Alternative Character Interpretation/Tabletop Games: Difference between revisions

** Nowhere did it stand out more than in ''[[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.

::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]]...

::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 on the Tin|World of Darkness.]]

** The central idea of ''[[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?

* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' is ''made'' for this, and has room for all possible interpretations of ''every'' side, from the Imperium to Chaos.

** The Imperium of Man: Are they a [[The Empire|vast, monolithic entity]] of [[Humans Are Bastards|xenophobic]] [[Church Militant|fundamentalists]], or simply a race that has been forced to [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|resort to extreme measures]] in order to ensure their very survival in the [[Crapsack World|Grim and Dark]] future?

*** The Space Marines: psychotic butchers driven solely by hatred for everything nonhuman (and yet barely human themselves), or noble paladins of the Emperor and defenders of all humanity's goodness? Depends upon the chapter. Within chapters: [[Night Lords]]? Psychopath butchers, or self-sacrificing heroes who enforced the Imperium and were rewarded by [[Malicious Slander]]? The Dark Angels? Covering up their primarch's decision to sit out the [[Horus Heresy]] or shamed, attempting to atone for the treachery of their members?

**** For several years, the Dark Angels were very notably part of this genre because it wasn't clear whether Lion El'Johnson or Luther was the actual traitor. It goes a step further because it was also possible there was no traitor faction and the conflict was bred purely from paranoia. The [[Horus Heresy]] series did remove the doubts of what actually happened though.

*** The Adeptus Mechanicus: Is their obsession with controlling the use of all human technology merely the product of a powerful elite not wishing that power to slip through their fingers, or is it meant to safeguard the Imperium from technological terrors such as mass robot uprisings? Is the "Omnissiah" some sinister dark god imprisoned on Mars or merely another co-equal aspect of the God-Emperor? Furthermore, do the AdMech actually worship their toasters and calculators while having no idea how they really work, or are they (at least the higher ups) just running the Cult of the Machine as a front? (Most of the novels seem to treat them as competent engineers whose craft is integrated with their religion.)

**** The fluff explains that it is because of this worship that the quality of their machines is so good. Since technological prowess is akin to a divine skill and enlightenment, any particular priest will take great care to learn every aspect of his trade, and apply equal dedication when actually fixing something. Therefore he will not skimp on the finest materials and will always keep his machine in top working order, in turn reinforcing the idea that failure and malfunctions are heresy.

** The Tau: Sinister fundamentalist collectivists with no place for individuality, or idealistic and good-hearted folk heroically seeking a prosperous future for the universe? Naively doomed to sink in the mire of [[Crapsack World|GRIMDARK]] reality, or bearers of the hopeful torch the universe needs to rekindle itself?

*** Commander Farsight: cruel renegade or secret agent of the Empire, forced to bear the hatred of his own people? Or freedom fighter trying to free his people from Ethereal mind control? Or shortsighted idiot/enemy pawn that's undermining one of the few things keeping the Tau from having to resort to the kinds of extremes their contemporaries have to. Even ''Games Workshop'' plays with this one, at one point having an article on their website that had someone converting him into a ''Necron'' pawn. Abnormally long lived Tau? [[Legacy Character|Or a succession of same-named individuals?]]

**** The truth to this question resides with the sword he carries. There are theories that Farsight is now an Eldar puppet due to the Dawn Blade being rumored to be one of the swords of Vaul, one of the only weapons that can permanately kill a C'Tan. In addition, the blade looks very much Eldar in design (see Wraithlord sword).

*** The Ethereal Caste itself. Benevolent rulers who hoisted the Tau out of a Dark Age, replacing continual war and strife with order and purpose, or oppressive tyrants who use [[Mind Control]] to ruthlessly increase their own power and glory, or [[Shoot the Dog|dog shooting pragmatists]]? And where did they come from in the first place? Are they freaks of evolution, creations of mad science, or something even worse?

**** There is a fan theory that the Etheral's are the last ditch effort of the Old Ones to save the universe by helping create an Empire that could unite all of the races against Chaos/Tyranids/Orks/Necrons.

*** 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.

** 3.5 Edition's ''Races of the Wild'' reveals something interesting about halflings and their religion: Yondalla wasn't always the squeaky clean paragon of Lawful Good she is today. She created the halflings by stealing the best bits from all the other races, and the gods punished her by forcing her to split into two goddesses: [[Lawful Good]] Yondalla and [[Chaotic Neutral]] Dallah Thaun. They are still the same person, sharing thoughts and memories, which is why there are so many CN halflings who can claim, even under magical compulsion, to worship a LG goddess. This is a canon example of ACI, as no other books even so much as mention it; other races are forbidden to even know about Dallah Thaun. This suggests that the halflings, generally seen as no more than harmlessly mischievous, are knowingly perpetuating a culture-wide scam that allows them to steal, cheat and take vengeance all they want, and all in the name of a lawful good deity.

*** What's really strange is that the other gods are apparently in on it. They know of Dallah's existence, but even high level non-halfling clerics who can talk to their gods directly are seemingly kept in the dark. Good gods, evil gods, lawful ones, chaotic ones, none seem to have any problem with keeping this a secret from everyone. So either there is a truly massive cover-up going on (with even gods who despise each other playing along) or ''there is no Dallah Thaun'', the book is a fabrication, and the halflings made her up as some sort of excuse for doing as they please.