Any room for kindness?

[BadSkeelz]

I agree with Yam's "selfish altruism" model on most of my characters.

Otherwise I'm using the D.E.N.N.I.S. system. I've only ever bought fruit from that gigantic waif vendor to demonstrate my character's value to potential mates.

[Large Hero]

Almost any character trait is fine if you have a reason. That's the key: the reason.

An extremely cruel character would be lame if there wasn't a good reason for it (on Zalanthas, those reasons are easy to come by).

I recently played an extremely 'kind' character. He genuinely tried to help people, and hated it when people betrayed others and generally acted like Zalanthans.

There was a reason: he had a violent and abusive upbringing, and would have flashbacks/emotional breakdowns when being exposed to more of the same. So he tried to stop more of the same from happening.  His conscious thought process was "people should be kind," but his subconscious thought process was "I can't bear to see more of this, because it takes me back to when it happened to me."

[Tulana]

Code Select Expand


>get kindness zalanthas
You get your handful of kindness from a harsh desert planet.
>put kindness zalanthas
There's no more room for that here.
>think shit
You think:
 "Shit."
>drop kindness
There's no more room for that here.
>quit
But you are too excited to leave just yet!


Haha.

Thank you for so many thought-provoking replies. You folks are bloody intelligent.

Confession: I've got post hippie blues. (Post- Burning man blues)....

[Yam]

Code Select Expand


>get kindness zalanthas
You get your handful of kindness from a harsh desert planet.
>put kindness zalanthas
There's no more room for that here.
>think shit
You think:
 "Shit."
>drop kindness
There's no more room for that here.
>quit
But you are too excited to leave just yet!


Haha.

Thank you for so many thought-provoking replies. You folks are bloody intelligent.

Confession: I've got post hippie blues. (Post- Burning man blues)....

Play in a tribe. It's basically Burning Man.

[RogueGunslinger]

Sometimes I find players are too kind. But it's not something I tend to worry about.

[Hauwke]

I find there is a good mix of kindness, Having been exposed to both sides of the coin.

[MeTekillot]

I'm gonna sit this one out.

Me too, I just want to point out my absence to everyone.

[path]

You guys are harshing my mellow.

[whitt]

You guys are harshing my mellow.

Can i post it here? I'd love to.  It's not a long scene. Screw it, I'll just do it anyway.

Above a Colossal Cavern [U, D]

A few shards of sandstone clatter into the yawning abyss below as the scarified, hard-featured man shimmies between handholds.

The scarified, hard-featured man thinks:
"Just... a lil' closer..."

Straining, the scarified, hard-featured man reaches with a calloused hand for a tattered papoose precariously dangling from a projection of stone.

There's a grinding of stone as a lump of sandstone cracks and crumbles from beneath the scarified, hard-featured man.

The scarified, hard-featured man feels his heart stop.

Gritting his teeth, the scarified, hard-featured man hops, his ragged sandcloth gear flapping in the wind.

Hitting the rock-face hard, the scarified, hard-featured man finds purchase, cutting his hands on a jagged hand-hold.

The scarified, hard-featured man thinks:
"Krath..."

A small noise from the papoose attracts the scarified, hard-featured man's attention and his expression shifts from pain to wonderment.

Reaching out as far as he can, the scarified, hard-featured man takes a tattered papoose, quickly bundling it against himself and the wall.

The scarified, hard-featured man looks inside a tattered papoose, his eyes widening noticably.

The scarified, hard-featured man thinks:
"I don't fuckin' believe it..."

Shhing the papoose, the scarified, hard-featured man begins to climb towards a nearby platform and his waiting scavenging gear.

Quickly scooping it from the papoose, the scarified, hard-featured man soaks a bit of sandcloth in water and offers it to the sunburnt child, which suckles greedily.

Showing surprising tenderness, the scarified, hard-featured man brushes back the child's hair and squints up towards the gash of light overhead.

The scarified, hard-featured man mutely watches the child suck the sandcloth dry, his windswept visage indecisive.

The scarified, hard-featured man sighs and offers the child a wry, world-weary smile, slipping it back into the papoose, which he slips over his shoulder before taking to the wall, climbing toward the light...

Good luck with your next character.
Rathustra

[Beethoven]

You guys are harshing my mellow.

You're marshing my mallow.

[BadSkeelz]

How do we know he didn't eat that baby.

[path]

Spoilers.

He ate it. The look of wonderment was just relief in finding a food source.

[whitt]

How do we know he didn't eat that baby.

Much more profit in selling it to Borsail.

Just saying.

