Extremeism

 

With a current opportunity to play a lawful good religious character, it has got me thinking about how thin the line is between the alignments. Albeit umbrella terminology perhaps 'Religious' and 'Good' are oxymorons or highlight the subjective nature of what it is to be good. Given the human condition, the matter is a little easier as, although you have to accept axioms at some point, systems based on human happiness can be derived from first principals of experience - such as the Buddhist approach from a desire to achieve enlightenment through happiness or indeed one can construct ethics based on human wellbeing  [see Sam Harris  ]. There are also genetics to consider - not to be confused with a eugenics of course - but there will be behavioural trends in the human genome and therefore a possibly empirical view as to the constitution of what is in society's best interests.

 

The slippery slope starts with lawful systems in which people suffer as a direct consequence whilst apologists will nevertheless act for what they perceive as the greater good. In other words how do you classify extremist behaviour ? As a Paladin the lawful bit comes easily enough but would I shield bash a nice old lady who was standing in the way? Well, possibly. Goodness and righteousness have their opposites but the also have their extrapolations; but is this a new dimension to the alignment rubric?

 

Would a Lawful Good character challenge a Lawful Good Extremist ?

I would suppose you couldn't have a Neutral Extremist ? Or is that a morbidly lazy individual?

Chaotic Extremism sounds fun to play - is that a religious Jester ?

Is Lawful Evil Extremism the same as Lawful Good Extremism ?

 

There is an additional issue that truly confuses the matter for role players and that is race of course. Deriving human happiness in very general terms is no that difficult but what about orcs, goblins, ghosts and demons. This is where you have to fall back on a rubric or roleplaying a case in point I think.

 

 

Looking to the future we will of course be seeking to adjust our own genetic material. Other than the professional ethics of how to do this there is also the possibility of creating ethical creatures that are in fact not ultimately human. How are they to be judged ?

 

If you are curious and prepared to answer 48 questions then here is an alignment test.

Extremism is not on there.

http://www.pa.msu.edu/~aaronson/alitest/q1.html

 

Paladins dont pick locks.

Often there is a choice to be made whenever egress is required to somewhere you shouldn't be; is it better to tread softly or charge in? The choice is often life or afterlife related, never quite sure about that one, but it comes up quite a lot. An obvious answer is that it is situation dependent but a closed door is a closed door. The nice thing about the direct approach is that it keeps a game rolling but of course may also entail heads rolling at the same time. It's potentially a dangerously lazy habit also as so far in our 13Age game we have been merrily kicking our way up the experience ladder but we are also noticeably shaving ourselves closer and closer to 0 hit points on each occasion. Perhaps the GM is trying to tell us something.

 

For the next DnD supplement on door kicking here are a few extracts from other vexed adventurers who share our dilemma...

COMBAT TECHNIQUES IN BUILT-UP AREAS:

(7) When a door is the only means of entering a room, soldiers must beware of fire from enemy soldiers within the room and beware of booby traps. Doors can be opened by using the hand, by kicking, by firing, or by using pioneer tools such as an axe. When opening a door, soldiers must not expose themselves to firers through the door. A two-man team should be used when doors are opened by hand. Each soldier should stay close to one side of the doorway so as not to expose himself in the open doorframe. However, it is better to open the door by kicking or firing. When kicking, one man stands to the side while the other kicks

Correct and safe use of a light sabre

Resetting forgotten passwords...

Keeping Aliens out of your front room

 

Dodgy garage doors

 

 

Splitting the party.

 

 

Ah, the old ones are the best. Not a Cthulhu reference but last week in the 13th Age we tried to take the p*** a bit and deliberately split the party in the search for various plot leads just to see what would happen. Quite rightly GMJack suitably chastised us and when I say chastised I mean flayed us within a inch of our lives. Poor little Tiefling, She had, for reasons that escape me (though reason seems like the only party member that is capable of escaping anything at the moment),  wandered down an alley and got herself mugged by 17 people. Now GMJack is making a point here I feel as its not often than 17 muggers crawl out of the brickwork - I mean there has to be an economic issue with regard to cost effectiveness of splitting loot 17 ways let alone the general HR paperwork and CPD. To be fair it would appear that the majority of them were on an apprentice or job sharing scheme as they only had 5 hit points each but even still we barely got there in enough time to save our little schizophrenic diabolist.

For anyone who has not come across it here is the jingle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waa2ucfgVgQ

 

Meanwhile GMWarren's report from D&D5e reads as follows:

 

"After the brief and fatal (for the scout / investigator) diversion in some Goblin caves the party left with a rescued captive leaving the goblin tribe severly reduced in numbers but happily with a new leader (though Godlin politics being what it is might not be for long). The party head to their destination of Phandalin, a frontiers town built on the ruins of a previous settlement built hundreds of years before (mainly for humans, dwarves and halflings).

 

That evening after meeting up with their contacts and gaining a bit of well earned gold the party explored the town meeting the people. It would seem most from to the West side of town are friendly sort whilst those on the east side of town near the haunted manor are brigands, ruffians and downright hooligans. It would seem the town has a gang problem.

