I’m wondering if it’s a part of the Pulp genre (I include superheroes there because they’re a kind of direct descent from that) to have action heroes defined by their enemies.

A lesser villain diminishes the hero.

The player’s story arc is generally about travelling around the place,learning more about a cool evil plots and then stopping them, saving the world, and getting the girl/boy/furbolg and more xp and possibly some cool loot. It’s not so much about devising cool plots to gain IC power.

You’re right about it needing practice to make a character interesting or really get into the mindset of a redemption or damnation plot, I think. But I’m playing through Knights of the Old Republic at the moment and loving it (which is why this is on my mind ) and the heroes seem pretty interesting there.

I don’t know that I agree that people find the strict code of justice boring. I think it really appeals to a lot of people. Possibly moreso when you actually get the chance to make a moral choice and show what your character is made of.

Heroes, on the other hand, try their best to live by the strict code of justice and people just find that … boring. I mean you’re basically playing a policeman in a game that can throw fireballs or run fast or whatever.

Now, once you’ve played a bit in various mediums (table tops, computer games, LARP, etc) you have undoubtedly worked on character development skills so you can actually MAKE a hero interesting. How so? By giving them a past, by giving them feelings, inner turmoil, the want to be bad, but counted on by society to do good. Maybe they just wonder for a split second each day what it’s like to be the villain.

I’ve played a lot of “downfall” characters and I must say it’s very fun. It’s also fun to portray the hero that is beset on ALL sides by evil, but remains steadfast to his cause. Tirion Fordring comes to mind from WoW But then you have Mograine who goes evil from being raised good, then returns to good when he sees what evil truly is.