Proper Virtuosity: Foundations of Goodness

I haven't decided if the title of today's post sounds more like some really hippie liberal arts college class or like the title of an Uwe Boll movie. Anyway, in my last post about Goodness, I touched on the subjectiveness of Good as a concept. Today, I'm going to discuss a few ways that Good people get that way.

Damn, That Guy's Good

I try to think of people as neither good nor bad, just as people. Therefore, just like the "bad guys", the "good guys" start as a blank slate and their experiences color how they view the world and what they think is right. A few ways a person could veer more toward the traditionally "good" are:

• Good Parenting
  Simply put, a person can be raised to be a good person. Little kids watch adults and emulate what they do. Their parents reward "good" behavior and punish "bad" behavior. Eventually, the child will form a value system in which they can usually put stuff in the "good" or "bad" column. Sure, there's the occasional ambiguous problem, but by and large this person can assume things like "sleeping with your friend's wife behind his back" and "killing babies" can go in the "bad" column.
  
  The interesting thing about this one is that many times what the parents believe follows their societal norms. So what one set of parents teaches as "good" behavior may be a lot different from another. A good example would be Klingon vs. Vulcan parenting. (I bet there's a high turnover rate at the intergalactic daycare center.)
  
  As you may have guessed, this one makes for good character-building if the parents' beliefs are a bit different from the rest of society because the parents will frequently raise a litter of misfits who will, as their name implies, have difficulty meshing with their surroundings. Conflict is the mother of Interesting!
  

• The Age of Reason
  Maybe it's just a product of me starting to get a little older, but I can remember when I was a teenager. There wasn't a whole lot of ambivalence about any subject, and I had an opinion about damn near everything. Looking back, I can't figure out why in the hell I thought some of the things I did (much less acted on these thoughts).
  
  The best answer I can come up with is not that I got older. It's that I got more experienced. I know now that running in guns blazing to most situations isn't going to be the best solution most times, and I prefer a little more thought and planning before I make my move now. I've learned when to strategically retreat and come back. I don't like burning bridges because sometimes I need to cross them again. I like being nice to people because I like them being nice to me back.
  
  Which brings me to why I think sometimes getting a little older and wiser brings the good out in people: it's harder to do stupid things when you take the time to think about them, and it's harder to be headstrong when you've had direct experience with that ending badly for you. If you've been bad all your life and you've almost died countless times and everybody hates you and you're tired of running -- well, it might make you consider changing your ways. Even if you don't wind up "good", you might mellow out to the point where you're not actively "bad".
  

• Atonement
  This one is more of a continuation of the last one, but taken further. If a person looks back on the things they have done in their life and goes, "oh crap, I'm a horrible person", they may decide they need to try to make up for it. Where an average kind-hearted joe might just live life and be nice to his neighbor, a person who has devoted their life to making up for past misdeeds will actively seek out ways to do what they consider to be "good" things, usually that help others.
  
  Characters who are atoning for something are a lot of fun to play because they want to be good, but given that they've been an asshole their entire life, they frequently don't know how to do that. Morality is an interesting thing -- people generally have a sense to themselves of what's right and wrong, and when you try to deviate from that, it feels unnatural. So you may have some, shall we say, creative interpretations of how to be good.
  
  I would add that when I say "atonement", I mean a person decided to do this on their own -- someone else didn't make them do it. That's something else entirely. For instance, a person forced to do community service for some crime they committed won't come out a better person simply because they did a good deed because someone else made them. (However, if it exposes them to things that make them re-evaluate their choices, that's different.)
  
  

Next time, I'll talk about some of the qualities associated with "good" characters. Now I need something clever to say to end the post. Let's see... um....

Be good, everyone?

Man, evil is so much easier to make a cool exit on.

Being Good, with your host, PC

The guys around here have created a lot of good buzz about being a "good" character. And who am I to stop a "good" thing?

Well, It's Not As Easy as Insanity

One of the important things to realize about playing a good character is that it's not always as simple as it seems it should be. It's easy to slip into the mindset of being a good person: you are a good person, so playing a good character shouldn't be that hard; you just make in-game decisions like you would make life decisions. Unfortunately, it's not always that easy because life doesn't always translate into game. Don't believe me? Consider this: most of us don't wield a sword or cast fireball everyday. Face it, you don't always have the necessary background as a player to fully relate to your character.

So, Is It Hopeless?

Of course not! Just avoid some of the pitfalls of being "too good" as Vanir and Dante have already shared... basically, don't go insane with goodness! Also, remember that your alignment is a guide to help you determine your actions; you might not be "good" every time, but your goods should outnumber your not-goods.

Always Remember This:

You know more about the situation than your character most times; when making morality decisions, you must avoid metagaming if you're going to be true to your character. You might know that the shadowy figure in the background is the long-lost heir to the throne, but your character doesn't; how, then does your character react to his proposal when he asks you to murder the king?

