Clint  Kelly

                                       Why Is it Worse to Steal a Fork than it is to Kill Someone?

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        Traditional Karma/Paragon/Morality systems suffer from an identity crisis; that is to say that while they have a very clear purpose in name, sometimes that functionality gets muddied through actual gameplay. In many RPG systems, a character’s moral alignment is usually quantified as a point on a binary line graph. Every action that a character takes will move that character in one direction or the other on that line. Because of this, it is nearly impossible to have any of the shades of gray that real life is full of. The problem is that there’s no leeway. You are either good, or you are evil. In most cases, points towards being good counter evil points, and vice versa.

 

        This is not only grossly inaccurate, it is incredibly boring. Let’s take Fallout: New Vegas, for example. While it certainly improved on Karma over its predecessor, there’s an inherent flaw. Say that a person that you brutally murder (admittedly, it’s probably self-defense in Fallout, but - oh here’s where the problem already is) has evil karma? Well, have a ton of good points, you saint, you! We’ll even forget that you also brutally slaughtered an entire town just because you liked their hats and wanted all of them. There’s no discretion of acts, no examination of past deeds. Consequences of your current actions are all that matters in a system like this.

 

        For another example, let’s take a look at Mass Effect’s Paragon/Renegade system. In this system, points aren’t mutually exclusive, but one gains little to no benefit from being neutral. In fact, being neutral locks the player out of many Paragon/Renegade specific rewards and story arcs. It’s boring, and the player has absolutely no incentive to play a Neutral character. “Why is this such an important deal?” you might ask. Because there are very interesting characters that are neither “good” or “evil”. Anyone who has played a bit of pen and paper games such as Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, Gammaworld, or any White Wolf game is keenly aware of this.

 

        Neutral characters provide quite a bit of meatiness to stories and casts. And in many cases, they are the most interesting. Han Solo, for example, started his arc as a Chaotic Neutral character. Smugglers, Pirates, Profiteers, Bounty Hunters, Anti-heroes: these are all Neutral archetypes. And in many cases, they begin their arcs trending towards Evil. What makes their arc interesting is when they begin their journey trending towards Good...or not.

 

Coming back to the New Vegas system, these systems are inherently flawed because they are usually overtly biased on one end of the spectrum or the other. In many cases, it is extremely easy to be an angel, but one has to really work their ass off to achieve even minor evil status. Undertale (which is still a fantastic game, by the way. You should all play it if you haven’t already. DO IT.) has the opposite problem, of course. Well, except...you know. Spoilery stuff. Even the Pokemon games suffer from this problem. The only way to have your pokemon dislike you is to deliberately mistreat them, and most of the time, simply having them in your party and walking in circles is enough to make them love you. Inconsistency is rampant in this system, and that needs to be addressed.

 

        So how do we fix this? How do we take a system that has languished for roughly three decades, and make it more interesting and accurate? We take good and evil out of the equation. “WHAT? That’s absurd, how does one simulate morality without good and evil?” I’m glad you asked, let me provide you with the definition of Philosophy.

 

        Philosophy is defined as the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline. However, this definition does not work for a simulated morality system. Instead, I will be using this one: Philosophy is defined as a theory or attitude held by a person or organization that acts as a guiding principle for behavior. Now it’s starting to sound relevant.

 

I propose that Philosophy can be illustrated mechanically as a 4-point Star Plot. One axis ranges from Spirituality to Secularism, while the other ranges from Idealism to Pragmatism. At any moment, every character’s actions manipulate points on this Star Plot. Unlike many traditional morality systems, points towards a particular extreme do not detract from the opposite extreme.

 

        For the purposes of clarity, I should define these concepts. Spirituality, as far as this system is concerned, is the quality of being concerned with the spirit or soul, as opposed to material or physical things. Religious events, holistic teachings, and animism are examples that demonstrate this. Secularism consists of attitudes, activities, or principles that have no religious or spiritual basis. Idealism consists of attitudes and concerns directed towards the practice of pursuing ideals, especially when doing so would be unrealistic. And finally, pragmatism is the quality of being concerned with practical and successful outcomes (usually regarding one’s OWN success above all else), regardless of the cost.

 

        “But wait, I thought these weren’t mutually exclusive.” The concepts are mutually exclusive, but an individual’s morality is more complex than that. What this system should demonstrate, is the truth that very evil people are capable of doing very good things, and vice versa. This is what makes good stories so interesting, they usually have complex characters that have points in both directions on both axes, and their arcs are the results of their actions moving these points in interesting ways. As a result, characters are a sum of their actions, and most importantly, this makes interesting characters that players WANT to play.

        What kinds of interesting characters would you create with a system like this? Where would you place your favorite fictional characters in this system? Leave your answers in the comment section below!

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    Also, quick reminder (shameless plug time!), my album "Bonehead by Tonehead" is available on my music page for $2.99, and if you want to help support me, either buy a copy or donate using the button at the bottom of the screen! In addition, my second album, "Corridor Vol Volume I: Hierarchy of Battle Vols" is available COMPLETELY FREE on my music page! 

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