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RP-ing and Evil Cleric (Faerun)
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<blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 6271649" data-attributes="member: 22424"><p>Well... four things:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>1) Actually, in a level-based system, feudalism is morally defensible. Likewise, in a world of active gods, Clerics, and Paladins, theocracy is morally defensible.</p><p></p><p>Besides, no matter how you arrange society, <em>someone</em> will end up on the bottom, at which point my logic applies - there's someone who will be easy prey to that voice saying, "you deserve better."</p><p></p><p>(I'm also far from convinced the inequalities in our "liberal democracies" are any more morally defensible, but that's obviously politics, so...)</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>2) Of course, according to Gygax, REH (and Leiber, and Lovecraft) were much greater influences on D&D than was Tolkien.</p><p></p><p>3) Tolkien, for the most part, made his forces of evil explicitly inhuman, and when he did have Men working for the Enemy they were generally explicitly 'othered' - Reavers, Southrons, Wildlings. A DM seeking to keep his Tolkien-tinted glasses on should probably do likewise - no Evil humans from 'civilised' lands.</p><p></p><p>Perhaps most importantly, though:</p><p></p><p>4) My suggestion of the "guy at the bottom kicking back" works even if our Evil peasant-turned-priest is the <em>only</em> peasant who felt that way, and even if he's being entirely unreasonable. So, really, it's up to the DM to decide how much he wants to work the gritty social injustice aspect into his campaign. That is, where along the He-Man/Cthulhu scale does he want to place himself?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="delericho, post: 6271649, member: 22424"] Well... four things: 1) Actually, in a level-based system, feudalism is morally defensible. Likewise, in a world of active gods, Clerics, and Paladins, theocracy is morally defensible. Besides, no matter how you arrange society, [i]someone[/i] will end up on the bottom, at which point my logic applies - there's someone who will be easy prey to that voice saying, "you deserve better." (I'm also far from convinced the inequalities in our "liberal democracies" are any more morally defensible, but that's obviously politics, so...) 2) Of course, according to Gygax, REH (and Leiber, and Lovecraft) were much greater influences on D&D than was Tolkien. 3) Tolkien, for the most part, made his forces of evil explicitly inhuman, and when he did have Men working for the Enemy they were generally explicitly 'othered' - Reavers, Southrons, Wildlings. A DM seeking to keep his Tolkien-tinted glasses on should probably do likewise - no Evil humans from 'civilised' lands. Perhaps most importantly, though: 4) My suggestion of the "guy at the bottom kicking back" works even if our Evil peasant-turned-priest is the [i]only[/i] peasant who felt that way, and even if he's being entirely unreasonable. So, really, it's up to the DM to decide how much he wants to work the gritty social injustice aspect into his campaign. That is, where along the He-Man/Cthulhu scale does he want to place himself? [/QUOTE]
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