D&D 5E Dragonborn inter-species breeding?
- Thread starter Sezarious
- Start date
Let's first establish an acceptable-to-all consensus, on the relationship between rape and Stockholm Syndrome; and let's do that, not here, but rather, on any of the forums which are specialized in that sort of topic.
The regulars on that forum will be ready to deal with the particular flamewars and derails and misunderstandings which arise from that sort of question. Then, AFTER the nuances of that relationship are conclusively settled, on THAT forum, THEN we can bring the results back into the EnWorld forum on 5E D&D.
Otherwise, I refer you to the index of the 5E PHB and the 5E DMG: neither of those books has an index entry for rape. Those books do not lay out rules regarding what does and doesn't qualify as rape, and whether Stockholm syndrome is an overlapping category.
(shrug) I'm in danger of mini-modding, already. If you wanna use this forum, to discuss whether rape can be part of Stockholm Syndrome, then I'll just stay out of the thread from that point onwards.
Tried to make it a bit gentler but it seems that my post was taken as a flame. I did not intend so. Yeah maybe this topic should be abandoned by everyone. Not touch this with a dnd standardized 10ft pole.
Depending on whose statistics you take as most accurate, something like 1 in 5 or 1 in 6 women *today* experience a rape or attempted rape. And we are not talking about lawless, underdeveloped countries - that's in the USA. So, yes, we take inspiration from a time when rape is common - right now. And you will have a long row to hoe to get me to think that the player's choice here has more to do with medieval mores than it does today's.
Now, setting aside how it seems that this player is in dire need of education on sexual assault...
As a separate thought - how many blue dragonborn are there in this world? I mean, isn't this guy extremely distinctive? He's going to leave a string of victims behind him that can easily identify him, and he expects to survive for long? Really?
Dear Mr. Rogue-Criminal-Wannabe: If you want to be a master criminal, maybe being the only big blue talking lizard dude around is not the best of all possible plans....
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Dragons mate. Dragonborn are mules or Hinnys.
Mercule
Adventurer
I think the way you worded the question invites the answer: You didn't ask "Is murder less of a crime than rape?"
In trying to stay away from politics, I'm going to assume that the vast majority of D&D players agree that it's acceptable for heroes to kill. In this sense, killing is different from murder by intent and need. Acceptable killing can be doing so to prevent a murder or other serious crime. Again, to avoid politics, I'm not going to drive too far down the rabbit hole of what "acceptable killing" is, but any group that doesn't have some threshold of acceptability for good-aligned PCs isn't going to have said PCs rise above 1st level.
Rape, like murder, would be evil. The non-evil version is sex, which (unlike killing) very few people would find objectionable in absolute terms (again, there are political land mines which shall be avoided). It could certainly be argued that rape is worse than murder, but that may be contextual (both have a range of violence that can be applied that doesn't warrant detailed discussion). Regardless, comparing evil acts and trying to rank them tends to be counter-productive, after a certain point -- they're all bad enough that decent people don't do them.
Anyway, the question really is "Is it acceptable to have a PC engage in these behaviors?"
I've played evil assassins. Those characters have sometimes ended up in groups with the stereotypical cackling cultist. There is a difference. The cackling cultists are disturbing when they truly revel in it. My assassin always had a sense that he wasn't an unlikable person, just a person with unlikable business, and that he could be reformed. Cackling cultists make for fine fantasy foes, but never the PCs, even in the anti-hero or sympathetic villain sense. Mengele would not be an acceptable choice for PC at my table.
Likewise, I've played characters that frequented prostitutes or had other sexual "issues". They certainly didn't go around raping people. I'm not opposed to having (non-graphic) rape as an implicit or explicit occurrence event, by a villain and off-camera. I'd certainly expect someone who'd experienced rape to have a different attitude, though. Unlike murder, you might actually have a rape victim sitting at your table, whether you know it or not, so handle with care. Honestly, I'd probably reserve explicit use of rape to the same sort of campaigns and scenarios in which I'd explicitly use murder of children -- which is rare.
If a player at my table presented the idea you're facing, I'd probably treat him the same way as if he said his goal was to ensure the propagation/dominance of the dragonborn race by either killing the young of other races or castrating males of any age. Both are fairly warped and not (IMO) the territory of PCs.
Ah, point of order. Mehen was attracted to a shapeshifted succubus in orc form during the first book. When going by Evan's books, you kinda have to remember that Mehen is gay, which shades his romantic interactions a bit.
http://slushlush.com/2013/11/the-adversary-excerpt-character-blog-clanless-mehen/
This is why I always define evil in my games. All you have to do is list them out, this separates evil from laws of the land and helps generate cultural taboos.
S
Sunseeker
Guest
Since we're really not supposed to discuss politics on these boards, I'll gladly discuss the subject at length in private messages if you'd like, because I feel like the appropriate response would be more relative to politics and statistics than some kid with some messed up RP ideas.
Having a list of laws, even if just generally scratched out, and taking the effort to enforce them on overtly evil and chaotic players is really just plain worth all the effort.
I'm terrible at playing evil characters and I don't much care for others playing evil characters either because they're generally poorly played by young kids who want to murder/rape/steal everything within arms reach, or somewhat older but no less psychotic players who want to just start killing all the little bunnies in town because *reasons*. Rarely do you find an actual lawful evil character/player who will use money, power, and legal loopholes to get what they want.
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