Morals in Roleplay Games

I was reading another RPG forum and came across a post about Morals in RPG games.
I thought it might be worth posting here and seeing what others thought.

I have been gaming and GMing for quite a few years now and am still amazed when players do ?strange? things, for example; killing a policeman or helpless innocent. To this end I have been guilty of trying to ?steer? players into making the morally ?right? decisions by forcing events in the game.

I would like to say that I have only come across this situation with ?young? players, or certain game systems but it is not true. I see it with players of all ages and in all game systems. In the film ?Goldmember? with Austin Powers we saw the elite spy played by Michael Caine merely have to speak to the goons and they would give up and lie down. We didn?t see him then walk up to the goon and set them on fire, or put a bullet through their head. The goon was defeated and Michael had accomplished his goal. Unlike certain actions I have seen from players over the years.

Then it occurred to me; it is not my job to make moral judgements on the actions of the characters in the game. What is my job is ensuring that the players know that they are part of a game, and so am I as the GM. We are all in this together, and GM?s sometimes need help from players for the game to run as it should and to help the story develop. When the job of the GM is reduced to controlling NPC?s as they get murdered and watching as the world gets destroyed there ceases to be much point in playing. So
Rule 1: Point out the type of game you would like to play.

The second point to remember is that everybody is viewing your game world in a different way. The ?reality? of the world is different in every players mind. As such this ?shared fantasy? has many shades and is also not ?real?. As such it is OK to let the players get away with things that they might not in the real world. Roleplaying is a form of escape, keep it that way.
Rule 2: If it works, let the players get away with it.

Every game world has its own code of ethics, they do not necessarily correspond with the ethics and morals of this world. It was not so long ago that slavery was OK, and that if a black man was on the wrong side of the street he could be arrested for it. Moral high horses are as pointless in a fantasy world as they are in the real world. The result of having moral high grounds is inevitably conflict, it is the same in every world. For example, if you make it so that ?everyone? in your world is against a certain action, and one of your players performs that action then the result will be conflict, the result of which will be bodies most likely, and it will bog down your story. Let us not forget that there are areas of society that ?turn a blind eye? or condone actions that the majority of society would find reprehensible. There is no reason why your players can?t get away with similar actions at times, and of course every NPC will have a different moral code, therefore they might not care about what ever it is your players have done.
Rule 3: Everybody has a different moral code, including each of your NPC?s.

There is a certain type of game that I have seen mentioned under various names in a number of different source books, that is ?The Moral Of The Story?. Basically this revolves round the fact that your players will be punished in some way for doing something ?immoral?. I have only managed to run this type of game successfully a couple of times. I have found the best way to run this type of game is to let the players get away with a bit more than you think they should, so that you are not forcing an atonement for the sin.
Rule 4: Certain game types are not suitable for all players.

Using the above rules I find that the morals of the story take care of themselves in most respects and the games are more natural in this aspect. Only once have I come across a player who so loved using roleplay as a mechanism for unleashing wanton anarchist behaviour that I have had to ask him to leave the game after many discussions with him had no effect.