What was your most impactful RPG session?
My most impactful session came when I was playing a paladin in the Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition of The Curse of Strahd campaign DM'd by my friend Kris. Here is the link to last years post where I talked about this but I figured I would expound upon my thought process.We were in the town of Barovia and were sent to the Mayors house to talk to him about releasing a local lady's boy. He was imprisoned by the Mayor for no reason at all. At least that's what she told us. I had been playing the paladin more like a religous zealot who twisted reality to justify his actions and I may have taken it a little too far.
Perhaps this is not so different from a sociopath who justifies their actions to themselves in order to maintain a moral compass so to speak. Without this justification then they would probably feel bad about what they do and the guilt might make them a nervous wreck. You'll note that I'm not comparing this paladin to a pshchopath because there is a huge difference and I'll let you do your own research on that one.
My paladin was invited in to the house to speak with the Mayor and while interrogating the Mayor he used detect evil. The Mayor glowed like a bright torch. I then proceded to unsheath my sword of holy justice to dispatch this evil before my eyes. Well, that didn't turn out to be a good idea. We then had to kill over 20 guards who rushed in because of my mayor killing paladin.
It was after the session when I reflected upon that incident that I realized I may have played the paladin badly. To my paladin, he was in the right, but that was just his justification for what he did. In reality, my paladin killed those innocent guards who were just protecting their fallen Mayor. During the game he told himself that if they attack me then they are evil also. So he then hunted down each guard that attacked him. Thus the Murder Hobo Paladin is born. This is why I will never play a paladin again.
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