It's remarkably descriptive of delvers in a hack-and-slash, loot-centric game. And sadly, often enough in non-hack-and-slash, loot-centric games, too.
"You'll look at your enemy and these people that you're sort of a visitor to. You'll look at them as animals and at the same time you're just turning yourself into an animal, too."
"Michigan Winter Soldier Investigation," p. 7, Testimony of Steve Pitkin, 20, SP/4, "C" Company, 2/239, Ninth Infantry Division (In Vietnam from May 1969 to July 1969.)
- Frances Fitzgerald, "Fire in the Lake," p. 371
Sad but true . . . delvers tend to be in a situation they don't fully comprehend (especially if there are factions), possessed of the ability and permission to do violence, and regarding all as potential threats around them. Eventually everything gets reduced to "what can they do for us?" and a feeling that anything less than gratitude for the delvers not stomping them is permission to stomp them - even if stomping them isn't the only solution. Like The Black Company, most delver groups in this type of game regard things as us vs. them, even if they nominally owe some allegience to something outside the group (religion, state, group, or alignment system.)
It's sad but not shocking that I'm quoting a soldier at war in a real situation . . . but there is a reason PCs might be designed as heroes but end up with a rap sheet of anti-social behavior.
Are they designed as heroes? I think that is truly rare. Most PCs are designed as /protagonists/ not /heroes/ and they are actually run as protagonist anti-heroes. Yes, they drive the change and action in the adventure, and are usually pitted against "bad" or "evil" opposition, but they themselves don't typically play as heroes, saviors, or "good guys". Of course some game systems and play styles actually take steps to encourage heroic behavior, but when you are playing a classic dungeon crawl where the prime directive is entirely selfish ("loot treasure to gain power, wealth, and fame") the premise heavily discourages heroic behavior which is often tied to selfless acts.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing wrong with that. It's fun. It's just counter to calling the PCs "heroes". (Although I suppose many successful capitalists would call them heroes.)
Oh, I agree. I put "might be designed" before "as heroes" not as weasel words but to point out the extent to which this happens. Even those designed as heroes end up mostly as less-than.
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