We seek to keep kingdoms small, busy with trade and the problems of their people...

>We seek to keep kingdoms small, busy with trade and the problems of their people. Any ruler who grows too strong and seeks to take knowledge and power from others is a threat.
>The propensity of some Harpers to rob the rich to give to the poor (and finance their own activities) is excused by the next watchword of the Code. No extreme is good. For freedom to flourish, all must be in balance: the powers of the realms, the reaches of the cities and the wilderlands into each other, and the influence of one being over another.
>Harpers work against anyone or anything that grows too strong and ambitious to maintain a balance with neighboring lands, folk, and businesses.
Why is this socialist Illuminati terrorist group the "good guys"?

They don't use their power and influence for personal enrichment and financial gain.

No, they just use it to ruin peoples hard built businesses, cause national instability and rob government officials like self righteous bandits.

Fuck it all. Now I want to play as an anti-Harper. Someone who unites myriad squabbling, fractious and warring kingdoms into a mighty, stable, prosperous and peaceful empire.

I'm sorry, what setting is this? It sounds interesting, but googling "harper rpg" just gets me some Pokemon roleplay forum.

Forgotten Realms, user.

Thank you. I'm not familiar with that line of D&D stuff.

Exactly, they're good because they fight against the evils of business owners and governments.

Wow I never thought of the Harpers in this way, user. I never liked them because they were a whole organization of Robin Hood goody-two-shoes, but now they're keeping whole nations and peoples from reaching their full potential.

The Lord's Alliance must be getting them worried.

As a side note, I wish WotC would actually make a faction war between the groups they made for 5e. Because of this thread, I would make the Harpers the ultimate villains.

ah, "keeping whole nations and people from reaching their full potential", that's how we're spinning it today. like a monopolist has finally reached his full potential? or criminal oligarchs in the US banking s... i mean in the Ukraine?

Sorry bro but that nice, big and peaceful empire is just too stable.

Better Balkanize it so we can go back to having all those wonder bitter little wars.

>peace can only be had under the paternalizing chokehold of a superpower
>trade freedom for security, trust us
>it will not lead to abuse in time, as irresponsible generations take over, really
>trading freedom for peace, it worked for feudalism, didn't it? why shouldn't it work for you?

>peace can only be had under the paternalizing chokehold of a superpower
When did he ever say that? Destabilizing a region usually does have some ugly consequences even if done for the "greater good". There's space between small, rival kingdoms warring with each other and full on, monolithic big brother distopia.

>peace can only be had under the paternalizing chokehold of a superpower
More likely than from a bunch of self confessed insurgents and vandals.

>trade freedom for security, trust us
Freedom to starve to death is freedom. A state funded judiciary and constabulary is security.

>it will not lead to abuse in time, as irresponsible generations take over, really
Every means of government ever.

> it worked for feudalism, didn't it?
For the most part yes.

And in any case the Harpers don't care about what system of government is in place. Just so long as there are lots of little petty states for them to fun around in pretending to be Robbin Hood. In a perfectly ordered world they would be seen as detrimental to every aspect of life, so they ensure chaos is plentiful.

>There's space between small, rival kingdoms warring with each other and full on, monolithic big brother distopia.
welcome to the harpers

>Unironically being a facist

What, you didn't know WoTC were a bunch of commie lefties?
>unironically thinking fascism is bad

Falling for the fascism meme
>>>>>to /pol/

My only experience with the Harpers was in Baldur's gate and they were huge fucking douchebags in that.

You interact with them a bit in Baldur's Gate games.
They're kinda cunts.

>muh """freedom"""
Don't you have a policeman to scream "I DO NOT CONSENT" at?

In any case, yes; singletons, being sole political powers, are a good thing. One state is better than many states, since many inefficiencies of states are a result of their competition against other states.

>falling for the democracy meme
I bet you think an unregulated free market will tend towards optimal outcomes in the long term, too.

Socialism is good, and keeping power decentralized is a very worthy goal, if you're able to pursue it in any meaningful way.

Harpers are giant douchebags but for completely different reasons. I like harpers, but it's not because they're anti-fascist robinhood goodguys, that's boring. I like them because they're such douchebag goodguys. It's the same reason I like Elminster.

>mfw the plot hook is a Harper.

