I realize that was probably supposed to be a ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’ moral, but it comes out more like a ‘You’re living in an encounter written by Gary Gygax while drunk’ one.
"Here are two completely innocent, harmless actions. One has horrific arbitrary consequences that you have no way to predict, one has a arbitrary glorious reward that is also impossible to predict. You must choose one. To make things interesting, here’s a good reason to accept choice #1. If I’m testing for greed, obviously you shouldn’t take it. If I’m testing for trust and empathy of your fellow man, obviously you should take it.
So, read my mind. Which of the two completely arbitrary choices have I declared “correct,” and which there to fuck you over?
No, you can’t look at the module afterwards to see if I’m cheating."
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Just found an original copy of Tomb of Horrors last week. I don’t normally collect game stuff I’ll never use, but this one has bragging rights.
How exactly is pushing a button in the belief that it will cause somebody to die a “completely innocent, harmless action”? If you’re pushing the button, you’re demonstrating you’re willing to kill somebody for your personal gain.
Do that in an environment where people are judged in the afterlife for their mortal actions, and I don’t see damnation as a surprise ending.
Oh. THE button, as in, ‘the button in the other example that kills people.’
I read it as **A **button, as in, ‘a button that you don’t know what it does that I’m paying you to push, thus creating a scene that is somewhat similar, but removes the moral context.’
That makes sense, then. I’ll just stand here quietly, then. Maybe try to work on the reading comprehension.
More heavy handed than the original scenario, (which was not itself subtle) but not Gygaxian.
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Kind of Diktonian, though. “Make this stark and unlikely moral choice RIGHT NOW! Choose wrong, and suffer IMMEDIATE JUDGEMENT!!”
Actually, I thought you were talking about Quartz’s post (#8), in which case your argument would have been completely valid. In that scenario, the recipient of the money had no outstanding reason to believe that he would be harming anybody in accepting it. So either part of the story was left out, or Satan was just being a dick, as he is wont to be.
:smack: You WERE talking about that post! I’m the one who needs to switch back to regular coffee. Shuffling off to get a complete neuro workup…
I agree that if somebody makes you an offer of “just push this button and I’ll give you a million dollars” there’s no moral consequences to pushing that button. Go ahead and collect your money. But I didn’t think that was ever the scenario under discussion in this thread.