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From the RPGPundit's Blog: More on The Magic Deer
RPGPundit:
One poster has commented that in Blue Rose, unless you're actually running a campaign to kill the monarch or overthrow the government, it really shouldn't matter about the Magic Deer and the utopian-fascist nanny-state. He went on to argue that you could even play a noble that doesn't entirely trust the magic deer, and could try to encourage people toward a more representative system of government where the monarch's power was reduced.
Except in Blue Rose, your noble that doesn't trust the Magic Deer is wrong. The book says so. The Deer is the embodiment of all that is good, and good being defined as a kind of pagan feminist collectivism, and its "goodness" is absolute.
Not to mention that in the end it really wouldn't matter, because if said nobleman was really really successful, and the people clamoured for an end to the deerocracy, the deer would just go on, pick the next monarch and give a good head-hoofing to whoever disagrees. The book says so, you can't beat the deer without changing the setting.
People have also suggested that the alignment rules are also more stringent in regular D&D than in Blue Rose, and that if you wanted to interpret a Paladin as "evil" in D&D for engaging in religious genocide against Orcs, you wouldn't be allowed to do so by the rules.
To this I say sure you do see the difference between on the one hand CHOOSING to play a paladin who ends up having to follow severe moral restrictions of some kind or another, and follows a particular deity's interpretation and regulations of good; and on the other hand being told that your hardworking noble businessman would be "evil" for not wanting to pay his anti-sugar tax (because, too much sugar is bad for you so we have to regulate it); or that to distrust the magic deer would be evil or at the very best misguided?
And yes, in other games there are deities that are defined as being definitively good but:
1. they usually aren't so blatantly tied to modern day socio-political concepts that not all gamers would consider their definition of "good", making the game an insult to people who believe in free enterprise, christianity, libertarianism, free thought or hell, just plain democracy.
2. They usually don't actually and actively determine the ruler and aristocracy of the main kingdom that the game presumes your characters are playing in; and make it ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE to be overthrown or resisted by the magic of deus ex machina.
3. If they do, then those settings suck too.
Yes, my opponent might say, but why does it matter if you play someone who is a rogue-ish type but doesn't want to overthrow the system? You can play a merchant or mercenary who's in it for himself, and it doesn't change anything. It doesn't matter, he would say.
And yet, I think it does matter. It matters if you roleplay, in the sense of immersing in your character. It makes a world of difference to me if I know, based on the setting, that deep down my merchant businessman or self-interested rogue or wizard out for revenge or enlightened freethinker are fundamentally wrong. It would ruin the enjoyment of playing them to me, or if I did play them it would have to be for other reasons.. in Blue Rose such a character could only be run as a desperate attempt for redemption or a slippery-slope to total corruption.
Its like if you were to say, play a character in a modern game: a pagan, or a buddhist, a secular humanist or a biology teacher or whatever, but the DM tells you at the last minute "oh by the way, IN THIS WORLD calvinist fundamentalist christian theology is RIGHT; and your character is predestined to HELL for who they are.. its not just a belief, IN THIS GAME its absolutely true. Just so you know; it shouldn't really change how you run the character, but he is going to go to hell after he dies. Oh, and everyone around you knows and believes you're going to hell too, because in this game the nation you're playing in is a calvinist theocracy; so they all at the very least disapprove of you and your lifestyle intensely. And no, its not possible they're wrong. They're totally right, the literal interpretation of the Bible is true and your character is going to hell. It really wouldn't do you much good to try to convince them otherwise, because they actually are right, and the government is really good and pure and kind and christian so most people are really happy about it and wouldn't be willing to listen to you. And even if a couple did, they'd actually be wrong like you, and you'd just be leading them to evil too. But hey, don't let that change how you run your character.. "
Its ludicrous to think that it wouldn't change it... that it wouldn't in fact ruin the entire experience for you to know that in that universe, in an absolute sense, your character is WRONG.
Lawbag:
Why cant you play in Blue Rose with the Magic deer with the assumption that the deer is evil, and it is the long term goal to overthrow that feministic attitude?
Hastur T. Fannon:
Incidentally do you have similar problems with Ars Magica, Tekemel, Werewolf, oMage or Orpheus? (and those are just off the top of my head)
All of those have a fairly rigidly-defined metaphysics and playing a character who believes something that's contrary to those metaphysics will cause problems
RPGPundit:
--- Quote from: Lawbag ---Why cant you play in Blue Rose with the Magic deer with the assumption that the deer is evil, and it is the long term goal to overthrow that feministic attitude?
--- End quote ---
Well, you can.. hell, it would probably be the only tolerable way to play the Aldis setting. But it would not be "by the book". My complaint is only significant if you are considering the setting "by the book".
RPGPundit
RPGPundit:
--- Quote from: Hastur T. Fannon ---Incidentally do you have similar problems with Ars Magica, Tekemel, Werewolf, oMage or Orpheus? (and those are just off the top of my head)
All of those have a fairly rigidly-defined metaphysics and playing a character who believes something that's contrary to those metaphysics will cause problems
--- End quote ---
Out of all of these the only one I can even marginally stand is Ars Magica.
RPGPundit
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