The Usefulness of Grey Morality (D&D Experience)

Using grey morality injects ambiguity into a story. This ambiguity can then be used to drive conflicts and forge characters.

This happens a lot in my current Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Right now, there's this hobgoblin warlord that's building an army. He uses slave labor, gathers lots of weapons, and absorbs independent goblinoid communities into his army. Sounds bad, right? When the party infiltrated his camp as caravan guards to gather intel they didn't find something like the pits of Mordor. It was an organized war camp but there was nothing exceptionally cruel going on (that we noticed at least).

When he offered a banquet for the caravan to celebration the completion of the deal, we totally thought there was going to be poison. My character downed an antidote. There wasn't any poison. We later learned that this warlord was a repeat customer of the human city states and had never cheated any of them. In fact, we discovered that his army was not meant to attack any of the city-states (at the time, at least; on-going campaign and all) but a kraken worshiping cult that had been abducting sailors and transforming them into sea-spawn.

We weren't sure who we should side with, if either of them. It led to a lot of interesting discussions within the party. Some of us wanted to attack the warlord for being a slave-owner and some wanted to side with him because they saw the kraken cult as the bigger threat and/or greater rewards lay in working for the more lawful of the two. The roleplay of these debates was a lot of fun.

My own character was mostly interested in hunting and eating so he didn't care which side ended up filling his belly.

There was even a mysterious monk following us. We weren't sure (until the most recent session) if he worked for the hobgoblin warlord, the kraken cult or a third faction. Thus, we didn't know if he was an enemy or a possible ally. This also led to fun roleplaying.

If things had been more straight-forward then we won't have had the opportunity to have these fun moments. Discussing a course of action, in-character, was made possible by the ambiguity of the grey/unknown morality of the characters we met.

What do you think? If you'd like, please share with me such moments of your own campaigns.


Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback  

The Handy History Answer Book (read for fun)

I think this was a gift from several years back. It is a general history book that claims to provide answers to common questions.

The book is organized by subject: war, philosophy, discovery etc. These are the chapters. Within the chapters are sections that are a couple pages each in length. Each section is topped by a question such as "What is X" or "who was Y". As far as that goes, the book is fine.

Being a general history book, the answers are general. They are short and summarized, maybe to the point of being incomplete. This is not a problem. It was addressed in the introduction. Adding more specific answers to each question would make the book unwieldly in length. For introductory information, it is sufficient. The problems, as I seem them, are not with the answers themselves.

Rather, the problems are with the table of contents and the lack of recommended direction. The former is incomplete and the latter is stifling. These problems make the book less convenient to use and less useful overall.

The table of contents only lists the start of each chapter. So there is no easy means of paging within chapters, only between them. Next, the questions answered are not listed so the reader does know which are answered without going through the entire chapter. Making this worse, the table of contents only lists categories like "Ancient medicine" or "Trojan War" so one must make a guess in which section one's question is in. All this combines to make the book inconvenient at best as a reference book.

Each answer is limited in its information. This is excusable but there is no direction to find in-depth information. All that exists is a page of references at the end of the book. A couple titles as recommended reading for each answer would increase the book's value. Without such a feature, the book is far less "handy" than it could be.

Trickster Eric Novels gives "The Handy History Answer Book" a C-

Click here for my next book review: War and Human Nature

Click here for my previous book review: Mahou Sensei Negima - omnibus #7

Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback  

Magister Negi Mage - Negima Omnibus #7 (Read for fun)

This is a transitional piece. The overall story is moving from the Mahorafest arc to the Magical World arc. In the meantime, lots of fun and interesting things happen.

　
First of all, there is more progress on Asuna's character arc. One of my favorite parts of this omnibus occurs early on, where she has this intriguing and mysterious dream. It's all serious until you turn the page and Asuna walks in on Konko and Setsuna starting a pactio. Mood whiplash for massive comedy.
Her intensive training under Evangeline to better manage Kanka furthers this arc in addition to the level of badass she takes. It has great emotional heft for both of them.

　
Second, there's the world building. Traveling naturally leads to world building. So far, the story has only spoken of the Magical World. Its society and its laws played a central role in the previous arc and now the story moves to its physical location. Just the connection between the two is interesting, let alone the geography, history, etc. that comes into play once the "Negima Club (temporary name)" arrives there.


Third, there's snippets of what everyone does around the main action such as Asuna's training or the beach vacation that Anya jumps into. These are amusing little diversions like Mana's attempts to get a student-discount for a movie ticket.


Most of all, what I like is the bridging of the gap. These events create a separation between the major arcs to keep them more distinct and provide a breather. It is filled it with meaningful events that develop characters and advance overall plot elements rather than immediate stories. Of course, there is also plenty of comedy. It's only recently that I've come to understand how important this is.

The way in which Ken Akamatsu creates the new story's arc levels is also impressive. It is not rushed but there is no narrative fat either. An immediate goal, a midterm goal and a long-term goal are established in concise terms and then acted upon.

Trickster Eric Novels gives "Negima #7 omnibus" an A+

Click here for my previous book review Chronicles of the Crusades


Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback

Chronicles of the Crusade - Read for Fun

This is another book I got while in College. It is a combination of two accounts, Geoffrey of Villehardouin's record of the Fourth Crusade and John of Joinville's record of the Sixth Crusade. It is unusual among my books for being primary sources. I will go into each one individually.

Geoffrey of Villehardouin's record of the Fourth Crusade.

The presentation here is interesting. There is no introduction written by Geoffrey of Villehardouin so his purpose in doing so can be debated. Personally, I think it is a morality tale.
The crusaders are presented as heroes and others, such as the Venetians building their boats, are enthusiastic about helping them. The economic angle is glossed over. He lays much blame on those that "go to other ports" instead of joining this particular crusader army. To leave it is a sin and punishment is swift and karmic.

He loves his hyperbole. The fleets and fortresses are all described as the best ever and everyone greets everyone else with great honor. Those who leave the main crusade army are the worst ever because there was never a more noble enterprise than this one here.

When I first learned of the Fourth Crusade and how it ended up attacking Constantinople instead of its target in Egypt, I was shocked. I thought "aren't all these guys supposed to be allies? Why are they attacking each other?" It puzzled me for years. This book, both its introduction by Caroline Smith and the account itself provides the answers. They are, basically, "No" and "because they have long-standing trust issues". Just because they practiced the same religion (I know, the Great Schism had already taken place), could speak one or more shared languages and had a common enemy did not make them friends.


John of Joinville's record of the Sixth Crusade

First thing, it's not really about the Sixth Crusade. It's actually about King Louis IX a.k.a. Saint Louis and why he deserved this special distinction. It takes some time for him to get to the crusade itself. The first section is about the king's virtues, such as his frugality and means of administering justice.

It is indeed a contrast with Geoffrey of Villehardouin's record. There is no hyperbole. While he praises King Louis he also criticizes  some of his actions, mainly the tactical ones. It feels more like a personal account.


Being first person historical accounts, I'm not sure how to rate them.

Trickster Eric Novels gives "Chronicles of the Crusade" a +

Click here for my next book review (also for fun): Negima Omnibus #7

Click here for my previous book review (a request): SHOT DOWN 

Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback