Second, in my campaign, we *don’t* accept that it’s “normal that a ‘good’ character can commit genocide against orcs, kobolds and small blue furry creatures from alpha-centuri…” In fact, that’s exactly what it is – Genocide. When “heroes” decide they need the extra XP and decide to wipe out a drumen village, there are consequences to that. Any creature that has a culture and even just a semblance of civilization is protected from just the “wandering hero” problem (my antithesis to the “wandering encounter”).

Great post!

We accept it as normal that a ‘good’ character can commit genocide against orcs, kobolds and small blue furry creatures from alpha-centri. Just as we accept that those troops fighting for the allies in WWII were good. Even the ones dropping bombs on German or Japanese cities, killing men, women and children. This is a theme that superhero comics have explored at some length, most notably in Watchmen.

Carcosa sounds like bad taste, a juvenile act to see how offensive they can be. If they really wanted to explore the idea, superheros would be my choice of genre. Imagine Superman in a situation where he had to rape an eleven year old or let the world be destroyed. That would be a scenario worth playing.

I think comic books – and the superhero genre in particular – is a complex beast. In the hands of talented writers, there’s every bit as much depth to a hero as you’d find in a great novel, and perhaps moreso because long standing heroes have a multi-decade history that few genres can match. Characters such as Superman, Batman and Spiderman must have passed through the hands of hundreds of writers, and while not all are as talented (or would claim to be) as folks like Geoff Johns, Frank Miller or Dan Abnett, they’ve all contributed to the mythos as whole.

In the hands of the best writers, the hero becomes the sum of all that history. That’s something pretty special.

Good post!