Book of Erotic Fantasy

[Messageboard Golem]

Over 20 new feats, 3 new classes and 12 prestige classes, 6 new domains, over 75 new spells, 6 new gods, 12 new monsters, many usable as player character races, and variant rules. This material is intendedto add a new dimension to your game - courtly intrigue and manipulation, marriages of power and prophesized births, dangerous seducers and sex magic. All of this and more await you inside the Book of Erotic Fantasy

 

[JoeGKushner]

The Book or Erotic Fantasy is a theme based hardcover that covers sex, love, pregnancy, STDs, secution, marriage and other erotic themes and its role in a standard d20 fantasy setting.

Some may object to the use of photographs for use with a role playing game. Many of the pictures are adequate at covering their subject and include men and women. My only problem is that well, let's face it, a lot of well known fantasy artists have been providing cheesecake pictures for decades now and in some cases, would've done a better job than the glitzy photos and the modifications that went through them. Some are very good, peaceful looking, others not so good.

The book itself covers many areas that are important to a game, even one not being graphic. At the same time, the authors have limited the book's coverage by not including material on bestiality, necrophilia, and pedophilia. Smart move on their part.

But say you don't need rules for sex or anything of that nature? Is there anything in the book for you? Some of the ideas on how the different races treat sex, and how they go through pregnancy and childbirth are good reading. The stout dwarves, given the proper manual when they come of age, the half-elves and their awkward time no matter which race their raised with and even many creatures from the Monster Manual, given important details and ideas for those who want to include a little more than lusty barmaids in their encounters.

Another smart thing done is the introduction of Appearance as an ability score. I say smart because since this is an OGL book and not a d20 one, they include different rules on how to customize character creation if using a seventh stat. In addition, they provide general scores for creatures depending on type, change skills in the PHB, and provide specific examples of Appearance score so that the reader has a good idea of what things look like, as opposed to their force of personality. On the other hand, if not using a lot of the material from this book, it's going to become the favored new 'dump' stat and just make everyone more buff, quick, and enduring, but ugly and weak personalities.

The feats, core classes and PrCs are focused on one or another aspect of sex. In some cases, there doesn't seem to be enough variance. Some fill some gaps in the basic system. For example, the Imagist core class fills a role of spontaneous divine caster who inspires others to greater heights including the ability to inspire smite evil. The Kundala “a blend of martial powers and mystical energy” sound like they'd be perfect for a Mindshadows campaign. Very monk like with a small number of spells available to them as they go up in levels. Their hand to hand damage is no laughing matter either.

In terms of too similar, the Disciple of Aaluran act as living altars where love is freely given in order for the worshipper to communicate with his god while the Sacred Prostitute follows a similar path offering her body as a “temple”. Different abilities but too similar in origins. Others fill standard roles like the Rake, a seducer with a silk tongue and some roguish abilities to the Harem Protector, a bodyguard with a specific purpose and lacking some important equipment.

My personal favorite is the Metaphysical Spellshaper. They can sacrifice ability points to fill in for spell levels. The example they use is Maximizing a Fireball spell and taking 3 points of ability damage to a single ability. The best part is that you don't have to be the right level to cast the spell, as long as you're able to cast that level of spell. Since this would be a 7th level spell, the user has to have at least a 17 Intelligence score.

The spells and domains continue to fill the sexual roles in a d20 campaign. For domains, there are Body, Denial, Joining, Perversion, Pleasure and Voyeur. Each one with a granted power and spells listed from 1st-9th level. Spells are introduced by class, level and alphabetical order. Only core classes and new classes are covered though so no lists for Assassins, Blackguards and other core PrCs.

Spells range from small and useful, like Block the seed, which prevents conception for 1 hour a level, to Magic Probe, a spells that reveals all spells currently on a target. Good for any group that wants to know what their facing when the enemy mage comes out. On a cursed based theme, Jealousy deals damage to the target if he sleeps with anyone other than the caster even as Impotency renders the target, well, impotent. Because some of the spells are useful outside of the implied sexual theme, they're able to be used in any campaign. Come to Me for example, can teleport an ally to you in combat.

Another nice thing is that the book doesn't ignore the potential for use with their systems, like the stat Appearance, with old spells. Information on using spells found in the PHB with this book and its theme are included so you can find new uses for the spell Calm Emotions or Geas/Quest, even as Invisibility becomes the voyeurs choice of spells.

Like many good sourcebooks, Core Classes, PrCs, Feats, Skills, are not enough. There are also lists of mundane items, magic items, monsters and other goods to be found. This is perfect for those who want to add more details to their game, although it's obviously not going to be for every game while others will fit right in. I know for example, that many people, ever since that 1st edition Dungeon Master's Guide with it's infamous prostitute table, want an update cost list to the different types of partners and this book provides one ranging from Escorts, to Masseuses.

