A Light in the Darkness: Tales of Epic Heroes

[8BitNinja]

I love playing as a good guy, because being evil sucks. But people I'm around seem to always want to play as an evil characters. Do you have any epic tales of great heroes? Do you want to just make up a story and said "yeah, we did that" and pass it off as a real story? Do you want to just post here because you are bored? You can do all of that here.

RULES:
1. As long as it's from a role playing game, it's okay, this is not just D&D

2. This is a board for story TELLING, not story writing, so don't come here and expect a campaign or advice to write one

3. These are tales of hero PCs, not NPCs

4. Have fun

[Douche]

The other day, our "party leader" (not really) wanted to execute some prisoners who had blown up the central square of the city after they failed to provide us with any information on who hired them. I turned them over to the proper authorities instead. It was quite heroic.

[8BitNinja]

The other day, our "party leader" (not really) wanted to execute some prisoners who had blown up the central square of the city after they failed to provide us with any information on who hired them. I turned them over to the proper authorities instead. It was quite heroic.

What game? I'm just wondering

[Douche]

What game? I'm just wondering

D&D 5e. It wasn't a nuke or anything, it was just like a bunch of black powder kegs that got detonated during a parade.

[8BitNinja]

D&D 5e. It wasn't a nuke or anything, it was just like a bunch of black powder kegs that got detonated during a parade.

Ah, but still heroic all the same, besides, I would let an astral creature in the Hero's Club any day

Hero's Club, that sounds like an amazing sandwich

[Comet]

Last session we caught some religious fanatics who had been murdering bug-people immigrants for months and months and months. We also protected one family of bug-people from said serial killers by hiring some of our clan-cousins to watch over their house while we patrolled the streets. We also gave the family a whole bunch of money to improve their lives in the foreigner quarters they lived in and told them to contact us if any bug-people got in trouble again.

Felt good, man.

[8BitNinja]

Last session we caught some religious fanatics who had been murdering bug-people immigrants for months and months and months. We also protected one family of bug-people from said serial killers by hiring some of our clan-cousins to watch over their house while we patrolled the streets. We also gave the family a whole bunch of money to improve their lives in the foreigner quarters they lived in and told them to contact us if any bug-people got in trouble again.

Felt good, man.

Dark Sun?

Nice, you show that heroes don't have to be epic monster killers

[Comet]

Dark Sun?

Tékumel. Less deserts and more civilization but in many ways just as brutal and oppressive. Which makes moments like these that much more satisfying.

[IntelectPaladin]

I've truly needed this thread. Please forgive the length of this post,
But I'm attempting to encompass a year's worth of details within.

...I need to vent. I apologize. Make of my story what you will.
What follows is the tale of Jev the Paladin, the man who attempted to use morals to solve problems, and succeeded.
And was nearly burned for it. Everything you read has a final, thread-related point. I'll try to summarize.

Spoiler: Hidden for sizing. Thank you for clicking.

Show

In totality, I had legitimately earned a helm with a swivel-mouth guard, With air-cleaning mage-cloth attached, An gauntlet with a paper-and-quill attachment, A small crossbow, Four different swords, Candied scorpions, Adapti-bolts ( Empty metal fletching that can have a tip added), Etc. I kept having ideas. ..And other's didn't like them.


I started a year ago, Going to a local Game-store's D&D Mini-quests. You join for six dollars. I wanted to try D&D
After reading so many stories on these forums.
So i tried.
I joined up as a paladin, Going along a typical starting quest involving an orc fortress. I threw up in my helm, as my first nat 1. (And that's how the swivel-mouthpiece was born.) Then i made my first nat 20 out of just looking at the path. ...I'll skip over too many details.

We went through a log, Freed an troll mother, Killed an exploding zombie orc, And had to invade the orcish bandit castle.After we got to the top, I had to use my warg mount to get to the outer camps and shout out in orcish about how there was a fire. ( We accidentally started it.).
And while i was gathering the orcish tribes, They had killed the troll we had freed. I was not happy about that.
Incidents like this kept happening.
They were bloodthirsty, and i kept being the voice of reason.

Oh, the D.M. was friendly, an mentioned respecting my wanting to be an mentally-able good guy. I mentioned how saving and sparing other monsters and creatures helped the party. My paladin abilities came from my belief in mercy itself, Not from any goddess, or some such.
I could be merciful to creatures, Such as saving a goblin's life, Or i could be merciful for others, such as slaying an unrepentant vampire to mercifully end the villages suffering.
And that policy meant that it could be vice-versa. ( Stop a mindless, hateful village to save a humanist vampire, Etc.)
It has also meant that my carrying rope has been needed, in the more humorous moments, such as repeated flying tackles to capture prisoners, And in one case tossing a gnome, and completely flooring the third D.M we had.

