History MoralEventHorizon / TableTopGames

* Bargle the Infamous, the evil magic user from the introductory adventure of ''TabletopGame/BasicDungeonsAndDragons'' would become an enemy for life of many a player back in the [=80s=] by not only murdering Aleena, the cleric who had helped them get their bearings, with a Magic Missile, but also using a Charm Person spell on them to not only make the player regard him as a friend, but put him in a position to put them to sleep and rob them blind. Of course, as far as villains go in the big scheme of things, Bargle was rather tame... ''But'' he had the ''potential'' to become a rather vile villain; it all depended on just how far the DM was willing to take the character.

* The murder of the beautiful cleric Aleena with a Magic Missile by Bargle the Infamous from the introductory adventure of Basic D&D would make the evil magic user an enemy for life for many a player back in the 80s. (Of course, as far as villains go in the big scheme of things, Bargle was rather tame... ''But'' he had the ''potential'' to become a rather vile villain; it all depended on just how far the DM was willing to take the character.)

** The original Darklord of Invidia, Baron Bakholis, became a werewolf after his lust for a young woman drove him to have her lover maimed and eaten right in front of her while several of his soldiers raped her, and when he personally killed her, she laid a Dying Curse on him that resulted in his lycanthropy. Both he and his domain was taken by the Mists soon after. Its current Darklord, Gabrielle Adarre, was taken by the Mists after willfully leaving her mother to be ripped apart by a werewolf, believing her mother's story about Vlad Drakov being her father to be a lie.
** Elena Faith-Hold turned upon those who did not worship her god Belenus in her domain of Nidala, and went to war against them, which cost her her paladinhood. But she was too convinced of her own righteousness to take the hint that ''maybe'' murdering people for the "sin" of following anyone but Belenus was a ''really bad idea'', and after purging every non-Belenus worshipper from her lands, she then turned her wrath upon her allies and followers, seeking to purge everyone who wasn't a firm ally, and those who were not human. These pogroms got so bad that Nidala got taken into the Mists and Elena became the Darklord of the domain.

** Elena Faith-Hold turned upon those who did not worship her god Belenus in her domain of Nidala, and went to war against them, costing her her paladinhood. But she was too convinced of her own righteousness to take the hint that ''maybe'' murdering people for the "sin" of following anyone but Belenus was a ''really bad idea'', and after purging every non-Belenus worshipper from her lands, she then turned her wrath upon her allies and followers, seeking to purge everyone who wasn't a firm ally, and those who were not human. These pogroms got so bad that Nidala got taken into the Mists and Elena became the Darklord of the domain.

** Likewise, in ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'', you have the Nephandi, mages who have sold out their souls to dark and terrible masters in the name of universal destruction. To do so requires the mage go through a Caul and turn their Avatar (the representation of their higher magical beliefs) inside out. This is something few mages do accidentally; to truly become a Nephandus requires ''knowingly'' desecrating everything you hold dear, from your faith to your relationships to your morals.

* The GothicHorror setting of ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' for TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons has an official term for one of these: an [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "Act of Ultimate Darkness,"]] which is a requirement for becoming one of the setting's dreaded Darklords -- an act of such great and horrible evil that it is guaranteed to draw the attention of the Dark Powers, and is a near-perfect blend of {{hypocrisy}}, [[ThisIsUnforgivable depravity]], [[KickTheDog cruelty]], and [[ItsAllAboutMe selfishness]]. The clincher, though, [[ObliviouslyEvil is absolute refusal to acknowledge that what they did was wrong]]. Indeed, that's part of ThePunishment for Darklords -- that if they worked up the moral strength to admit that what they have done is inexcusable and that they reaped what they sowed, their curse would be [[CursedWithAwesome moot]]. Then again, the books say that if they were the sorts of people who'd be able to do that, they would never have become Darklords in the first place. Notable examples include:

* The Star Wars RPG deliberately subverts this trope with the character of Halagad Ventor. He was a jedi knight that lusted for honor and glory. He survived Order 66, and helped establish a network of Jedi refugees. He was eventually captured and tortured by Vader himself, forced to reveal the location of the last Jedi sanctuaries. Disgraced and ashamed, he fled to the dark sided swamp world Not Dagobah to live out the rest of his days, gradually degenerating and falling towards the dark side. When a group of rebels crashed on his sanctuary, he attempted to scare and/or kill them with his powers, but failed. When they eventually confronted him, they told him of Luke Skywalker, Vader's redemption and the fall of the Empire. In a blinding light, his body disappeared, and a reflection of him at his prime stood before them, thanking them for bringing him back to the light. For in his final moments, he recognized the final lesson of the Force: No one is beyond redemption.

