| From: | shadowrn@*********.com (Graht) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | On the subject of good and evil |
| Date: | Mon Sep 17 15:45:01 2001 |
>On Mon, 17 Sep 2001, Damion Milliken wrote:
>
> > Occasionally it's nice to have more 'black and white' games (maybe it's a
> > falling back to those DnD days? ;-)), and these often seem to manifest in,
> > for example, bug runs. It's pretty easy to band together against a common
> > foe like bugs - you come out looking like the good guys no matter how you
> > deal with them.
>
>Actually, I often wonder what causes Shadowrun to spawn such
>philosophical debates. You don't usually get those when playing D&D
>and you wade your way through kobolds. Shadowrun can often be as
>combat heavy as D&D (Sometimes much more, especially when it comes to
>using grenades, missiles, assault rifles, etc), but you just don't get
>the philosophical debates you get in Shadowrun in D&D.
>
>Is it because the focus of D&D is usually fighting "monsters" -
>creatures that are just not human - where as in Shadowrun you're
>fighting human opponets?
It's because D&D actually goes to lengths to define good and evil, via
alignments. Because the player has to make a choice of alignment for their
character, they always have something to refer to when deciding whether or
not their character will do something "good" or "evil". And as a GM
it's
very easy to figure out the consequences. If the characters are good, they
fight evil, and evil fights back (and vice versa).
In Shadowrun the players do not have to make the choice of alignment, so it
doesn't weigh on their decisions like it does in D&D.
Some players will go ahead and make the distinction anyway, and even tho
they don't write it down on their character sheet, they qualify their
character's alignment in their mind. Other players however revel in the
freedom to play their character without an alignment, and without even
realizing it end up with a chaotic neutral character ;)
>I'm currently running some D&D players through their first Shadowrun
>adventure and they haven't even glanced twice to second guess the
>moral decisions of their actions. But whereas in D&D, that would
>normally be okay, in Shadowrun it's going to get them in a lot of
>trouble. As I go through this process of making the game for them, I
>wonder if it is something more on the GM's side, the player's side, or
>if it is just a function of the different genres of the game.
Well, you could institute alignments in your Shadowrun game and tell the
players to choose an alignment for their character.
Or, you could provide warnings when the consequences of their actions is
mounting. For example, one of the characters could be channel surfing and
suddenly a picture of himself on the TV screen while the announcer from
FBI's Most Wanted tells the viewing audience what he is wanted for and to
please call the FBI with any information.
To Life,
-Graht
ShadowRN Assistant Fearless Leader II
--