..There was one exception. I would also hunt down and kill anything to do with red-skinned type unholiness. Not a word, No reason accepted, etc. (Yes, The new player race caused some in-game troubles.)
I truly learned what I could do by nearly befriending a lich, and convincing him to keep a prisoner we had with us alive instead of killing him. But we had to end that lich because he just wouldn't stop wanting to take over the world, later in the conversation.
He asked that i bring him an army to control ,etc. I didn't want to face him, since I had actually managed to bring him to tears over questioning his age,
My companions pointed out why this wasn't the best idea, And what an unrepentant lich would do. Sure, he hated the dragon cult, But he also wanted to rule the planet. Bad idea to allow that. Anyways.
The other players hadn't liked what i was doing, But i was also allowing opportunities for amazing stories, so that kept me around.

We're past halfway now, And here's the reason you're still reading: The real trouble started IRL. The old "Go-good-guy D.M. Was leaving his term as D.M., And a rather..creep-person player who had been attending was taking his place. And he was a total... Le'ts say "Disgusting leech" He wanted to control everyone there, and hated my idealism that had saved both me and the party repeatedly. ( We once managed to learn info that saved us all from a kobold i spared.)

So he tried to change how my powers worked. He tried to make them unusable, that my sensing anything unholy blinded me, Made me deaf, Made any action i took to just help everyone out make it look like i was helping myself selfishly. ("You tried to grab the boots while they were fighting. You jerk."), Etc.

So after standing the actual, IRL hostility for two sessions, I left the place for a good six months. His proof-of-leechness was in sending me an email with a stick-and-carrot type wording. ( "You're paladin has broken his oath, and you shall not be allowed etcetera yada blah.. Also, I won't be D.M. ing', But i'll be around.")
And so on. I stayed away for half a year,
But My desire for the game got me going back. He wasn't there, and it turns out a friend of mine who had gotten me metal dice (and gave me a new comic as reward for winning a particularly difficult fight,),
Told me about how there had been a falling-out with that guy. So i thought i could go on as usual.

I was wrong. Later on, I found out that another player 'd been with was actually someone even worse than the other guy, and friends with the leech to boot! Had told the guy that i had come back, so he did, Just to get at me. After that, I just had to leave the game. And i haven't been back since.

D&D Had been a part of my life for a full year. So I'm honestly hoping to continue playing it, But i can't go back to that shop.
And so ends the tale of Jev, who had done much. I'm not typing down my accomplishments because it's not thread-related.
Thank you for letting me post this midnight relief. It's helped to finally type it down.

I'll probably remove it later. But thank you for making somewhere i can finally type it down.
Thank you for reading this.
I hope you have a nice day, whomever you are.

[8BitNinja]

I've truly needed this thread. Please forgive the length of this post,
But I'm attempting to encompass a year's worth of details within.

...I need to vent. I apologize. Make of my story what you will.
What follows is the tale of Jev the Paladin, the man who attempted to use morals to solve problems, and succeeded.
And was nearly burned for it. Everything you read has a final, thread-related point. I'll try to summarize.

Spoiler: Hidden for sizing. Thank you for clicking.

Show

In totality, I had legitimately earned a helm with a swivel-mouth guard, With air-cleaning mage-cloth attached, An gauntlet with a paper-and-quill attachment, A small crossbow, Four different swords, Candied scorpions, Adapti-bolts ( Empty metal fletching that can have a tip added), Etc. I kept having ideas. ..And other's didn't like them.


I started a year ago, Going to a local Game-store's D&D Mini-quests. You join for six dollars. I wanted to try D&D
After reading so many stories on these forums.
So i tried.
I joined up as a paladin, Going along a typical starting quest involving an orc fortress. I threw up in my helm, as my first nat 1. (And that's how the swivel-mouthpiece was born.) Then i made my first nat 20 out of just looking at the path. ...I'll skip over too many details.

We went through a log, Freed an troll mother, Killed an exploding zombie orc, And had to invade the orcish bandit castle.After we got to the top, I had to use my warg mount to get to the outer camps and shout out in orcish about how there was a fire. ( We accidentally started it.).
And while i was gathering the orcish tribes, They had killed the troll we had freed. I was not happy about that.
Incidents like this kept happening.
They were bloodthirsty, and i kept being the voice of reason.

