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* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' likes this one, though it must be noted that the setting already runs on BlackAndGrayMorality. The Imperium and Chaos both enjoy sacrificing innocents -- the former sacrifice to the Emperor, the latter to the Chaos Gods, to name one example.
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* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' likes this one, though it must be noted that the setting already runs on BlackAndGrayMorality. The Imperium and Chaos both enjoy sacrificing innocents -- the former sacrifice to the Emperor, the latter to the Chaos Gods, to name one example.
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** Speaking of, the Primarch of the Night Lords, Konrad Curze, lived and breathed this trope. His homeworld was a nightmarish city planet where violence and anarchy reigned. How did he bring law and order to the planet? Simple! By becoming an ultra-grimdark version of Franchise/{{Batman}} and ComicBook/ThePunisher and brutally murdering every other evil scumbag until the sewers were jammed with their body parts. [[CrapsackWorld He was still considered an improvement over his predecessors]]. After the death of Curze (at the hands of an Imperial Assassin who he let kill him to prove his point about the necessity of this trope) following his joining the traitors in the Horus Heresy and that of his First Captain Jago Sevatarion (who at least somewhat believed in Curze's warped sense of justice), the rest of the Legion abandoned even lip service to justice and became torture and terror addicted maniacs in short order.
* In the ''TableTopGame/{{Planescape}}'' campaign setting, one of Sigil's factions (gangs united by a common philosophy) are the Mercykillers (nickname: [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "The Red Death"]]), militants who believe TheMultiverse is inherently flawed with sin and that perfection can only be obtained by purifying your sins through just punishment. As their name implies, they do not believe in the concept of 'mercy' and any evil is to be punished, violently. They run Sigil's prison system and deal with executions. Crossing them is generally considered a poor idea.
* In the ''TableTopGame/{{Planescape}}'' campaign setting, one of Sigil's factions (gangs united by a common philosophy) are the Mercykillers (nickname: [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "The Red Death"]]), militants who believe TheMultiverse is inherently flawed with sin and that perfection can only be obtained by purifying your sins through just punishment. As their name implies, they do not believe in the concept of 'mercy' and any evil is to be punished, violently. They run Sigil's prison system and deal with executions. Crossing them is generally considered a poor idea.
to:
** Speaking of, the The Primarch of the Night Lords, Konrad Curze, lived and breathed this trope. His homeworld was a nightmarish city planet where violence and anarchy reigned. How did he bring law and order to the planet? Simple! By becoming an ultra-grimdark version of Franchise/{{Batman}} and ComicBook/ThePunisher and brutally murdering every other evil scumbag until the sewers were jammed with their body parts. [[CrapsackWorld He was still considered an improvement over his predecessors]]. After the death of Curze (at the hands of an Imperial Assassin who he let kill him to prove his point about the necessity of this trope) following his joining the traitors in the Horus Heresy and that of his First Captain Jago Sevatarion (who at least somewhat believed in Curze's warped sense of justice), the rest of the Legion abandoned even lip service to justice and became torture and terror addicted maniacs in short order.
*In ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'': Solkan the ''TableTopGame/{{Planescape}}'' campaign setting, one Avenger, god of vengeance and the sun, directs his followers to use any means, no matter how harsh and brutal, to punish and oppose the minions of Chaos.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'': One of Sigil's factions (gangs united by a common philosophy) are the Mercykillers (nickname: [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "The Red Death"]]), militants who believe TheMultiverse is inherently flawed with sin and that perfection can only be obtained by purifying your sins through just punishment. As their name implies, they do not believe in the concept of 'mercy' and any evil is to be punished, violently. They run Sigil's prison system and deal with executions. Crossing them is generally considered a poor idea.
*
* ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'': One of Sigil's factions (gangs united by a common philosophy) are the Mercykillers (nickname: [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "The Red Death"]]), militants who believe TheMultiverse is inherently flawed with sin and that perfection can only be obtained by purifying your sins through just punishment. As their name implies, they do not believe in the concept of 'mercy' and any evil is to be punished, violently. They run Sigil's prison system and deal with executions. Crossing them is generally considered a poor idea.
