In my game of pulp vigilante heroics (which seems the most apt description) characters track their relationship, their motivation, between two extremes in relation to conventional law and order. The two extremes are currently Justice (ie being a good guy and playing by the rules when fighting crime) and Corruption (ie doing whatever it takes to beat the bad guys, no matter the cost). Can anyone think of better descriptors; Corruption especially seems unduly harsh. It's not precisely good or evil. Merci.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;437520In my game of pulp vigilante heroics (which seems the most apt description) characters track their relationship, their motivation, between two extremes in relation to conventional law and order. The two extremes are currently Justice (ie being a good guy and playing by the rules when fighting crime) and Corruption (ie doing whatever it takes to beat the bad guys, no matter the cost). Can anyone think of better descriptors; Corruption especially seems unduly harsh. It's not precisely good or evil. Merci.

In the In Harm's Way military games I use a seesaw stat called Honor and Practicality - both always add up to a fixed number, so that increasing one decreases the other. Practicality should work well instead of Corruption.

-clash

What about Justice vs. Vengeance?

Quote from: winkingbishop;437569What about Justice vs. Vengeance?

Vengeance isn't bad.

Quote from: winkingbishop;437569What about Justice vs. Vengeance?

I like that.  Fits nicely in the vigilante theme.  

Its that issue that Batman is often dealing with.  His code against killing, his desire to punish criminals that conflicts with his belief in the importance of the law.  

It separates Batman from Punisher who couldn't give a flip about Justice, the Law or anything beyond his own anger.  

Then there is Judge Dredd who is all about Justice, he is only angry at perps because they break the law.  If the law changed, Dredd would follow the new law as aggressively as he did the old law, even if they contradicted themselves.

I also like fixed number concept.  Say 10 points max divided between the two poles and perhaps somehow get tied into the game mechanics.

The idea is that (numerical specifics aside) the two always total 6 (the scale used for dice rolls, that's not important right now) and movement between is determined by how the character is played. The character has special abilities (or maybe just one) that depends on the highest score of either. So if Justice is 4, then Vengeance is 2 which means the character is acting more in accordance with law and order. It also means that his special abilities use 4 as their score. If his Vengeance was 4 instead then the character has acted beyond (or perhaps beneath) the law and perhaps overly aggressively (within a pulp context). However his special abilities still use 4 as their score.

Both start equal (3) and how they move is, as I say, down to the player as adjudicated by the GM (1 point at a time though).

Thanks foer all the responses.