So twice in Miyo's life he had to come up with a constructive way to explain game mechanics in an RP way. Both around the Red Aura.... I think I've gotten through it and have a better answer now, but I'm looking for other opinions. The argument goes like this.

"Why do you think that just because it has a Red Aura, it's evil? Duergar baby's have a Red Aura, are they evil?"

Or

"My father was killed in Hamsah by Forties just because someone saw a Red Aura around him."

Paraphrasing here, but these are situations from conversations I had, one with an IMM, the other with an IMM played Char.

So how would you explain it. I finally got to:

"Through my magics, the Gods have granted me the ability to see into the deepest reaches of your soul. They let me know what your intentions are. As for the Babies, the sins of the parents exist on that child until it is old enough to make it's own decisions. I will not kill the child for the Aura, but when it grows, if it continues on the path of the father, the Aura will remain..."

This of course came to me after I had the above conversations....

>So twice in Miyo's life he had to come up with a constructive
>way to explain game mechanics in an RP way. Both around the
>Red Aura.... I think I've gotten through it and have a better
>answer now, but I'm looking for other opinions. The argument
>goes like this.
>
>"Why do you think that just because it has a Red Aura, it's
>evil? Duergar baby's have a Red Aura, are they evil?"
>
Yes. They are abominations in the eyes of the gods of light.


>Or
>
>"My father was killed in Hamsah by Forties just because
>someone saw a Red Aura around him."
>

The people who murdered my father claimed they could sense that he was wicked, but I know he was just my lovable dad.

>Paraphrasing here, but these are situations from conversations
>I had, one with an IMM, the other with an IMM played Char.
>
>So how would you explain it. I finally got to:
>
>"Through my magics, the Gods have granted me the ability to
>see into the deepest reaches of your soul. They let me know
>what your intentions are. As for the Babies, the sins of the
>parents exist on that child until it is old enough to make
>it's own decisions. I will not kill the child for the Aura,
>but when it grows, if it continues on the path of the father,
>the Aura will remain..."
>
>This of course came to me after I had the above
>conversations....

You can explain it how you like, really. It's not like you would necessarily understand why you could see red auras. You'd only know what the guild or other people told you about why you could see them. Other than that it would be your own beliefs about why you can see them that you would probably share, and they won't necessarily be correct beliefs.

You could, in theory, rp a good-aligned character who had been convinced by a necromancer that gold aura means evil. Then when he finally is able to lore a potion of detect evil and realises his mistake...

I've always looked at it from the perspective of the gods knowing the hearts of men, and deigning to reveal that information to mortals in the form of auras. If someone is arguing "red aura != evil" then they're basically arguing against divine revelation. That might be appropriate for someone whose role is explicitly "anti-divine", but probably not for most people.