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<blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 1812729" data-attributes="member: 18280">Personally, I always find these &quot;Good vs. Evil, or is it Neutral?&quot; threads interesting, both from a philosophical and a gaming point of view.&nbsp; Of course, real-world moral philosophy and game-world moral philosophy are sharply divided by the nature of the game.&nbsp; In D&amp;D, there are evils that have to be combatted, and killing evil things is simply not evil unless there extenuating circumstances, at least not in most games.&nbsp; Likewise, cleverly looting the goblins of their weapons is not going to be considered an evil act by anyone...except, maybe, the goblins!That said, stealing from innocents, or those you have no reason to suspect as villians, is evil.&nbsp; There really should be no question that theft harms people.&nbsp; If anyone out there really believes that stealing causes no harm, I'll be happy to offer an address, and you can send me your wallets.&nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue&nbsp; &nbsp; :p"&nbsp; data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> Actually, in a game not long ago, I had exactly this discussion, and when the player argued that stealing doesn't cause harm, I did request his wallet.&nbsp; He immediately &quot;got it&quot;.&nbsp; No more arguments that stealing doesn't cause harm.However, while committing evil acts is what makes one evil, committing a single evil act is simply not enough.&nbsp; Most people who are neutral are simply not committed to good or evil.&nbsp; They do some good, some evil, and it balances out.&nbsp; If they lean heavily to one side or another, then indeed they may not be neutral any longer.In the case of the CN rogue stealing from the richest people on the Lightning Rail, what would your call be if he redistributed that wealth to the poor?&nbsp; That would be &quot;Stealing from the rich to give to the poor,&quot; which is the classic Robin Hood-style good.&nbsp; Or was Robin Hood evil?&nbsp; Neutral?By stealing from the rich, he is minimizing the harm that he is doing.&nbsp; These are the people who can afford it the most.&nbsp; Sure, it is an evil act, but it isn't an EVIL ACT in big flaming scary letters.&nbsp; This sort of theft would not make one evil IMC.&nbsp; It would, however, violate the paladin's code if he learned of it and did nothing.RC</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Raven Crowking, post: 1812729, member: 18280"] Personally, I always find these "Good vs. Evil, or is it Neutral?" threads interesting, both from a philosophical and a gaming point of view. Of course, real-world moral philosophy and game-world moral philosophy are sharply divided by the nature of the game. In D&D, there are evils that have to be combatted, and killing evil things is simply not evil [B][I]unless there extenuating circumstances[/I][/B], at least not in most games. Likewise, cleverly looting the goblins of their weapons is not going to be considered an evil act by anyone...except, maybe, the goblins! That said, stealing from innocents, or those you have no reason to suspect as villians, is evil. There really should be no question that theft harms people. If anyone out there really believes that stealing causes no harm, I'll be happy to offer an address, and you can send me your wallets. :p Actually, in a game not long ago, I had exactly this discussion, and when the player argued that stealing doesn't cause harm, I [I]did[/I] request his wallet. He immediately "got it". No more arguments that stealing doesn't cause harm. However, while committing evil acts is what makes one evil, committing a single evil act is simply not enough. Most people who are neutral are simply not committed to good or evil. They do some good, some evil, and it balances out. If they lean heavily to one side or another, then indeed they may not be neutral any longer. In the case of the CN rogue stealing from the richest people on the Lightning Rail, what would your call be if he redistributed that wealth to the poor? That would be "Stealing from the rich to give to the poor," which is the classic Robin Hood-style good. Or was Robin Hood evil? Neutral? By stealing from the rich, he is minimizing the harm that he is doing. These are the people who can afford it the most. Sure, it is an evil act, but it isn't an EVIL ACT in big flaming scary letters. This sort of theft would not make one evil IMC. It would, however, violate the paladin's code if he learned of it and did nothing. RC [/QUOTE]

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