Oh, the D.M. was friendly, an mentioned respecting my wanting to be an mentally-able good guy. I mentioned how saving and sparing other monsters and creatures helped the party. My paladin abilities came from my belief in mercy itself, Not from any goddess, or some such.
I could be merciful to creatures, Such as saving a goblin's life, Or i could be merciful for others, such as slaying an unrepentant vampire to mercifully end the villages suffering.
And that policy meant that it could be vice-versa. ( Stop a mindless, hateful village to save a humanist vampire, Etc.)
It has also meant that my carrying rope has been needed, in the more humorous moments, such as repeated flying tackles to capture prisoners, And in one case tossing a gnome, and completely flooring the third D.M we had.

..There was one exception. I would also hunt down and kill anything to do with red-skinned type unholiness. Not a word, No reason accepted, etc. (Yes, The new player race caused some in-game troubles.)
I truly learned what I could do by nearly befriending a lich, and convincing him to keep a prisoner we had with us alive instead of killing him. But we had to end that lich because he just wouldn't stop wanting to take over the world, later in the conversation.
He asked that i bring him an army to control ,etc. I didn't want to face him, since I had actually managed to bring him to tears over questioning his age,
My companions pointed out why this wasn't the best idea, And what an unrepentant lich would do. Sure, he hated the dragon cult, But he also wanted to rule the planet. Bad idea to allow that. Anyways.
The other players hadn't liked what i was doing, But i was also allowing opportunities for amazing stories, so that kept me around.

We're past halfway now, And here's the reason you're still reading: The real trouble started IRL. The old "Go-good-guy D.M. Was leaving his term as D.M., And a rather..creep-person player who had been attending was taking his place. And he was a total... Le'ts say "Disgusting leech" He wanted to control everyone there, and hated my idealism that had saved both me and the party repeatedly. ( We once managed to learn info that saved us all from a kobold i spared.)

So he tried to change how my powers worked. He tried to make them unusable, that my sensing anything unholy blinded me, Made me deaf, Made any action i took to just help everyone out make it look like i was helping myself selfishly. ("You tried to grab the boots while they were fighting. You jerk."), Etc.

So after standing the actual, IRL hostility for two sessions, I left the place for a good six months. His proof-of-leechness was in sending me an email with a stick-and-carrot type wording. ( "You're paladin has broken his oath, and you shall not be allowed etcetera yada blah.. Also, I won't be D.M. ing', But i'll be around.")
And so on. I stayed away for half a year,
But My desire for the game got me going back. He wasn't there, and it turns out a friend of mine who had gotten me metal dice (and gave me a new comic as reward for winning a particularly difficult fight,),
Told me about how there had been a falling-out with that guy. So i thought i could go on as usual.

I was wrong. Later on, I found out that another player 'd been with was actually someone even worse than the other guy, and friends with the leech to boot! Had told the guy that i had come back, so he did, Just to get at me. After that, I just had to leave the game. And i haven't been back since.

D&D Had been a part of my life for a full year. So I'm honestly hoping to continue playing it, But i can't go back to that shop.
And so ends the tale of Jev, who had done much. I'm not typing down my accomplishments because it's not thread-related.
Thank you for letting me post this midnight relief. It's helped to finally type it down.

I'll probably remove it later. But thank you for making somewhere i can finally type it down.
Thank you for reading this.
I hope you have a nice day, whomever you are.

I'm sorry for your bad D&D experience, but I'm glad to see that there are more Paladins that try to keep their integrity

But seriously, that guy seems like a total jerk

[PoeticDwarf]

I love playing as a good guy, because being evil sucks. But people I'm around seem to always want to play as an evil characters. Do you have any epic tales of great heroes? Do you want to just make up a story and said "yeah, we did that" and pass it off as a real story? Do you want to just post here because you are bored? You can do all of that here.

RULES:
1. As long as it's from a role playing game, it's okay, this is not just D&D

2. This is a board for story TELLING, not story writing, so don't come here and expect a campaign or advice to write one

3. These are tales of hero PCs, not NPCs

4. Have fun

I have exactly the same feeling! Being the light with somemurderhobos. I often play with:
A spellcaster who is LE or NE eith like ultinate might
Someone who just wants to do anything being CN (played the wrong way)
And someone who playes often good or neutral characters but without mercy. Out of combat good and in fights and against enemies stupidly evil
Don't have a tale ready but it will come

[Lawleepawpz]

I may have a contribution later. If I do, I'll make sure to edit this post.

Incidentally! PALADINS! I love Paladins! The issue is that I am the DM and so don't get to fulfill my desire to be a Paladin :(
They have the greatest opportunity for plot

[eru001]

The tale of Sven Erickson.

