The Escapist Issue #91 Now Available
-
Category: News ArchiveHits: 671
Typically, the Gygax model is codified in a CRPG by assigning alignment weights to various actions and dialogue choices. A player wishing to be Good should choose the most polite dialogue options and make sure to commit acts of kindness on a regular basis; a player wishing to be Evil can feel free to fling all manner of insults at non-player characters and then rob them blind. Neutrality is awkward - rather than remaining Neutral by striving to chart a course along the middle ground between Good and Evil and/or Law and Chaos, players remain Neutral by perpetrating an equal weighting of Good and Evil acts. There's no way to differentiate a shift toward Neutrality from a shift toward Good, Evil, Law or Chaos in the Gygax model.
This way, though, the player's conscience is salved preemptively. When the inevitable slaughter of hordes of enemies begins, a Good player has already rationalized killing them as the inevitable consequence of their Evil nature - and their experience point value. If the player has the audacity to choose Evil, well, what conscience is there to salve? Indiscriminate slaughter is Evil's watchword.
