[Torg] Moment of Crisis

[Kansas Jim]

Phil writes:

> Was just reading the moment of crisis section of TRE, and I was
> thinking about the statement there about making a:

> "strong moral choice for good or evil. For purposes of the
> Moment of Crisis, “good” is considered to be a choice that
> places the safety or interests of others ahead of the
> character’s own safety or interests while “evil”is the reverse."

At least I tried to give guidelines for what's involved in "a strong
moral choice", the original rulebook didn't even try!

> Personally, I dont think that even in the limited context of a
> MoC, this definition isn't quite right. Choosing to save
> yourself rather than act to help someone else strikes me as NOT
> making a strong moral choice - it's more of a "neutral" action.

No, neutral would be what I outlined in the example: "Most people when
faced with a Moment of Crisis fail to make a moral choice of any kind,
either because they are paralyzed with fear or are unable to make a
quick decision in the face of danger." (R&E p29) It could also be a
case of indecisiveness, the character just stands there trying to
figure out which course of action would be the better one to take or
maybe the character hopes for someone or something to come along that
will take having to make this tough decision out of his hands.

> The requirement of strong moral choice suggest you must decide
> either to do something to help or do something to hinder, but in
> either case you must do something. 

That's correct. If you don't decide to do something the Moment slips
away from you and you won't transcend.

> Using the example in TRE, the moral choice for good was to put
> the PC in harms way by leading the Giant death squad away from
> the cave housing the humans. The equivalent evil act surely
> would've been to go along with the mission and lead the giants
> there, putting his own safety above that of others... and thus
> whatever decision he made (to go, to not go) he would've had a
> MoC and become p-rated? Surely that can't be right?!

Or he could have stood there torn by indecision and because he didn't
decide to do either at that critical moment in time he loses his chance
to transcend.

> I'd see the opposite act as going along with the mission and not
> just showing the Giants there, but taking an active and
> enthusiastic part in the killing, making a clear moral choice to
> become a murderer of innocents... although this then raises the
> question of why, by this example of MoC, there aren't an awful
> lot more prateds out there!

Not every strong moral choice is going to lead to a Moment of Crisis.

-- 
Kansas Jim, Torg guru (ksjim (at) sdc (dot) org)
Torg website: http://www.sdc.org/~ksjim/index.html