Many inefficiencies of large states are a result of their lack of competition with themselves. Though, it is hard to decide what "efficient" does or doesn't mean when you have all the power in a few hands. If the kings all fuck off and squander the nation's wealth building huge tombs for themselves, but they get a fuckton of tombing done, is that efficient or inefficient?

> Socialism is good

Name a single successful socialist state.

>Many inefficiencies of large states are a result of their lack of competition with themselves.
>"privitize the state"
Yeah, go fuck yourself.

>squander the nation's wealth
As opposed to squandering it on welfare and other shot like that? I'd prefer my kings to waste money on monuments; at least they look nice and generate awe.

>peace can only be maintained by an unaccountable council of secretive dicks
>trade freedom for security trust us...or don't because we didn't even tell you to begin with
>it will not lead to abuse in time, as irresponsible generations take over, really.
>trading freedom for peace, it worked for feudalism, didn't it? why shouldn't it work for you?
>not that we'll let you have that choice

really makes you think

>America: the post

Norway

Libya before (((they))) liberated their market.

>it's a /pol/ invades Veeky Forums episode
Why do you people feel the need to discuss politics on inappropriate boards?

Finland. Norway. Denmark. Sweden. Canada. Most of the countries with a higher standard of living than the U.S. are also more socialist than the U.S.

For fascism see: Soviet Russia, Maoist China, Pol Pot's Cambodia, etc.

Did the Harpers get any good splatbooks in 2e or 3e? (I'm not sure if I care about post-spellscar faerun)

How much do we know about them, besides them being snarky dicks in Baulder's Gate?

I want /pol/ to go and stay go please

>all those countries with low populations and homogenous racial demographics
>thinking that you would get even remotely similar results by blowing those practices up to the scale of the US

Sweden is a bit different, but they're starting to feel the problems of it. Probably would be much better off if the refugee meme wasnt a thing

>For fascism see: Soviet Russia, Maoist China, Pol Pot's Cambodia, etc.
>It's fascism because I say it is!
I thought Anti-Fa loved commies; why aren't you toeing the party line, comrade?

>t. absolute monarchy-fan

jesus christ, that amount of misinformation is staggering. you probably thought until 2010 Greece was doing fine too, right?

>For fascism see: Soviet Russia, Maoist China, Pol Pot's Cambodia, etc.
>fascism
it's totally not totalitarian communism, no. fucking lefties.

/pol/ doesn't give a fuck about your wishes

>t. absolute monarchy-fan
>implying monarchy isn't pretty great when you dissociate it from the concept of a king whose authority is passed down via heredity
Le Dark Enlightenment has opened my eyes :^)

>Exactly, they're good because they fight against the evils of business owners and governments.
Ancoms pls go.

>Expecting anything better than Chaotic "Good"

It literally worked wonders for Feudalism, ever since the Bronze Age your typical peasant lived and died living much the same way as his father and his father before him. Wars were waged, diseases came and went, but for the farmer there was typically peace and prosperity.

You know when the worst excesses of war came to plague the common man? When feudalism died and the farmer went from "property" to "a potential threat."

Does anyone actually care about or use the Harpers?

>Implying Feudalism isn't like what they portray in Games of Thrones were peasants were massacred en masse ^_^

Does anybody actually care about or use Forgotten Realms?

Yes, but FR is fucking huge, so nobody actually cares about or uses all of it.

I don't know if this is true any more, "Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide" wasn't exactly a success.

the quality of a political system is largely dependent on the replaceability of incompetent/ineffective government

enjoy your servitude, faggot

>the quality of a political system is largely dependent on the replaceability of incompetent/ineffective government
Then explain why democracy/republicanism is utter fucking shit tier.
How about instead of worrying about getting rid of bad government, you don't institute or elect a bad government in the first place.

Protip: they are the good guys in real life too.

>enjoy your servitude, faggot
Unless you're a citizen of your own sovereign state (read, a stateless wackjob), you're a servant.
Citizens are subordinate to the state.

>Protip: they are the good guys in real life too.
No, they aren't.

when did Veeky Forums go from being about freedom and expression to wanting to be "safe" at the exchange their personal liberties

The actual feudal period was also the only period in history where humanity regressed.

>Then explain why democracy/republicanism is utter fucking shit tier.
Except it's litteraly the best form of government.

>Citizens are subordinate to the state.
You probably live in a third world country but in democracies they aren't.

