, without walls, or who tear down civilization for their own profit.</p><p></p><p>The walls and rules oppress and soften those within it, but also protect the weak (for their own sake, or for their efforts to be harvested by the worthy in civilization). To some, that trade isn't worth it; to others, it is of paramount importance.</p><p></p><p>Now this doesn't have to be your good-evil lawful-chaos line. And it only makes sense in certain worlds.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="NotAYakk, post: 8175246, member: 72555"] In D&D, there is a difference between evil and Evil. In the "1st world" 20th century, we have the infrastructure to capture and contain people indefinitely, and the wealth to make that cheap. But in most D&D worlds, you don't have that infrastructure and wealth. And many of the capital-E evil foes you defeat are more akin to serial killers and beings individually powerful enough to overthrow entire governments than most of the criminals in the first world. And in other cases, they are akin to an invading irregular army. Societies will generally permit the killing of partisans, leaders of dangerous and active rebellions, and serial killers far before they'll just let them go. I mean, as an example, a Night Hag is a being who literally sucks life out of people for fun and food. Imagine someone with the military power of a Sherman tank but as stealthy as a thief who goes around drinking people's brain juice, in a world where there is functional immortality from backups, but she also corrupts those backups. Now imagine a world where there are 100s of different types of monsters who do that kind of thing all over the place. "Good" being "kill the evil beings" starts making a lot of sense. "Good" meaning "if someone makes a pact with soul-eaters and delivers on it, they should be offered a chance to repent and be killed". "Good" meaning "I will sacrifice myself to keep the forces of darkness at bay" works. Law-chaos axis can be equally as brutal. On one side, you have civilization builders, the rule and road and wall and castle. On the others, people who prefer to live in the wilderness, without walls, or who tear down civilization for their own profit. The walls and rules oppress and soften those within it, but also protect the weak (for their own sake, or for their efforts to be harvested by the worthy in civilization). To some, that trade isn't worth it; to others, it is of paramount importance. Now this doesn't have to be your good-evil lawful-chaos line. And it only makes sense in certain worlds. [/QUOTE]
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