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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kichwas" data-source="post: 2010985" data-attributes="member: 891">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. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> 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". <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />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.</blockquote>

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