Alternative Character Interpretation/Tabletop Games: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]''

** One word: Elves. Even after ''The Complete Book of Elves''. Naturally, the internet demonstrated that there are both people [[Can't Argue with Elves|squeeing]] over these obliviously enough to not notice [[Screw You, Elves|any of the jokes]] refined in the book, taking all for face value with complete seriousness and run with it, and vigilant geniuses who take jokes there for face value and then "discover" (GASP!) that elves aren't as cuddly as they present themselves.

** The Dark Powers in the ''[[Ravenloft]]'' campaign setting are usually interpreted as being evil, since they are the [[Genius Loci|presumed masters behind the eponymous Demiplane of Dread, a place of evil and horror]], but it is also possible that they are good, and use Ravenloft as a prison for the worst villains and monsters in the multiverse. If the cage sometimes seems a gilded one, remember that each of the major villains trapped there are also given curses [[Cool and Unusual Punishment|appropriate to their crimes]].

*** 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.

** "Pelor The Burning Hate" is a reinterpretation of Pelor, Neutral Good god of the Sun, Light, Strength, and Healing - in part inspired by [[Tutorial Failure|examples incongruent with the given rules and statistics]] (thanks to D&D3 suffering from lazy editors and massively copypasted [[padding]] at the same time). It manages to remain consistent with everything attributed to Pelor, while explaining his every action and trait as actually evil in disguise. [http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19558798/Pelor_the_Burning_Hate This] in turn is [http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Pelor#Pelor.2C_the_Burning_Hate split] on whether he's actually [[Chaotic Evil]] or [[Lawful Evil]].

** In 4th edition of, Asmodeus usurped his position from [[No Name Given|He Who Was]], his patron deity. A lot of text tries to portray He Who Was as a benevolent deity, but angels are supposed to be extensions of their patron deity's will. How did Asmodeus get so many angels on his side? Perhaps He Who Was wasn't as squeaky clean as he's made out to be. In fact, HHW might have been the god of ambition, and the reason he had so many usurpers following Asmodeus was because of their ambitious nature. (HHW is [[YHWH|one letter away]] from being a VERY [[Significant Anagram]]...)

*** In regards to Asmodeus and He Who Was, there's some new information out about it. He Who Was was apparently the leader of the gods in their war with the primordials, but was such a benevolent god that he had little taste for war and battle and was a poor general. Asmodeus was the most powerful and skilled general the gods had, and his angels were their most powerful army. His tactics, however, were brutal and horrifying to He Who Was, who eventually cast Asmodeus down for his actions. Perhaps the peace loving He Who Was created Asmodeus and his army as an aspect of himself, an expression of his ruthless, violent tendencies so that he didn't have to live with them himself. Which could have been why he simply cast Asmodeus down, instead of destroying him outright. He couldn't bring himself to destroy part of himself.

* [[BattleTech]] as a whole (At least up until the Jihad) seems to have been an exercise in creating these, 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.