Good or Evil Games
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One of the halmarks of a role-playing game is choice.
Whether it’s an easy decision of either adopting the orphaned baby rather than eating it or the much harder deliberation over roasting versus frying the li’l tyke, your choice defines the character you play. This adds depth and makes the game into a story more than a point-earning exercise of digit dexterity or puzzle solving.
Having recently played the classic Knights of the Old Republic PC RPGs, where the fun of finishing as a hero is going back through it as an asshole, I find there are good and bad ways of gauging morality and when to brighten the halo or sharpen the horns.
There’s consistency of cruelty … or kindness - if you play pussies. After a half dozen times of choosing minor actions that are charitable or predatory, helping without reward or demanding more reward than realistic, there’s enough evidence to slide the light side meter up or down.
The key word is minor. Being unfailing polite or optimistic in your casual choices gradually paints the picture of an upbeat kind of character. Saving six princesses without taking so much as a kiss for your troubles is obviously good … or gay depending on the fairness of the damsel.
Um … kindness is its own reward … no thanks.
The other factor is the depth of depravity or heights of heroism as measured by risk or degree of morality.
If you won’t help a starving urchin by giving him your leftovers while he’s lying on the floor next to your table with his mouth open and the dinner rolls are sitting on the edge, you’re a dick. If you scale four smoke-choked floors in a burning building to save a mean old alley cat with a puss eye, you’re good … and stupid.
When you save Fluffy just to stomp the furball in front of the little girl crying for it - you’re a capital A asshole. Que the darkside acne and choose a pointy dark lord style helmet, you’re on your way.
In a high quality game your actions will have reprucussions that further measure your committment. Making amends or getting tired of your greatness being taken for granted adds more complexity and therfore dimension to a character. When cruelty is written on you - haggard looks, dressing in red and black, traveling with a team of lawyers financed by your chain of sweat shops - the game should react.
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