Spoiler: For length

Show

Sven Erickson was a Dwarven warrior who washed ashore in the town of Whitewood and was hired as a guard for an archaeological expedition to the nearby ruins of an ancient elven city called Saer. During his second night with the party, one of the other party members, an evil character named Sparky who had been infected with lycanthropy unbeknownst to the rest of the party, went insane beneath the full moon, changed, and killed the senior archaeologist and her daughter. while the rest of the party attempted to conceal the event from authorities and protect Sparky, Sven swore veangence for the girl and spent the course of the next year training, and occasionally fighting Sparky, until Sven had finally amassed the skills and resources necesary to engage Sparky in single combat and kill him, permanently. Sven was shortly thereafter assassinated by Sparky's black market associates.

[8BitNinja]

The tale of Sven Erickson.

Spoiler: For length

Show

Sven Erickson was a Dwarven warrior who washed ashore in the town of Whitewood and was hired as a guard for an archaeological expedition to the nearby ruins of an ancient elven city called Saer. During his second night with the party, one of the other party members, an evil character named Sparky who had been infected with lycanthropy unbeknownst to the rest of the party, went insane beneath the full moon, changed, and killed the senior archaeologist and her daughter. while the rest of the party attempted to conceal the event from authorities and protect Sparky, Sven swore veangence for the girl and spent the course of the next year training, and occasionally fighting Sparky, until Sven had finally amassed the skills and resources necesary to engage Sparky in single combat and kill him, permanently. Sven was shortly thereafter assassinated by Sparky's black market associates.

Such a sad end for a great hero

[8BitNinja]

I may have a contribution later. If I do, I'll make sure to edit this post.

Incidentally! PALADINS! I love Paladins! The issue is that I am the DM and so don't get to fulfill my desire to be a Paladin :(
They have the greatest opportunity for plot

I think I love paladins more than you.

Have you seen my signature?

[IntelectPaladin]

I think I love paladins more than you.

Have you seen my signature?

Now now, gents,
Let's not try for one-upmanship about who loves the paladin class more.
It can be decided with an one-upmanship about what we can remember doing as a paladin.

Spoiler: Here's an example:

Show

Once, it was only me and the first D.M. who had arrived at the shop.
The counter clerk signed in so that we could play, And i had a rare chance at a solo-campaign...But the D&D-miniadventure policy stated that at least two characters had to be there for it to be possible. So i did what came naturally.
I had to play two different characters at once. One Jev, The other a rather potential-ridden half-elf forester. With annoyance built-in.
Half-elf: "Can we get a horse?"
Jev: "No."
*Middle of town.*
Half-elf: "Can we get a horse?"
Jev: "No."
*Edge of town*
Half-elf: Can We Get A Horse?"
Jev: "No."
*Finally, the town gate*
Half-elf: "Can we get a horse?"
Jev: *Stops, Sighs, and rests their head against the town gate.*
"Fine. We'll get a horse."
Thankfully another player showed up after the first half-hour.

Well, That's my contribution. And thank you for you're sympathies earlier!
I'll try to make more active posts, If you like!

[Michael7123]

I've truly needed this thread. Please forgive the length of this post,
But I'm attempting to encompass a year's worth of details within.

...I need to vent. I apologize. Make of my story what you will.
What follows is the tale of Jev the Paladin, the man who attempted to use morals to solve problems, and succeeded.
And was nearly burned for it. Everything you read has a final, thread-related point. I'll try to summarize.

Spoiler: Hidden for sizing. Thank you for clicking.

Show

In totality, I had legitimately earned a helm with a swivel-mouth guard, With air-cleaning mage-cloth attached, An gauntlet with a paper-and-quill attachment, A small crossbow, Four different swords, Candied scorpions, Adapti-bolts ( Empty metal fletching that can have a tip added), Etc. I kept having ideas. ..And other's didn't like them.


I started a year ago, Going to a local Game-store's D&D Mini-quests. You join for six dollars. I wanted to try D&D
After reading so many stories on these forums.
So i tried.
I joined up as a paladin, Going along a typical starting quest involving an orc fortress. I threw up in my helm, as my first nat 1. (And that's how the swivel-mouthpiece was born.) Then i made my first nat 20 out of just looking at the path. ...I'll skip over too many details.

We went through a log, Freed an troll mother, Killed an exploding zombie orc, And had to invade the orcish bandit castle.After we got to the top, I had to use my warg mount to get to the outer camps and shout out in orcish about how there was a fire. ( We accidentally started it.).
And while i was gathering the orcish tribes, They had killed the troll we had freed. I was not happy about that.
Incidents like this kept happening.
They were bloodthirsty, and i kept being the voice of reason.

