Bee Arr Bee, Morality wrote:Morality is an indicator of what types of things (called Acts) a character is willing to do without a second thought, and what may give a character pause - things a character must be committed to do. Not every character is capable of committing questionable acts such as killing or even injuring others. These are acts that are difficult to justify in terms of morality, for those who still care. Sometimes in the course of play, a character may wish to take an action that should really take a lot of consideration. All characters must choose one of the base moralities at character creation: Innocent (requires you purchase a Preeminance), Typical, Hardened, Hardcore, or Immoral (requires the purchase of a Preeminance). Moral characters are either Innocent, Typical, or Hardened. Immoral characters are Hardcore or Irredeemable.
Morality goes hand in hand with Traumatic Wounds, which are detailed briefly in this section and in more depth in the System section. A character who is subjected to acts beyond their Morality may take Traumatic Wounds. These Traumatic Wounds create Symptoms which affect a character’s personality, and thus their role-playing. Traumatic Wounds can be healed over time; this causes the Symptoms to become Dormant. A Dormant Symptom is merely recorded for potential future Trauma.
I know some of you disagree with this description of what Morality actually is. Something has happened in my family recently that has made me think about this. And I'm going to halt the discussion here about whether things like drug and alcohol abuse are immoral or moral, simply because I don't think that discussion has a huge bearing on Providence.
The way I see it (and thus the way its done in Providence), Morality is less about how much harm you are willing to commit, or how much pain you are willing to cause, and it is more a measure by which your actions are compared to those of a well-adjusted, well-meaning human being. Therefore, someone with a Typical morality typically (heh) does not like to be the vehicle which causes pain or suffering to another living being. Someone with a Typical morality is likely to help someone in need of help. Those with Typical morality probably lie sometimes, particularly to make themselves appear more capable or less incapable; they may cheat in minor ways, and they may do other things which from time to time will bother their conscience. They feel guilty when they do something "wrong". Some people might consider breaking *any* law "wrong (including speeding, jaywalking, etc.,); some people might not...there is some latitude here, and I'm not about to say something like "if you have a Typical morality, you MUST consider jaywalking to be a Prohibited Act". I may say something like, "considering your character's morality, do you think your character would be overcome with feelings of guilt and regret over what you've just done?"
Speaking of Acts, this is what the BRB says about Acts.
Bee Arr Bee, Acts wrote:Acts
There are four types of Acts defined in KC:
Grace: Charitable work, acts of mercy, encouraging love, giving hope, etc. It should be noted that it is very hard to force another character into performing an Act of Grace. There can be all sorts of secret and selfish motives for pretending to take an Act of Grace.
Minor: Hurting someone who can take care of themselves, cheating at a game, petty shoplifting, etc.
Questionable: Killing for a purpose/necessity, maiming, stealing, etc.
Heinous: Violation (rape), cannibalism, suicide, killing for pleasure, torture, intentionally harming someone who cannot take care of themselves (children and elderly), etc.
Prohibited
Each Morality an act which is prohibated. A character who willingly takes those actions is required to take a Trauma test or take a Traumatic wound. Because a player chooses to take this action, committing a Prohibated act is considered a Voluntary Trauma test.
Now, a couple of you have made the argument that killing demons and hurting demons should not be considered part of the morality scale. I have a HUGE problem with this.
Demons look like humans, act like humans, talk like humans, smell like humans, and in fact, technically *are* humans (humans with a corrupted soul, more or less). In the Symphony, they resonate as "other than human: demon", and in some cases, they do have special powers/extra strength.
Someone with a Typical morality will have *serious* issues with beating the crap out of/killing demons. Not because they know they're demons, but because it *feels wrong* to do that. Violence...real violence...fucks you up. If you don't believe me, I'd like to encourage you to walk up to a random stranger and hit them in the face with a 2x4. If you're not willing to do that, try going to a prison, where you KNOW everyone there has done SOMETHING wrong, and be witness to a prison brawl. Watch people beat the crap out of each other. Watch how terrible people can truly be to one another.
I know there are a couple of people in the game who understand what I'm getting at here, most likely because they have first-hand knowledge of exactly what I'm describing.
Causing pain and suffering; doing things that are "wrong" causes *most people* damage, and in some cases, life-long damage. The measure by which your character is affected by the wrong things (how much Trauma you've taken, in other words) is your character's Morality. I know we're "just pretending" and this is "just a game", but in order to understand trauma and how it must affect your character, I think it's really important to understand where trauma comes from. It comes from the guilt we feel over doing wrong things, or over having witnessed wrong things, or the intense sadness we feel over knowing how much someone else is suffering. Bad things. When we get into delineations like Aligned Trauma and Infected Trauma, these comparisons begin to break down, and I'm comfortable with using sweeping definitions if it helps you to understand the *concepts* if not the terms themselves.
Now. All that being said, if your character is out there beating the shit out of people, demons, whatevers, all day every day, you probably should not have a Typical morality. This will be resolved in-game, most likely, by your racking up Trauma pretty damned quickly for the kinds of things you're doing. On the other hand, if your character has a Hardcore morality, you probably don't really give a fiddler's fart whether the person whose face you're smashing in is human, demon, or rock star. You probably don't particularly care if someone's *FEELINGS* get hurt. You probably don't really care if someone kicks a puppy.
But there are some things that SHOULD intensely bother EVERYONE who isn't Irredeemable (these are Acts I have come up with on the fly and may not match the examples of Acts presented in the BRB):
Mass murder
Serial killing
Rape, serial rape
Torture
Cannibalism
Suicide
Premeditated murder
child abuse
This is not an exhaustive list, of course, and I'm running out of time to post this...but the point I am trying DESPERATELY to make is that EVERYONE IN THE GAME should be *intensely bothered* with the knowledge that, say, Bal EATS PEOPLE. This should not be something to be cavalier about.
Tue 3 Aug 2010 - 11:47 by cenobyte
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