Moral Majority

All of us bring ourselves to any rpg in one common way: we bring our biases, preconceived notions, viewpoints, prejudices, perceptions, world views.

No help for it. In some very fundamental ways it's who we are. And as in life, we can sit back 'n watch the morality play in progress.

KTDARPG is no different from other rpg's in this. There will always BE a "moral majority," a world-view that becomes the common thread along which our characters rise & fall. For our characters, it becomes the standard against which others measure us, even when that's not how we measure ourselves.

Whether you consider it Midwestern, Middle Eastern, "bible belt" or "banned in Boston," the moral-thermometer in our game is definitely conservative.

If a girl is morally lax to any degree she's at best a bad girl to be tolerated, at worst a harlot to be demonized or used. On the other hand if a bad boy is at least a strong fighter he's pretty much in line to be the hero of our tale (which means consorting with bad girls won't rub off on him, generally speaking). A bad girl who's also a fighter? Ah, then she'll be welcomed if there's a need for her skills but you won't find the "decent folk" doing too much consorting with her otherwise.

The good girls are the ones who mirror currently accepted feminine virtues--they deal with hearth 'n home. Good boys? They're the ones dealing with truth, justice, freedom, all that jazz in very upstanding ways. (Gee, we don't see too many "good boys" in our game. Wonder why? See my blog-entry about anti-heroes...much more fun to go that route.)

I'm speaking in very, very broad generalities here. It's why I'm not giving you any specific examples from our game, though I could. Maybe I can, just with my game-characters alone. Lemme see here... ok, try this:

Good Girl = Jean (tribe leader of the River Rats, concerned for her tribemates health 'n well-being above everything else)

Bad Girl = Jade (who's been a slave, known a lot of men, been engaged to one of the city's kingpins, tried to be charitable & just can't seem to catch a break)

Bad Girl Who Can Fight = Tara (who's only option was to go the way of the warrior 'n die by the sword)

Good Boy = Creed (decent, upstanding, family-type guy who's strong and will fight when or if he has to; even his little interlude with one of Madam's girls didn't tarnish his halo)

Bad Boy Who Would Be Hero = .........hmm......... know what? At least as far as I can remember, I've never tackled that one. I've done the really-really-bad but never the bad-who-will-be-redeemed. I might have to try that sometime.

Anyway, take all this with a grain of salt. It's just me standing back 'n looking at patterns. If fantasy usually contains a few threads of real-world, I'd say we're right on track.

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"