I’ve discussed this issue in the context of RPGs before, and I think Fr. Kent makes about as much sense about it as anyone I’ve read before.

Another thing that comes to mind is a discussion I had with a fellow believer who I’m working on some creative projects with about how to portray evil in film while avoiding the errors of making it too simplistic on the one hand or too attractive on the other.

We agreed that the most important thing was to tell the truth about evil. It’s selfish. It hurts others and self. It can not create, only twist and it will twist you and always make you less than you could be. It can seduce but it is ultimately sterile and sad and suffocating. It draws one away from their created purpose and away from life.

I think that principle holds in RPGs as well.

Now, the rules (esp. with wargames) don’t always reinforce these ideas. The systems of some games may actually reward evil behavior or at least make it as workable an option as good. This may not in itself be an issue depending on what the game is trying to model. If it’s trying to model a “kill or be killed” short term situation, then it may not be a lie to reward evil behavior with the short term success of living to fight another day. If it’s modeling the whole life of a person or a nation, that’s a different story…