History BlackAndGrayMorality / TabletopGames

* In ''TabletopGame/BleakWorld'' This is essentially the rivalry between the [[MegaCorp Blackwood Company]] (who own street gangs, the prison system, and the media) and [[OccultLawFirm The Dark Skies Corporation]] (Who lobotomized an entire army to put demons in them and harvest the souls of the people they defend and/or prosecute.) There are many other examples, this is just the most notable.

** ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' has the Pentacle Orders, an alliance between various Mage factions acting behind the scene who all have their individual flaws, opposing the Seers of the Throne, an AncientConspiracy and DecadentCourt who willingly serve god-like tyranic beings into secretly ruling mankind.
** ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'' has the majority of Changelings (ancient slaves to insane {{Eldritch Abomination}}s whose trauma has made deeply paranoid and insane) going against the [[TheQuisling Loyalists]] (Changelings willing to hand over their peers to save their own skin) and the [[TheFairFolk True Fae]] (the previously mentioned abominations).
** ''TabletopGame/PrometheanTheCreated'' has the titular Prometheans, who are {{Artificial Human}}s trying to BecomeARealBoy (sometimes using questionable methods) against the Pandorans (insane monsters out to devour them) and Centimani (Prometheans who embraced their monstrous side).

** In ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression'', the Peerage deliberately chose to be Grey because if you have a Genius go off on his own he'll often become [[TheUnfettered Illuminated]], and if the choice is between accepting jerks or have them wander off and turn into Mengele, you'd better get used to putting up with jerks. The Storyteller is advised to keep the players wondering whether the AncientConspiracy Lemuria is really that bad compared to the barely human nutbars in high-up positions in the Peerage. (The "black" role here is played not so much by modern Lemuria (as opposed to the original Lemuria, which was a Mane conspiracy to control human progress), which is pretty much the Peerage but crazier at this point, but by [[EmptyShell Clockstoppers]], the Illuminated, and the occasional Hollow Earth Nazi or Phantom Slaver Yeti.)

** Eschaton is straight up committing genocide against espers whenever they can and has all of it's espers (all of whom are devoutly religious) convinced that they're demon-possessed.

* ''TabletopGame/CthulhuTech'': A crossover between Creator/HPLovecraft and ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' was bound to be pretty hard on everybody -- an ongoing theme of the setting is how the horrible, soul-rending evils wage a tireless war to keep the ''really'' bad stuff at bay. To quote the Corebook's intro fiction: "Some people say war is hell. Well, I've seen Hell. This is worse."

** Or [=ComStar=], who are shown to be a manipulative and secretive organization, that can easily bring a state to its knees just by shutting off all communications between planets, and which is not above intriguing to keep its own interests secure -- there are a few hints that the Succession Wars may well be an EvilPlan by [=ComStar=] intended to preserve its own autonomy and power within the Inner Sphere. At the same time, it is the last holdout for many destroyed technologies that humanity would need to survive and thrive.
** When you have the likes of Word of Blake, a fanatical, genocidal splinter faction of the aforementioned [=ComStar=] that retained its pseudoreligious trappings, even the likes of the Capellan Confederation--long regarded as one of the least cooperative Successor States--looks good. Having decidedly one-sided caste based citizenship, the most ruthless secret police and special forces units around, and the occasional tendency to double cross allies for their own gain doesn't look quite so bad next to the World of Blake nuking, orbitally bombarding, chemical spraying, and bio-bombing entire planets into dead worlds.

** ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' and ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'' both feature a faction of [[PragmaticVillainy pragmatic]] vampires who try to keep a low profile and avoid pointless killing (the Camarilla/The five playable Covenants) opposing a faction of {{Fully Embraced Fiend}}s vampires who just want to bring hell on Earth regardless of the consequences (the Sabbat/Belial's Brood).

* The premise of ''TabletopGame/{{Anathema}}'': Either meet a daily murder quota or let the Earth and all of humanity die a slow, horrible death.

** The Infernal Exalted are also made from Solar Shards, but instead corrupted by [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils the Yozis]] rather than the Neverborn. As a result, they have the power of [[AbusivePrecursors the fallen Primordials,]] who want their Chosen to take back Creation from the gods and Exalted that cast them out. While the Infernals are perfectly capable of [[ScrewDestiny telling the Yozis to]] [[JustForPun go to hell,]] that doesn't necessarily [[AntiHero make them good guys.]]

** ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken'' has a slightly more complicated case; at first, it seems similar, having the Tribes of the Moon (werewolve who are trying to act as guardians of the Spirit World and the World of Flesh to make sure Spirits won't mistreat humans, but don't care that much about humans and will kill some of them without much thought if it's necessary) going against the Pure (werewolf supremacists who ''want'' spirits to enslave all of mankind). The twist is, the Pure actually are ALighterShadeOfBlack to a third faction, the Bale Hounds, who worship [[MadGod the Maeljin Incarna]] and just wish to turn the entire world into HellOnEarth.
** In ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression'', the Peerage deliberately chose to be Grey because if you have a Genius go off on his own he'll often become [[TheUnfettered Illuminated]], and if the choice is between accepting jerks or have them wander off and turn into Mengele, you'd better get used to putting up with jerks. The Storyteller is advised to keep the players wondering whether the AncientConspiracy Lemuria is really that bad compared to the barely human nutbars in high-up positions in the Peerage. (The "black" role here is played not so much by modern Lemuria, which is just going through the motions, but by [[EmptyShell Clockstoppers]], the Illuminated, and the occasional Hollow Earth Nazi or Phantom Slaver Yeti.)

