LOL. I'd like to make the case that Neutral is next to impossible to justify.
Playing a "Neutral" character isn't "Today I'll do a little good and then tomorrow I'll do a little evil." Playing a truly neutral character will not want to get involved, in Anything. He may be concerned about the iron shortage, but only from the perspective of wanting a decent weapon to protect himself. Once he stumbles upon his first magic (and therefore unbreakable) weapon, he's done and would likely go off into the wild where all of these assassins will never find him. He'd give not one hoot about the bandits or what is going on in Baldur's gate or who was at the bottom of the plots.
Oh, sure he might be interested in preventing himself from being a target, but wouldn't care what Scar was up to or what was happening in the trade guilds enough to actually get to the bottom of things. he's neutral. Best to stay out of the way and let others get on with the job of killing each other. I'm not involved.
BTW: the above post is all in jest. Please don't take it serious in any degree (except the bit about what Neutrality actually is).
This is a role playing game. If you aren't coming up with a back story for your character that is uniquely yours and explains why the character is who/what they are, you are missing out on a huge portion of the game.
@Catoblepas I'm not pointing fingers at people who don't like to play evil. I point fingers at people who insist that one particular alignment is "nearly impossible to justify", be this one alignment evil, good or neutral. That's limited imagination in either case. I mostly play evil, but I don't think it's difficult to come up with a good or neutral charname.
I see much more statements along the lines of "I would NEVER play an evil character or accept evil NPCs, that's just sick and I'm not an evil person irl" than people speaking out against playing good or neutral. I don't get it. It's roleplay. It's not meant to be "like we are irl". I doubt many people are indeed serial killing monsters and that's why they play evil characters. I do because there are way more works of fiction where the "good hero" wins. There are many interesting villains that make you wonder "what if they won?" and a game like this gives me a chance to find out. My evil charnames do not represent me. They represent a fictional character of a type that usually doesn't get the final victory.
I don't see how coming up with an evil character is more difficult than creating a good character. It's the very same process, going through the very same attributes (personality, looks, goals, motivations,...), you just play with different tropes.
I agreed until the last bit. I'm sorry I'm just not good at coming up with reasonable motivations for evil characters. I do realize this is my own shortcoming, but I won't lie that the way your main character is set up in Baldur's Gate makes it more difficult yet.
LOL. I'd like to make the case that Neutral is next to impossible to justify.
Playing a "Neutral" character isn't "Today I'll do a little good and then tomorrow I'll do a little evil." Playing a truly neutral character will not want to get involved, in Anything. He may be concerned about the iron shortage, but only from the perspective of wanting a decent weapon to protect himself. Once he stumbles upon his first magic (and therefore unbreakable) weapon, he's done and would likely go off into the wild where all of these assassins will never find him. He'd give not one hoot about the bandits or what is going on in Baldur's gate or who was at the bottom of the plots.
Oh, sure he might be interested in preventing himself from being a target, but wouldn't care what Scar was up to or what was happening in the trade guilds enough to actually get to the bottom of things. he's neutral. Best to stay out of the way and let others get on with the job of killing each other. I'm not involved.
BTW: the above post is all in jest. Please don't take it serious in any degree (except the bit about what Neutrality actually is).
This is a role playing game. If you aren't coming up with a back story for your character that is uniquely yours and explains why the character is who/what they are, you are missing out on a huge portion of the game.
Yet another post that I was going to press the agree button on until the last sentence. Lolz. Plenty of people enjoy this game quite a bit without role-playing it that much. I ain't gonna hate on other peoples' playing style -- it's a game, which means it's for fun, and if that's what brings people joy, all the power to them.
This is a role playing game. If you aren't coming up with a back story for your character that is uniquely yours and explains why the character is who/what they are, you are missing out on a huge portion of the game.
Yet another post that I was going to press the agree button on until the last sentence. Lolz. Plenty of people enjoy this game quite a bit without role-playing it that much. I ain't gonna hate on other peoples' playing style -- it's a game, which means it's for fun, and if that's what brings people joy, all the power to them.
You will noate that I said a "Huge portion", not the entire game. But fair enough. There are those who see/play/have fun with that don't RPG. However, arguing an RPG perspective and not RPGing seems a bit self defeating to me.
Well, for someone who likes the games for the mechanical aspects and doesn't roleplay, the "justification" of an alignment or class/kit is no concern anyway. There are some classes that are fun to play, but don't leave that much room for interpretation with the backstory of growing up sheltered in Candlekeep - let's say, barbarians. I understand people don't want to spend hours wondering how their barbarian could have this backstory when they could just say "it's in their blood, done" and start playing. But that's more about classes/kits than alignment. A mage, regardless of alignment, has it easier with the backstory of growing up in a library with Gorion as mentor than shapeshifters, kensais or barbarians.
Well, for someone who likes the games for the mechanical aspects and doesn't roleplay, the "justification" of an alignment or class/kit is no concern anyway.
I couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks for making it clearer.
There are some classes that are fun to play, but don't leave that much room for interpretation with the backstory of growing up sheltered in Candlekeep - let's say, barbarians. I understand people don't want to spend hours wondering how their barbarian could have this backstory when they could just say "it's in their blood, done" and start playing. But that's more about classes/kits than alignment. A mage, regardless of alignment, has it easier with the backstory of growing up in a library with Gorion as mentor than shapeshifters, kensais or barbarians.