Oh, the D.M. was friendly, an mentioned respecting my wanting to be an mentally-able good guy. I mentioned how saving and sparing other monsters and creatures helped the party. My paladin abilities came from my belief in mercy itself, Not from any goddess, or some such.
I could be merciful to creatures, Such as saving a goblin's life, Or i could be merciful for others, such as slaying an unrepentant vampire to mercifully end the villages suffering.
And that policy meant that it could be vice-versa. ( Stop a mindless, hateful village to save a humanist vampire, Etc.)
It has also meant that my carrying rope has been needed, in the more humorous moments, such as repeated flying tackles to capture prisoners, And in one case tossing a gnome, and completely flooring the third D.M we had.

..There was one exception. I would also hunt down and kill anything to do with red-skinned type unholiness. Not a word, No reason accepted, etc. (Yes, The new player race caused some in-game troubles.)
I truly learned what I could do by nearly befriending a lich, and convincing him to keep a prisoner we had with us alive instead of killing him. But we had to end that lich because he just wouldn't stop wanting to take over the world, later in the conversation.
He asked that i bring him an army to control ,etc. I didn't want to face him, since I had actually managed to bring him to tears over questioning his age,
My companions pointed out why this wasn't the best idea, And what an unrepentant lich would do. Sure, he hated the dragon cult, But he also wanted to rule the planet. Bad idea to allow that. Anyways.
The other players hadn't liked what i was doing, But i was also allowing opportunities for amazing stories, so that kept me around.

We're past halfway now, And here's the reason you're still reading: The real trouble started IRL. The old "Go-good-guy D.M. Was leaving his term as D.M., And a rather..creep-person player who had been attending was taking his place. And he was a total... Le'ts say "Disgusting leech" He wanted to control everyone there, and hated my idealism that had saved both me and the party repeatedly. ( We once managed to learn info that saved us all from a kobold i spared.)

So he tried to change how my powers worked. He tried to make them unusable, that my sensing anything unholy blinded me, Made me deaf, Made any action i took to just help everyone out make it look like i was helping myself selfishly. ("You tried to grab the boots while they were fighting. You jerk."), Etc.

So after standing the actual, IRL hostility for two sessions, I left the place for a good six months. His proof-of-leechness was in sending me an email with a stick-and-carrot type wording. ( "You're paladin has broken his oath, and you shall not be allowed etcetera yada blah.. Also, I won't be D.M. ing', But i'll be around.")
And so on. I stayed away for half a year,
But My desire for the game got me going back. He wasn't there, and it turns out a friend of mine who had gotten me metal dice (and gave me a new comic as reward for winning a particularly difficult fight,),
Told me about how there had been a falling-out with that guy. So i thought i could go on as usual.

I was wrong. Later on, I found out that another player 'd been with was actually someone even worse than the other guy, and friends with the leech to boot! Had told the guy that i had come back, so he did, Just to get at me. After that, I just had to leave the game. And i haven't been back since.

D&D Had been a part of my life for a full year. So I'm honestly hoping to continue playing it, But i can't go back to that shop.
And so ends the tale of Jev, who had done much. I'm not typing down my accomplishments because it's not thread-related.
Thank you for letting me post this midnight relief. It's helped to finally type it down.

I'll probably remove it later. But thank you for making somewhere i can finally type it down.
Thank you for reading this.
I hope you have a nice day, whomever you are.

I'm really sorry you had to go through this.

In a way, it's kinda the general paladin struggle. A paladin shows people a better way of living, and instead of being responsible and following the paladin, they take out their issues on him.

I find that DND can be rather similar to real life in more ways than you would expect.

However, if you want to get back into DND, there are play by post games on this site. It's not quite as good as sitting around a gaming table, but it's still satisfying.

Also, Paladins are amazing. So, so amazing.

[8BitNinja]

Now now, gents,
Let's not try for one-upmanship about who loves the paladin class more.
It can be decided with an one-upmanship about what we can remember doing as a paladin.

Spoiler: Here's an example:

Show

Once, it was only me and the first D.M. who had arrived at the shop.
The counter clerk signed in so that we could play, And i had a rare chance at a solo-campaign...But the D&D-miniadventure policy stated that at least two characters had to be there for it to be possible. So i did what came naturally.
I had to play two different characters at once. One Jev, The other a rather potential-ridden half-elf forester. With annoyance built-in.
Half-elf: "Can we get a horse?"
Jev: "No."
*Middle of town.*
Half-elf: "Can we get a horse?"
Jev: "No."
*Edge of town*
Half-elf: Can We Get A Horse?"
Jev: "No."
*Finally, the town gate*
Half-elf: "Can we get a horse?"
Jev: *Stops, Sighs, and rests their head against the town gate.*
"Fine. We'll get a horse."
Thankfully another player showed up after the first half-hour.

