Eltab
Lord of the Hidden Layer
A few thoughts:
1) A heads-up about insanity (and the vile things that insane people do) would be in order. You don't have to give away the plot, but tell the group that mind flayers who drive people insane are going to play a part in the adventure, and hand out the Mind Flayer section from the Monster Manual. Do this with enough 'lead time' that players who would rather not go there, can discuss it with you. There are several supplements (Heroes of Horror, Champions of Ruin) that describe at length various ways to handle the subject.
2) Violence against children: this should happen 'off-camera'. The PCs should find out about it because they heard some NPC talking about the dark deeds done in BBEG's Lair.
3) By and large, I prefer my D&D to be PG to PG-13. If I need to establish that my BBEG is in fact Evil (as opposed to supremely selfish / uncaring) then a brief R-rated cut scene would be in order. Given the circumstances in which I usually DM - at an FLGS - I have to think about children and teens being in the group or within earshot.
1) A heads-up about insanity (and the vile things that insane people do) would be in order. You don't have to give away the plot, but tell the group that mind flayers who drive people insane are going to play a part in the adventure, and hand out the Mind Flayer section from the Monster Manual. Do this with enough 'lead time' that players who would rather not go there, can discuss it with you. There are several supplements (Heroes of Horror, Champions of Ruin) that describe at length various ways to handle the subject.
2) Violence against children: this should happen 'off-camera'. The PCs should find out about it because they heard some NPC talking about the dark deeds done in BBEG's Lair.
3) By and large, I prefer my D&D to be PG to PG-13. If I need to establish that my BBEG is in fact Evil (as opposed to supremely selfish / uncaring) then a brief R-rated cut scene would be in order. Given the circumstances in which I usually DM - at an FLGS - I have to think about children and teens being in the group or within earshot.