Many of them work on material introduced in this book to enforce it's themes and utility. For example, Dark Talon is a +1 sadistic unholy bastard sword. Sadistic is a new ability here where the weapon deads extra damage on a blow. How about the Fiendskin Armor property? Three times per day the user can activate protection from good. As in other areas, the fact that not everything is meant for erotic use only gives the book utility beyond its scope.

The monsters include a lot of templates like Half-Demon, Half-Devil, and Serpentine. I'm not sure we really needed specific templates of some of the material, but it works and adds more options to the game without, once again, having to relate directly to sex.

Chapter Seven, the last chapter of the book, helps out a poor GM. For example, there are 100 adventure seeds listed. These are simple one or two sentence ideas that can be added to almost any type of game. In addition, there are organizations listed. These include background and adventure ideas. These are brief organizations, nothing like the details in say, Guildcraft from Bastion Press. More impressive is the Velvet Room as it's actually mapped out with details. Maps are always good because they act as templates and allow a GM quick visual knowledge and allow him to customize the material

The book also includes an index. Now that's important as there are a lot of ideas and materia introduced here. It also includes a listing of Appearance scores for common monsters, as well as a breakdown of challenge ratings of monsters introduced in this book, and even includes the page number, as well as the CR! The Phil & Dixie carton is actual a little bit of a let down since I'm an old reader of Dragon and have remembered their whole thing about Sex & D&D. This carton doesn't go in that direction and instead spears the dreaded Rules Lawyer.

There are some parts of the book I haven't gotten to because the review is getting long in the teeth. For instance, feats, specific items, the discussion on sex and it's role in the campaign. For instance, they don't recommend some of those feats if your campaign is combat heavy and never involves roleplaying.

The paper is good stock. Layout simple two column with good use of space. Tables are done in a parchment style to differentiate it from the text. The cover is one of the weaker photographs. I don't know if this applies to all copies, but mine came in plastic with the warning label on the outsider. A useful idea for those, like me, who despite having stickers on their books. Perhaps Wizards of the Coast could take a lesson here and insure that their 'mature' titles aren't looked at by younger gamers by putting it in plastic?

The book has a theme and rules for using that theme. If you're not looking for rules that cover sex, then there is still material here that can be useful but it'd be like buying a book on Vampires and having no interest in vampires. If you're interested in the subject, this is a high quality product that could've benefited from more variety in it's art choices.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

My copy of Book of Vile Darkness came in plastic, and there are copies of it in the store still in plastic. BoExalted Deeds didn't come wrapped.

 

[jessemock]

Caveats

Review Type

We've playtested this product to a good extent--though obviously not for long. Most of the basic elements introduced by the Book of Erotic Fantasy have been tried, and the reader should take this into account.

This review doesn't take the form of an outline--no summary/assessment one-liners; we've chosen to present an in-depth account of what interested us and what we've messed with, rather than a comprehensive survey.

Further, this review will spoil certain of the surprises found in this book.

Sex Talk

The reader will find no bad language here, nor even any explicitness. In reviewing the BoEF, we won't replicate its approach.

On the other hand, the word 'sex' will find use in this article, as we can't ignore the fact that the book in question concerns itself with pretty much no other topic.

We should clarify what this means: this is not the Book of Pornographic Fantasy, nor Romantic. The word erotic refers to sexual love, and it is accurate.

Controversy

Interestingly, because of all the furor surrounding the BoEF, any discussion of it seems to move quickly from an assessment to a justification of its even being published. The latter would, perhaps, have cautionary value for the folks at Valar Project, Inc. (the company behind the BoEF), if someone could get word to them, before they began work on this book, that, while it will sell quite well, some people think it may not.

We've decided not to allow this burden to devolve on us.

We'll assume from here on in, therefore, that the reader has come to this review for criticism of the work as a role-playing sypplement for the OGL system and not for a justification of it as a commodity or cultural artifact.


Initial Impressions

What are we looking at? A hard-bound, full-colour book, pushing two hundred pages. It establishes its distance from the usual fantasy role-playing supplement immediately: it features a photoshopped image of an erinys on the cover (or, anyway, we thought so: traditionally, in D&D, one distinguishes succubi from erinyes by their wings: bat- or bird-like respectivlely; the BoEF, claiming the cover figure to be a greater succubus, here deviates--not for the last time!). Valar has illustrated the book with this technique throughout, and much has been made of this decision. We think that they opted for photomanipulation for three reasons: 1) it looks cool; 2) no one's ever done it before; 3) it emphasises the fact that the BoEF introduces a very significant aspect of the real world to fantasy role-playing. The use of photography underlines Valar's message: sex is real, and it can be fantastic.

The reader should keep in mind that a good number, perhaps most, of these images feature nudity. None of them is pornographic, however: they all have illustration of the text as their first purpose and in no way make any overt appeal to prurient interest.