Making these moral decisions without metagaming can be somewhat easier if you have a backstory for your character: some history to which you can refer in times of crisis. Take a step back from the plot for a moment to re-orient yourself if your moral compass has been compromised.

Variety and the Quintessential Good Character...

First off, sorry for the missed post yesterday. Stupid Ranger is sick with the flu, and the prep time on Remove Disease is so much longer in reality so I had to help her get better in the old fashioned way of taking her to the doctor... needless to say she's doing much better and should be back in the saddle on Thursday.

Today I would like to continue my look at good aligned characters and how they manifest their goodness for the rest of the world to see.

You don't always have to be a one-trick pony

I discussed players that prefer to run their good characters in a single, heavy-handed fashion on Monday. In reality, most "good" characters show their goodness in a variety of ways. I would submit some great television shows such as "House" and "Heroes" as great examples of how good characters can not only have shades of grey to them, but also do their good things in some very unexpected ways.

What this means to your character... first, shy away from being good in an overt and grandiose way. I tend to punish hubris (shameful pride) when I can identify it emanating from the characters in my campaign because self-serving goodness is rarely (if ever) a good thing.

Secondly, pick several ways to show your goodness and progress those activities throughout the course of your character's life span. Treat it like fertilizer: you have to sprinkle it around and need it into the ground for it to work. Taking a single dump in one spot just gets you a smelly garden.

Finally, be surprising. One of my favorite D&D moments came from my first campaign. My character was trying to rescue his love interest who got trapped in a dire situation where most hope was lost. I had stumbled upon a Ring of Three Wishes slightly earlier in the campaign, and it had one left. When there was no other hope of rescue, my chaotic good barbarian decided to use the final wish to trade places with his love interest, knowing full well that this would likely seal his fate. My DM actually asked me three times whether or not I was sure I wanted to make a sacrifice like that and I said that I did.

After the session he told me it was one of the most excellent displays of what being a good aligned character meant. The rest of the party never did get the opportunity to rescue my character, but it still makes me happy to have done that.

It is moments like that that I live and die for when roleplaying. There are a few good examples from our more recent campaigns that indicate similarly excellent examples of being an evil character, but those are best left for another time and place.

Progression and the Quintessential Good Character...

On Friday, Vanir triumphantly returned and started an interesting discussion on player character morality and how it often plays out within a campaign. This got me thinking about some morality related issues of my own... but this time focusing on the progression of a good character.

Please note: these are only one man's opinions and your mileage may vary. Be sure to tip your stewardess after the flight.

My character is good, and I mean all the way, see?

Oftentimes, overzealous players have this all consuming vision of their good aligned characters. They run the gamut from moral, peaceful folk to the insane Holy Avenger types but the tack is usually the same... people that play good aligned characters usually take one aspect of goodness that relates to their new character and turn the volume up to 11.

Now this is a very noble pursuit, usually born out of a Single Good Idea (heretoafter, SGI) that was developed during the creation of the characters backstory. For example, lets say a character decides to make an altruistic monk that believes in giving to the poor as a means of salvation with their deity. Lets say that this monk had someone help him out when he was in desperate need as a young man, which turned his Giving Knob up to 11.

This is a great thing, however how the player chooses to express this good trait can often become perplexing, annoying, or downright boring.

It's called PROGRESSION, people!

If Mr. Monk expresses his desire to give in a flat, overzealous way and gives all of his starting gear (of which he would logically have none of anyway) to some random downtrodden person and all his gold goes to the local temple, Mr. Monk is a very good person. He is also a BURDEN to the rest of the adventuring party that he is supposed to be cooperating with for the common good.

To my mind, it is much better practice to take your character on a journey. At Level 1, your monk is at the beginning of his path. Have him start by giving what little of his adventuring gains that he receives to the needy, but not at the sacrifice of his viability as an adventurer. As his renown grows, and he gets to see more of the world and the suffering that is going on, THEN make him start to give more of his personal belongings as he gains other skills that will allow him to continue adventuring and doing even more good.

In short, as Vanir mentioned it is an excellent idea to not just select one random aspect of goodness and immediately do the absolute maximum possible activity in that space. You have nowhere to progress to, and after 20+ levels of adventuring your continuing acts of singular good will be grating. Providing, of course, that you live that long wearing the robe you set out in.

There are many other ways to salvation

As previously mentioned... these are just my opinions on the matter. If you can find a unique, sustainable way to take a single aspect of a character's personality and crank it up by all means go right ahead.

I would love to hear some "in the trenches" stories of character building and progression to hear how others have realized the tricky task of roleplaying humanitarian goodness. Also, feel free to throw fruit if you don't agree with the proceedings!