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**The Left-Handed Path mage book describes the story of the mage Einar, whose entire cabal was wiped out by the Seer Ministry of Geryon. When the other Pentacle mages refused to help Einar get his revenge, he [[StartofDarkness turned to the Abyss]] and became a [[NightmareFuel Scelestus]]. Renaming himself Angrboda after the Norse giant who spawned many monsters, he proceeded to summon dozens of Abyssal monstrosities and slowly but surely tore the Ministry apart, pylon by pylon, until he personally cast the Tetrarch down into the Abyss.
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** The ''Book of Exalted Deeds'', the Good-themed companion to the ''Book of Vile Darkness'', was notorious for this. For example, the ''Book of Vile Darkness'' contained several poisons, with notes that using poison is an evil and dishonorable act. The ''Book of Exalted Deeds'' then contained several "ravages" - even nastier poisons, some with dramatically horrific effects - and notes that they are fine for Good people to use, because they only work on Evil beings, specifically by [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard turning their own inner evil back on them.]]
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** The ''Book of Exalted Deeds'', the Good-themed companion to the ''Book of Vile Darkness'', was notorious for this. For example, the ''Book of Vile Darkness'' contained several poisons, with notes that using poison is an evil and dishonorable act. The ''Book of Exalted Deeds'' then contained several "ravages" - even nastier poisons, some with dramatically horrific effects - and notes that they are fine for Good people to use, because they only work on Evil beings, specifically by [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard [[HoistByHisOwnPetard turning their own inner evil back on them.]]
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** The ''Book of Exalted Deeds'', the Good-themed companion to the ''Book of Vile Darkness'', was notorious for this. For example, the ''Book of Vile Darkness'' contained several poisons, with notes that using poison is an evil and dishonorable act. The ''Book of Exalted Deeds'' then contained several "ravages" - even nastier poisons, some with dramatically horrific effects - and notes that they are fine for Good people to use, because they only work on Evil beings.
to:
** The ''Book of Exalted Deeds'', the Good-themed companion to the ''Book of Vile Darkness'', was notorious for this. For example, the ''Book of Vile Darkness'' contained several poisons, with notes that using poison is an evil and dishonorable act. The ''Book of Exalted Deeds'' then contained several "ravages" - even nastier poisons, some with dramatically horrific effects - and notes that they are fine for Good people to use, because they only work on Evil beings.beings, specifically by [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard turning their own inner evil back on them.]]
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** The Literature/HorusHeresy, as the titular novels show, can really be seen as the Traitor Legions doing this to the Emperor for all the crap he did unto them first. Notable examples include snatching Angron away from a LastStand and leaving the closest thing he had to a family to die (whilst having ample options for saving them all), slaughtering an entire world just to emphasize his demand that Lorgar StopWorshippingMe (actually it's not true, the world wasn't slaughtered, only one city was destroyed after its residents were ordered to flee), and refusing to listen to Magnus's warnings about the building CivilWar and siccing [[MagicIsEvil Leman Russ]] and his followers onto Magnus's world.
to:
** The Literature/HorusHeresy, as the titular novels show, can really be seen as the Traitor Legions doing this to the Emperor for all the crap he did unto them first. Notable examples include snatching Angron away from a LastStand and leaving the closest thing he had to a family to die (whilst having ample options for saving them all), slaughtering an entire world demolishing a major city just to emphasize his demand that Lorgar StopWorshippingMe (actually it's not true, the world wasn't slaughtered, only one city was destroyed after its residents were ordered to flee), StopWorshippingMe, and refusing to listen to Magnus's warnings about the building CivilWar and siccing [[MagicIsEvil [[DoesNotLikeMagic Leman Russ]] and his followers onto Magnus's world.
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** The Literature/HorusHeresy, as the titular novels show, can really be seen as the Traitor Legions doing this to the Emperor for all the crap he did unto them first. Notable examples include snatching Angron away from a LastStand and leaving the closest thing he had to a family to die (whilst having ample options for saving them all), slaughtering an entire world just to emphasize his demand that Lorgar StopWorshippingMe, and refusing to listen to Magnus's warnings about the building CivilWar and siccing [[MagicIsEvil Leman Russ]] and his followers onto Magnus's world.
to:
** The Literature/HorusHeresy, as the titular novels show, can really be seen as the Traitor Legions doing this to the Emperor for all the crap he did unto them first. Notable examples include snatching Angron away from a LastStand and leaving the closest thing he had to a family to die (whilst having ample options for saving them all), slaughtering an entire world just to emphasize his demand that Lorgar StopWorshippingMe, StopWorshippingMe (actually it's not true, the world wasn't slaughtered, only one city was destroyed after its residents were ordered to flee), and refusing to listen to Magnus's warnings about the building CivilWar and siccing [[MagicIsEvil Leman Russ]] and his followers onto Magnus's world.