AlternativeCharacterInterpretation in TabletopGames.

** Leviathans from the fanmade ''TabletopGame/LeviathanTheTempest'' become Typhons, vicious beasts unable to return to their human form who are only driven by their most primal urges to mate, dominate and protect their territory.

** Horus went over the line when he destroyed Isstvan III in an attempt to eliminate the loyalist elements of several Legions. This included members of his own Legion, who looked up to him like a father. When some of them dug in and survived the virus-bombing, Horus ordered the forces loyal to him to go down to the surface and kill them, making them complicit in his treachery and betrayal. For the Emperor, however, it was flaying Ollanius Pius (who is either an Adeptus Custodes, an Imperial Fists Terminator, or an ordinary Guardsman: [[FlipFlopOfGod Games Workshop can't decide which]]) alive with mind bullets that was what finally convinced him Horus was beyond saving.

** Stefan Amaris is perhaps the only person in-universe who has been directly compared to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler... in fact, it wouldn't be surprising if a 3025 version of GodwinsLaw actually named Amaris. His crossing of the horizon came when he [[RulingFamilyMassacre executed the entirety of the Cameron family]], and then left their bodies to rot in the throne room where they were executed.

** During the Clan Invasion, Clan Smoke Jaguar ordered an orbital bombardment over a city full of civilians; this act enraged the Inner Sphere and [[EvenEvilHasStandards the other Clans called it needlessly cruel]]. [[LaserGuidedKarma As a result, when the Inner Sphere united to strike back against the Clans, Smoke Jaguar was the one they singled out for total annihilation.]]

* In the TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness, every person is subject to a zero-to-ten KarmaMeter, with an average person falling in somewhere around seven. For normal humans, falling to a low Morality only gives a penalty in that getting to that level requires committing acts that would get you tried under the Geneva Conventions, if not thrown in prison for life (though one is unlikely to drop very low without going at least a little insane). For supernaturals, however, falling down on their respective morality scales often imposes supernatural penalties, and for both regular humans and all supernaturals, falling to 0 irreversibly corrupts you in some manner and you're turned into an NPC. The "irreversible corruption" works in different ways:

* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'': Being a loyalist Abyssal or an Infernal counts as -- or requires -- crossing the Moral Event Horizon. Signing up with the [[OmnicidalManiac Neverborn and the Deathlords]] means voluntarily killing absolutely everything; your family, crush, dreams, and hope included. Hopping on the [[HellOnEarth Reclamation]] wagon means that you will devote your godlike powers to freeing infinitely hateful demon-gods upon the world, who might as well rewrite reality so that nothing can die and everything suffers eternally. Still, this being Exalted, this doesn't describe all of them, [[NobleDemon or even most]], particularly in the case of the latter. The Abyssals may repent and reclaim their original nature of the Solar Exalted. A possibility is convincing their good nature to the Unconquered Sun, who is now sadly addicted to Celstial Crack and has not paid attention to Creation in a thousand years. Another is reaching Autochthon (who is hiding in a different plane of reality) and talking him into rewriting the corrupted Exaltation. Nobody has achieved either of these... ''yet'' (although, to be fair, the first Abyssals were created only a few years back at the time of the setting's default chronological campaign starting point). For an Infernal, stealing away the powers of the Yozis, subverting their control and becoming a proto-Primordial on their own can allow them to pursue their own heroic, not-necessarily-sadistic goals. This is about as difficult as inventing a new type of reality. [[ShowyInvincibleHero Which is to say]], [[GodModeSue "not the most"]]. These ''are'' people meant to remake reality, not destroy it, after all.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'': Being a loyalist Abyssal or an Infernal counts as -- or requires -- crossing the Moral Event Horizon. Signing up with the [[OmnicidalManiac Neverborn and the Deathlords]] means voluntarily killing absolutely everything; your family, crush, dreams, and hope included. Hopping on the [[HellOnEarth Reclamation]] wagon means that you will devote your godlike powers to freeing infinitely hateful demon-gods upon the world, who might as well rewrite reality so that nothing can die and everything suffers eternally. Still, this being Exalted, this doesn't describe all of them, [[NobleDemon or even most]], particularly in the case of the latter. The Abyssals may repent and reclaim their original nature of the Solar Exalted. A possibility is convincing their good nature to the Unconquered Sun, who is now sadly addicted to Celstial Crack and has not paid attention to Creation in a thousand years. Another is reaching Autochthon (who is hiding in a different plane of reality) and talking him into rewriting the corrupted Exaltation. Nobody has achieved either of this... ''yet'' (although, to be fair, the first Abyssals were created only a few years back at the time of the setting's default chronological campaign starting point). For an Infernal, stealing away the powers of the Yozis, subverting their control and becoming a proto-Primordial on their own can allow them to pursue their own heroic, not-necessarily-sadistic goals. This is about as difficult as inventing a new type of reality. [[ShowyInvincibleHero Which is to say]], [[GodModeSue "not the most"]]. These ''are'' people meant to remake reality, not destroy it, after all.

