(More for RPG Blog Carnival: Morality.)

Creating moral codes is in and of itself an interesting process. Most of the moral codes I’ve seen have been based on an existing one (often the creator’s own), with tweaks to accommodate the world. Some people seem to make their codes out of figuring out what’s going to appeal to their target audience, be they readers/TV watchers who are supposed to root for the character so designed or PCs from whom the creator wants a certain reaction. Others do it by trial and error, sticking the characters in situations first and creating the moral code from their attempts to explain why one thing happened but not another. (I’m fond of this method.) There are even some for whom it’s based on instincts or innate nature, either justifying it through morals or using the code to try to rise above it. And of course there are the ones who get it from game-mechanic behavior stats, be they Alignment or Virtues or whatever the local equivalent is.

But there’s one other way to go about it, and that’s looking at the moral code as being based around one or more important concepts. Sometimes these things are in and of themselves virtues to be emulated; the stereotypical healer-archetype’s code seems to be based around compassion, and I find many of my characters to be at the core about loyalty. Others are behaviors; self-sacrifice, for instance, or self-improvement. Still others’ concepts actually are pure concepts, like duty or justice. Yet others base themselves around the image of an individual, attempting emulation. And to confuse matters, there are the people whose codes are based entirely around their goals, or around the metaphors by which they see the world around them.

Regardless of what the concept is, most of the character’s moral decisions are likely to in some way tie back to it. In some cases, this is a direct and obvious relationship, like someone whose code is based on loyalty refusing to do something that would involve betraying a friend. Other times, it’s more indirect, like the same person making a particular point of trying to help a friend brainstorm solutions for her difficulties with her organization—that may not seem like loyalty until you consider that part of the point is helping make sure her friend doesn’t quit unless it’s necessary.

I’ve found two ways to utilize this concept of concept-based morality. One, of course, is to use it as the basis of a code, or at least as the basis when dealing with a situation you’re not sure how the character would handle. If given a situation, it can be straightforward to figure out which of the options—if any—most closely ties in with the concept behind the code.

The other is to better understand a character by attempting to take apart what she’s already done and try to find the concept behind it. The last time I tried this, it was by guess and check, assuming one concept and then seeing how well it fit for most of the really important actions. It’s also possible to do it by assigning possible concepts to all the actions one by one and then seeing where the matches are, though that can be a bit time-consuming. Sometimes there isn’t going to be just one, though often there’s one that takes precedence over another. But even just realizing the unifying concept is a possibility might make one more open to understanding how it works.

Check it out and think it through!