Moral Dilemma Ideas

[Katy133]

The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us are both well-known for having moral dilemmas that the player has to make a choice on (such as who to save, who to believe, and who to lie to).

I'd like this thread to discuss and list possible moral dilemmas in situations in a VN.

Examples I've come up with so far:
- There is a jerk/villain in danger. Do you risk your life to save them?
- There are two good people in danger, but you only have enough time to save one.
- Choosing who to trust: There are two people you trust. You know one of them is lying to you, but not which one.
- Morality vacuum: You can choose to do something selfish/wrong/illegal, and no one is watching you; you're almost positive that you won't get caught.
- Morality vacuum, type 2: You and a companion are trapped in a situation. The easiest/safest way to get out of the situation is also illegal/wrong. (People in a foxhole tend to not judge each other's choices).
- Your companion wants your help to save a stranger (who left a cryptic message behind), but continually asks you to take risks to do so. Do you listen to you companion, or do you tell them that it's gotten too far?
- Telling the truth, even if you know doing that will cause harm.
- Alternatively: Telling a lie because you know it will help/save everyone.
- Would you sacrifice your own precious resources just to annoy/hurt a villain or someone you don't like?

Anything to add?

[LVUER]

- You can save a stranger but doing so will waste a lot of precious limited resources. Will you save him?
- You find yourself stranded with a group of people. A person in that group is almost useless, clearly a burden in survival. Will you left take him into your group or take him?
- A person have become useless in your team (become ill or disabled). Taking him with you clearly endanger the whole team. Will you leave him?
- A person who did harm to your team (or may be kill one of your precious member) need to be helped. That person have something that very useful to you (may be information or resources) but the rest of the team prefer revenge and say to let him die. What will you do?

[OokamiKasumi]

... possible moral dilemmas in situations in a VN.

One of the most powerful moral dilemmas --and most recent in the news-- is the Lucifer Effect.
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An Authority figure has told you to watch over a prisoner and has given you a powerful stun-gun. They then tell you to "punish" the prisoner if they try to escape, and don't worry, if anything 'goes wrong' you are not responsible -- just don't let the prisoner escape! The Authority figure then walks away.

The prisoner then says, "Oh good, he's gone. Okay, I'm leaving. Bye."

What do you do?
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THIS is something I would dearly love to see handled in a VN.

More on the Lucifer Effect:
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> http://drphil.com/shows/show/1529/?preview=&versionID=
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xpsVlY3QQc

[gekiganwing]

* A situation where it's clear that being a good Samaritan could lead to your death.
* Guy asks you to pretend to be his girlfriend in a tense confrontation. But you're not a couple. Do you fake it... and if so, how long?
* You're chosen for a task because you happen to look like an important guy who's missing. How long can you keep up the pretense of being him? How long should you keep it going?

Consider also giving your reader/player some scenarios in which the most likely outcome doesn't happen. Let's say the main character meets a person who's starting a grassroots campaign to stamp out corruption. The MC is given the choice of whether to donate. At a later time, the MC sees the same person spending huge amounts at the bar with supporters and friends. That would be unexpected, and would compel the reader to think back on their earlier action. I learned that this concept exists in the first Witcher game thanks to secondhand sources.

[madbunnie13]

A situation that has been discussed for many years:
Trolley Problem

Say for example, two groups of people are hanging from two cages above melting lava, the line that carries the cage that contains 5 adults is slowly dropping, in the other cage there is 1 child, the child is safe. There is a trigger you can pull once to change the situation of the cages (so the adults will stop dropping, but the child will drop slowly if you pull the trigger). What will you do?

changing this case from five unknown people VS your best friend will also work...?

[RedOtter]

moral dilemmas are pretty interesting, here are some:
- In a situation where one dies, you can save your soul mate or your best friend/family but not both.
- You are a scientist and you think you have the cure for a widespread and fatal disease. Though, You can only test it on a human subject. (For drama in a VN you could have the reader decide between someone who will die soon anyway, a criminal, someone who is a familiar or someone who is a stranger.)
- Peace Inducing Compound: You are a scientist and you have created a compound that when consumed will get rid of the will to have conflict. If it was globally distributed it could stop all war. The catch is that it also gets rid the ambition to do anything. Free will is needed for society to move forward. This one is from Sodahead.com
- Save the Bully or the Victim. In which both characters have stories you empathize with.
- Mutual love with someone but there's an age gap.
- Change a moment in history but you don't know what will happen after the change. Time paradox.
- You're being blackmailed. You don't know if the blackmailer has the evidence. Follow their orders and endanger yourself and others?

[SyronicHero]

... possible moral dilemmas in situations in a VN.

One of the most powerful moral dilemmas --and most recent in the news-- is the Lucifer Effect.

As an addendum, may I add the following, as they predate the Lucifer Effect:

"The Stanford prison experiment (SPE) was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard." Let's just say Lord Acton was right in saying power corrupts.
The Milgram experiment "measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience." It's the closest analogue to the aforementioned Lucifer Effect.
"The Third Wave was a social experiment to demonstrate that even democratic societies are not immune to the appeal of fascism." History teacher attempts to form his own Hitler Youth. He is met with horrific success within days.
As well as this video on a thought experiment which involves a sociopath using utilitarianism to ensure the least deaths.

On the subject of preceding games, I'll have to add the obligatory referral to the Mass Effect franchise. From choosing which soldier or which species to save, you should familiarize yourself with the series for inspiration on moral dilemmas.

Last but not least, compare morality to ethics.

[Steamgirl]

Great thread!

- choose: save a bunch of orphaned children, or save a close loved one
- choose: you die or your love interest dies
- the person who has killed/hurt your loved one begs for his/her life while his/her innocent children are watching, do you still kill/hurt them?
- discover a loved one has a terrible secret that could endanger other loved ones, do you out them or not?
- kill/hurt 100 innocent people to save 100 000 strangers, or do nothing and 100 000 strangers die/get hurt
- same as above only a close friend is included in the group of 100, and a close friend is included in the group of 100 000, for higher intensity
- you travel back in the past and have the opportunity to kill a baby who you know grows up to kill thousands (eg Hitler)