"For me", I thrill at the chance to explain how a Barbi came to live in Candlekeep (as for example). I've done it here on the forum several times in fact. but I totally get how not everyone is into that. In much the same way that I'm not into total Powergaming/min-maxing on hardcore no-reload which is also a perfectly valid way of playing the game. To each their own so long as they are enjoying the game.
I was just trying to say that "If" you are into role playing to such a degree that you are posting issue with interfacing any given race/class/alignment in with Charname's background, there are ways to make any combination work. And that "FOR ME" is a huge part of the entire game. Again, maybe not everyone sees it that way. No offense was intended to those who don't.
I am just here kinda watching my thread become a huge debate. Don't mind me.
But I would like to say half the fun for me is coming up with justifications for my character's actions and existence. My barbarian who expresses his bloodlust and desire to murder through rage and combat, but does his best to direct it towards the moraly good (No one said barbarians actually have to come from uncivilized upbringings.), my paladin learning the sword because a adventurer visiting candlekeep handed him a blunted sword that was pretty much metal on a stick that he ended up learning to love or my bard's reason for having a party made up almost entire out of women (hint:Hes a bard).
I had a bit of trouble justifying an evil character because I had a very specific view of the character's childhood. I could still be evil, and was starting to wrap my head around the assassin I mentioned in the beginning, but thought I would see how other people viewed the idea of being evil and the justifications of it. I have to say, I'm a bit pleasantly surprised in a few cases. The idea of Gorion being an absent father is actually fitting, as he was an adventurer and its likely he still set off occasionally to help old friends, leaving the child alone with those who may even know his secret, who may pretend to like him but secretly he knows they shun him inside. That they fear him and he knows not why. That terrible feeling of exclusion.
Regardless, I find justifying my alignment, class and actions half the fun of this game. Theres no reason good can't slip up occasionally, or evil won't do good for hopes of a reward or possibly even emotional attachment. Good is not perfectly moral all the time and evil is not devoid of forming bonds. To me, alignment is about guidelines and not golden rules.
I just mentioned barbarian, druid (especially shifter) and kensai because those aren't the most obvious people from a library. I do have a backstory for a barbarian myself, as well a druid (though not shifter). And no interest in kensais at all, so I never thought about it and likely won't.
Comments
Playing a "Neutral" character isn't "Today I'll do a little good and then tomorrow I'll do a little evil." Playing a truly neutral character will not want to get involved, in Anything. He may be concerned about the iron shortage, but only from the perspective of wanting a decent weapon to protect himself. Once he stumbles upon his first magic (and therefore unbreakable) weapon, he's done and would likely go off into the wild where all of these assassins will never find him. He'd give not one hoot about the bandits or what is going on in Baldur's gate or who was at the bottom of the plots.
Oh, sure he might be interested in preventing himself from being a target, but wouldn't care what Scar was up to or what was happening in the trade guilds enough to actually get to the bottom of things. he's neutral. Best to stay out of the way and let others get on with the job of killing each other. I'm not involved.
BTW: the above post is all in jest. Please don't take it serious in any degree (except the bit about what Neutrality actually is).
This is a role playing game. If you aren't coming up with a back story for your character that is uniquely yours and explains why the character is who/what they are, you are missing out on a huge portion of the game.
But that's more about classes/kits than alignment. A mage, regardless of alignment, has it easier with the backstory of growing up in a library with Gorion as mentor than shapeshifters, kensais or barbarians.
I was just trying to say that "If" you are into role playing to such a degree that you are posting issue with interfacing any given race/class/alignment in with Charname's background, there are ways to make any combination work. And that "FOR ME" is a huge part of the entire game. Again, maybe not everyone sees it that way. No offense was intended to those who don't.
But I would like to say half the fun for me is coming up with justifications for my character's actions and existence. My barbarian who expresses his bloodlust and desire to murder through rage and combat, but does his best to direct it towards the moraly good (No one said barbarians actually have to come from uncivilized upbringings.), my paladin learning the sword because a adventurer visiting candlekeep handed him a blunted sword that was pretty much metal on a stick that he ended up learning to love or my bard's reason for having a party made up almost entire out of women (hint:Hes a bard).
I had a bit of trouble justifying an evil character because I had a very specific view of the character's childhood. I could still be evil, and was starting to wrap my head around the assassin I mentioned in the beginning, but thought I would see how other people viewed the idea of being evil and the justifications of it. I have to say, I'm a bit pleasantly surprised in a few cases. The idea of Gorion being an absent father is actually fitting, as he was an adventurer and its likely he still set off occasionally to help old friends, leaving the child alone with those who may even know his secret, who may pretend to like him but secretly he knows they shun him inside. That they fear him and he knows not why. That terrible feeling of exclusion.
Regardless, I find justifying my alignment, class and actions half the fun of this game. Theres no reason good can't slip up occasionally, or evil won't do good for hopes of a reward or possibly even emotional attachment. Good is not perfectly moral all the time and evil is not devoid of forming bonds. To me, alignment is about guidelines and not golden rules.