The closest I came to playing a "war criminal" was with an old character called James Archer, a sergeant with 2 para. His view was a simplistic and, looking back at it, rather sociopathic. He never went out with the intention to commit a crime, he had the belief that he had to do what he had to do to keep his lads safe. he would kill civilians that "where in the way", he'd torture PoWs for information because the ends always justified the means.
What interested me about the character and the game we found ourselves involved in, was that he didn't start that way. Archer was genned up as a by-the-book, old school sergeant who followed the rules and kept his Rupert (army slang for young lieutenant) quietly under control.
As casualties mounted and the situation became more desperate, everyone's character changed. We found ourselves making decisons that where moraly wrong but enabled us to survive with the least amount of casualties and that expended the least amount of resources.
The game round up after a year real-time and we all did some thinking about where the characters ended up compared to how they where genned.
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Better to reign in hell, than to serve in heaven.
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