>democracy/republicanism gives you the freedom of expression and freedom of speech to complain about it in the first place
>a totalitarian government that wouldn't give us these freedoms and would stomp on our necks if we dissented is totally better

i want the era of memes to end.

/pol/esuckers leaking from their containment board.

>you don't institute or elect a bad government in the first place.
And how do you contol that you humongous faggot ?

>You will immediately cease and not continue to access the site if you are under the age of 18.

>Forgetting this site was founded by goons
Gently caress your mom my senpai.

>Trying this hard
Jesus

>says the edgy contrarian teen

Better try hard than try soft, comrade.

>Supporting liberal democracy is contrarianism
Hello Veeky Forums.

They absolutely are though.

>/pol/ards
>supporting democracy
m80..

Are you retarded or did you link the wrong posts in the first place ?

Why don't you check your privilege?

Pepe

>Implying I'm not a SJW
>Implying I haven't been here for 10 years

Because it's more like
>it's a /pol/ invades /wotc/ episode

Harpers are like the incompetent fantasy version of the CIA.

Whenever they band together because of ''muh balance'' everyone involved is worse off than he was before, yet they are still portrayed as the good guys.

You haven't, because Veeky Forums doesnt exist that long. Now off you go.

>don't necessarily think money or Tony Blair are a bad thing

Will he lead us to victory?

>Thread is full of SJWs parroting leftyshit
>Somehow /pol/ is to blame.

/pol/-boogeyman-card on the first round. wew lad

Veeky Forums is 12 m8

Except that's literally how it works by definition; if citizens were not subordinate to a state, they would not be beholden to its laws.

By not letting the idiot plebes have a say in it.

Yeah, not Veeky Forums though.
Which you would know if you actually were here as long as I am.

Off you go, shoo, shoo.

I think that's meant to translate into practical terms their neutrality and seeking of balance in a cosmogony where Good and Evil are huge tangible forces like gravity is for us. It's still a poor equivalent to the aristotelian golden mean.

If this works at all inside the setting, or if it reflects the writers' opinions as well, can't tell. They may as well meant to be a 'group whose ends justify the means' and leave the judgement for the players.

No, it's not.

>non democracies can't have freedoms
:^)

Actually, it is. Not only do I remember posting in Veeky Forums at some point from September 2006-March 2007 - I don't recall the exact dates, but it was somewhere around that time. Earliest post on ThisIsNotATrueEnding is from October 2007, and is post #750189. Back when Veeky Forums was a trial board, it was pretty slow.

To say it's been ten years is relatively accurate.

then why do you want Veeky Forums to go from a place where people can be creative and generally have freedom to being in a state of government where that sort of thing is discouraged?

do you hate our hobby?

>le lenny face instead of a counter-argument

i want the memes to end

>:^)
>Lenny face

it might as well be at this point.

i want the memes to end.

You want to know how we know you aren't interesting in "our hobby"?

ITT: Everyone forgets Veeky Forums is based around pissing people off and getting a reaction out of people by saying stupid shit. Also anime.

But user, everything is memes.
SHALIDAY
SHALIDAY

>then why do you want Veeky Forums to go from a place where people can be creative and generally have freedom to being in a state of government where that sort of thing is discouraged?

>government inherently discourages creativity and is inherently opressive
Wew lad, might as well don the black and yellow at this point.

Wew, the meme magic must be going to my head.
SHADILAY*
SHADILAY*

the fuck're you talkin' about lad

there is literally no context for this, so it's just a bunch of meaningless shit that doesn't affect what i do in tabletop gaming.

I'm saying you're a fucking anarchist cuck at worst, and a libertarian memelord at best.

>2016
>not being a hyper-individualist egoist statist

Any community that gets its kicks out of pretending to be idiots will soon find itself full of actual idiots who think they're in good company.

i just want Veeky Forums to be about shitty fake stories you can get a larf out of instead of /pol/-lite and for elder scrolls general to be good again.

politics has literally nothing to do with my hobby.

If you want /pol/ to stop coming here, then less discussions should be obvious /pol/ bait or they shouldn't morph into /pol/ bait over time.

>mutton chops anywhere outside of the 19th Century

Get this nigga a stylist.

>not recognizing a 19th-century philosopher

Get this nigger an education.

blame OP for that, not me

ain't my fault people want to drag politics into pretending to be gay elves or shit like that.

>Literally autistic