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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Death_Jester" data-source="post: 1542023" data-attributes="member: 2156">Greetings Everyone, First let me say, Alignments are a big pain in the butt.  They have been for a long time but since they are part of the game and as Monte Cooke said it would be near impossible to remove them.  In Dungeons and Dragons so many things revolve around your Alignment that taking them out would create a vacuum and require a whole new system to replace them.  I don’t have that kind of time or energy anymore.  I just want to game and tell stories now, not try to fix the rules. So instead of scrapping them I have decided to embrace them and try to find a better way to adjudicate their use.  I am trying to avoid the "straight jacket" pattern because I have been in that situation where the GM says “you are (fill in the blank alignment) and you wouldn’t do that.”  At the time the GM was right.  Now, I don’t think a standard player’s handbook paladin would whack an old lady, who just happens to be walking down a road doing nothing, just because she detects as evil. However there always exception to the rule <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> . My real hope for this discussion is to find what it means to be a hero or to act in a heroic manner.  I have played many fallen heroes and villainous type characters but have yet, at least in my own mind, to play a truly heroic character.  It is with the understanding that I have no clue what a hero is like or what even makes a good hero that I have come here looking for advice from those that share my particular interest in this kind of subject. My problem is that I’m much to practical and pragmatic, meaning that for me very often the “ends justify the means” in many cases.  I see things on the same gray scale that many others on this thread have posted.  While this works for me in the real world it does not help me with the understanding of the “true” hero. When I use the word hero here it is in reference to the mythological hero archetype the one from definitions 1 b-d.  While the definitions serve as a guidepost it still does not give me a clear picture of what that person is or how he/she thinks, acts or why they do what they do.  The posts here have all been very informative about these last parts though and from them I am beginning to see the bigger picture, so thank you again for your time and effort.  I know that it is hard to put words to describing the classic “Knight in White Armor” kind of archetypical hero other then to give comparisons to literary characters.  That is why I asked for help from those that might be more articulate or well written/read then myself to get a better grip on what it means.  I know the classic characters were flawed in many ways but it is perhaps these flaws that help us relate to them a little better in the sense of having something that they had overcome and were able to rise above whatever limited them.  From that weakness came some kind of moral push to be more upright and or to try harder to overcome that weakness.   Hypothetical Second Person: So basically they were people that overcompensated for some perceived weakness?  Me: I hope there is more to it then that. As for the moral argument I think the hero’s authority and position must come from a position of moral strength.  No one wants to follow someone perceived as being corrupt or compromised in some way.  Morality must play some part in the hero’s existence if nothing else then to allow him/her the chance to gain the trust of others that would follow them.  When I use the term morality here it is not from just the Judo-Christian point of view but from some basic and universal thoughts on integrity and being worthy of trust.  I for one would not follow someone into battle that I thought was only out for what they could get out of the situation.  The pure Knight fights off the hoard of monsters for no other reason then to save people.  It was the right thing to do would be their response to the question, “why”.  Others might ask what is in it for me or how much are the monsters willing to pay to prevent me from interfering?  This is something that is going to take me a long time to work out I am sure but this has been helping quite a bit with bringing up thoughts and points of discussion.  I would ask that if my replies seem a little short please understand that most of the time I am at work and don’t really have a lot of time to write anymore. So I’m not trying to be terse with anyone it is just that I don’t have time.  Otherwise I would be going on like this all the time. Thanks for your time.</blockquote>

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