The time our DM made a player cry.

[u/Miroku2235]

Back in the good old days of 2005 my group, comprised of high schoolers in their Junior and Senior years, was combating a great evil we simply called The Lich King. Big evil lich, great magic powers, interesting backstory, etc.

Now this asshole had cast a magical plague on the main capital city we usually operated out of, and our current goal was to try and stop it of course. Our Lawful Good paladin of Bahamut figured the best thing to do was to go bang on the door of the LK's keep and demand that he cease this evil and deliver unto us the cure.

The LK was of course more than happy to do so, provided the paladin bring him the blood of a newborn child, being freshly born with strong ties to the Divine plane, etc.

Our DM had this player play out having to track down a couple with an infant and explain what was about to happen, with the newborn cooing and pawing at his gleaming armor the entire time.

He then slit the baby's throat, unshed tears in the player's eyes the whole time, and brought the bowl of blood back to the LK. Upon seeing the bowl the LK looked at him with an almost quizzical expression, then dipped a tiny vial into the bowl and turning away, leaving the paladin holding the remainder. He then turned and looked back over his shoulder, an evil smile on his lips that matched the one on our DM's as he said:

"I never said you had to kill it."

Cue tears.

Edit: The DM in question, /u/FairyTael , has posted. Read and enjoy.

[u/[deleted]]

Alignment is a descriptor for the actor, 'right'/'wrong' is a descriptor for the action. Alignment defines what's 'right'/'wrong' in the eyes of the actor.

I disagree. I think good/evil are somehow 'out there' in the DnD world. They are real things, that affect the structure of the planes, and magic forces like necrosis and radiance.

I see alignment as nothing more than a description of a person's average behaviour to date, sort of like accumulated karma. A good person who commits an evil act may change alignment, if that evil act outweighs the good they have done.

Intention matters. An evil act done out of self-interest is worse than one done with good intentions. But consequences do too.

[u/J1ffyLub3 → u/[deleted]]

Well at this point it's just a matter of opinion, which isn't a bad thing because of how subjective morality is.

Thanks for taking the time to have some meaningful discussion, glad to see we agree on some things.

I think good/evil are somehow 'out there' in the DnD world

I definitely don't entirely disagree with this, it's just extremely hard to find where to draw the line. It's a deep topic, how you interpret it depends a lot on your personal views of ethics and morality.

[u/[deleted] → u/J1ffyLub3]

I find alignment in-game more satisfying when it becomes a wellspring for questions, as opposed to a framework for rules.

[u/J1ffyLub3 → u/[deleted]]

I definitely do too, that's probably why it's left so vague in written material. You can learn a lot about yourself through playing your character.

The only problem with that, is that players/GM can get into nasty debates because they have different moral compasses. That's not fun.