Compilation of Moral Dilemmas (Quandaries)
Sept 29, 2016 0:27:48 GMT
lasersniper and Sidera like this
Post by dmsam on Sept 29, 2016 0:27:48 GMT
A few of us have been chatting in the new established DM Banter Ver 2.0 by Lasersniper using discord. It is a tie back to Ep: 58 Moral Dilemmas. Let's see what the collective minds of DMB can come up with for a compilation of moral dilemmas for our PCs! You are also welcome to join us over at the discord channel (no voice required). Oh, and use these sparingly, or your players may flip the table. In fact, be careful about using these, because players will try to find a fourth way, even risking their lives in doing so!
1. Wartime: You are wandering behind enemy lines as agents/specialists. Following the moans of injured men, you stumble upon a cleric/medic/bard who is healing injured enemy troops. The man is clearly a non-combatant, but if left alone, he will send more enemies to the front lines. What do you do?
2. Wartime: Your country/kingdom's armies recently won a large battle, forcing the enemy troops to retreat. While reclaiming a previously enemy occupied town, you find that the local church/temple is full of sick/injured enemy solders too weak to walk. In the haste of their retreat, the enemy troops have left their own behind. What do you do?
3. Wilderness: While camping in a more destitute part of the country, bandits/highwaymen ambush your party. You notice that several of the bandit archers that stood in the treeline are teenage boys who look frightened and unsure about robbing you.
4. Good/Lawful: You chase a thief/assassin/spy back to his hideout, only to discover that he has a family with young children who depend on him for their livelihood.
5. Lawful: You chase a thief/assassin/spy back to his hideout, only to discover that it is the house of a PC. The criminal is the PC paladin's brother!
6. Lawful: The crowned prince has been kidnapped, and the king sends you to rescue him. You know the crowned prince to be a cowardly, awkward, ugly and overall useless individual. There are other prospective heirs to the throne, most of them better choices than the one who is missing. . .what do you do?
7. Good/Lawful: A VIP NPC kidnaps your family and threatens you to do something against your will. What do you do?
8. Warlock: Your patron asks you to alter a rival patron's summoning circle. In doing so, you will summon your patron into this world. He will no doubt cause wanton destruction everywhere. If you don't do as he says, he threatens to withdraw his patronage.
9. Lawful: You catch a vigilante who has been committing violent crimes against the rich to feed the poor. His crimes are enough to warrant capital punishment. However, he is enormously popular among the common folk, and large scale riots may erupt from his execution.
10. Ally: A powerful and dependable ally of yours with a stringent code of morality (unicorn, angel, paladin) is bound to dislike what you are about do, and may leave/fight you should you go through with it. Good luck.
11. Sacrifice: You may try to interpose yourself in front of an ally/VIP to provide cover against an incoming, potentially lethal projectile (think a great-arrow fired from a dragonslayer long bow coated with purple worm poison). - SouldiamondDM
12. Sacrifice: A VIP or party member has been afflicted by a lethal curse/disease/poison. The cure involves an act of great (or human) sacrifice - your eye, your youth, your life, children's souls or whatever.
13. Good: A war-torn or new country decides to improve its infrastructure, but lacks the labor necessary to accomplish this task. Slavery has been a historically effective way to establish infrastructure for many (if not most) civilizations, and the council/senate/king is debating on a new policy. You have a seat on the council/senate, or your opinion matters greatly to the king. What do you do?
14. Wartime: You are on the losing side of a war, and your allies are beginning to resort to desperate means - chemical warfare, biological warfare, necromancy, child soldiers. . . What is the cost of victory? Alternatively, you are on the winning side of a war, and your enemies are beginning to employ desperate measures. The enemy soldiers are now being filled by boys barely old enough to hold their swords. What do you do?
15. CAUTION Paladin/Cleric: You are being forced to renounce your faith at gun/sword point. Would you rather die or hold on to what you believe?
16. Wartime: After a long and bloody battle, your enemies retreat before you. As your depressed, frustrated soldiers pass through a rival country's village, they begin to kill, rape and pillage the villagers. As their commanding officer, what would you like to do? As their peer, what would you like to do?
17. Assassin: Do you leave witnesses alive? What about a little boy/girl who just witnessed your cold-blooded murder of their parents?
18. Good: You find a child prophesied to bring a great upheaval upon the world. You have a chance to prevent this upheaval, do you? - frotastic
19. Sacrifice: In order for a chance to save a dying world, your child must be sacrificed. Would you rather take your chances with the world or let the child die?
20: CAUTION: You are thrown into a gladiatorial arena. At first you convince yourself that you are fighting for your own survival. Then you convince yourself you fight for fame and glory. Now, your former PC stands before you. What do you do?
21. Magic/World: You find out that the gods are parasites that feed off of souls, and that the afterlife is a lie. However, the gods do provide the Weave, which in turn provides the platform upon which all magics are built. Do you oppose them and tear down the very fabric of magic itself, dooming all life to the mundane? Or do you keep their dark secret? - Lasersniper
22. Treasure: You have to choose between two or more powerful artifacts without knowing their benefits and detriments. They are mutually exclusive, and they are almost equally good or bad.
23. Good/Lawful: While trying to secure an audience with a king/sovereign/lord, you are tangled in a ridiculous and questionable bureaucratic process. Do you continue through the "proper" channels?
24. Lawful Good/Paladin/Knight/Cleric: A captured villain tries to strike a deal with you. If you promise to release/spare him, he will tell you about the BBEG's weakness. Do you unleash this menace into the world once more? Or is stopping the greater evil more important?
