Author (and artist) of The Book of Erotic Fantasy

[Quinn]

Re: Author of The Book of Erotic Fantasy

The work is, indeed, focused on sex. It has an erotic slant. The topics are treated with taste, seriousness, and humor. It's not an in-your-face book.

It's a game product. One of which I'm proud to be an author. I believe it is full of good, solid rules mechanics appropriate for audiences interested in including such topics in their games.

This is a far cry from the press release which said:

"A generation of fantasy roleplaying game enthusiasts grew up wondering what the elf maiden looked like without those gauzy robes."

and

"Anthony Valterra helped found a fetish club (Oregon Guild Activists of S/M) and an occult church (Church of the Blood Red Moon) as well as engaging in a wide variety of other unusual adventures. He has used these personal experiences to guide him in the creation of this product."

I'm sorry, but that sounded very "in your face" to me and gave me a really bad first impression. Personally, Gwendolyn, I think you should've written the initial press release. As for the product, I'll wait and see, but still.....baaaad first impression.

 

[Squirrel Nutkin]

To Whom it May Concern at Hasbro and WotC,

While many of the threads about Dungeons & Dragons on this board have been positive. I felt a need to speak out in opposition.

How will you keep these rulebooks away from kids? It will be impossible to keep gaming material out of the hands of children. You may not care if chidren get the material of not, but as a person living under the rule of the preachers in the bible belt, I have an interest in not seeing public railing against our hobby from the pulpit! Yes, demon-worship may be passe these days, but you are tapping right into the biggest fears among parents: theft, violence, and murder.

How can you justify this? What place does crime and bloodshed have in a game?

D&D will only serve to heighten the gamer stereotype of "trenchcoat mafia" kids with trigger-happy fingers. It will serve to fuel the image that a bunch of sociopathic guys play this game. It is a stereotype that I have worked against for a decade. It has been bad enough trying to get past people's beliefs and let them see the truth. Most people will see these books and never even take the time to listen!

I am not telling anyone that they cannot make crime and violence a part of their game. That is for each group to decide on their own. In fact, the GMs should be the one's making the material! It is a game of imagination afterall. Why do we need RULES for robbing and killing people? Did you ever consider that by turning crime into a die roll that you are lessening it in real life? Kids who get this book will not truly respect the act if they are "experienced" with in game murder! Or is this a liberal political agenda to bring more people around to your viewpoint by targeting people at a young age? Because it will be teens, especially angry young misfits who finds this book to be the most desireable.

I am sure that people will rail against me and bandy names such as troll and hippy. However, it is MY image that concerns me. I love Hasbro's less offensive card games and boardgames (except for Clue which is very inappropriate) and I hate that I have defend myself, my morality and my honor from people because of the existing stereotype. For those of you who want to say that this book will have no effect, that I am a doomsayer, or that I should not try to censure others for what they do in their private homes, then you are not seeing the point of my argument.

I have no desire to control what you do in your own group. You can still DO it. We do not need a public set of rules for burglary and murder in D&D. This is simply a move to create controversy in order to sell a product: D&D. I know that you do not care how we, the players, appear to others. You're in it for the money, but I do wish that you'd considered that angle.

The only thing that I can do is write you and let you know what I think. In fact, I will be sending multiple letters, including a petition started by my players and circulating around the local game shops and universities. I did not fight TV, movies, and video games, but I will not go quietly into the darkness on this issue.

Squirrel Nutkin

 

[Belen]

Squirrel,

Personally, I think that was wrong, man. I have no desire to start a flame war, so I will refrain from dropping down to the level you wish, but if you have a point then you should write it yourself instead of plagarizing someone else's work.

We all have a write to our own viewpoint. Ye gods, this is why I do not like messageboards. <sigh>

Dave

 

[Quinn]

I love Hasbro's less offensive card games and boardgames (except for Clue which is very inappropriate) and I hate that I have defend myself, my morality and my honor from people because of the existing stereotype.

ROFLMAO!

 

[hong]

Yes, demon-worship may be passe these days, but you are tapping right into the biggest fears among parents: theft, violence, and murder.

Not to mention really big bazongas.


Hong "prefers small bazongas, really" Ooi

 

[Squirrel Nutkin]

We all have a write to our own viewpoint.

I agree. And as somebody who feels that violence is wrong and sex is not, I think I just made my own viewpoint crystal clear.

 

[Zappo]

Good for you Mrs. Kestrel. It took a great deal of courage to post this message with the Puritan uprising that has already taken place.

From what I've seen, it's just a vocal minority that strongly opposes this book. Half of the other thread was composed of the same bunch of people posting in circles. And consider the vast, vast majority that just shrugged and didn't even bother to post!

 

[Assenpfeffer]

Because of the way the OGL D20 system works, your book will be viewed as part of the canon of D&D.

No, it won't. Nothing but WotC's stuff is really considered "canon" by anybody. Even Kalamar stuff, which uses the D&D logo, isn't "canon" in any way. And this won't be published under the D&D logo. Now, if by "canon" you mean "peripherally connected in some vague way," then, yeah, I suppose I agree.

1. Your material could easily become a lynchpin of adolescent male gaming, giving such games a socially destructive sexual component which may lead to people abandoning the system too early or developing a wholly warped idea of what RPGs are.

Okay, I'll bite... why is a sexual component of gaming assumed to be socially destructive? I'll admit that I can't readily see any real value in this material, but the broad notion of dismissing discussion of sex as automatically smacks to me of the kind of knee-jerk puritanism that's been brought ugly into the light over this insignificant issue.

2. Your material will expose D&D to public criticism that can severely damage its image.

No, it won't. The public will never be aware of this obscure (in mass-market terms) product. The public is not aware of higher-profile items like Hol and Cainite Heresy, both of which are probably more extreme than BoEF will be. Nor is the public aware of such atrocities as FATAL, despite the huge amount of fan screeching about it. And FATAL is far, far more offensive and repugnant than I expect this book to be.

I can see many parents, previously uninterested in regulating their kids' involvement in RPGs, suddenly becoming engaged in curtailing it.

No, they won't. Parents won't ever have heard of this obscure third-party product. And I hardly this that the product will be as obviously "adult" in nature as the average Vallejo or Julie Bell art book, which contains copious amounts of nudity, and often steamy text. There's never been a public furor by parents over their teens looking at Boris Vallejo books - there won't be over this.

 

[Quinn]

From what I've seen, it's just a vocal minority that strongly opposes this book. Half of the other thread was composed of the same bunch of people posting in circles. And consider the vast, vast majority that just shrugged and didn't even bother to post!

Very true. The only part that bugs me is that this is what eventually makes it into Newsweek or the 6 o'clock news. Nothing about the success of Wizards of the Coast, the resurgence in RPGs...no, nothing sells except "Oh look, those D&D wackjobs are at it again!" To have a book that seems destined to feed right into that mindset bothers me.

 

[thundershot]

I think people need to read Squirrel's reply a little closer...



Chris