Template:Vice and virtue

Vice and Virtue
Ideals aren't inherently good or bad. Every ideal can be negative when pushed to extremes. Cultures and organizations associate with ideals just like characters do. If you have the same values then you're perceived as virtuous, otherwise you may be perceived as a sinister outsider. Look for organizations or subcultures with your ideals if you want to find a place to belong...or be the bold eccentric who stands in contrast to the rest of your peers. Someone loyal to Liberty and Mischief could be a psychopathic villain or a fun loving non-conformist. At the extreme ends of behavior it can be difficult to tell the difference. Where it gets interesting is when ideals come into conflict. When the written Law allows something you consider wrong do you break the law to do what you think is right or do you obey it and work for change? Just how wrong does a law have to be before you will break it? When your loyalty is tested that's what you should find out. What happens when your duty to the Law conflicts with your duty to your Family, or your believe in Liberty or Progress?

The system rewards you for staying true to your ideals, but that doesn't mean you must or even should. The referee will try to find the boundaries of your loyalty and introduce dilemmas and doubts to test those boundaries. Sometimes the choice that rewards you mechanically will not feel right for your character. This temptation is by design, and gives teeth to the decisions you face. You may be sacrificing something tangible to do the 'right' thing or allowing some form of moral decay for a tangible reward. When you let your loyalty shift in response to your decisions the character tends to feel more morally centered, and if you let your loyalty rewards choose for you then the character tends to feel more corrupt. Either approach is valid.