Gee, I don't know about you, Mr. Sofge, but I seem to recall that D&D (a game that I play a lot, even after I discovered Call of Cthulhu) had a system where you had to choose your moral compass in the world, known as "alignment." You were good, evil or neutral, as well as lawful, chaotic or neutral. For many people, this was the first time they had to really think about their actions and whether their actions reflected their alignment. I specifically recall DMs either taking away experience points or punishing the character in some other way if he or she acted against their alignment. Most people I played with were some flavor of good. The ones who had any flavor of evil or neutral/neutral were pricks that no one could play with. Of course, we didn't reveal our alignments, but you could easily tell from someone's behavior if they were a chaotic evil wad. Generally those games didn't last, honor among thieves notwithstanding.

More than any other game, D&D and then AD&D made me consider where my moral compass was pointing at any given moment. It was the opposite of a video arcade game, where you have to do what's in front of you or the game crashes.

This is the strongest argument that you never even played D&D, Mr. Sofge. Admit it. Or admit that you always played Lawful Evil Black Paladins that skewered grandmas on lances and whacked them against the castle walls for fun. Because that's the only other explanation for why you came away from years of gaming with such a screwed up, amoral vision of D&D. It's all in how it's played, my friend. And you either played badly or not at all.

You can play any game however you want, but that doesn't mean there aren't ones that promote more interesting games. Sadly, however, you're all wrong. Cybergen was the best RPG ever invented.

Right. You can play any alignment you want, as long as you kill lots of critters and take all theire stuff.

In the last DnD game I ever played, I was a neutral evil wizard and I got along great with the party. Being a godless, immoral, self-serving and self-preserving power seeker (power as in wealth and increased magical aptitude), my wizard knew he needed a hardy buffer zone between himself and the forces arrayed against him, so I spent most of my magic bolstering the fighter types so they could fight more effectively and be harder to hurt while I remained a safe distance away, usually sneaking a nice piece of treasure while they were busy. And if the battle was going against us, I'd be the first to run away or magically warp myself clear of the danger. Sounds like the other players would give me the boot, right? Not when you consider I could then head off to the local temple and I always had plenty extra from my ill-gotten gains to pay for their resurrections and replacement equipment... heh heh heh.

nulldog your one of the few players who play evil guys right, every one is is bold faced evil, the sneaky evil players are the fun ones ;]