After this development, the rest of the book falls visually, into line with the best of your typical Coast or other high-end product: high production values; clear tables; legible (mostly) fonts; no background mottling; fairly un-wide margins.

The writing, too, follows Hasbro--almost to the fault of being overly reductive, except that the BoEF's crimes against the English language resolve to only minor offenses and the editing errors are only mildly disrespectful: the authours use self-deprecate, rather than self-depreciate; esoteric, when they mean exotic; they stumble through a few awkward phrasings (unfortunately, the worst is in a statement of the BoEF's purpose), and, on the cover, they omit the apostrophe and the hyphens in "world's best-selling role-playing"--though this may be a mightily clever joke, given the notorious editing practices at Wizards of the Coast.

Indeed, puns and sly references abound in this book, from the the pop-cultural ("the idea of a major character [on a TV show] involved in a relationship with an undead creature (or two!)"--ups to Spuffy; and the 'Gods & Monsters' chapter, after the homosexually-themed film) to the RPG self-referential (the 'enticing' armor special ability enhances physical features, "showing tantalizing bits while still providing protection"--aka, chainmail bikinis) to the nigh snarky (they offer a sidebar in which they rate RPGs by analogy with the MPAA system, a 'no sex' game earns a 'G'--meaning that even the darkest, gloomiest, most violent of systems will usually equate sexually with The Little Mermaid).

They don't mind showing off their research, either. The godess of childbirth, midwifery, and motherhood, paradoxically unable to bear children of her own, receives the name Alilial, a riff on Lilith, the apocryphal first wife of Adam, whom he dumped on account of her infertility. The sidebar of piecing nomenclature is thorough and instructive.

All of this makes reading the book a pleasure--as does the inclusion, where appropriate of expletives, including a certain word of Scandinavian origin that, for some five hundred years, has enjoyed immense poularity in colloquial English, particularly, though not exclusively, in the matter of sexual expression. The BoEF's swearing complements its frank and casual discussions of sexual themes; it would have been silly, not to mention hypocritical, to bowdlerize this text.

But, really, the tone of the book overall owes its appeal neither to cleverness, nor to humour, nor to courage; in the end, it's the sincerity that makes the thing so charming. The authours clearly believe in the necessity, importance, and usefulness of their work, which doesn't mean to say that they come off as sanctimonious--not in the least. The BoEF in no way presents itself as either daring or sensational (in the pejorative sense). Kestral and Scott establish very early on the limits that will constrain the book: they simply don't entertain the more outre sexualities or sexual acts (by this we mean that the BoEF briefly refers to, but doesn't consider any of the wilder philias, non-consensual sex, or sexual violence; no rules for rape). They don't even offer detailed mechanics for sex--it has an abstract resolution, a Constitution check, with a DC increasing over time, the check modifiable by skills and feats. And for this reason they take it upon themselves to express a small measure of righteous indignation at the frequently harsh reception of their work, through the inclusion of the Book of Erotic Fantasy in the magic items section, as an artifact. From the entry:
"Even the mention of the Book of Erotic Fantasy in a sexually repressive society may be enough to cause censure or even ostracism...All characters who are virginal, chaste, castrated, asexual, or otherwise sexually inexperienced or unable to have intercourse...who touch the book take 5d4 damage." Funny.

But What is it Good For?

Before anything else, the Book of Erotic Fantasy provides an excellent set of rules, guidelines, and encouragements for the development of romantic and sexual relationships between characters in a fantasy RPG. The core classes and a number of the feats do this best, and we'll look at them first.

Above all, the Tantrist. A mostly arcane spell-casting class, the Tantrist combines sorcerer/wizard spells with a cleric's progression, along with two domains (of which the BoEF introduces a several new ones, such as Perversion and Joining). The Tantrist prepares spells and records them by scarring his skin with a rune representing each one--but here's the passage that really defines the class: "A tantrist needs a full night's rest and regains his spells through having sex for an hour." Amazing: this requires romantic involvement--of one sort or another, but always consummated--on the part of the character. Further, the tantrist must make a check simply to participate in sex for this amount of time. Not only must the tantrist have sex, he must be good at it. The tantrist must have a relationship with a consensual partner, and he must perform well. Beats reading a spellbook, anyhow.

A full set of feats attains to the same role-playing requisites: Kundalini, Limber, Physical Perfection, Satisfied Glow, Self-Aware, Tantric, and Virility. One for each ability (including Appearance; more later), these feats allow for a 24-hour, two-point increase after twenty minutes of sex (requiring a check). A character may take each feat up to three times, providing another two-point bonus to one score for each additional twenty minutes of fornication, which increases the difficulty of the check.

The most direct way to provide a bonus for a sex check, outside of raising Constitution, comes from the Perform (Sexual Techniques) skill, introduced here as well. It has Constitution for its key ability, and up to three partners in sex with 5+ ranks grant each other bonuses.

