I was in a Greyhawk campaign playing as a Cleric worshiping Pelor. We found a group of goblins, who we killed. One of the other characters, a Paladin, said we should have given them a chance to surrender. This sparked a debate between him and I about whether or not goblins in Greyhawk were inherently evil, and -thus- if their genocide was morally justifiable. My character believed that it was.
I had two main arguments, one was spiritual and the other genetic.
From a spiritual standpoint, there are no good goblin gods in Greyhawk. This meant to my character that spiritually, goblins -as a race- were evil. They had no moral campus to guild them that didn't point in the wrong direction. While individual goblins might turn to other races gods, the goblin race as a whole was irredeemable. In short, their souls were inherently evil as represented by their pantheon.
From a genetic stand point, human morals evolved from our particular pack mentality. Our capacity for altruism (and other actions we consider 'moral') come directly from our evolution as a social animal. If goblins had a different evolutionary path (as my character believed) their morals would not be coherent with ours. The actions of goblins showed their societal instincts weren't -in anyway- "moral." They were -genetically- an "evil" race, as the system the DnD characters find themselves in defined such terms as 'good' and 'evil.'
Since the DnD system has defined 'good' and 'evil,' within that system one can see goblins are inherently "evil." Thus, the wholesale slaughter of their races is not only morally justifiable, but a moral imperative.
Is genocide morally justifiable in these circumstances?
That could make for a very interesting campeign, Though ultimately I think the evil in D&D seems to come more from external sources (the gods) as the gods created everything right? So the moral imperitive is to kill the gods, destroy the universe, and create a universe that is morally superior.
Benjamin Garcia
Goblin lives matter! He was a good gob, he din du nuffin wrong! He went to the temple every eclipse, was bout to get his life on track, need mo money fo horde programs.
Ian Foster
So, when is it alright to attack a sentient creature on sight? Like, if you heard rumors of Ogres raping and pillaging, would it be OK to then attack a group of Ogres you find in that same area? Or would you not feel morally justified until it was proven they were the correct Ogres? Would you (as a good character) not attack a black dragon, unless you knew for sure it was up to no good?
Robert Bailey
The idea of race is a social construct. There are no goblins or ogres or humans, only one race: the Greyhawkian race.
Caleb Allen
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Grayson Nelson
Fucking anything's morally justifiable. Morals are malleable, you can use any one of many different systems, and you can interpret the fuck out of them (look at the Nazis abusing the shit out of Nietzsche).
IRL it's spooky, though.
Christopher Torres
Yes. You are applying real world morals to Alignments, which is not correct in that setting. Good and Evil are opposed forces of creation, just as Law and Chaos are. Evil is your enemy, it is to be converted or extinguished. Goblins are, as a race, evil. They serve Evil. Not the concept of evil, but the cosmic forces of Evil. There may be some that are not evil, and seek to serve Good. But those are far and few between, and you can detect them easily enough with divine magic. Your character, as someone who literally knows in the existence of gods, and directly serves one, knows this is a battle for existence. One that is ongoing through the ages.
Luis Brown
Whats if Good and Evil had little moral difference in the sense we apply morality IRL, but are simply opposing forces. an Evil creature isnt making an irrational decision being evil, Thats just what "side" its on.
Jose Walker
You do realise White in MTG doesn't stand for "good", right?
