but this problem came up a few days ago and I'm at a loss with how I should deal with. This gets rather involved, so I'm cutting for length. ( Read more... )
I'm not familiar with Shadowrun specifically, so I personally can't comment on that game.
What I will toss two cents at is: As both a writer and a gamer, dealing with morality that is anything less than Christ-centered is, in my experience, just part of life. To avoid it is to be untrue. Good people do bad things, and bad people can do good things. Conflict is the heart of all story, and is part of the human experience.
So while I don't know about the ins and outs of Shadowrun -- and if I did, I might amend my opinion -- but I've never been uncomfortable playing or writing characters that do immoral things. There's still a lot to be learned by playing a bad guy.
There's still a lot to be learned by playing a bad guy.
Oh, I agree. I've played "bad guys" before, both as a character and as GM--I mentioned so in my post. My question isn't if playing them is okay; it's if "writing" a completely amoral novel (or campaign, or what have you) is okay. Harry Potter, for example, certainly has truly evil villains. But if Rowling's incredibly popular series presented a moral equivalence between the two sides, or implied that Quirrel/Voldemort was right to say "There is no good and evil, only power", then I'd be next to the fundamentalists. That amorality is Shadowrun in a nutshell. My question isn't on character, it's on setting and theme.
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What I will toss two cents at is: As both a writer and a gamer, dealing with morality that is anything less than Christ-centered is, in my experience, just part of life. To avoid it is to be untrue. Good people do bad things, and bad people can do good things. Conflict is the heart of all story, and is part of the human experience.
So while I don't know about the ins and outs of Shadowrun -- and if I did, I might amend my opinion -- but I've never been uncomfortable playing or writing characters that do immoral things. There's still a lot to be learned by playing a bad guy.
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Oh, I agree. I've played "bad guys" before, both as a character and as GM--I mentioned so in my post. My question isn't if playing them is okay; it's if "writing" a completely amoral novel (or campaign, or what have you) is okay. Harry Potter, for example, certainly has truly evil villains. But if Rowling's incredibly popular series presented a moral equivalence between the two sides, or implied that Quirrel/Voldemort was right to say "There is no good and evil, only power", then I'd be next to the fundamentalists. That amorality is Shadowrun in a nutshell. My question isn't on character, it's on setting and theme.
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