Together, these game mechanics actually encourage the development of steady, long-term relationships. How about that! The married couple, with complementary feats and/or classes, for example, enjoys a distinct advantage over the swinging single--but not too much of one: Chaste Life, another feat, provides a permanent two-point bonus to one ability score. Some back and forth took place over the legitimacy of this feat, but a quick examination of the analyses provided in the appendices of the Immotals Handbook (which are astounding) suggest that a two-point ability increase works out to the same as a bonus feat, power-wise. Good enough for us. At any rate, Chastity actually has meaning under these rules, which is something new.

It's at points like this--there are many of them--that one must pause to wonder, how could this have taken thirty years to develop?

Nevermind; the upshot is that the book does here what it has advertised itself to do: it adds a new dimension to the fantasy RPG. We find the Tantrist class and sexual feats well-balanced, neat, and surprisingly moving.

Other feats also contributed to character development as well as gameplay. While working up an erinys using Fast Forward's excellent supplement (yeah; we never thought we'd see that phrase either), the Devil's Player Guide, the Submissive Demeanor feat brought in the personality and history of the character in one swoop and also provided a pretty good ability: "When targeted by spells or effects, you may make a contested Will save with the caster. If you succeed, the caster considers you unworthy of such attention and chooses another target."

From all this, it's something of a step down to the Kundala, the BoEF's monk variant (trades some combat features for spells at the upper levels), which disappointed a little, perhaps inevitably, given that this is the coolest name ever for a class. While slightly underpowered, at low levels at least, we found the real problem to be the flavour. At first, we thought, where's the stuff? By the text, the Kundala cannot be chaste--that's it. On the Valar Forums (the website requires an 18+ declaration for access to the Forums), however, we learned that the Kundala refreshes his spells in the same manner as the Tantrist. Meh, that's not juice. It's true that the Kundala has a very inward, on-the-self concentration, but it just hasn't reached the level of weirdness necessary to justify a new class.

The third core class presented in the BoEF and, conceptually, the most complicated, the Imagist accesses a themed list of divine and arcane through a sorcerer's progression and casting, receiving a number of special powers along the way, all to the end of actively increasing beauty and goodness in the world. This becomes problematised very quickly, as the explanatory text reads: "Imagists tend to equate beauty with goodness." You can see the problem here: one more racism argument, as the prettifiers bring genocide to orcville, but the flavour text has already antcipated this. In somewhat clumsy language, an Imagist communicates her purpose to her half-orc daughter, whom she willingly conceived. Wha? Clearly, the BoEF wants to keep its notion of Beauty on the ugly side of subjective. Complicated. We've considered developing an evil version of this class, the Superficialist, just to keep it simple.

Appearance

This focus on aesthetics lies at the heart of the class: the Imagist keys off of the Appearance ability score, another invention of the BoEF. Well; sort of. We belong, of course, to that percentage of the gaming population that has continued, even after all this time, to draw in a little box for Comeliness on our character sheets, which means that we've seen that elusive seventh score come and go from published materials. How did the BoEF's take on it turn out? We say: not bad.

First of all, it allows, as it has always done, 'Charisma' to mean "charisma", a word that, outside of RPGs, has never had anything to do with physical attractiveness. The problem has always been that no one has ever made any good use of the latter after having made this distinction. The BoEF does. Appearance has become the key ability for the Disguise skill, which makes perfect sense to us. Beauty, after all, does not reduce to genes alone: you have to take care of yourself. Grooming, dress, fashion, custom--a look requires more than looks; and we find it reasonable to accept that a stupid, reckless, jerk may well wear a suit like nobody's business. The art of looking good is, in fact, an art, and one's appearance may be the first of one's works--and the first disguise. Kestrel & Scott offer some remarkably fine considerations here. Unfortunately, they present their subtlety with subtlety: oddly enough, the book could have benefited from more explicitness, at least in this section.

And more depth. While they do establish Appearance as an alternative key ability for Bluff, Gather Info., and Intimidate (nice), and allow it for Diplomacy and Leadership for the Imagist, which has a rationale (send out the hottie to negotiate, rather than the leader-type, especially in the case of a language-barrier), they don't, for example, delve much into the possibility of beauty as a commodity. The authours offer some justification for introducing sex into the game by referring to it as "one of the most important classical story drivers"--not only a hideous formulation, but a slightly inaccurate one. Menelaus doesn't want sex alone; he wants Helen's face. Beauty's the obsession. Appearance deserved a few more pages.


Races, Spells, Toys

We might as well close out with a few more points where the BoEF falters. They fudged a few monsters. Half-Demons and Half-Devils? They stripped off the ability score adjustments from the Half-Fiend, scaled the summoning power by HD, tweaked it a bit otherwise, and dropped its Level Adjustment a point or two. Their Planetouched variations, Demonbred and Devilblooded, seem reasonable, but so what? Who needs another amusin' Tiefling? Plus, the illustration for the diabolic version distinguishes itself in now way from a photo of a woman in tricked-out leather, which is, actually, apt, now that we think about it.

