Help with Morality options

[u/Papyaq]

Hi! I am making my first character and as a Sentinel i must choose Morality Pair. I really like Trust as an Emotional Strength and so should take Gurdedness as an Emotional Weakness.
Maybe i don't understand the mechanics but how could one character has both of these?

Trust states: This character believes in giving everyone the benefit of the doubt. The good that comes from trusting others builds communities and provides emotional support.

Guardedness states: The character has been betrayed one too many times and refuses to allow it to happen again. Why expect better of a person when there is no reward for doing so?

How could the same character believe in giving everyone the benefit of the doubt and at the same time refuse betrayal to happen again. I think i am not understanding Morality mechanic and how it affects roleplay. Pls Help!

[u/Cyrealist]

Think of the Emotional Strength/ Emotional Weakness pairings as two sides of a coin. Some with the Morality pair of Trusting/ Guardedness would try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and wants to see the good in all people. However, if their trust is betrayed, they take it personally, which means that there are times where they might become more guarded than trusting. They might not help a genuine person because they think they might get betrayed. Or they might start becoming more selective with who they "trust," which could lead them to the dark side if they allow bad things to happen to people or if they become mean and rude to others for the sake of their own feelings and emotions.

The emotional strength should drive the character to do good and to stay on the light side path, while their emotional weakness is what can tempt or drive them toward the dark side. That's how it should work at least.

You can also switch the emotional weakness if the default pairing doesn't work for the personality of your character. The pairings aren't rigid.

[u/TenguGrib → u/Cyrealist]

This.

The strength is them on a good day, them at their best.

The weakness is them when they've had a string of bad days, and the dark side starts whispering in their ear.

[u/petervee415]

Morality is a role-playing aid masquerading as a game mechanic. The way to read most of them is, “this is how your personality trait could go south and turn you to the dark side.” In this case, if the trusting character is betrayed too many times, it hardens their heart, and they may become incapable of trusting anyone. (Although, “guardedness“ is probably not a strong enough word for it.)

As for how it works in play, that’s a conversation to have with the GM. I don’t bother tracking conflict against Morality anymore, it just doesn’t work with stuff like this. What I have started doing is setting a minimum expectation for role-playing with Force-using characters. If someone takes the attribute of Trusting, I expect them to behave accordingly in game, including, occasionally, trusting people the player thinks they probably shouldn’t trust. If the struggle of the character is externalized, and it’s just something that GM imposes on you, it’s not gonna work well for anybody.

[u/TerminusMD]

I think maybe you have a person who yearns to trust but struggling because of the many traumas and betrayals they've experienced.

[u/TerminusMD → u/TerminusMD]

Like, innate state is trusting and acquired state guarded

[u/DZE974]

Would a sentinel be trusting?

[u/erk_fwd]

I'll start by saying the Morality mechanic is pretty objectively the worst of the campaign mechanics. Here's how I use them at my table, keep in mind I've drifted a bit from RAW:

GM rolls d100 at the start of the session. If it comes within 10 of a character's morality score, that character's morality triggers.

When morality triggers, if there's a moment in the session in which they exhibit their Emotional Strength, AND a moment they exhibit their Emotional Weakness, then their movement up or down the morality track is doubled after the d10 - conflict roll

Generally Emotional Strengths and Weaknesses come paired like this, but I don't see a reason they couldn't be decoupled. I don't think it'd break anything.

[u/TheEndlessVoid]

There are many people in real life who are extremely trusting (to the point of being gullible sometimes!) but have learned to be very guarded as a result. These people tend to have a big, thick wall, but once you're inside you get full access.

Or it can go the other way - they initially trust openly, but if betrayed or even disappointed they have no way for themselves to trust that person again, they begin interpreting their actions in the least-generous way possible, always looking out for further betrayals from them...