Alignment Bias

I've talked about how difficult it can be to separate yourself from your character. Basically, because you can never truly stop being you, your characters will also have your personal tendencies and characteristics. Similarly, you will always view right and wrong through your personal moral lens.

Is murder always bad? Some people say yes - all life is sacred. Others say no - people can commit crimes heinous enough to justifiably lose their lives. Both sides can be argued very well and very convincingly, but if somebody commits murder, the GM's moral code will determine whether or not this was an acceptable thing to do.

I call this issue "alignment bias" and it really can be an issue. If your bias is different from the GM's bias, you can find yourself really butting heads. You could do an action that you thought was heroic or at least benign, but the GM might see it as self-centered or uncaring. The two of you might argue a bit, but ultimately, the game is the GM's playground, and you have to abide by the rules and the rulings.

Ideally, everybody can move beyond their biases. Even if you may see things through a particular lens, try to see other ways of looking at a situation before immediately calling it good or evil. Listen to arguments, and if they're good enough, let them have it. Just don' let them win too much - then they'll argue everything until you concede, which is far, far worse.