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* A published ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' adventure, ''Digging Up a Dead God'', has the players playing Nazis [[EvilIsNotAToy on an archaeological expedition]]. Given that it's [=CoC=], and it's almost guaranteed to kill or drive the characters insane by the end, well... Most people would say there's no group more deserving of a horrible ending.
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* A published ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' adventure, ''Digging Up a Dead God'', has the players playing Nazis [[EvilIsNotAToy on an archaeological expedition]]. expedition. Given that it's [=CoC=], and [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow it's almost guaranteed to kill kill]] or [[GoMadFromTheRevelation drive the characters insane insane]] by the end, well... Most people would say there's no group more deserving of a horrible ending.
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* A published ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' adventure, ''Digging Up a Dead God'', has the players playing Nazis on an archaeological expedition. Given that it's [=CoC=], and it's almost guaranteed to kill or drive the characters insane by the end, well... Most people would say there's no group more deserving of a horrible ending.
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* A published ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' adventure, ''Digging Up a Dead God'', has the players playing Nazis [[EvilIsNotAToy on an archaeological expedition.expedition]]. Given that it's [=CoC=], and it's almost guaranteed to kill or drive the characters insane by the end, well... Most people would say there's no group more deserving of a horrible ending.
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** Generally speaking, though, those who run the Imperium want their citizens to die fighting, even if victory on a given field is impossible, so that they can [[TakingYouWithMe take down as many Renegades, Xenos, or Heretics as they can with their last breaths]]. Though they do regularly sacrifice hundreds of Pskyers a year to give power to the life-support-reliant Emperor, many of them would've threatened humanity had they been allowed to live.
** The Forces of Chaos, on the other hand, sacrifice innocents in order to grant the favor of the Dark Gods so they can go on world-molesting crusades, or in particularly evil moments, ''for fun''. However, some Chaos Space Marine players use this to make their army out to be less evil, since the Emperor himself did some pretty nasty things while establishing the Imperium, and that the society itself is very oppressive. From that perspective, the Imperium has to go for the better of mankind.
** The Forces of Chaos, on the other hand, sacrifice innocents in order to grant the favor of the Dark Gods so they can go on world-molesting crusades, or in particularly evil moments, ''for fun''. However, some Chaos Space Marine players use this to make their army out to be less evil, since the Emperor himself did some pretty nasty things while establishing the Imperium, and that the society itself is very oppressive. From that perspective, the Imperium has to go for the better of mankind.
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** Generally speaking, though, those who run the Imperium want their citizens to die fighting, even if victory on a given field is impossible, so that they can [[TakingYouWithMe take down as many Renegades, Xenos, or Heretics as they can with their last breaths]]. Though they do regularly sacrifice hundreds of Pskyers a year to give power to the life-support-reliant Emperor, many of them would've threatened humanity had they been allowed to live.
live as they have no control over their powers (those who have control are sanctioned instead) and said sacrifice is necessary to keep faster than light travel available without which the Imperium would collapse into a second Age of Strife from which it originally arose and lead to extinction at best and Chaos taking over at worst.
** The Forces of Chaos, on the other hand, sacrifice innocents in order to grant the favor of the Dark Gods so they can go on world-molesting crusades, or in particularly evil moments, ''for fun''. However, some Chaos Space Marine players use this to make their army out to be less evil, since the Emperor himself did some pretty nasty things while establishing the Imperium, and that the society itself is very oppressive. From that perspective, the Imperium has to go for the better of mankind. It should be noted that a good chunk of more recent heretics are because of the extreme oppression the Imperium (or rather the planetary authority which answers to the Imperium) shows and slowly becomes the monsters that the Imperium believes justifies its atrocities.