[Hashi]

The problem with being a nice person is that it just isn't realistically sustainable.  Eventually, you will interact with enough people who abuse or simply don't understand your attempts at kindness that your only realistic reaction is to give up.  That being said, I've played chars who started out trying to be nice with the OOC foreknowledge that the Known will inevitably break their hearts if they live enough. And I've found that to be enjoyable.

[Dunetrade55]

The problem with being a nice person is that it just isn't realistically sustainable.  Eventually, you will interact with enough people who abuse or simply don't understand your attempts at kindness that your only realistic reaction is to give up.  That being said, I've played chars who started out trying to be nice with the OOC foreknowledge that the Known will inevitably break their hearts if they live enough. And I've found that to be enjoyable.

This kind of thing can sometimes be enough to provoke a merciless backlash of cruelty. I think hitting that breaking point makes for some interesting character development and RP. When nice guys go bad.

[Raptor_Dan]

The problem with being a nice person is that it just isn't realistically sustainable.  Eventually, you will interact with enough people who abuse or simply don't understand your attempts at kindness that your only realistic reaction is to give up.  That being said, I've played chars who started out trying to be nice with the OOC foreknowledge that the Known will inevitably break their hearts if they live enough. And I've found that to be enjoyable.

This kind of thing can sometimes be enough to provoke a merciless backlash of cruelty. I think hitting that breaking point makes for some interesting character development and RP. When nice guys go bad.

100% agreed.

[Dunetrade55]

I mean, they're still the same person, and they don't have to pick random targets. Makes for a more satisfying bad-guy/villain experience for me, and I hope so for others, when the motives are something other than simple body-count, or power for the sake of power. Why do they want that power? Maybe they saw what happens when other bad-guys get the power first. Perhaps they didn't even want that level of significance, content to lead a humble servant's existence, but see it as their duty to insure that someone more dirty than them cannot have it, because we all remember the last time this sort of thing happened. Perhaps those around them know it, so excuse the occassional wickedness or deviant behavior as necessary to prevent future tragedy.

There are plenty of very good reasons for good guys to do bad things. It makes for an interesting internal experience when they have to live with the knowlege of what they've done, and alternate in their ambivalence toward the act that was a very good, bad thing to do. Eventually, it all goes grey and balances out. This is the essence of beneficial corruption, when one isn't focused merely on corrupting others, having the knowlege that they also corrupt themselves. This is also the point where your god possibly revokes your cleric powers, and just maybe smites you with fire from heaven. Whoops.

So, is there room for kindness? Absolutely, so long as it's not suicidal, or doesn't jeopardize the greater good. Reckless acts of kindness are, not sustainable or realistic. Sometimes the greater kindness is, in the short term, seemingly cruel acts, even torture, murder, betrayal, dishonesty... I am of the opinion that absolutes are bonkers, that moral polarity is unreasonable. Your milage may vary.

[Delirium]

There's plenty of room for kindness and humanity... unless you're talking to a <insert hated race and/or classification here>.

What I mean is that the best characters - as they're fully rounded people - are multi-faceted and may be kind to one person and cruel to another.

There is a big difference between being giggly and huggy and sweet to everyone you meet, and being willing to give a stranger some water and a helping hand.

[RogueGunslinger]

There is a big difference between being giggly and huggy and sweet to everyone you meet, and being willing to give a stranger some water and a helping hand.

Amen.

[Refugee]

There's plenty of room for kindness and humanity... unless you're talking to a <insert hated race and/or classification here>.

What I mean is that the best characters - as they're fully rounded people - are multi-faceted and may be kind to one person and cruel to another.

There is a big difference between being giggly and huggy and sweet to everyone you meet, and being willing to give a stranger some water and a helping hand.

Exactly.

[solera]

I found it hard being a psychopathic level egoist, because self interest demanded she played nice. An axe against her throat, held by a furious Kurac stump sergeant, had to be personality changing.

[The Lonely Hunter]

There is no room for kindness as we on earth understand it. Zalanthas is a place where people will (or are supposed to) slit your throat over a drink of water or a pair of boots without holes in them. If someone is being nice to you, you would damn sure suspect them trying to use you for something.

I believe that kindness as we understand it would be a completely foreign concept in Zalanthas.

[Beethoven]

If kindness is a foreign concept, there would be no use in even trying to pretend to be kind to someone. It would be like declaring loudly to the world that you want to screw this person over.

The possibility of true kindness leaves more room for deception and betrayal.

[Tuannon]

A little kindness gives your cruelty more bite.

[Large Hero]

This post turned out too long and rambling. I will edit it later and practice what I preach about avoiding wall of text posts on the gdb.