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{{trope}}
* This happened a lot in the ''[[Old World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|Old World of Darkness]]'':
** Nowhere did it stand out more than in ''[[Mage: The Ascension (Tabletop Game)|Mage: The Ascension]]''. When the games began, the mystically oriented Traditions were the good guys fighting a war of ideology against the all-powerful Technocracy, who tried to "smooth out" the bumps in reality through extermination of all supernatural creatures. As the game went through multiple revisions, however, the flaws and in-fighting of the Traditions began to come to the fore, and it became possible for the player characters to be a group of young, idealistic Technocrats trying to reform a corrupt monolith from the inside.<br /><br />The later sourcebooks (and the old stuff if you look hard enough) make it more and more easy to believe that the Technocracy, even with its flaws, really is doing the right thing by trying to save humanity from all the supernatural things that want to eat them, enslave them, or remake the world in their own image. A world ruled by the Technocracy might be bleak, but imagine a world dominated by the philosophical paradigm of, say, [[The Magocracy|The Order of Hermes]], or the [[Gaia's Vengeance|Verbena]]...<br /><br />To put a point on it: depending on who you ask, the Technocracy is a genocidal [[Big Brother Is Watching|Thought Police]] bent on creating a stagnant world they have absolute control over, a bunch of [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Well-Intentioned Extremists]] for whom [[Utopia Justifies the Means]], or [[Designated Villain|Designated Villains]] who are the absolutely justified in their belief that supernatural influence over the Human Race is a quantifiable bad thing. By that same token, the Council of Nine either represents the last best hope for creativity, nobility and the realization of personal potential, or a bunch of selfish children who refuse to acknowledge the true implication of their abilities against the Greater Good. It's all heavily dependent on where on the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]] the World of Darkness lies. Unfortunately for the Traditions, this is the [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|World of Darkness.]]
** The central idea of ''[[Demon: The Fallen (Tabletop Game)|Demon: The Fallen]]'' is the alternate interpretation that Lucifer rebelled [[Satan Is Good|in order to save humanity]] from being condemned to ignorance by an uncaring God. But even that interpretation is subject to a decent amount of doubt. Was it for love? Or was Lucifer simply ambitious? Or did he do it because God ''told'' him to?<br /><br />And there's the ever continuing problem of getting the players to not just be [[Always Chaotic Evil]] since they are called demons. Some go for [[Blood Knight]] types, some go for manipulative Al-Pachino-From-Devils-Advocate types, and almost all of them miss the point of the game. The expanded power sets (Lore of Violation anyone?) doesn't really help with this.
* It happens a lot in ''[[Exalted (Tabletop Game)|Exalted]]''.
** Solars: Are they returning divinely empowered rulers who will lead Creation into a new golden age, or are they destined to fall into the same madness as before and make things even worse?
** Dragon-Bloods: Pitiful, tyrannical usurpers or noble "little guys" who did what had to be done and kept the world from falling to pieces?
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** Possibly one of the biggest ones in the whole of 40k is the Emperor. Is he... the guiding light of humanity in the darkness, a weakling corpse barely a shadow of his former self, or simply planning a comeback? Was he an idealistic crusader who wanted to establish an era of hope and strength for humanity, or a mass-murdering tyrant who ruthlessly crushed all opposition and was willing to exterminate entire non-human species in order to establish his own rule? Did he genuinely desire the destruction of religion in an effort to impose his will upon the free thoughts of man, or was it only in order to guide a newly psychic humanity to a future free of chaos? We may never know...
*** It's unlikely that anyone will get a clear answer. GW uses the Emperor (as a character) very sparingly, and so very little about him is known. Suffice to say, a massive amount of 40k depends on exactly how much the Emperor knew...did he deliberately scatter the Primarchs or was he the victim of a terrible accident? Did he deliberately choose to die at Terra or was it an accident too?...
* Yawgmoth from ''[[Magic: theThe Gathering]]''. A [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] [[Badass Normal]] [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist]] [[Utopia Justifies the Means|who made use of some innovative methods to grant his fellows a better life]] only to be [[Love Makes You Evil|betrayed by the woman he loved]] [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|and exiled into a void plane for nine millennia]], thus making his [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|more than justified]]? Or perhaps an [[Affably Evil]] [[Deadly Doctor]] with [[Munchausen Syndrome|Munchausen by proxy]], [[Machine Worship|who lost his mind]] [[Mechanical Lifeforms|worshipping machines]] and became an [[Evilutionary Biologist]] ([[Anvilicious|remember]], [[Science Is Bad]])?
