Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheLucidSleeper" data-source="post: 5698207" data-attributes="member: 6683485"><img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" /> Hey EN World. It's about time I finally joined the ranks of organized roleplayers. I've been table-top rping for several years now, and I've always been interested in low-to-high fantasy stories, movies, books and video-games. Now that I game, I've found myself most often in the GMs seat. It's rather comfy, and I do enjoy it. However, I've been bumping into a few standard issues that seem to carry over from game to game, setting to setting. The first and foremost of these problems is the issue of Self-Preservation vs. committing acts of evil.It goes something like this:My 2 friends PCs are often the focal point of my campaign writing. This tends to give them a, oh how should I put it- narcissistic POV as far as considering the other NPCs I add to their parties. Most recently, the 2 PCs along with 3 NPCs (a warrior, and two commoners) were tasked with taking a castle back from a dark presence within. After fighting through several successful battles, everyone's healing abilities are all but used up. Finally, the Party encounters Vexxa, the 'mini-boss' if you will. After a long battle ensues, it is becoming clear to all that the fight is going poorly. One of my PCs (already at about 4 of 18 HP) begins casting spells that not only harm his opponents, but actually almost kill his NPC comrades! Though he targets his opponents the NPCs are "in the way" and so they are also affected by some of his violent area spells. As a matter of fact, one NPC (a delightful young halfling fighter named Gnaus Caedus) was burned alive in one such episode.The player, however, makes a decent defense:"I'm dying; I hardly know these peasants and vagabonds that INSIST on traveling to the keep with us; though I do not enjoy harming them, I must, or I may die."In this instance, or any similar instance, does the rule of thumb "self-preservation" take precedence over the rules of alignment? Harming friendly, even HELPLESS, NPCs certainly seems like an act of evil to me, though perhaps it is simply a chaotic neutral act of someone trying to survive?Comments, thoughts?</blockquote>

Verification