** [[TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem Vampires]] become ''Wights'', ravening blood-crazed horrors lost to their inner beast.

** [[TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost Changelings]] with Clarity 0 have a bad habit of disappearing into the Hedge and never coming back. Why? [[spoiler:Because they become [[EldritchAbomination True Fae]] themselves]].

** Geniuses, from the fanmade ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression'', have to essentially be Mengele to reach these lower points. When they hit zero, their individual personality largely disintegrates, and they become monsters that won't give a damn how many people they have to hurt in order to complete their experiments.

** A vampire which follows one of these alternate Paths can make for an interesting discussion on whether or not they can truly committ a moral event horizon. By following such a Path, they adhere to a completely new and alien system of morality not easily understood by a vast majority of others. When such a being committs a [=MEH=], it may seem an atrocity to others but perfectly acceptable to their own moral guidelines.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'', the Horizon MegaCorp in ''Columbian Subterfuge'' reveals they killed [=POWs=] rescued by the players' Shadowrunners and made it look like Aztlan did it.

* In ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'', the [[ChurchMilitant Word of Blake]] violates centuries old rules on warfare forbidding Weapons of Mass Destruction from being used on civilians. All the other factions within the Inner Sphere are so horrified that they [[EnemyMine joined forces]] to annihilate the Blakists... [[PayEvilUntoEvil with even more Weapons of Mass Destruction]].
** Stefan Amaris is perhaps the only person in-universe who has been directly compared to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler... in fact it wouldn't be surprising if a 3025 version of GodwinsLaw actually named Amaris. His crossing of the horizon came when he executed the entirety of the Cameron family, and then left their bodies to rot in the throne room where they were executed.

** During the Clan Invasion, Clan Smoke Jaguar ordered an orbital bombardment over a city full of civilians, this act enraged the Inner Sphere and [[EvenEvilHasStandards the other Clans called it needlessly cruel]]. [[LaserGuidedKarma As a result, when the Inner Sphere united to strike back against the Clans, Smoke Jaguar were the one they singled out for total annihilation.]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'': Being a loyalist Abyssal or an Infernal counts as -- or requires -- crossing the Moral Event Horizon. Signing up with the [[OmnicidalManiac Neverborn and the Deathlords]] means voluntarily killing absolutely everything; your family, crush, dreams and hope included. Hopping on the [[HellOnEarth Reclamation]] wagon means that you will devote your godlike powers to freeing infinitely hateful demon-gods upon the world, who might as well rewrite reality so that nothing can die and everything suffers eternally. Still, this being Exalted, this doesn't describe all of them, [[NobleDemon or even most]], particularly in the case of the latter. The Abyssals may repent and reclaim their original nature of the Solar Exalted. A possibility is convincing their good nature to the Unconquered Sun, who is now sadly addicted to Celstial Crack and has not paid attention to Creation in a thousand years. Another is reaching Autochthon (who is hiding in a different plane of reality) and talking him into rewriting the corrupted Exaltation. Nobody has achieved either of this... ''yet'' (although, to be fair, the first Abyssals were created only a few years back at the time of the setting's default chronological campaign starting point). For an Infernal, stealing away the powers of the Yozis, subverting their control and becoming a proto-Primordial on their own can allow them to pursue their own heroic, not-necessarily-sadistic goals. This is about as difficult as inventing a new type of reality. [[ShowyInvincibleHero Which is to say]], [[GodModeSue "not the most"]]. These ''are'' people meant to remake reality, not destroy it, after all.

** Probably the most famous Act of Ultimate Darkness was committed by Count Strahd Von Zarovich, who rules the domain of Ravenloft. He murdered his brother Sergei over Tatyana, the woman both men loved, on their wedding day, leading to Tatyana throwing herself off the wall of Ravenloft as Strahd pursued her. Every generation, Tatyana is reincarnated and Strahd pursues her to her death, never learning his lesson.