Well, That's my contribution. And thank you for you're sympathies earlier!
I'll try to make more active posts, If you like!

I'm so much of a Paladin fan, I've memorized their spell list

I'm really sorry you had to go through this.

In a way, it's kinda the general paladin struggle. A paladin shows people a better way of living, and instead of being responsible and following the paladin, they take out their issues on him.

I find that DND can be rather similar to real life in more ways than you would expect.

However, if you want to get back into DND, there are play by post games on this site. It's not quite as good as sitting around a gaming table, but it's still satisfying.

Also, Paladins are amazing. So, so amazing.

All of this is true

[Michael7123]

I'm so much of a Paladin fan, I've memorized their spell list

You know what else is a paladin virtue?

Humility

[Âmesang]

No, Humility is the virtue of shepherds; Honor is the virtue of paladins.

My longest-running character is pretty-darned evil (at least in private), and most everything before that was just a bunch of murder-hobo-parties… however some friends and I attempted a play-by-post Pathfinder game on my forum some years back, though it didn't last as long as I would have liked. With that said…

I was playing as a true neutral human ranger named Den Bloodsoul who entered the city of Debolas initially for supplies and general wandering before learning about a local fighting competition; however she uncharacteristically^† set that aside to help a weather-beaten old woman searching for her cat… I mean, she is a ranger; animals are her favored enemy so she should be able to track it down… and track it she did… into a mausoleum. Fortunately this act enabled her to learn a bit of history regarding the city and her family, as well as a magic scroll that had criminal plans written on the back.

…unfortunately, the cat was dead. So she returns the cat to its now very saddened owner who thanked her nonetheless and gave her more historical background info and, by then, the coliseum fights had ended… with a robbery. Den, one friend's rogue character (don't think she ever had a name), and Reptar the winged-kobold paladin chased the thief down to the local castle before loosing sight (we had basically been each doing our own thing up to that point). We got there at different times, though, so after being barred entrance by the suspicious-looking guards she made her way around to sneak over the wall; Reptar was allowed in and got lost in the library… and that's basically where the campaign fell apart (if I remember correctly the referee got severe writers block trying to come up with the subjects of the books Reptar was looking at).

……so after playing D&D/Pathfinder for the better part of a decade, the most heroic thing I can think of is a neutral ranger rescuing a cat. C'est la vie.

^†She was a very typical strong, silent, "survival-of-the-fittest" type; living alone, fighting alone… with the general idea being that by adventuring with a party she'd learn to trust others and find that there's strength in numbers.

[Pyrous]

People don't like to be reminded that they are not good. People play RPGs to escape reality. THIS is why people reject paladins.

Of course, if you are too Lawful, and not that Good, you are not doing your job right.

I want to congratulate the forumite that played a Paladin in a group of strangers, after reading these fora. This requires real world courage.

[8BitNinja]

You know what else is a paladin virtue?

Humility

I'm sorry, I didn't know what I was getting into

No, Humility is the virtue of shepherds; Honor is the virtue of paladins. :smalltongue

No, I think Ultima got it wrong, the Paladin's main virtue would be a hybrid if Spirituality and Justice, Honor is important, but there are things Paladins would sacrifice their honor for

[IntelectPaladin]

……so after playing D&D/Pathfinder for the better part of a decade, the most heroic thing I can think of is a neutral ranger rescuing a cat. C'est la vie.

Well, I can understand why being the good guy may seem hard. I mean, look at the nercorancher storyline.
Horrendous, vile, made me actually gasp repeatedly, etc. I couldn't look away, Like it was a car wreck. With a plane involved.
But what most people seem to enjoy about the evil is the "take" aspect, and the unethical prosperity.
(And what other storyline better defines the term?) I've done my best to adapt, and it's seemed to work.
No other level five paladin has managed to take down a..What were those colossal vultures in the underdark called again?
I can't recall.

People don't like to be reminded that they are not good. People play RPGs to escape reality. THIS is why people reject paladins.

Of course, if you are too Lawful, and not that Good, you are not doing your job right.

I want to congratulate the forumite that played a Paladin in a group of strangers, after reading these fora. This requires real world courage.

Whether or not you mean me, Thank you for saying that, Pyrous. I hope more people have courage in their lives, If only for their own sake. Also, Thank you for caring, Michael. It means a lot. I'll look into those in-forum games. So,
I hope you've had as many interesting events occur with you as I have! (Positive events, if possible.)

