DMs are usually pretty quick at threatening to "drop"

>>52737963
Good was always the hardest option anon. You need to try hard to be true noble.

The ends justify the means for evil characters

You can be the nicest guy around and save the world from every evil that besets it

But it you're doing it all so that your evil is the one that will reign supreme once nobody is left to oppose you you're still Evil.

>>52737994
>people don't change and every agent of evil is playing a long-haired Machiavellian bid for ultimate power over all else

>Well folks, thats my thesis, next up the health benefits of drinking bleach!

>>52737963
It's because evil characters rarely do significantly good things.
And neutral characters usually do a variety of grey zone things, but rarely anything extreme.
Meanwhile, a lot of "good" characters do outright evil things out of habit.

>>52737963
>A single foul deed can condemn a man, even after a lifetime of good.
>And after a lifetime of evil, who would trust a man to do something truly selfless?

There is a reason why Paladins are Lawful Good, and that's because Lawful Good is the most restrictive alignment. If you're Lawful Evil, you can act selfishly and do whatever you want for your own benefit as long as you follow the letter of the law. If you're Chaotic Good, as long as you're doing the Right Thing, you don't have to answer to anyone but your own conscience.

If you're Lawful Good, you have to be willing to put up with rules, even if they get in your way, AND you must act kindly and selflessly. That's not easy not an easy cause to live up to, but the rewards for Paladinhood are many.

The fact of the matter is that Chaos and Evil are both alignments of freedom -- for one, the freedom to be your own master; for the other, the freedom to serve yourself alone -- while Law and Good are both alignments of restrictions. There are rules to being Good and being Lawful, but there are no rules to being Evil or Chaotic. Because of this, there are no rules to break.

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41KB, 488x278px

>>52738873
As a result, if you want to go from law to chaos or from good to evil, you only need break the rules of that alignment. But if you want to go in the other direction, you must instead prove that you are willing to follow those rules.

>>52738873
>>52738918
So alignment in RPGs has always been a retarded concept. Gotcha.

>>52739591
You're not wrong, but what in those posts in particular demonstrates the retardedness of character alignments?

>>52738873
It doesn't have to be anything law related. Just be consistent. Maybe you could have a code.

Evil is easier than good.

>>52738104
Pretty much this, at least when it comes to D&D murderhobos. It's easier to justify someone Evil doing something like, say, saving a town from besieging Goblins (a paycheck's a paycheck) than it is to justify someone Good from just kicking in the Goblin stronghold's door going "HOLY SHIT TIME TO KILL SOME NE'ERDOWELLS" and not even pausing long enough to hear their side of the story because "Fuck man, they're Goblins. Of COURSE they're evil."

This may sound like an exaggeration, but when's the last time many people can recall (in a murderhobo party, that is) even just a "This is your only warning: Lay down your arms or we will use force"? Admittedly a lot of this comes down to standard narrative / D&D conventions (No, the Goblins probably aren't going to surrender. No, trying to get them to isn't going to win you any extra loot or EXP. Yes, it probably will lead to them using the time to get a free shot in on your PCs / better ready their defenses) and people not wanting to stretch a handful of combat encounters with hours of failed diplomacy and deal-making, but it doesn't change the fact that IC-wise your "Good" party just straight up and murdered a bunch of creatures likely based on nothing more than the word of strangers.

>>52743223
Literally the first encounter in my campaign was the party murdering a group of neutral goblins who hadn't killed anyone but were stealing things because their hunting grounds were overrun with monsters. The PCs questioned the last one when it surrendered and learned it had a child back at its camp and they started to feel bad

>>52743223
>Goblin
You don't understand what goblins are. There aren't just pond scum you can sweep out of a fish bowl. They are like devolving, inbred pond scum, something that is fundamentally, primally wrong with the universe.

>>52746480
I don't hate them because I've heard about them, I hate them because I've SEEN them. Thats how you have got to tell the tale!

You can't tell a story about Goblins if your just going to mistake them for Boggans!

>>52746387
If your going to tell the tale, tell it honestly!

Let that which is vile be vile and that which is good be good!

Remember, there are many good things in fantasy! Many good lessons which to teach! Many lessons of the kind you would not learn from your peers!

>>52743223
>but it doesn't change the fact that IC-wise your "Good" party just straight up and murdered a bunch of creatures likely based on nothing more than the word of strangers.

yes, but you don't understand. there is a precedent for this kind of thing. the oldest and most learned judges have studied long and hard about these things, and it really comes down to two things:

>If you see what an abomination is, kill it
>If you do not know whether it is an abomination, it is not an abomination.

If saw one, you would understand. Goblins are scary.

>>52746602
Believe me, if you see an abomination, you'll know. Don't bother recording them, you'll get lens flare, greyout, static, broken camera lenses. They will always look less grim than they really were.

>>52743223
In our game, when we encountered hostile kobolds, we talked it out, and attempted diplomacy with their leader, even though she only spoke broken Common. My character even got shot with an arrow, and we STILL talked it out. The net result of our efforts was that we discovered that the band we encountered were exiled loyalists driven out by an invading monster that had seized control of the tribe from the lady chieftain we were talking to. We agreed to help her destroy it and rescue her people in exchange for safe passage through the ruins, and we followed through on our agreement. It was actually really neat. We applied ourselves to trying to work the situation out, saved some little scaly people, and made some new allies. They even gave us some freebie supplies in gratitude. It was pretty rad.

>>52737963

If true neutral characters aren't getting bumped up or down for doing good or bad acts, your DM is broken or they're doing a juggling act where they go out of their way to be a dick just to keep themselves from going up into good.

>>52743223

Not to mention whenever you DO try to show the goblins mercy someone like >>>52738367 will call you out for it for wasting everyone's time and try to find an excuse to fall you anyway.