** The Forces of Chaos, on the other hand, sacrifice innocents in order to grant the favor of the Dark Gods so they can go on world-molesting crusades, or in particularly evil moments, ''for fun''. However, some Chaos Space Marine players use this to make their army out to be less evil, since the Emperor himself did some pretty nasty things while establishing the Imperium, and that the society itself is very oppressive. From that perspective, the Imperium has to go for the better of mankind. It should be noted that a good chunk of more recent heretics are because of the extreme oppression the Imperium (or rather the planetary authority which answers to the Imperium) shows and slowly becomes the monsters that the Imperium believes justifies its atrocities.
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** Speaking of, the Primarch of the Night Lords, Konrad Curze, lived and breathed this trope. His homeworld was a nightmarish city planet where violence and anarchy reigned. How did he bring law and order to the planet? Simple! By becoming an ultra-grimdark version of Franchise/{{Batman}} and ComicBook/ThePunisher and brutally murdering every other evil scumbag until the sewers were jammed with their body parts. [[CrapsackWorld He was still considered an improvement over his predecessors]].
to:
** Speaking of, the Primarch of the Night Lords, Konrad Curze, lived and breathed this trope. His homeworld was a nightmarish city planet where violence and anarchy reigned. How did he bring law and order to the planet? Simple! By becoming an ultra-grimdark version of Franchise/{{Batman}} and ComicBook/ThePunisher and brutally murdering every other evil scumbag until the sewers were jammed with their body parts. [[CrapsackWorld He was still considered an improvement over his predecessors]]. After the death of Curze (at the hands of an Imperial Assassin who he let kill him to prove his point about the necessity of this trope) following his joining the traitors in the Horus Heresy and that of his First Captain Jago Sevatarion (who at least somewhat believed in Curze's warped sense of justice), the rest of the Legion abandoned even lip service to justice and became torture and terror addicted maniacs in short order.
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* The basic focus of ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', as with its D&D precursor, is to visit unfortunate ends on evildoers, then abscond with their gold and magic items. However, using spells and actions considered evil on evil targets is still itself considered an evil act, so there's still a line before becoming a villain yourself.
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* The basic focus of ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', as with its D&D precursor, is to visit unfortunate ends on evildoers, then abscond with their gold and magic items. However, using spells and actions considered evil on evil targets is still itself considered an evil act, [[HeWhoFightsMonsters so there's still a line before becoming a villain yourself.yourself]].
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** The InUniverse slogan "Clan Smoke Jaguar Must Die!". [[BlackAndGreyMorality The designated 'evil' faction during the Clan Invasion]], Clan Smoke Jaguar had subjected the worlds they conquered to harsh repression and crossed a MoralEventHorizon when they used OrbitalBombardment to level a civilian city they had already conquered, a move even the other Clans found repulsive. As a result, the faction was subjected to [[FinalSolution an outright Annihilation]] by the Inner Sphere after the Clan Invasion failed, becoming one of the first factions in the game to be outright destroyed to the last and removed from the storyline. Even the other Clans stood by and let the Inner Sphere do it, because of the aforementioned Horizon event.
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[[PayEvilUntoEvil Paying evil unto evil]] in tabletop games.
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* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' has the Word of Blake, who broke a centuries long NuclearWeaponsTaboo...on civilians. All the other factions in the Inner Sphere proceeded to break the same taboo and nuke them back.
** The ilKhan Bret Andrews of Clan Steel Viper instigated the Wars of Reaving, which pitted the Clans against each other, and killed the Star Adder Khan N'Buta in a fit of rage. This was the last straw for the Clans, and the Star Adder saKhan Banacek killed Bret, and the remaining Clans annihilated the Steel Vipers.
* A published ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' adventure, ''Digging Up a Dead God'', has the players playing Nazis on an archaeological expedition. Given that it's [=CoC=], and it's almost guaranteed to kill or drive the characters insane by the end, well... Most people would say there's no group more deserving of a horrible ending.
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' has had "Kill Evil and Take Their Stuff" as a motto for ''decades.'' And sometimes it's not even ''that'' discriminating.
** The Grey Guard prestige class is built entirely around permitting paladins to make exceptions to their code of conduct for the sake of fighting greater evils.