So. Let's see, what paladin story can I remember. Ah, here's one of mine:

Spoiler: Spoilered for length, here's a tale of unique action.

Show

This takes place a bit before the "made a lich cry due to introspection" Story.
We had just arrived in the cliche' of a seedy, lawless town. Being ran by blackguard, who had dead bodies hanging from the arch our boat went under. (Not the best attempt to increase tourism.)

We were, of course, accosted by the local authority apon arrival. However, I managed to talk them around to not robbing us, Due to our being there was for official purposes, Among other benefits to the community.
(Such as it was. Buildings were either rubble or under halfhazard construction.)

When we arrived at the inn, It was being ran by a halfing woman and her teenage daughters. ( warning flag right there, considering the type of people who also frequented the shop we played at.)
Here's where people started hating me again.
One of the players, currently being an elderly, half-elf half-psycho wizard, Attempted to bring one of the daughters along with us on a night mission as his "apprentice."(He actually winked.) However, Before we could leave the inn,

I simply stopped him there, And told the daughter that she was too young to go adventuring just yet. (And she didn't know where to kick well enough to go adventuring with that guy yet, But i made no mention of this.)
However, the wizard was...insistent. So,
Doing the one thing no adventurer has ever done to resolve a situation like this before, I took drastic action.
I got the daughter's mother involved.

I walked inside, And explained what was happening to the innkeeper, In a calm, reasonable manner. ("Well, you're daughter has a lot of potential to be an adventurer, But perhaps now isn't the best time to see that for ourselves. You know how the town is going these days.) She thanked me for letting her know, headed outside, and politely brought her daughter back inside.
Some of us were laughing, others were..glaring. (The shopkeeper made mention of how usually she had to ask the cardgame-players to keep it PG, not us, beforehand. I stand by my actions.)

And so we went out onto that little "Fake egg fisticuffs with bandits in the barn" Mini-mission.

Thus ends one of the more memorable moments in the career of Jev. Thank you for reading this!
I hope you all have a good day. Failing that, I hope you all face a bad day early on,
And headlock it into a good one.

[Âmesang]

Well, I can understand why being the good guy may seem hard.

Well, in my case it's just that the groups I played with hardly, ever roleplayed. Kick-in-the-Door can be fun, I'm not saying it isn't… but it also tends to blur after awhile.

I actually have a paladin, Valentine Damascus, I created based on an Adventure Quest character of mine who tries to focus more on the "good" aspect of "lawful-good" (though AQ uses "unity" instead of "lawful"). If she can bring a foe back non-lethally to face justice, great; I find, for her, that killing should be a last resort. Of course life doesn't always work out so ideally. I suppose I just like the vision of her wearing shiny, mithral plate while riding atop a majestic pegasus, a bright light in the shadow that others could rally to.

…it's funny that my three favorite characters are of radically opposing alignments: chaotic-evil, lawful-good, and neutral. I guess it's like "who I'd secretly like to be," "who I should aspire to be," and "who I generally am."

[YossarianLives]

Oh, good. Someone compared an imaginary alignment system to one's real life morals. I totally wasn't expecting that. Y'know, playing a paladin doesn't actually make you an epic hero, and playing an evil character doesn't make you a filthy infidel.


Anyway, I've played paladins too. My first character was a half-elf paladin whose name I cannot recall. His deeds weren't all honourable... But certainly heroic. It's been so long, I can't remember all the details, but I can give you the highlights.

He ran across a desert for two days to deliver warning of an invasion of undead led by a Mummy Lord. He saved the town, but was exhausted to participate in the battle.

He managed to inspire a small army of slaves to escape from their merfolk masters and fight a wale-person.

And, my favourite, and something I'm still proud of to this day, he managed to defeat the rogue PC-turned BBEG by using an elven cloak of disguise and a insanely lucky bluff roll to disguise himself as the avatar of the dark god that said evil PC was attempting to summon and ordering him to burn himself alive as part of the ritual, promising that he would be reborn as an immortal. Obviously I didn't follow through with that promise.

[8BitNinja]

Oh, good. Someone compared an imaginary alignment system to one's real life morals. I totally wasn't expecting that. Y'know, playing a paladin doesn't actually make you an epic hero, and playing an evil character doesn't make you a filthy infidel.


Anyway, I've played paladins too. My first character was a half-elf paladin whose name I cannot recall. His deeds weren't all honourable... But certainly heroic. It's been so long, I can't remember all the details, but I can give you the highlights.

He ran across a desert for two days to deliver warning of an invasion of undead led by a Mummy Lord. He saved the town, but was exhausted to participate in the battle.