Still, we did enjoy their cat-person, the Felid (-2 Str./Wis.; +2 Dex./App.; +2 racial Hide, Jump, MS; Slow Fall), as it really does have a feline, rather than kittenish, feel to it, although we went with a more pantheresque, Nastassja Kinski model, in place of a jungled one, but, at 0 LA, it's a rare case of overpowering.

We should say here that all of the PC-available races in the BoEF are templates on the theme of miscegenation, and, on behalf of a not entirely white group, we want to give that decision its propers.

We gave the feykissed template a whirl as well, and found it fair at at -2 Str./Con.; +2 Cha./App.; +2 racial EA, Hide, Listen, Spot; DR 1/cold iron; and +1 LA; but we think the LA should scale up with the benefits IT gainS at higher levels, as the Half-Fiend does.

Generall, it seems that Kestrel and Scott chose to err on the side of caution, sometimes to the extent of hanging themselves with prudence. Consider a Sor/Wiz 4 spell that dazes one creature for 1 round/level. Not quite Wall of Fire. Nonetheless, we had a good time casting this Orgasmic Vibrations on each other during intrA-party squabbles, though we left it behind when we set off to 'beautify' the dungeon. This seemed typical: we found the whole sex magic system worked brilliantly, except that, as the authours state, it doesn't provide the best framework for combat optimization. Team Sex is gonna lose against Team Sexless.

Yes; even with all the goodies. What use that Word of Repression spell, which can confuse, stun, kill, and render impotent, those who have had sex in the past 24 hours, against G-rated characters? Similarly, while we had great fun designing and using weapons with the 'masochistic' ability (on command, delivers extra 2d4 dmg., of which the wielder takes hald, as subdual), they tended to help us get killed.


Conclusion


Too much fun. Even for 35 bucks! The Book of Erotic Fantasy has been intended to provide a means for the integration of sexual love within the OGL system (we should note that it is 3.5 compliant). We find it does so imperfectly, but with great panache. No question that this book will not have something for everyone--it sucks for the tactical munchkin, for example.

Those who play the game for the unique narrative it can provide and who see no reason to deprive theselves of (or not to indulge in) the exploration of erotic themes, this supplement is simply without equal.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Nothing like being friendly with your local comic/hobby shop dealer. It allows for a great deal of benfits, such as being able to sample products at length before purchasing. I had such an opportunity recently when I checked in to grab my weekly comics and the store owner brought to my attention that copies of Valar's Book of Erotic Fantasy were in. We had been joking about this book for a while and I really didn't take the idea to seriously at all. Seeing the book however, I could tell Valar did take it seriously, as the volume and well produced cover showed me they weren't fooling around when the made this book.

I sat down with the copy and read it in between waiting for my turn on the stores Xbox. I was able to get a good read through, and being a very casual gamer, felt I'd give the casual gamer review.

Production: Valar put a lot of effort into this book, and it shows. The refined cover and glossy full color pages make this book fit in well with other high priced d20 books. Overall, I was impressed with the production value of this book, It looks like a highclass d20 book.

Presentation: This is where things get a little off for me. The text is fine, and easy to read, with your usual sidebars and short stories or quotes that help explain or clarify the ideas being presented on the page. What gets me a bit is the photo pictures that make up the entire books artwook. While I liked the cover, I'm not really a big fan of the whole photo art deal, since it takes away a level of abstraction I need to enjoy a fantasy setting. Still, the pictures are well done, and combined with CG, get across the idea's needed, and are in line with the overall feel of the book. The book itself is split up into the usual catergories, intro, characters, item's, etc. The table of contents is clear and I never found the book hard to navigate. Good job here overall. (Note to the family gamer, the majority of the photos are nude and a few show sexual acts (although not very explicitly) so be forewarned when purchasing in case there are little ones around that have easy access to your RPG collection).

Content: One word describes this book: focused. More than any d20 book I can remember, this book has knows what it wants to talk about and focuses on it like a laser beam. "The Book or Erotic Fantasy" is the title and that's what it's here to discuss. Not romance, or relationships, but sexual acts, the concequences and such. And this is for fantasy, make no mistake. All the new classes, items, and variant rules are aimed at a fantasy setting, and no other. Even more so it is focused on d20 DnD, so don't think you'll be able to just grab whatever you want and take it to another fantasy system, because this book is tuned for d20. That being said, it is a very thorough coverage of the act of sex in such a setting, and covers everything from techniques to social issues surrounding sex, and gives lots of info into integrating it into you fantasy d20 campaign. While there are a lot of new goodies (Prc's, Items, Spells, and the such) they are squarely focused around the main subject, and there really isn't much for those not intrested in fantasy d20 sex. The writers took a very serious edge when the worked on this book, I rarely saw any sigh that the writers were not taking this seriously. All in all, This is a very impressive coverage of a very focused subject.

