From: phil@iagu.itd.adelaide.edu.au (Phil Kernick)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Bastard DM from Hell &a matter of Honour
Date: 16 Dec 1992 02:21:12 GMT
Organization: Psychology Department, University of Adelaide
Distribution: world
Reply-To: phil@adam.adelaide.edu.au
NNTP-Posting-Host: iagu.itd.adelaide.edu.au

In article <1992Dec15.184131.1@economics.adelaide.edu.au>, ecrjbruce@economics.adelaide.edu.au writes:

I suppose *as* the Bastard DM from Hell, I should make a few comments
about what Rob has said.  I also should note that we have had several
thousand lines of e-mail discussion on these very points...

> What part does honour play in the world of ADND?  Is it a code which affects
> only those who subscribe to it (certain knights of the church, honourable
> warriors etc.)  or does it apply to the whole world?  Is it similar to the
> honour system of medieval Europe? Feudal Japan? or what.

In my opinion, honour is a function of society and not the other way
around.  The entire *concept* of honour is artificial.  What is more
honourable about being killed with a sword as compared to a poisoned
dagger?  Surely dead is dead.  Some societies *choose* to make
arbitrary decisions like, "You may kill an opponent, but only using
the following techniques...".  Rob suggested that everyone knows what
honour is, and some groups choose to ignore it.  I disagree, no
everyone has a concept of honour at all, so applying foreign concepts
to them is unreasonable.  If you consider it, honour is not
intelligent - you kill your opponents with the easiest technique that
is least likely to get you killed.  Not wave big knives at each other
until one falls down.

> Is trial by combat a recognised form of settling disputes?  Or does this lead
> to a "my stick is bigger than your stick, might is right" syndrome (as it 
> usually did in medieval times) which is unjustifiable in ADnD?

Trial by combat may well have existed in the medieval times, but in
AD&D terms it could not be considered a good act.  It does lead
directly to the "might is right" syndrome.  Consider, the young
upstart noble decides to challenge the wise old sage on a point of
history.  The noble will win (assuming the sage has no special powers)
and hence the noble is correct?  I don't think so.  In a situation
where a duel is offered and accepted then I feel that this is the only
time that trial by combat is fair.

> In a situation like this I felt that having exhausted every other avenue of
> interrogation we should start threatening him with all manner of diabolical
> things.  However my DM ruled that my paladinly training prevented me  from
> applying the rack (even though our opponent was below honour) and I couldn't
> challenge him to a duel to decide the issue.

As I pointed out in e-mail, torture does not get the truth.  It gets
what ever the victim believes the torturer wants to hear.  A perfect
example is from the movie "The Name of the Rose".  The Inquisitor can
not get a (wrongful) confession from a priest, so he threatens the
priest with "hot irons".  The priest then confesses *anything* to
avoid the torture - even though what he confesses to, he is in no way
guilty of!

As described above, trial by combat will also not get any sort of
truth.

> In a situation like this where
> does a paladin go?  If they are to be effective they will need information yet
> if an opponent refuses to give it they are effectively hamstrung.  So where do
> they go?

I have thought of this for some time, and I believe that the following
is reasonable.  A paladin my not have many *things*, and may not keep
much money, so I would have the paladin spend some aquired cash on
clerical scrolls such as "detect lie", etc.  These one-shot magical
items (as well as potions) I do not consider to count towards magical
item limits for character classes.  The spell *will* tell you whether
he is telling the truth, no other physical technique will.  Other
useful spells for the same techniques are "hold person" and "charm
person".

> Secondly, who deserves to be treated with honour.
[stuff deleted]
> does he treat
> a contemptible thief with disdain and refuse to apply the code to him (after
> all if he backstabs rather than fights like a man how honourable can he be?)
> and thus break him as a lowly curr deserves to be broken, or does he allow the
> thief to simply say "I'm sorry" and let him go?

Think lawful good.

> yet when the thief refused to give me information and said
> "I truly repent of my evil ways" I had to accept his word.

I will repeat this for the good of the world.  The captive NEVER SAID
THIS.  In the encounter that this is based on, one of the clerics cast
"Charm Person" on him and then asked him questions.

> And what about creatures such as orcs etc?  Do I treat them as humans or equal
> or as animals who are generally evil and below contempt?  This has no
> historical counterpart so I am unsure.  Personally I would slay them as
> representations of evil and darkness, but you may disagree.

As we discussed in e-mail, I made the following point.  Because the
Montrous Compendium (or Monster Manual or any other book) says that
Orcs are Chaotic Evil, does *not* mean that all Orcs are CE.  It means
that in general their society is CE.  There will be LG Orcs, but they
are likely to be confined or killed for their heretical behaviour.  If
an Orc surrenders, it does not mean that because it's aligment is
evil, that it automatically is lying.  The aligments as specified in
the tomes are exact only for unique monsters, and are a societal
alignment for all others.

> Finally, with our captured thief it has been ruled that I must accept it if he
> says he repents.

Not quite.  You must be sure that he has repented, but it is up to you
to find out if he has.  Again, magic is probably the only certain way
to do this.

> However I cannot demand that he give me any information about
> his supposed former masters as that would make him even more contemtible as a
> turncoat!!

Repent does not mean: completely change alignment and now fall in with
you and your cause.  It means: being sorry for the crimes you have
committed and truely not intending to do them again.

Also, as I pointed out to you and the rest of the party after the
adventure, the reasons that the thief would not give up the information
that you wanted were:

(a)  He didn't have it.
(b)  If he had had it, and had given it to you, then not only would he
     have been killed, but so would have his entire family.  Either
     way his death was certain, but he could at least spare his
     relatives.

> It seems to me that the Bastard DM from Hell is going all out to
> make it impossible for us to get information quickly - and as everyone knows
> speed is of the essence when small groups are involved.

I am making you role-play a Paladin, rather that just a good fighter.
You specifically wanted the challenge and you have it.

> His argument is that
> there must be some significant drawback to playing a paladin, my counter
> argument is that allocating my best stat to Charisma and the huge exp
> requirements are penalty enough.

No it isn't.  As Rob and I have discussed, stats are not that
important, especially in my games.  So you go up levels slower, but
not much slower than mages.

> If a paladin cannot force information from captured opponents
> then how are they to function as a class?

It is not their function to extract information from people.  That
would be the job of the Inquisitors.  Anyone who thinks that they were
paladins can stop reading now.

> If they go on a quest for the
> church, or for their steed etc. and they meet ONE lousy opponent who says "I'm
> not telling you jack sh*t" then they are stuffed!  There must be some way for
> them to get the info they need but what is it?

I said it before, but it is worth repeating - magic.


I have talked to many people, and not one has said that a Paladin can
use torture under *any* circumstance.  Sorry dude.



Phil.

--
   _-_|\    Phil Kernick                        "Sleep all day,
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