** The Gothic D&D setting ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' encourages [=DMs=] to curtail the 'Stab and Loot' mentality, and downplays this trope with the use of Powers Checks (a sort of KarmaMeter). It's merely downplayed because said checks are easier to succeed at if you actually paid evil unto ''evil'' (DisproportionateRetribution is still a very bad idea). Within the setting, [[HunterOfMonsters Van Richten]], the resident Expert Monster Hunter, strongly advises against [[VanHelsingHateCrimes indiscriminately slaughtering]] every creature that opposes them (Lycanthropes could be cured). Ironically, he himself has done this at least once: his origin story includes setting flesh-eating zombies on the tribe of Vistani who kidnapped his son and sold him to a vampire for their own personal profit. (He [[DoomMagnet paid for that one]] for most the rest of his life, though.)
** The ''Book of Exalted Deeds'', the Good-themed companion to the ''Book of Vile Darkness'', was notorious for this. For example, the ''Book of Vile Darkness'' contained several poisons, with notes that using poison is an evil and dishonorable act. The ''Book of Exalted Deeds'' then contained several "ravages" - even nastier poisons, some with dramatically horrific effects - and notes that they are fine for Good people to use, because they only work on Evil beings.
** This is the whole concept of the 5e Paladin's Oath of Vengeance.
* The basic focus of ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', as with its D&D precursor, is to visit unfortunate ends on evildoers, then abscond with their gold and magic items. However, using spells and actions considered evil on evil targets is still itself considered an evil act, so there's still a line before becoming a villain yourself.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', Green Sun Princes can use this as a loophole to act as something resembling heroes. The terms of their servitude to the Yozis state that they absolutely ''have'' to behave in an appropriately evil manner... but the terms say nothing about ''who they have to target.'' They can solely target people as bad or worse than they are, and as long as they're [[EvilIsHammy sufficiently]] [[ContractualGenreBlindness villainous]] in dispatching them, it doesn't risk Torment. The net result being that they're [[DarkIsNotEvil no better or worse]] than any other Exalt, or totally deluded monsters, [[DependingOnTheWriter depending on the campaign]].
** Renegade [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Abyssals]] also deal in this, since their curse forces them to [[EnemyToAllLivingThings kill living things]], without specifying which ones.
* The ''[[TabletopGame/{{Champions}} HERO System]]'' supplement ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Dark Champions]]'' is built around this.
* ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'' has Aegis Kai Doru, a group of hunters who kill magic-users and take their artifacts so that it's easier to kill ''more'' magic-users (and sometimes werewolves). The book contains a lengthy section on how to deal with the KarmaMeter in light of goals like that.
** Forget about the Greek Indiana Jones. ''Hunters'' are the only people who can modify their Moral Code to justify about everything they do, as long as it's in the light of the hunt. The text example has "murdering someone" replaced with "letting a [[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening witch/warlock]] loose". This only makes paying evil unto evil far, far easier for them than other denizens of shadow.
** Elsewhere in the TabletopGame/ChroniclesOfDarkness, the Free Council of ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' have a particular line in this. The Council's BadassCreed has three key principles: "Democracy seeks the truth, hierarchy fosters the Lie"; "Humanity is magical; human works have arcane secrets"; and "Destroy the followers of the Lie" ("The Lie" refers to the barrier between [[{{Muggles}} Sleepers]] and magic). That third one can cause certain ''issues'', however. Because the Council are a radical order with sympathies for mages outside the Pentacle, and they have looser definitions of what behaviour is and is not acceptable in many issues, it's easy to get away with BlackMagic within the Council if you only use the darker arts on [[ArchEnemy the Seers of the Throne]] - whereas Left-Handed Legacies that concentrate on mistreating Sleepers [[BerserkButton are punished harshly]].
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' likes this one, though it must be noted that the setting already runs on BlackAndGrayMorality. The Imperium and Chaos both enjoy sacrificing innocents -- the former sacrifice to the Emperor, the latter to the Chaos Gods, to name one example.
** Generally speaking, though, those who run the Imperium want their citizens to die fighting, even if victory on a given field is impossible, so that they can [[TakingYouWithMe take down as many Renegades, Xenos, or Heretics as they can with their last breaths]]. Though they do regularly sacrifice hundreds of Pskyers a year to give power to the life-support-reliant Emperor, many of them would've threatened humanity had they been allowed to live.