Value for Money/Conclusion: At 190 pgs with a hardcover the book costs $35. When weighed against the average WoTC hardcover, it comes about $3-$8 more than the usual book, with a slightly lower page count. This is of course only fair since Valar hardly has the production resources that WoTC has and were still able to produce a book of very high quality. As a third party book it stands tall, production wise, with the best the d20 community has to offer.

But now we get down to it, is it worth it? For me, again speeking as a casual gamer, the answer was no. The book was just too focused for my tastes, as well as the fact that I really don't think anyone in my group is intrested in sex within the game/campaign (myself included). And that's what it comes down to. Are you intrested in Fantasy sex for d20? If so, check out this book, because I know of no other that covers the topic so thoroughly. But if your not, or your looking for a book that might have some outside utility from the main topic, then pass on this one. This is what ultimately drops the score to a 3 (I'd personally give it a 2 since, again, I am really not a fan of the photo art, but that really is personal prefrence i guess). Even more so, it focuses on a topic that the casual gamer really isn't to intrested in Role Playing. If this were a review of "d20 fantasy books dealing with sex" then 4/5 or 5/5 it is, first place and a gold medal. But this a review of a causal gamer looking at the book as a d20 product on the whole, and quite frankly the books excellent focus is ultimately it's undoing.

 

[Kichwas]

Let's get this clear from the outset, I was one of those people who felt the idea of a book like this is unneeded and perhaps a little absurd - and I still feel some of that. So why would I give it a rating of 4? Read on and I'll clarify.


The book opens with a note on trying to appeal to a variety of tastes, and a warning that -of course- it is adult content.

Chapter 1:
The first chapter is on role-playing love and sex. They open with a discussion on the why's of including the topic into the game. An interesting note here is the statement "The whole BDSM underground was just that" - in reference to the days when RPGs had their first boom. I say this is still true, but agree with their other claims about the changing nature of society. One thing they note, the book is not built for 'the combat monster' play style, something that mostly holds true in the later text.

The discussion on handling sex, romance, and humor is well done. This was where I first started to feel that if this topic did need to be addressed, this was the right way to do it. There's talk of 'rating the game' and how to decide what levels of sexual content to bring in and how to do so in an adult rather than juvenile manner. Previous attempts at this sort of topic have always been rather banal and childish, but here they handle it with style - breaking down a variety of topics and asking where those might fit in the game world. For example, the discussion on prostitution notes the already common nature of this in gaming, and suggests thinking about how the game world views it - noting that it could range from illegal to sacred, and ending with a caution on STDs. This is followed with a discussion on different forms of commitment, sexual taboos, and coming of age.

There is of course, the expected breakdown by alignment and race. The examples of sexual mores in different alignments are insightful - only chaotic evil gets slighted, intentionally so as the book states it does not desire to cover dark topics. For that you can buy WotC's Book of Vile Darkness. The racial section gives social generalities and notes on pregnancies and childbirth. Most of it fits about what one might expect for each race - though a few are different from my own perspective. It is thorough, well handled, and generally deals with the issues of strength of commitment / promiscuity, sexual drive, age of maturity, and problems of pregnancy. As for being overly thorough, they even cover Oozes (not much fun in there - Oozes simply divide to reproduce).

Chapter 2:
Rules. And they begin with a little comment about why one might want rules for sex. This is the part of the book most likely to fail and fall into juvenile mechanics. Every rpg.net reader is familiar with infamous RPGs that measure length and circumference and so on... This book has none of that silliness, which further made me appreciate the purchase.

They do have a new stat - Appearance, which I feel is problematic. Introduce it to a game and most players will use it as a dump stat. We all know how male PCs tend to have a Cha lower than females... with most gamers you'll see that pick up even more here - even gamers otherwise interested in the book in an adult rather than juvenile manner. Appearance replaces Charisma for some skill all of the time, and others some of the time. It is also crucial in a number of new feats, spell, and classes (base and prestige). Again there is a species breakdown, as well as notes on age. There is a footnote about appearance and sexual organs, which notes that, to paraphrase 'as far as our game mechanics are concerned - size of your features does not matter'. Size of the overall creature however does - and they note the issue of comfort when dealing with creatures in different categories.

As to what kinds of topics they do make rules for; the book covers sustaining intercourse, new uses for skills, STDs, fetishes (in broad terms), pregnancy / reproduction, and new feats.

