GM/Player Style: Grey Areas & Red Lines

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

I'm sorry -- that reminded me of a hideous flashback my mother had a few years ago. To keep her privacy, I'll just say it involved being loaded into rail cars on the way to the Camps by the Nazis. Jeeeezzz -- I know you didn't mean to do so, but -- ehzzzzh! I'm sure it's worse in her head, and I'm thankful that she can't remember her childhood and teens most of the time.

In this case it was really just coincidence that it's Germans - could have just as easily have been French, US, Greek or whatever troops doing it (ok, maybe not French or Greek given the game's in Poland). It was really just down to the luck of the die as to the nationality of the unit (mind you, only about 60% are actually Germans with the rest a mix of Russians, Poles, Czechs, and a sprinkling of Canadians and US).

I think the fact it's Germans in Poland doing it lends weight to the level of atrocity. In my mind at least the actions we've witnessed do make sense - can't keep prisoners when you're a small unit far behind enemy lines with limited resources, can't let them go either. It's a crappy situation for anyone to be in and characters (and players) are forced to decide what level of evil can they accept for the greater good and continued personal survival.

Atrocity without reason is where I draw the line generally, and there's usually little need to graphically detail the scene - "you see a dead body, likely killed with a flamethrower, the area around them scorched as well" is probably enough the majority of the time rather going into the details of sights and smells.

The WWII firebombing of Dresden by the allies is an example of atrocity. At the time the reasons where there, at least in allied minds. To the Germans caught in it though....
Perspective is important when discussing atrocity - in more modern times, the death of a child in a combat situation can be seen as either an unfortunate victim caught in the crossfire, or a deliberate murder. It just depends on where you're looking from.