** The Forces of Chaos, on the other hand, sacrifice innocents in order to grant the favor of the Dark Gods so they can go on world-molesting crusades, or in particularly evil moments, ''for fun''. However, some Chaos Space Marine players use this to make their army out to be less evil, since the Emperor himself did some pretty nasty things while establishing the Imperium, and that the society itself is very oppressive. From that perspective, the Imperium has to go for the better of mankind.
*** This perspective spawned the RPG spinoff ''TabletopGame/BlackCrusade''.
** The Literature/HorusHeresy, as the titular novels show, can really be seen as the Traitor Legions doing this to the Emperor for all the crap he did unto them first. Notable examples include snatching Angron away from a LastStand and leaving the closest thing he had to a family to die (whilst having ample options for saving them all), slaughtering an entire world just to emphasize his demand that Lorgar StopWorshippingMe, and refusing to listen to Magnus's warnings about the building CivilWar and siccing [[MagicIsEvil Leman Russ]] and his followers onto Magnus's world.
** Speaking of, the Primarch of the Night Lords, Konrad Curze, lived and breathed this trope. His homeworld was a nightmarish city planet where violence and anarchy reigned. How did he bring law and order to the planet? Simple! By becoming an ultra-grimdark version of Franchise/{{Batman}} and ComicBook/ThePunisher and brutally murdering every other evil scumbag until the sewers were jammed with their body parts. [[CrapsackWorld He was still considered an improvement over his predecessors]].
* In the ''TableTopGame/{{Planescape}}'' campaign setting, one of Sigil's factions (gangs united by a common philosophy) are the Mercykillers (nickname: [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "The Red Death"]]), militants who believe TheMultiverse is inherently flawed with sin and that perfection can only be obtained by purifying your sins through just punishment. As their name implies, they do not believe in the concept of 'mercy' and any evil is to be punished, violently. They run Sigil's prison system and deal with executions. Crossing them is generally considered a poor idea.
** The spin-off game ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' features Vhailor, a member of the Mercykillers considered fanatical even by his faction's standards. His belief in Justice (capital letter included) is so strong it's allowed him to postpone his own death because there are still lawbreakers to punish.
* Zigzagged in ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'', in that, whilst some "Gray Hats" are so dark it's outright stated that it's a matter of ''when'', not ''if'', they will [[HeWhoFightsMonsters become villains themselves]], the game still lets some surprisingly dark characters play the good guys.
** Throughout all three lines, there's the Harrowed; a RevenantZombie with a demonic EnemyWithin who can never be removed because it's the source of the Harrowed's undeath, meaning every time they go to sleep, they may end up unable to stop themselves from committing murder and mayhem.
** In the classic game, there's the Huckster, a wizard who literally makes a DealWithTheDevil every single time he casts a spell.
** The classic game also rules for a magic using [[ReligionIsMagic priest]] who derives his powers from either Myth/{{Aztec|Mythology}} BloodMagic or Anahuac (a syncretic mixture of Aztec faith and Catholicism).
** Then there's the Rogue Whatley, who practices BloodMagic.
** The playable vampire is one of those "damnation is inescapable" Gray Hats mentioned above.
** Another comes from ''Hell on Earth'', where the Anti-Templar draws upon the powers of the [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse Reckoners]]. Ironically, many people consider the Anti-Templars ''better'' people than the Templars they oppose, even if they do end up corrupted, since [[BadPowersGoodPeople the Anti-Templers both believe they are weakening the Reckoners by leeching away their power and only want that power to protect as many people as possible]], whilst the [[MeaningfulName Templars]] are known for being [[KnightTemplar extremely judgmental and self-righteous]].
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* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' has the Word of Blake, who broke a centuries long NuclearWeaponsTaboo...on civilians. All the other factions in the Inner Sphere proceeded to break the same taboo and nuke them back.
** The ilKhan Bret Andrews of Clan Steel Viper instigated the Wars of Reaving, which pitted the Clans against each other, and killed the Star Adder Khan N'Buta in a fit of rage. This was the last straw for the Clans, and the Star Adder saKhan Banacek killed Bret, and the remaining Clans annihilated the Steel Vipers.