Sustaining is a simple DC system you can adjust with skills and feats - this is important for a few of the new magic classes and feats which channel sexual energy - a concept taken from real world philosophies on the subject. The skill uses are fairly straightforward - everything from Analyzing your partner and their motives, bluffing your way through, producing sexual paraphernalia, knowing about sex and sexual mores, actual performance, and a number of sex-industry professions. STDs are rough territory... the book covers the social issues, as well as using the DMG format for a disease to present several fantasy-STDs. None of them are 'silly', and the social issues are discussed in practical terms one could make viable game use out of. Fetishes are covered with a wide brush - anything that a person needs to be fully aroused is a fetish, and game wise it simply introduces penalties if they lack their kick, and a note that one stuck on a fetish has to be diplomatic about introducing to their partner. Pregnancy is covered in detail - from modifiers for different trimesters, contraception and conception, and on down to crossbreeding and a chart of common races showing who can, with whom, without needing magic.

Feats are another area one might suspect a juvenile hand to intercede, but it doesn't. The feats are largely over either harnessing sexual energy or using one's appearance or force of personality more effectively. Examples include the Seductive feat, which gives you a bonus to Charisma checks against those of a chosen gender or Tantric, which allows you to gain mental insight through harnessing sexual energy. The 'True Submissive' feat did not make sense to me - it protects you from attack, but does not restrict your ability to act. In my mind I wanted to compare it to the 'Slave Race' Disadvantage in GURPS Aliens that took away one's ability to be 'dominant' over themselves. Nothing about this feat seems submissive, only 'empathy-forcing'.

Nothing in chapter 2 requires sex to be moved 'on camera'. There are no rules where you have to grunt like apes, role-play it out, or otherwise get silly - though you're certainly welcome to if that's your thing. One's play style could remain unchanged and still adopt in all of these rules to answer what questions arise.

Chapter 3:
New classes. The ideas seem sound, and none of them are silly. The Imagist seems more powerful than the core class she is based around - she's a divine sorcerer that knows and casts the same number of spells as a core sorcerer, but also gets bonus abilities as she levels. The catch is that she has a limited spell list and nearly no weapons - but an adept player can simply make strategic choices. She gets my favorite picture in the book however, simply because despite being a heterosexual purple is my second favorite color. The other concepts seem sound and well balanced. The Kundala is an interesting monk variant - though it says they may not be chaste none of the mechanics of their abilities are actually tied to their sexuality. The Tantrist is a tattoo/sex magic wizard variant. Their own body is their spell book, and they use sex to refresh their spells daily - obviously not the choice for a solo adventure or dungeon excursion with your celibate mates. Provided the character can keep an active sex-life going it balances in well.

The prestige classes are interesting. From a class of people devoted to exploring sexuality as the core of existence to those dedicated to a celibate life in the service of the divine - and everything in between. In a nod to the BDSM fans, the Dominator is not an evil class. Other key classes where the Knot-Binders who are dedicated to customs of marriage and sacred vows and the Sacred Prostitute - a class conceptually taken straight out of Greek and Roman history. Overall they provide a number of new options for the game that show ways to include sexuality without getting silly or even stepping into the XXX on-camera level of things.

Chapter 4:
The magic chapter introduces a number of new domains and spells. Some of these are a bit silly, such as the note on using Command to make the target 'self-satisfy' and another to cause all non-magical clothes and objects on the target to fall to the ground. Others are sensible such as spells to analyze, aid, or harm fertility. A few are possibly quite powerful - such as a 3rd level spell that does 1d6 per caster level if the target climaxes (which can be triggered by another spell that does just that). Many of the spells look useful even for a game without sexual themes - such as mirror walk which lets you travel mirrors or pleasant dreams which keeps your dreams your own and free of nightmares. They follow with a section on using old spells in new ways - as well as ways you specifically cannot use old spells (no sex with your unseen servant, there's a new spell for that). This section has a footnote on sex, magic, law, and morality that is handy.

Chapter 5:
'Items' is the kinkiest chapter. From the mundane to the magical all sorts of interesting goods are covered. Some of these are quite ordinary, such as the makeup kit. Others have very select uses... There is a rules discrepancy here. The birth control devices in this chapter have different chances of success than they did in chapter 2. This chapter has a more detailed listing, so I would use it over the ones in chapter 2. There is also a costs chart for 'services' - from the innocent Masseuse to renting your own BDSM partner. There's an interesting footnote on what characters choose to wear to bed - noting that the real problem with players is going to be the discussion of armor class and that yes, armor check penalties do apply to one's ability to indulge.

There are no new mundane weapons, so that classic balance issue is not here in this book. The book does have aphrodisiacs - everything from ways to be more charming to the vile date drug popular today.

As someone who enjoys putting jewelry on my characters, the footnote on alternate spaces for magic items is handy - it goes from some rather intimate selections to the obvious notes about what slot a hairpin or anklet would take up.

As far as other magical items go, the list here looks interesting. Of peculiar note are weapons that do subdual damage to the wielder (masochistic) or to the victim (pleasurable). We've also got cursed items - to make you overconfident or give you an STD. Lastly the chapter ends with one artifact "The Book of Erotic Fantasy".