He managed to inspire a small army of slaves to escape from their merfolk masters and fight a wale-person.

And, my favourite, and something I'm still proud of to this day, he managed to defeat the rogue PC-turned BBEG by using an elven cloak of disguise and a insanely lucky bluff roll to disguise himself as the avatar of the dark god that said evil PC was attempting to summon and ordering him to burn himself alive as part of the ritual, promising that he would be reborn as an immortal. Obviously I didn't follow through with that promise.

You committed several chaotic actions, how did you not lose your Paladinhood?

[Lord Torath]

Somewhere on these boards (and immortalized in someone's signature) was the story of a Paladin who went down protecting his party in a fight in semi-shallow water. He ended up half drowned, and when revived, immediately took off after another objective. The party cleric asked, "Haven't you done enough heroic things for one day?" Still coughing and dripping as he ran, he gave his reply: "Nope!"

Maybe someone who's got more forum savvy than me can find the actual story. It was a pretty great read.
Edit: Found it: A Noble Death

You committed several chaotic actions, how did you not lose your Paladinhood?

Chaotic deeds don't make you lose your paladin status. That requires willfully committing an evil deed, or becoming something other than Lawful Good. And it requires a constant pattern of chaotic deeds, not just a few, to shift your alignment.

[IntelectPaladin]

Oh, good. Someone compared an imaginary alignment system to one's real life morals. I totally wasn't expecting that. Y'know, playing a paladin doesn't actually make you an epic hero, and playing an evil character doesn't make you a filthy infidel.

If i may disagree, In one aspect. It's rather psychological, But worth mentioning.
"People always say the same lie."
"What lie is that?"
"That mask's hide who you are."
"But don't they?"
"Only their face."

My point being that sure, while roleplaying, we aren't putting ourselves into the game swinging swords,
having that same character-player separation gives us some leeway in other ways.
We feel like we can say what we want, do what we want when we want, (To some degree,) And do exactly what we feel like doing.
(We can even put on freaking purple attire and dance the can-can.)

But it's what people do with that freedom that defines who they are.

I've seen too many people use "Oh, that was only in character", To explain away horrible things.
I won't burden you with the details, But I'll leave it at "Fireplace, screaming, Actual table flips."

I keep hearing "It wasn't me, it was my character." When it comes down to who is making the choices, what's the difference.
Sorry to take up you're time. And please,
feel free to dispute this statement however you wish.

[YossarianLives]

You committed several chaotic actions, how did you not lose your Paladinhood?

What Lord Torath said. But I don't see what's so chaotic about any of those things, except the last one, but I also stopped the apocalypse with that, so I figure it balances out.
EDIT: Didn't see this

If i may disagree, In one aspect. It's rather psychological, But worth mentioning.
"People always say the same lie."
"What lie is that?"
"That mask's hide who you are."
"But don't they?"
"Only their face."

My point being that sure, while roleplaying, we aren't putting ourselves into the game swinging swords,
having that same character-player separation gives us some leeway in other ways.
We feel like we can say what we want, do what we want when we want, (To some degree,) And do exactly what we feel like doing.
(We can even put on freaking purple attire and dance the can-can.)

But it's what people do with that freedom that defines who they are.

I've seen too many people use "Oh, that was only in character", To explain away horrible things.
I won't burden you with the details, But I'll leave it at "Fireplace, screaming, Actual table flips."

I keep hearing "It wasn't me, it was my character." When it comes down to who is making the choices, what's the difference.
Sorry to take up you're time. And please,
feel free to dispute this statement however you wish.

I'm just speaking from my personal experience here, but the kindest and most generous person I've ever met consistently plays terrifying psychopaths in RPGs, but I would trust her with my life and one of the most dishonest and irresponsible people I've ever had the misfortune to game with plays nothing but lawful good paladins, clerics and crusaders.

That aside, I think it comes down to what kind of story the person wants to tell. A group of people who wants to tell a story about mighty heroes overcoming evil after a lengthy struggle will probably play good-aligned people who fit that story. People interested in a tale about nitty-gritty, pulpy, anti-heroes who manage to sort of save the day despite being drunkards and thieves will probably play characters in the area of southern neutral. Ultimately RPGs are about telling stories and having fun and I think far too many people read way too much into them. I don't want to be judged because I choose to play a criminal in an imaginary game.

[8BitNinja]

What Lord Torath said. But I don't see what's so chaotic about any of those things, except the last one, but I also stopped the apocalypse with that, so I figure it balances out.

I do agree that good does override law, and I consider myself lawful good