Originally Posted by Zarna
Also since the game needs to go into more detail about this stuff, it needs to be objective. Can't be talking about the "monstrous" nature of Shar because only good and some neutral types would see it as that. It is immersion breaking to call it that for players trying to do an evil playthrough. Call her an evil god or whatever because that is her alignment, but the game should not try to force an opinion on people.

I'm not sure who you're saying that talking about Shar's monstrous nature would be a problem for.
I don't see it as being immersion-breaking unless Shadowheart says it.
Most characters in the setting probably see Shar that way, so Neutral or Good characters saying that wouldn't be a problem, books having that written would make sense, and even if some Evil characters said it, that would be understandable if they didn't agree with Shar's goal.

If the narrator says it, something like "Shar is well-known for her harmful actions" might work well to explain without telling the player what their character thinks of Shar.
For the player character however, I don't think that it would be immersion breaking for the player to have an option for them to say that Shar's monstrous, Evil or not, since there are a lot of Good and Evil options in the game's dialogue, despite going through an Evil or Good playthrough.

Originally Posted by JandK
"Everyone would know who Shar is!"

You could say that in the U.S. everyone would know who the vice president is. First female vice president. It's historic.

Sure, you could say that everyone would know.

Now go do some street interviews. You'll find out quicker than you like what people actually know versus what you think they should know. And this is in a country with free public education for everyone.

Transition over to a society filled mostly with uneducated peasants, all split apart by assorted boundaries. In a land filled with numerous races and monsters and bandits and wizards and this symbol and that symbol. No, the average person doesn't know a tenth of what the typical Forgotten Realms fan does, especially considering the fan has probably spent years reading setting books.

It's a common mistake, the inability to see the trees for the forest.

A farmer would see that circlet and armor and think: rich. Not Shar.

Someone who made a study of religion and symbols *might* put one and one together, assuming they made an appropriate DC check. But even then, I would expect them to know she was a cleric first.

That seems like a bad analogy.
Most people know who God and Satan are and who the righteous and the tyrants were, and even in ancient times, people usually knew about those in the past who were really good or bad.
Maybe people would forget about such people if they passed away a long time ago, but when it's an immortal being that's still active, especially a deity, they're probably not going to be forgotten so easily.

Last edited by EliasIncarnation; 27/10/21 04:17 PM.