Beware The Honest Ones

Basic Information

Beware The Honest Ones is a characterization trope. A character falling under this trope is an idealist, but he is often surrounded by other characters with more dubious morality. As a result, the others are ready to discount him as naive or even an idiot, sometimes delighting in using his honesty to their advantage.

However, in this case they are mistaken - sometimes, such a character will do something so staggeringly bold which is all the more surprising to the others because they discounted him because of his beliefs.

Sources

Bibliography

1. TV Tropes Wiki entry

Game and Story Use

• In campaigns centered on back-stabbing, intrigue, and gray morality, the PCs are unlikely to trust someone who appears honest, idealistic, and principled since too many other people around them only pretend that they share these qualities. If such a person comes into conflict with their own agenda, they might sabotage or fight him with the usual dirty tricks. And when they learn that that person is actually as honest as he appears, he will have become an implacable enemy of the PCs precisely because he is so honest - and the PCs will have to adjust to the fact that they do not hold the moral high ground in this conflict.