[HoE] [HOE] Templar Ideals

["Ryan Moore" <rymoore@hotmail.com>]

Okay my Templar player and I have been discussing this recenlty and I 
thought I'd bring it up on the list to see what y'all thought.  I have two 
problems with Templars both stemming from their moral ambiguity.


From a Game world standpoint.

If village A resits the Black Hats and is destoyed and village B could have 
helped them but didn't then obviously they would not be in the Templar's 
good graces.

But what motivation do they have to help the other village. The fact that a 
templar MIGHT come along at just the right time and help both vilages defend 
against the black hats. I don't think so.  Either the village b is powerful 
enough to defeat the Black Hats on thier own and they don't need the Templar 
or they aren't and there is no point in helping.
The people "should" of course want to band together against the Black Hats 
but in HOE these are SURVIVORS they aren't trying to throw the chains of 
oppression the are simply trying to SURVIVE.

What if these people later need help against an abomination? or someone in 
the village needs healing? Does the templar turn his back on them? If he 
does it really make him or anyone else a better person?
What if the Templar didn't know about village A and hte massacre would he be 
breaking his oath?

Most Likley All villages or people have done somehting bad or "wrong" at 
some point just to survive.There are going to be exceptions to this but most 
groups of people out there in the wastes are going to fall in the gray area.

So really what it boils down to is that a Templar just helps who he or she 
wants too or who he/she feels is worthy. So in effect the Templars code of 
only helping those who "deserve" to be helped is totally ambigious and has 
no meaning.

My second problem with Templars is basically the same but from an Role 
Playing  point of view.

The posse enters a survivor town and finds out the town will pay them 
handsomly to protect them from bandits. In the meantime the Templar has 
discovered (for whatever reason) that the town does not deserve to be saved.

Templar: "I cannot defend this town they are unworthy."

Other Players: "Well too bad Bob they got fuel and bullets and we need 
them."

Templar Player: "What kind of crappy adventure is this? Did you make it this 
way on purpose so I coulnd't play!"

(Dice and empty Coke bottles fly through the air and assail the helpless GM)

There are a number of solutions to this problem all which I don't really 
find acceptable.

Make sure all adventures are "Templar Freindly" and the victims always 
deserve to be saved. Though again this means that the Templar code is 
meaningless and "Real" templars can only exist in stories and not actual 
game sessions. It also gives rise to the question: Will all the published 
PEG adventures be "Templar Friendly" ?

You could also have the entire party be Templars or Companions but I don't 
think that will happen very often.

The Templar player has a second charecter and the Tepmlar simply "goes away" 
when these moral situations arise.  This is really the only acceptable 
solution that I can think of.

(*whew*)
Any suggstions?

Ryan "Spends way too much time thinking about Templars" Moore






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