Chapter 6:
Covering the divine and monsters, the section opens with a discussion on "the sexual nature of deities". Something skipped in fantasy fiction is that most polytheistic religions are extremely sexual, this section talks about deciding how much of that one wants to bring into the game. The chapter then provides a selection of new deities to add to your game or simply use as examples in building your own. The new domains from the magic chapter are referenced here. Each entry describes the deity, the clergy, and the dogma. Overall it looks well done and decently researched - some of them remind me of archetypes I came across when I used to study the occult.

For new monsters we have such things as Cherubs, Bliss Motes (swarms of tiny sex-faeries), and so on. The most interesting entries are the templates for creatures born of unusual sexual unions, such as the feykissed or the demonbred. In what I suppose is a nod to the furry crowd, we also have the felid - those with a touch of feline blood in them.

Chapter 7:
We start this chapter with a list of 100 potential adventure ideas involving sexual themes. Everything from a massive use of sex change magic the PCs have to set right to waking up in the woods to find one has been 'touched' by the fey. Some of these ideas will definitely take the right crowd to be used... others could fit into just about any game - likewise with the organizations. Of curious note here is a mapped and keyed sample brothel - just in case you need to do some on-camera something or another in there.

The book ends with a list of Appearance stats for creatures found in the core rules, and of course, a moderately useful index. Well, it doesn't fully end there... after the OGL license we're treated to a Phil and Dixie comic strip about the geeky nature of rules lawyers... I'm not much of a Phil Foglio fan, but the humor here is fitting.


Overall the book does a surprisingly good job of an unusual topic. Much of this material could easily fit into a standard game that just happened to spend a little too much time 'in town' - a game without any graphic eroticism, but in which romances where covered and the inevitable eventually happened, even if off camera.

If you're looking for a guide to how to act out in graphic detail 'on-camera' all your kinky desires this isn't it. But if you want to integrate the sexuality of the people in your fantasy world into the game on some level the book may be just the thing. As I said at the outset, if any book was to cover these topics right, it would do them the way this book did.

And so I give it a 4 in substance for a solid work.

For style I would only give a 3 because the visual look of the book is a bit distracting. I'm not sold on the idea of using digitally touched up photos in a fantasy book. They just don't look right. To me all the models have that 'gamer look' to them. Sure it's a good thing they don't look like the 'plastic bunnies' being put out by the 'entertainment industry', but the look they do have is a bit geeky - even on the attractive models. I for one find a well-drawn illustration much more suited to fantasy than a photo. The book's layout however is effective - it's well organized and easy to find any particular item I may be seeking. The typography if consistent and makes it easy to grasp and understand everyone on a given page. Flavor text, rules, footnotes - all are clearly called out and well structured. The visual look on the type and layout end is very well done.

I'm not sure what I will do with this book. I bought it as a statement of support after the STL license change, and I've found it oddly well done and even possibly useful to my essentially non-sexual game.

 

[Merova]

Arcady,

This is a very intelligent and eloquent review. I think that you're a bit kind to this book in the case of the App. stat and the overall balance of the PrCs, among other things, but you lay out all the salient points of this product in an informative manner.

Thanks for writing this review. I hope to see more of your reviews in the future.

---Merova

 

[Khur]

I found this review more influential on my "buying notions" than many others I've seen on this book. Thanks.

I have a question, or two, though. What's wrong with the Appearance ability score? Is it that it's part of the "lineup", so everyone can roll 7 stats and place them as they see fit? That's what I interpreted from the "dump stat" comment.

I've used an Appearance stat for years now, mostly because I felt Charisma is not someone's physical looks, but force of personality and so on. Homely persons have managed to galvanize great social movements in the past. I can understand that Appearance should have little influence on skill checks (except in specific situations) and that treating Appearance like an ability score that equals the others is problematic.

My solution is that Appearance is rolled after the other ability scores are assigned. Certain races, of course, have bonuses or penalties, with "human" as the baseline. Thereby, one still has a useful measure of comeliness, but doesn't suffer from the "dump stat" syndrome. Of course, Appearance in my games only modifies initial reactions where appropriate, and makes some skill checks easier by circumstance. In can also make some harder (like Disguise), and some situations harder--even when it's high.

 

[Kichwas]

That 'rolled together' is part of the problem. If using point buy it tells you to add points that would allow a value of 13 to be purchased, so that's 5 more points to some other stat for most players.

Another problem is that it weakens an already weak stat - Charisma. The skills it takes from (only four of them - one always and three at DM descretion) are all Charisma based. To be balanced it should take from Dex and Int skills too (they have the most skills) but of course that would make no sense.

It's a stat you want to use, it looks really nice, but introducing it could be problematic unless you have the right players.