 

There were various conversations with townsfolk - the local priestess, the townsmaster plus a few farmers but the main focus was the gand on the east side of town. The druid wanted to test out her new ability of changing into another form and promptly went for a mastiff where she tried to get into the inn at the east side of town (a local gang haunt) . In managing to run into the Inn she tried to ingratiate herself with the members. She did manage but suddenly realised that the gang members needed another animal for their 'pit fights'.

 

Pick up and dumped in front of three cages holding rats. Luckily the rats were normal rats and the druid mastiff made quick work of them. After that she had to swiftly leave as her transformative powers were running out.

 

So we left it with the druid, now disguised as a cat, having left the inn was making her way towards the haunted manor alone whilst the rest of the group were contemplating a search for a druid, tracking down a tribe (well 15) of orcs with a potential side trip of a banshee visit or dealing with this gang that may be behind he disappearance of a man and his family "
 

PS Welcome to Paul who joined us last week, hope to see you again.

PPS and massive street cred to Dave for bringing a Birthday cake for GMJack last week. Cake should be made compulsory when roleplaying.

Hostage situations.

Having watched more than my fair share of movie hostage situations I would consider myself well versed in assessing incidents from an armchair/take away perspective. When a hostage is being grappled and has a gun pointed held at their temple then clearly a dramatic headshot by Bruce Willis is prescribed. Where negotiations are concerned, then you simply call in Kevin Spacey and have him talk them down. Where you can't communicate with captors then you clearly need an SAS response. For pirate boarding, Tom Hanks should be immediately promoted to Captain and passive, non cooperative resistance tactics should be adopted. When your favorite nuclear battleship is captured then an immediate Steven Segal intervention is required.

 

 

For the ardent roleplayer it goes on... Alien abductions often need a long term concerted effort from a fringe anti-establishment wild card and sidekick pragmatist such as Mully and Sculder (good name for cats btw). In your average, run of the mill possession cases a visit or two from Max Von Sydow should suffice albeit worth getting home insurance on that one. Your average encased-in-carbonite rescue does require thermal grenades and optional Princesses but is eminently doable.  And finally for your common or garden human sacrifice hostage....err...

Here in lies last weeks quandary. Personally I can only recall Big Trouble in little China, though that was a critical dagger throw by the hero I believe...and as a Paladin I rather look down on stabbing people in the back even if they are about to do the same. No, I made the right choice and charged in madly waving my sword. OK I rolled a 1, critical failure, and blamed everyone else. Completely ignoring my intended target I decided to engage a completely different foe. Perhaps for a Paladin there are no better of two evils but that is little consolation as the hostage not only lost his life but also his soul it seems as his body became a conduit for a thoroughly antisocial demon that came pre packaged with another set of critical failures to hand out.

What can you do eh ? Well it occurred to me far too late that of course I could have gone for the stabbee rather than the stabber. Ok, I would have critically failed but I could have taken the dagger blow for him instead; I could even have hurt or killed the hostage but at least I would have saved his soul and his relatives may even have got a pay out via Paladin Injury Lawyers 4U. There is basically no reason to save a Hero in a Roleplaying game.

I think what I am trying to say here is don't believe everything you see in movies..
 

Heroes die but are not forgotten.

Agression is the better part of Valour

 

Seems like everyone is happily killing things at the moment. Not sure whether this is human nature, or in some cases, elven/dwarven/hafling/tiefling nature but conversations are short and swords are long. I wonder if there is a trend in this sort of behaviour. Are we as role players slipping below the surface of our civilized minds as primeval apes and indulging our darker selves or is there really a higher purpose in mind; a just cause and justification for the higher good. Patience is actually my issue both in reality and in my character's, but whilst its always tempting to machete through a scenario the strategy usually has is drawbacks. I suppose fate plays its part at the end of the day and on occasion offers rewards as its own punishments so its always good to learn from mistakes. Provided your not dead.

 

In the DnD there has been an attempted assault on a goblin cave and whilst a slippery water ward has been circumvented, the party had run into another bunch of Goblins who, being very proud of themselves in their hostage management skills, have blackmailed the party to take out a Bugbear. This was however, meticulously planned and successfully executed so to speak as traversing a high bridge and large tunnel put our party in the ideal spot of slaughtering foes as they came - first a batch of henchmen and then the Bugbear itself followed finally by its wolf. Just like a murder mystery, everyone seems to have had a stab in this one.

 

In the 13thAge we seem to have walked into our third altercation of the day; zombies, drunken dwarves and evil wizards. We had been following a trail of dead bodies and arrived at a warehouse where we had to invite the occupants onto our swords, including a rather nasty looking two headed donkey (worse than it sounds). Finding nothing of note after the fight we did hear some chanting from a secret opening that has led us into a cave complex replete with wailing mages in some sort of disturbing ceremony. An entirely justifiable slaughter is on going but at present I will stick my neck out and say its looking good for us so far.