It's hard to be both good and live a long life in an RPG. A character was once assassinated in a lonely corner because everyone feared they were evil. Their crime was, alas, being without sin. It was the only character who was intrinsically a do-gooder, without a secret agenda.

The others couldn't unveil what the good-doer's secret agenda was-- since, unknown to them, there was no secret agenda. Therefore, they assumed he was so evil and so capable as to be a huge threat. Hence the assassination.

This was an important lesson. In the real world, most people tend to assume most people are benevolently-- or at least not maliciously-- motivated most of the time.

In a fictional or literary world, however, everyone is assumed to have an agenda. The worst thing you can do is not have an agenda, because people will get frustrated trying to find something that doesn't exist.

I'm told of a gangster game where, out of perhaps twenty players, only two were actually gangsters. The others were spies, federal agents, undercover thieves, or characters with gangster facades for some reason or another. It was a gangster game that didn't have gangsters.

Similarly, in most RPGs and I'd say nearly all LARPs, everyone is presumed to have some sort of hidden selfish agenda. If not an outright traitor to the group, at the very least you must have a secret and terribly tragic backstory or secret favors owed to some dark power or, geeze, at least an unexpected vengeful relative or two.

"Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal," notes Wash from Firefly. Our characters are all dark, secretly evil snowflakes, right?

The problem comes when you try to play a truly good character. It is not enough to state you are good, because that's what any right-thinking evil-doer does.

Nor can you hang your hat on a good institution as a credit. Paladin, saint, headmistress of an orphanage, yeah, we all all know it's just a cover for your wicked ways, right? And if we can't find evidence of that wickedness? Proof that you're so evil you've already covered your tracks.

The solution to being good and also being perceived as good, therefore, is to be tragically good. Make a dark, tragic backstory of goodness. Build why you renounced past evil to become so sickeningly sweet and saintly. Give your goodiness some teeth.

Be the assassin who killed one too many times and has now taken the path of repentence. You're the corrupt ruler who became possessed by the soul of Joan of Arc and must regain heaven to be free. Perhaps a drow has decided to live above ground and renounce evil ways, while wielding twin swords with catchy names. Whatever-- just make it dark.

To convince others of your goodness, it is best to provide secret evidence that you once were evil. That gives them secrets to find, and reinforces your character's good actions as being properly motivated, and not just a front. Remember that gaming and fiction requires hidden backstory. The character needs to be more than they seem.

Everyone pretends to good deeds, but only someone with a dark past they wish to escape can be trusted to keep to the straight and narrow.

Until next month,
Sandy
sandy at rpg.net