Moral Choices in RPGs

[MGibster]

Why are you actually surprised by that?
The character in question was an assassin who murdered people for his organisation and got contacted by said organisation to murder someone. Why would you expect this character to not do it?

I was surprised because the NPC in question was essentially his patron responsible for paying him lot's of money, securing citizenship and a home, and was likely going to pay him more in the future. If there had been no personal connection between the two I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised.

It seems to be that is more of an issue of you expecting the player to follow his own morality instead the morality of his character.

Yeah, you might have missed the part where I accepted responsibility. As another poster put it, if I dangle a worm in font of a fish I can't blame it for biting.

And imo that is a big problem in todays environment. Some people bring their personal morality into the game and assume that everything a character does in the game is also what the player of said character believes in, while other players completely divorce their morality from the one of their character.

It is. In most of the games I run it's with the assumption that the PCs want to be good guys. And, like I said, this assumption has bitten me in the butt at times. It ruined my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game when the PCs murdered a slew of cops on national television as the campaign was completely derailed. Apparently we had different ideas on how to best accomplish the goal of winning hearts & minds for mutant rights.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Ironically, I now have a blazing row going on in one of my campaigns; it's being done in a IC channel on our discord server between games, and the players are not upset, but a couple PCs are having a blistering argument about class inequities within the campaign.

 

[MGibster]

So how's this for a fun scenario with multiple choices:

On their way through a small Polish town, the PCs have stopped for a short rest and to have a chat with some friendly locals. Suddenly, they hear a familiar sound they haven't heard in many months. Helicopters! Two Mi-24s (a.k.a. Hinds, Soviet attack/troop transport helicopters) approaching their position quickly. I would expect the PCs to scatter and go into hiding because messing with two hinds isn't a good idea, but even if the hinds take some small arms fire they'll ignore the PCs and keep moving.

One of the hinds is suddenly hit by a rocket and goes down fairly close to the PCs. The second helicopter starts taking fire from the east, including a rocket blast itself, but is hanging around the crash site likely with the intention of protecting any survivors. But the hind can't just sit there forever and breaks off to engage whoever is attacking. At this point the PCs have some choices to make. Do they investigate the crashed hind hoping to salvage something useful or do they take this opportunity to get the hell out of Dodge before the Soviets come looking for their down craft? (This part isn't much of a moral choice of course.)

If the PCs investigate they find the survivors include one civilian, one pilot (though he's unlikely to live much longer), and two Soviet soldiers who are in no position to put up any kind of resistance. The PCs have a few minutes to loot the helicopter to collect a few AK-74s, ammunition, miscellaneous supplies, and maybe some rations. The civilian is a polish national, a doctor, who pleads with the PCs to take him with them. He was taken by the Soviets because he's a skilled surgeon and they need him to perform a delicate operation. So what should the PCs do here? If they take the doctor, then odds are good the Soviets are going to come looking for him and that means looking for the PCs. On the other hand, this man is a doctor and is worth his weight in gold. If they can get this guy to Lodz or Krakow this might buy them a whole lot of goodwill (and supplies) with those communities. What do they do?

 

[Jd Smith1]

So how's this for a fun scenario with multiple choices:

On their way through a small Polish town, the PCs have stopped for a short rest and to have a chat with some friendly locals. Suddenly, they hear a familiar sound they haven't heard in many months. Helicopters! Two Mi-24s (a.k.a. Hinds, Soviet attack/troop transport helicopters) approaching their position quickly. I would expect the PCs to scatter and go into hiding because messing with two hinds isn't a good idea, but even if the hinds take some small arms fire they'll ignore the PCs and keep moving.

One of the hinds is suddenly hit by a rocket and goes down fairly close to the PCs. The second helicopter starts taking fire from the east, including a rocket blast itself, but is hanging around the crash site likely with the intention of protecting any survivors. But the hind can't just sit there forever and breaks off to engage whoever is attacking. At this point the PCs have some choices to make. Do they investigate the crashed hind hoping to salvage something useful or do they take this opportunity to get the hell out of Dodge before the Soviets come looking for their down craft? (This part isn't much of a moral choice of course.)

If the PCs investigate they find the survivors include one civilian, one pilot (though he's unlikely to live much longer), and two Soviet soldiers who are in no position to put up any kind of resistance. The PCs have a few minutes to loot the helicopter to collect a few AK-74s, ammunition, miscellaneous supplies, and maybe some rations. The civilian is a polish national, a doctor, who pleads with the PCs to take him with them. He was taken by the Soviets because he's a skilled surgeon and they need him to perform a delicate operation. So what should the PCs do here? If they take the doctor, then odds are good the Soviets are going to come looking for him and that means looking for the PCs. On the other hand, this man is a doctor and is worth his weight in gold. If they can get this guy to Lodz or Krakow this might buy them a whole lot of goodwill (and supplies) with those communities. What do they do?

Knowing my groups, they take the guy, and sell him in Lodz or Krakow. Or keep him for themselves.