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Good and Evil Roleplaying

In general, no one is all good or all bad. You must however play to 
your alignment. I have a few suggestions for making a more believable
good/evil character without sacrificing your chosen alignment behavior.

No man or woman is perfectly good. Good alignment does not mean that
you are perfect, make no mistakes, always kill evil, and help little
old ladies across the Market Square. What it does mean is that you always
TRY to do the right thing. Often the best RP comes from a good align
character's crisis of conscious when trying to do good brings about a
bad end. Crises of conscious allow characters to grow and to explore
themselves and one another.

Good doesn't always attempt to right all evil through the extermination
of evil. In real life people give to charities, volunteer to work with
those who need it, etc...rather than directly fighting the evil that gave
rise to the need for such things. In FK, a character who is not inclined
to the execution of all criminals might instead attempt to aid victims
of crime, feed the hungry, or clothe the poor. This can lead to a greater
depth of RP which will be more long running and aid in the development of
your good aligned character, perhaps more than vigilantism. This being said,
some characters are designed to act violently against perceived evil. In
doing so, be sure that your character will gain something from the RP,
and those characters around the event as well.

By the same token, Evil doesn't always steal and murder. Evil is
frequently someone who can con good out of their money, food, and
equipment. Evil is most frequently difficult to recognize until the
dagger is being pulled from between a pair of ribs. Evil played well
is subtle and cunning. Evil played badly is boorish, overbearing, and
oftentimes too blatantly stupid to be evil. After all, would a man
attack another man knowing that 50 people are standing within ear
shot. Not if he were a smart man.

However, there is in the Forgotten Kingdoms evil of the most black
variety. It is insidious and when it comes near it can make the skin of
both good and evil aligned characters crawl. This kind of evil is
extremely rare, most usually it is very powerful. Frequently, it has
no one it trusts or relies on, leaving it in the end vulnerable to a
concerted effort on the part of good. If this is the kind of character
you hope to create submit a background to the imms and ask their input.

Related topics...

Laura's Roleplay Guide
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