So I'm reading through some old forum posts on BioWare's Neverwinter Nights forums. If you've never played Neverwinter Nights, it's just a computer game based on D&D. Anyway, there's this guy who is apparently fundamentally against magic use. Like, at all.

... Oh, I don't mean he's roleplaying a character against magic, but that he's actually ethically against magic use. To make it better, he complains about the evil alignment shift he gets when he kills prostitutes and thieves in the game (who are all non-hostiles); he thinks the penalty alignment shift is unfair. He refuses to use any of the "lie" options in game. He also refuses to allow Aribeth or any of the clerics in the game to heal him, because they're "false god worshippers."

He finally mentions he's playing a "Cleric of God." Like, /the/ God.

... wow.

Magic is so ingrained in everything in DnD-related games... why in the world would you play such a game if you were so ethically and morally against a world saturated by magic and boasting a pantheon of "false" gods? Good grief, it's like an exercise in frustration. There's areas in the game where you absolutely cannot progress without using magic stones, casting spells, having spells cast on you, using magic potions... on and on. None of this even touches on using +1 weaponry (that would be magically enhanced weapons), which becomes pretty much essential as you get into the later bits of the game and up against bosses with damage resistance.

... I know I'm rambling. Point is, why would you play a game that is popular because of a bunch of stuff you are morally and ethically against? What are you getting out of it?

The-Excel wrote:

He's either advertising a self-imposed challenge or trying to prove a point. The motivations and details of either are anyone's guess.

The funny (?) thing is, though, is that he's posting on the forums to ask how to use console commands in the cheat window to teleport himself past the areas that require magic. Er, so he's so against using magic that he's willing to cheat to get past it.

Also, to get past the section that required him to lie, he had his roommate click all the necessary dialogue options for him. He said his roommate didn't really read the conversation very closely, so it "didn't really count."

Naw, the impression I got was that it's okay to lie if someone else does it for you and they don't know exactly what they're lying about.