Why all the fiendish love?

[Nahat Anoj]

One of the early newsbriefs is about restructuring of the devils/demons. Asmodeus gets promoted to god-hood. Tieflings swindle gnomes out of a space as a core race. The warlock becomes a core class.

Has our society become so twisted that evil behavior and fiendish heritage has become hip?

Well, I think it's difficult to make assertions about society at large from gamers, who are a vanishingly small subset of society.

Personally, I think the fiendish stuff makes the implied setting feel slightly more grim and desperate. It's pretty cool IMO.

 

[blargney the second]

Maybe, just maybe, it has nothing to do with society because it's not a moral issue, I don't know.

QFT. There's no problem here.
-blarg

 

[Patlin]

Especially since a tiefling is prominently featured on the 4E PHB cover art.

Makes me wonder if WotC might be hoping for a little controversy

Now that is a good point. I feel silly not having thought of it. If Focus on the Family comes out with a major anti-D&D drive, I wonder how many new players we get within 6 months?

 

[Nahat Anoj]

In a paragraph, I noticed this trend in 'Expedition to Castle Ravenloft', which totally departed from the point and theme of the module (gothic horror), in favor of tropes that are more conventional. Hickman I think would be appalled, since this totally departs from his vision of 'mature play doesn't have to involve juvenile shock value, and probably doesn't', to say nothing of offending his religious sensibilities. In retrospect, the game has been heading in this direction for a long time. I consider myself fairly staunchly in 'It's a game of pretend, and it's moral value is what you make of it', but at least one of thier recent occult inspired products I consider utterly beyond the bounds of my religious sensibilities.

Ironically, one of my character ideas for 4e is a "good" Tiefling Paladin. Depending on the origin of Tieflings, I'm going to make him descended from some powerful demon lord. My char has sworn to slay his progenitor in an attempt to "redeem" himself and his corrupted race. From a game mechanics perspective, I'm interested in seeing how race and class synergize. I also think there's a lot of good roleplay potential and a nifty story hook for DMs.

 

[WayneLigon]

Has our gaming society become so twisted that evil behavior and fiendish heritage has become hip?

You're almost 20 years too late with that realization.

Asmodeus gets promoted to god-hood.

If I had to hazard a guess on this, it's so he can 'legally' grant spells to his dark worshippers instead of being a special case, and also enable other devils to do some of the same. This has been a minor inconsistancy in the system for some time now.

 

[Flynn]

Has our society become so twisted that evil behavior and fiendish heritage has become hip?

Umm, why does a trend in one gaming product line have to be about our society? I've never been of the view that D&D represents our society, simply because high schools play football on Friday nights instead of D&D. (There are a lot of other reasons for believing that D&D does not represent our society, but Friday Night high school football is a pretty good sign down here in Texas that D&D doesn't reflect our society. )

I have an opinion in regards to this trend, but it's only an opinion: Fiends make good enemies for adventurers to face over the course of their career. There's no denying the fact that they are evil and thus it's okay to take them out. As for why PCs can play them, the concepts of redemption and self-sacrifice make for good character development, and there's also the fact that with so many bad guys running around, there's always the chance that some of them bred, and the story of the son overcoming the dark father is also a classic story arc.

However, this is just my opinion, and I don't represent WOTC in any way, so I guess we'll have to hope that one of the 4E developers pops on and answers your question.

Best of Luck,
Flynn

 

[king_ghidorah]

One of the early newsbriefs is about restructuring of the devils/demons. Asmodeus gets promoted to god-hood. Tieflings swindle gnomes out of a space as a core race. The warlock becomes a core class.

Has our society become so twisted that evil behavior and fiendish heritage has become hip?

Of course, playing the monster goes back quites some time. Half-vampire and half-efreeti characters were options on some special ability tables in Arduin, as were very sinister characters such as the Deodanths (who may have been part demon, I forget...) back in he 1980s. And there was the Tunnels-and-Trolls derived Monsters! Monsters! that had all kinds of monsters (including the fiendish types) as PCs. That's not even touching things like White Wolf games starting with Vampire: the Masquerade, or independent games like the Whispering Vault... I can go on for days. 1st Edition had assassins, of course, and its half-orcs right in the core rules, and the option to play evil. Second edition downplayed such things, but Tieflings as PCs were basic in 2nd Edition Planescape.

Seems to me playing monstrous characters, including fiendish ones, has been "hip" for some people for a long time, as has the notion of playing evil characters (not just anti-heroes, but clear villains)-- in my experience, going back the 25+ years I have played RPGs.

 

[RPG_Tweaker]

Maybe, just maybe, it has nothing to do with society because it's not a moral issue, I don't know.

Don't take me too seriously on this. There's a definite tongue-in-cheek dark humor behind my question... there's just no proper smilie for it.


BTW: I meant our GAMING society... so I'm gonna go back an edit that.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I find it amusing, in a sad sort of way, that some people--not necessarily speaking of the OP here, for the record--insist on trying to find an agenda behind this sort of thing.

Maybe, just maybe, it's because the designers think that fiendish aspects make for a good game, or provide interesting plot hooks, or are fun characters. Or maybe it's because market research suggests that lots of players feel that way.

I think trying to look for any other motivation is, to call a spade a spade, silly.

 

[RPG_Tweaker]

Maybe, just maybe, it's because the designers think that fiendish aspects make for a good game, or provide interesting plot hooks, or are fun characters. Or maybe it's because market research suggests that lots of players feel that way.

I actually do agree with you. I'm sure WotC made these decisions based on marketing and potential plot elements. I seriously doubt that they are trying to push some demonic agenda or in league with the prince of darkness...

... but I'm still harboring a little dubiousness over their tiefling-cover choice...