[UA] Morality (and banality)

[Eric Christian Berg]

On 6 Dec 2000, Nick Wedig wrote:

> I think the thing is UA attempts to portray good and evil as they
> really are, which is always questionable and difficult to identify one
> from the other, whereas other games make it clear who is the right guy
> to kill, because he wears black, or worships some god, or happens to
> be an ugly nonhuman (as opposed to the good looking non-humans, who
> must be good).  

I have learned over the years to torture my players with ambiguity. Both
by muddying the water of which choice is the 'right' choice or which side
is the 'right' side as well as giving antagonists sympathetic motivations
or at least a rationale. I've also found that you can really mess with
their minds by making folks who aren't all-bad. One NPC in particular in
my Victorian Mage game is an infernalist, he sold his soul to a demon.
They found this out very early. Then they learned more. It turns out he is
also extremely loyal to and pivotal to the day-to-day operations of the
London Masonic Temple, of which they are a part. While they are still
extremely wary of his demonic ties, they can't help but work with him on
many occasions, for the good of the Freemasons. They found early on that
they can't just knee-jerk oppose everything he does just because he made
one bad decision. Tends to make the games more interesting, much more
complex, and cuts down on the violence factor a lot (there are very few
'villians' in my game that the group feels comfortable killing).

> I could make a comparison here to Terry Gilliam's movie Brazil, where
> the most evil person in the movie is also one of the nicest (played by
> Michael Palin, he's a professional torturer).  He's not evil so much
> as willing to do bad things to get ahead in the world, even to his
> best friend, though he has family and is a good guy to have as a
> friend.  That's more how evil is than the Darth Vader / cowboy in the
> black hat mold.

Has anyone ever seen 'Closetland'? I was always taken by Alan Rickman's
portrayel of the interrogator/torturer. He managed to be extremely human
and it was very clear that we wasn't a monster or a thug, even though the
things he did were reprehensible. It was a beautifully complex
performance.

-- 
Eric Christian Berg
System Administrator (Adeptus Minor), Amherst Systems
(716) 631-0088 ext. 199
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