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' is about nothing but this. Intentionally.

* When playing ''TabletopGame/{{Infernum}}'', it's either this or EvilVersusEvil. You have an order of ''literal'' {{Knight Templar}}s who want to exterminate all demons in Hell, the so-called Free Tribes (which are humans who survive in Hell by being willing to do anything to survive, including using BlackMagic and committing cannibalism), {{Fallen Angel}}s and even idealistic demons who ''want'' to rise above their [[InTheBlood innately twisted, aberrant natures]] but are hampered by the limits of their biology and mentality (for starters, they can't survive without feeding off the pain of souls because it's all that holds their own souls together, and love isn't a natural emotion for them to feel). Versus these you have... well, all TheLegionsOfHell, who embrace corruption, torture, degradation, backstabbing, ambition and malice as the only things that matter.

*** All of this said, while all of the major mortal factions (major nations, dragonmarked houses, and even the Blood of Vol, a creepy religion secretly controlled by one of the setting's Big Bads) are more-or-less amoral, few of them are of the CardCarryingVillain variety- most of them simply have their own agendas that they're interested in pursuing regardless of who gets in their ways. Unfortunately, there are several extremely power supernatural forces that ''are'' unambiguously evil (Lords of Dust, Dreaming Dark, and Daelkyr being the three biggest) and would pretty much destroy the world and/or reshape it in their image if they had their way. ''Really'' unfortunately, all of these are creepily good at disguising their true nature and working through pawns who may actually believe they're the good guys, and the main forces capable of opposing them on their own level are morally ambiguous in their own right (the dragons, the Undying Court) and the one that ''is'' purely good (the Silver Flame) is inherently reactive rather than proactive, and influential parts of its religion have gone the CorruptChurch route.

* Though there ''are'' heroes in ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'', they are few and far between. In the core Eberron setting book, there's only 1 high-level Good NPC, and she is a young girl who only has such power while in the same city as the Silver Flame (a metaphysical source of elemental good) itself. And that person is responsible for trying to make sure her church full of Knight Templars doesn't cause too much death and destruction. Of course, WordOfGod from the setting's creator indicates that at least part of the reason for lack of powerful good [=NPCs=] is to keep the focus on the ''[=PCs=]'' as the heroes.
** All of this said, while all of the major mortal factions (major nations, dragonmarked houses, and even the Blood of Vol, a creepy religion secretly controlled by one of the setting's Big Bads) are more-or-less amoral, few of them are of the CardCarryingVillain variety- most of them simply have their own agendas that they're interested in pursuing regardless of who gets in their ways. Unfortunately, there are several extremely power supernatural forces that ''are'' unambiguously evil (Lords of Dust, Dreaming Dark, and Daelkyr being the three biggest) and would pretty much destroy the world and/or reshape it in their image if they had their way. ''Really'' unfortunately, all of these are creepily good at disguising their true nature and working through pawns who may actually believe they're the good guys, and the main forces capable of opposing them on their own level are morally ambiguous in their own right (the dragons, the Undying Court) and the one that ''is'' purely good (the Silver Flame) is inherently reactive rather than proactive, and influential parts of its religion have gone the CorruptChurch route.

** The campaign world ''TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}}'' lives for this trope. The world of Oerth is always on a knife's edge between Law and Chaos, and there is an organization led by Mordenkainen the Mage (who must people will recognize because his name appears on a few spells) that ensures that neither gains ascendancy... by any means necessary. Mordenkainen, in canon fiction ([[Creator/GaryGygax Word of Gygax]], however, has it that this wasn't intended originally, had he not been ousted from Creator/{{TSR}}) will work with the BigBad one week, and then lead a group of paladins against him the next... all to keep the balance between Law and Chaos correct.

** On a general scale, you can't find any faction that is good by our standards, but some sub-factions and characters, like several SpaceMarine chapters, a few Imperial Guard regiments, the occasional Craftworld Eldar protagonist, Literature/{{Ravenor}} and Literature/CiaphasCain '''(HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!)''' or the Tau count as good. Unfortunately, they are far outnumbered by less moral groups, {{Bad Boss}}es, [[WellIntentionedExtremist people who go]] [[KnightTemplar too far]] for their cause, and the [[TheFairFolk Dark Eldar]], [[RobotWar Necrons]], [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Tyranids]] and [[TheLegionsOfHell the forces of Chaos]].

** It is saying something about the setting when you consider the "good" factions of the game: [[CantArgueWithElves arrogant space elves]] who [[FantasticRacism view humans as little better than filthy, stupid animals]]; the [[TheEmpire Imperium of Man]] which is an AntiHero ''[[HumansAreTheRealMonsters at best]]'', but would easily fall into villainy in most settings, where their policy against all aliens is [[AbsoluteXenophobe shoot first, talk later]] and have same attitude as aforementioned Eldar regarding aliens, but with a "slight" difference that while Eldar are mostly butthurt space elves that are limited to insults and schemes, the Imperium is actually busy exterminating non-humans '''daily'''. Also they destroy entire planets of people if it is suspected to have a substantial corruption of Chaos, not to mention that their oppression is nothing short of fascism; and the communist [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Tau Empire]], whose leaders are powerful psychics that control their followers through mind control and their MO is "join us and serve the Greater Good, or we'll kill your entire race". That said, at least Tau bother with allies, the Eldar leave you alone unless you come up in one of their schemes, and the Imperium is fairly tolerant of you as long as you're human and believe in the God Emperor. Which is more than we can say for Chaos, Orks, Necrons, Tyranids, and Dark Eldar.