* ''[[Warhammer]]'' isn't immune either.
** [[The Empire]]: The most advanced, powerful and well-intentioned human society in the world, and the best hope for humanity's survival? Or, well, [[The Empire]]?
** The Lizardmen: Ruthless, alien monsters willing to commit genocide to advance an ancient plan that already went wrong well beyond correction? Or the last honest and purposeful race in the world trying to make things right, and best hope against the forces of Chaos? Or a race of lost children, trying to enact a plan complex beyond understanding while attempting to contact parents that have long ago passed away?
*** More column B than collumn A. The targets of said genocide (or plan to exterminate such as Orks, Skaven, and Beastmen) are typically pretty nasty creatures themselves, making it seem like an example of [[Kick the Son of Aa Bitch]]. They also tend to leave fellow children of the Old Ones (Humans barring Chaos, Dwarves, Elves) alone unless they encroach on Lizard Man territory.
** Bretonnia: Ancient, chivalric and noble nation that is a shining ray of decency in the old world? Or a corrupt, barbaric feudal nation that pretends at being civilised whilst brutally suppressing the lower classes and will eventually meet its downfall either by peasant revolution or the ramifications that the state religion is founded upon an elaborate elven lie is true?
*** A nation of unwitting Slaanesh worshippers, who are only initiated into the secret if they become Grail Knights?
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** The [[Cool and Unusual Punishment]] suffered by every dark lord is designed to break them and hit them where it really hurts. For example, Strahd von Zarovich, who murdered his brother to steal his fiancée (and countless other crimes) is cursed with vampirism and forced to relive the loss of his beloved Tatiana every generation. Unless things have changed in the latest edition, the setting is called The Land of Mists or something similar by its residents; Ravenloft is from ''Ravana's Loft'', and is Strahd's absolutely trope-tastic [[Haunted Castle]], named for Strahd's mother.
** The problem is, almost none of the villains trapped in Ravenloft are actually major (only Vecna/Kaz and Lord Soth, all long gone from Ravenloft, were bigshots before going there). Dark Powers pick people whom they can make to suffer beautifully, not those really dangerous or really heinous. Snatching a guy who murdered his brother to steal his fiancée out of love, when ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' is chock-full of people whose job description amounts to killing and torturing innocents [[For the Evulz]]? On the other hand, core domains of Ravenloft often are relatively safe places to live, compared to what is normal to DnD-land. Commonly encountering monsters are weak enough to remain in hiding, instead of rampaging and assaulting openly, and there is a comparative shortage of insanely powerful psychopaths on the loose. To be fair, it's not like TSR and later [[Wot C]] could denude their other campaign settings of all their good villains. Also, the Dark Powers may just not have the power to take all the really major villains from all over the multiverse; it's not like the Dark Powers have ever been portrayed as omnipotent, even within Ravenloft. Maybe they're just doing the best they can. Also, the fact that Ravenloft is in some ways ''safer'' for the average person than the typical campaign setting, what with the lack of lots of randomly rampaging monsters, may be further support for the idea that the Dark Powers are good.
* [[Battle TechBattleTech]] as a whole (At least up until the Jihad) seems to have been an exercise in creating [[AC Is]], all depending on what faction you decide to side with. Except for a few unambiguous [[Kick the Dog|puppy-punters]] like [[The Caligula|Romano Liao]] or [[Royal Brat|Katherine ]][[Evil Prince|Steiner-Davion]], most characters can have several Interpretations.
** Hanse Davion: [[Magnificent Bastard]] who [[Incredibly Lame Pun|outfoxed]] his hidebound or deranged opponents, or [[Mary Sue]] who only got by on [[Creator's Pet|writer's fiat]]? His son, Victor: [[The Napoleon|Midget who can't possibly live up to his father's legacy]] or skilled warrior hobbled by politics and the above-mentioned evil sister?
** The Clans: [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Proud Warrior Race Guys]] who deserve to lead Humanity, or [[Lawful Stupid]] [[Mary Sue|Mary Sues]] with [[The Munchkin|way too much power]]?
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