* A published ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' adventure, ''Digging Up a Dead God'', has the players playing Nazis on an archaeological expedition. Given that it's [=CoC=], and it's almost guaranteed to kill or drive the characters insane by the end, well... Most people would say there's no group more deserving of a horrible ending.
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' has had "Kill Evil and Take Their Stuff" as a motto for ''decades.'' And sometimes it's not even ''that'' discriminating.
** The Grey Guard prestige class is built entirely around permitting paladins to make exceptions to their code of conduct for the sake of fighting greater evils.
** The Gothic D&D setting ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' encourages [=DMs=] to curtail the 'Stab and Loot' mentality, and downplays this trope with the use of Powers Checks (a sort of KarmaMeter). It's merely downplayed because said checks are easier to succeed at if you actually paid evil unto ''evil'' (DisproportionateRetribution is still a very bad idea). Within the setting, [[HunterOfMonsters Van Richten]], the resident Expert Monster Hunter, strongly advises against [[VanHelsingHateCrimes indiscriminately slaughtering]] every creature that opposes them (Lycanthropes could be cured). Ironically, he himself has done this at least once: his origin story includes setting flesh-eating zombies on the tribe of Vistani who kidnapped his son and sold him to a vampire for their own personal profit. (He [[DoomMagnet paid for that one]] for most the rest of his life, though.)
** The ''Book of Exalted Deeds'', the Good-themed companion to the ''Book of Vile Darkness'', was notorious for this. For example, the ''Book of Vile Darkness'' contained several poisons, with notes that using poison is an evil and dishonorable act. The ''Book of Exalted Deeds'' then contained several "ravages" - even nastier poisons, some with dramatically horrific effects - and notes that they are fine for Good people to use, because they only work on Evil beings.
** This is the whole concept of the 5e Paladin's Oath of Vengeance.
* The basic focus of ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', as with its D&D precursor, is to visit unfortunate ends on evildoers, then abscond with their gold and magic items. However, using spells and actions considered evil on evil targets is still itself considered an evil act, so there's still a line before becoming a villain yourself.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', Green Sun Princes can use this as a loophole to act as something resembling heroes. The terms of their servitude to the Yozis state that they absolutely ''have'' to behave in an appropriately evil manner... but the terms say nothing about ''who they have to target.'' They can solely target people as bad or worse than they are, and as long as they're [[EvilIsHammy sufficiently]] [[ContractualGenreBlindness villainous]] in dispatching them, it doesn't risk Torment. The net result being that they're [[DarkIsNotEvil no better or worse]] than any other Exalt, or totally deluded monsters, [[DependingOnTheWriter depending on the campaign]].
** Renegade [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Abyssals]] also deal in this, since their curse forces them to [[EnemyToAllLivingThings kill living things]], without specifying which ones.
* The ''[[TabletopGame/{{Champions}} HERO System]]'' supplement ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Dark Champions]]'' is built around this.
* ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'' has Aegis Kai Doru, a group of hunters who kill magic-users and take their artifacts so that it's easier to kill ''more'' magic-users (and sometimes werewolves). The book contains a lengthy section on how to deal with the KarmaMeter in light of goals like that.
** Forget about the Greek Indiana Jones. ''Hunters'' are the only people who can modify their Moral Code to justify about everything they do, as long as it's in the light of the hunt. The text example has "murdering someone" replaced with "letting a [[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening witch/warlock]] loose". This only makes paying evil unto evil far, far easier for them than other denizens of shadow.
** Elsewhere in the TabletopGame/ChroniclesOfDarkness, the Free Council of ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' have a particular line in this. The Council's BadassCreed has three key principles: "Democracy seeks the truth, hierarchy fosters the Lie"; "Humanity is magical; human works have arcane secrets"; and "Destroy the followers of the Lie" ("The Lie" refers to the barrier between [[{{Muggles}} Sleepers]] and magic). That third one can cause certain ''issues'', however. Because the Council are a radical order with sympathies for mages outside the Pentacle, and they have looser definitions of what behaviour is and is not acceptable in many issues, it's easy to get away with BlackMagic within the Council if you only use the darker arts on [[ArchEnemy the Seers of the Throne]] - whereas Left-Handed Legacies that concentrate on mistreating Sleepers [[BerserkButton are punished harshly]].