25. Lawful: The party has a secret that if exposed, can severely damage their reputation or worse. When an NPC was caught discovering this secret, what would you do?
26. Good: While infiltrating an enemy hideout, the heroes are spotted by a child, who immediately ran off to alert enemy guards. If left alone, the child could compromise the party's location. . .
1. Wartime: You are wandering behind enemy lines as agents/specialists. Following the moans of injured men, you stumble upon a cleric/medic/bard who is healing injured enemy troops. The man is clearly a non-combatant, but if left alone, he will send more enemies to the front lines. What do you do?
2. Wartime: Your country/kingdom's armies recently won a large battle, forcing the enemy troops to retreat. While reclaiming a previously enemy occupied town, you find that the local church/temple is full of sick/injured enemy solders too weak to walk. In the haste of their retreat, the enemy troops have left their own behind. What do you do?
3. Wilderness: While camping in a more destitute part of the country, bandits/highwaymen ambush your party. You notice that several of the bandit archers that stood in the treeline are teenage boys who look frightened and unsure about robbing you.
4. Good/Lawful: You chase a thief/assassin/spy back to his hideout, only to discover that he has a family with young children who depend on him for their livelihood.
5. Lawful: You chase a thief/assassin/spy back to his hideout, only to discover that it is the house of a PC. The criminal is the PC paladin's brother!
6. Lawful: The crowned prince has been kidnapped, and the king sends you to rescue him. You know the crowned prince to be a cowardly, awkward, ugly and overall useless individual. There are other prospective heirs to the throne, most of them better choices than the one who is missing. . .what do you do?
7. Good/Lawful: A VIP NPC kidnaps your family and threatens you to do something against your will. What do you do?
8. Warlock: Your patron asks you to alter a rival patron's summoning circle. In doing so, you will summon your patron into this world. He will no doubt cause wanton destruction everywhere. If you don't do as he says, he threatens to withdraw his patronage.
9. Lawful: You catch a vigilante who has been committing violent crimes against the rich to feed the poor. His crimes are enough to warrant capital punishment. However, he is enormously popular among the common folk, and large scale riots may erupt from his execution.
10. Ally: A powerful and dependable ally of yours with a stringent code of morality (unicorn, angel, paladin) is bound to dislike what you are about do, and may leave/fight you should you go through with it. Good luck.
11. Sacrifice: You may try to interpose yourself in front of an ally/VIP to provide cover against an incoming, potentially lethal projectile (think a great-arrow fired from a dragonslayer long bow coated with purple worm poison). - SouldiamondDM
12. Sacrifice: A VIP or party member has been afflicted by a lethal curse/disease/poison. The cure involves an act of great (or human) sacrifice - your eye, your youth, your life, children's souls or whatever.
13. Good: A war-torn or new country decides to improve its infrastructure, but lacks the labor necessary to accomplish this task. Slavery has been a historically effective way to establish infrastructure for many (if not most) civilizations, and the council/senate/king is debating on a new policy. You have a seat on the council/senate, or your opinion matters greatly to the king. What do you do?
14. Wartime: You are on the losing side of a war, and your allies are beginning to resort to desperate means - chemical warfare, biological warfare, necromancy, child soldiers. . . What is the cost of victory? Alternatively, you are on the winning side of a war, and your enemies are beginning to employ desperate measures. The enemy soldiers are now being filled by boys barely old enough to hold their swords. What do you do?
15. CAUTION Paladin/Cleric: You are being forced to renounce your faith at gun/sword point. Would you rather die or hold on to what you believe?
16. Wartime: After a long and bloody battle, your enemies retreat before you. As your depressed, frustrated soldiers pass through a rival country's village, they begin to kill, rape and pillage the villagers. As their commanding officer, what would you like to do? As their peer, what would you like to do?
17. Assassin: Do you leave witnesses alive? What about a little boy/girl who just witnessed your cold-blooded murder of their parents?
18. Good: You find a child prophesied to bring a great upheaval upon the world. You have a chance to prevent this upheaval, do you? - frotastic
19. Sacrifice: In order for a chance to save a dying world, your child must be sacrificed. Would you rather take your chances with the world or let the child die?
20: CAUTION: You are thrown into a gladiatorial arena. At first you convince yourself that you are fighting for your own survival. Then you convince yourself you fight for fame and glory. Now, your former PC stands before you. What do you do?
21. Magic/World: You find out that the gods are parasites that feed off of souls, and that the afterlife is a lie. However, the gods do provide the Weave, which in turn provides the platform upon which all magics are built. Do you oppose them and tear down the very fabric of magic itself, dooming all life to the mundane? Or do you keep their dark secret? - Lasersniper
22. Treasure: You have to choose between two or more powerful artifacts without knowing their benefits and detriments. They are mutually exclusive, and they are almost equally good or bad.
23. Good/Lawful: While trying to secure an audience with a king/sovereign/lord, you are tangled in a ridiculous and questionable bureaucratic process. Do you continue through the "proper" channels?
24. Lawful Good/Paladin/Knight/Cleric: A captured villain tries to strike a deal with you. If you promise to release/spare him, he will tell you about the BBEG's weakness. Do you unleash this menace into the world once more? Or is stopping the greater evil more important?
25. Lawful: The party has a secret that if exposed, can severely damage their reputation or worse. When an NPC was caught discovering this secret, what would you do?
26. Good: While infiltrating an enemy hideout, the heroes are spotted by a child, who immediately ran off to alert enemy guards. If left alone, the child could compromise the party's location. . .
