Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

I've played a Neutral aligned Ranger for a little bit and I've seen some interesting interactions. I've helped a stranger on the road being attacked by a goblin, and she accused me of thinking her some damsel in distress; his response? Walked away silently.

Later on, there was a group of people fighting in Cloakwood, and I passed around them, leaving them to their business as I went into the mines. Later on, the party encountered me, and the 'noble' character of the bunch, accused me of some form of 'treachery', due to my character not helping those who were in 'dire need of aide'....he was so blatantly forward about his approach, it almost resulted in a PvP response from my Ranger due to the nature of forced will upon 'free-folk'. His response? Walked away silently.

What was interesting was the parties response at that time. It quickly fell apart into chaos as some players took offense to the notion that "We are not damsels in distress", others seemed to encourage the character questioning mine, others said "What the hell are you talking about?" to the accuser.

The problem I have with RP like that, is that is enforces the notion onto others that a Neutral Character (which essentially, ALL characters should be treated as neutrals unless there is RP to indicate otherwise) is evil if they do not 'act' favorably from an overtly forceful notion of what entails 'good'. This guy was trying to make me out to be a villain by disengagement; sounds to me like something a villain would do.

I sincerely hope that character was an evil character RPing a faux zealous 'good' type. If that was the case, well done! If it was a poor role playing of a wanna be good type, then I would consider it just underdeveloped role play on faux notions.

I remember picking up the 2nd edition book of Villains. It had some awesome information for DM's creating evil npcs. The truth is, a Lawful Good paladin can make the perfect villain if played right; an overzealous hero that burns all in the name of their God on a crusading witch hunt without fair trial or judgement. In their heart they believe themselves to be the pinnacle of all that is good and righteous in the world, they are blinded by this fact. It makes PERFECT villain material, but it contradicts the normal notion of a good vs evil axis. This paladin could easily raze an entire village he perceives to be as corrupted by one evil act that was really only a misunderstanding.....and said paladin receives a medal for heroic effort, when all he really did was enact his perception of good upon a village of innocent farmers (but killing maybe one or two evil people in the process). Ends justify the means etc etc.

Even good people can do evil acts. We had a pain in the ass rude character in party once, ninja looting and being greedy and blatantly bullyish. When he died, we dumped his body in the river. One of my favorite moments on the server, and I was on my neutral good character. Was it an evil act? Nah. Hilarious though.

the best RP reaction i have ever seen from anyone playing was I was using a lower level area tro transition discreetly from the north to south. I walked up on some players that were most likely level appropriate for the area. I did not even get a chance to create a setting for them "two very mean looking orcs are seen walking toward you..." before they were gone. there was initially three of them and two straight up bolted. the last one looked left and right and then bolted too. great RP.

and sure.. i know that story is self serving. makes me feel good etc. but it is also good RP.

i would rather players attack me on sight then try to offer chit chat. i put in my examines that "i am RP out exempt. feel free to attack on sight if that is what you think your character would do."

you might feel this is unwise. why would i take away the out. because it is good RP. this is a RP server isnt it? if i need to run. i will. you can be respectful and attack on sight at the same time. i think you would know when you are no longer being respectful. we are all adults here. I am well aware that i am playing an orc.

also know that i am always available to chat OOC.

LE is my tendency and I'm loathe to play something too far up the good chain as it doesn't match my play style. I had a few villains who were your typical cartoon'esque mustache twirling types, and a few with conforming OOC setup but the favorite one of mine was an LE who performed her work in the belief she was doing good, and succeeding in convincing characters and players, completely IC, that what she was doing was for good. On her death there was paladins who made a rallying call for her rescue.

I've had to shy away from playing a Paladin anymore. It used to be one of my favorite characters to RP in pen and paper, but it's just too difficult to implement when there are so many different interpretations and pressure on how it's supposed to be played 'correctly', whether through in game social factors or DM's or self enforced notions. It feels too constrained. I even try to shy away from builds that implement it as only a few levels into part of a design for this reason. The notion of actually role playing out the mundane day to day duties and roles of adhering to poverty and piety is unappealing to me. Same rings true for other classes as well. The same rings true for an evil character. An evil character need not be laughing hideously and overtly exaggerating stereo-typical evil notions in order to be considered 'well played'. Does that mean a Paladin has to constantly run around screaming about their God otherwise its poorly RP'd? I enjoy the freedom of being able to play a character that doesn't fall into one extreme or the other but is allowed to react accordingly, so lately I have been playing more towards neutrality, and it has been liberating to say the least.

I stated before, just because a character is lawful good does not mean they are incapable of orchestrating an evil act, nor is an evil character incapable of orchestrating 'good' ones. The polarity of the alignment dynamic need not be a static one, and to me that is what makes character development and portrayal one of intrigue and fascination. Hero today, villain tomorrow. The opposite hold's true as well. Both can be exciting and perspective changing if played out correctly.

I think maybe part of the issue is you can't do whatever you want whenever you want which is the same deal as any alignment you play. Another thing to consider is if you are doing openly evil sacrifices, making deals with demons, summoning undead, torturing others, sexually violating others, or other extreme evil activities you make enemies with other evil characters. It's one thing to shiv a guy who breaks loose codes of gang laws because 'he deserved it'. It's well another to be a freaky deaky Jeffrey Dalhmer cannibal. Evil has a whole spectrum of beliefs and a lot of competition. Someone may not like you muscling in on their territory or try to forcefully enlist you or maybe just try and bully you because they like you and want to be your 'friend'. Dance of dominance. Monster races of course are monster races. Evil humans, dwarves, and elves might even kill half-orcs for sport if they believe they will get away with it. Playing an evil character on an all evil CvC server is Xtreme Hard Mode. Here it's pretty easy to get on by as long as you don't do openly evil things or play a more challenging monster race.