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' likes this one, though it must be noted that the setting already runs on BlackAndGrayMorality. The Imperium and Chaos both enjoy sacrificing innocents -- the former sacrifice to the Emperor, the latter to the Chaos Gods, to name one example.
** Generally speaking, though, those who run the Imperium want their citizens to die fighting, even if victory on a given field is impossible, so that they can [[TakingYouWithMe take down as many Renegades, Xenos, or Heretics as they can with their last breaths]]. Though they do regularly sacrifice hundreds of Pskyers a year to give power to the life-support-reliant Emperor, many of them would've threatened humanity had they been allowed to live.
** The Forces of Chaos, on the other hand, sacrifice innocents in order to grant the favor of the Dark Gods so they can go on world-molesting crusades, or in particularly evil moments, ''for fun''. However, some Chaos Space Marine players use this to make their army out to be less evil, since the Emperor himself did some pretty nasty things while establishing the Imperium, and that the society itself is very oppressive. From that perspective, the Imperium has to go for the better of mankind.
*** This perspective spawned the RPG spinoff ''TabletopGame/BlackCrusade''.
** The Literature/HorusHeresy, as the titular novels show, can really be seen as the Traitor Legions doing this to the Emperor for all the crap he did unto them first. Notable examples include snatching Angron away from a LastStand and leaving the closest thing he had to a family to die (whilst having ample options for saving them all), slaughtering an entire world just to emphasize his demand that Lorgar StopWorshippingMe, and refusing to listen to Magnus's warnings about the building CivilWar and siccing [[MagicIsEvil Leman Russ]] and his followers onto Magnus's world.
** Speaking of, the Primarch of the Night Lords, Konrad Curze, lived and breathed this trope. His homeworld was a nightmarish city planet where violence and anarchy reigned. How did he bring law and order to the planet? Simple! By becoming an ultra-grimdark version of Franchise/{{Batman}} and ComicBook/ThePunisher and brutally murdering every other evil scumbag until the sewers were jammed with their body parts. [[CrapsackWorld He was still considered an improvement over his predecessors]].
* In the ''TableTopGame/{{Planescape}}'' campaign setting, one of Sigil's factions (gangs united by a common philosophy) are the Mercykillers (nickname: [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "The Red Death"]]), militants who believe TheMultiverse is inherently flawed with sin and that perfection can only be obtained by purifying your sins through just punishment. As their name implies, they do not believe in the concept of 'mercy' and any evil is to be punished, violently. They run Sigil's prison system and deal with executions. Crossing them is generally considered a poor idea.
** The spin-off game ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' features Vhailor, a member of the Mercykillers considered fanatical even by his faction's standards. His belief in Justice (capital letter included) is so strong it's allowed him to postpone his own death because there are still lawbreakers to punish.
* Zigzagged in ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'', in that, whilst some "Gray Hats" are so dark it's outright stated that it's a matter of ''when'', not ''if'', they will [[HeWhoFightsMonsters become villains themselves]], the game still lets some surprisingly dark characters play the good guys.
** Throughout all three lines, there's the Harrowed; a RevenantZombie with a demonic EnemyWithin who can never be removed because it's the source of the Harrowed's undeath, meaning every time they go to sleep, they may end up unable to stop themselves from committing murder and mayhem.
** In the classic game, there's the Huckster, a wizard who literally makes a DealWithTheDevil every single time he casts a spell.
** The classic game also rules for a magic using [[ReligionIsMagic priest]] who derives his powers from either Myth/{{Aztec|Mythology}} BloodMagic or Anahuac (a syncretic mixture of Aztec faith and Catholicism).
** Then there's the Rogue Whatley, who practices BloodMagic.
** The playable vampire is one of those "damnation is inescapable" Gray Hats mentioned above.
** Another comes from ''Hell on Earth'', where the Anti-Templar draws upon the powers of the [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse Reckoners]]. Ironically, many people consider the Anti-Templars ''better'' people than the Templars they oppose, even if they do end up corrupted, since [[BadPowersGoodPeople the Anti-Templers both believe they are weakening the Reckoners by leeching away their power and only want that power to protect as many people as possible]], whilst the [[MeaningfulName Templars]] are known for being [[KnightTemplar extremely judgmental and self-righteous]].
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