Book of Vile Darkness!

[William Ronald]

I expect this thread to shortly try to accelerate to nearly the speed of light and head straight into a black hole. If it does, can we put Lance Bass in it and see him crushed into a singularity. This way, his size can fit his talent.

 

[rackabello]

Thanks for the reply, Celebrim. Personally I feel that Dragon's marketing of this issue was intended to rile folks up, spark debates and discussions, perhaps even scare them a bit, but not necessarily to appeal directly to a younger crowd. That said, I certainly can't argue with you about the lure of the forbidden at that age.

As for Monte's thoughts on the labelling of his book:

Monte Cook, posted at his website
The book has a label on it describing it for Mature Audiences. And it should. It deals with some topics, in some places, that can be disturbing. But that’s not the focus of the book. The focus of the book is the presentation of rules material. Tools for the DM.

If you missed it the first time it was linked on the boards, the entire post is worth reading.

 

[rounser]

Uncle SHARK, tell me the story about the dinkeldogs and the happy forests again, please...

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Wheeee! Don't know where we're goin', but we're on our way!

 

[rackabello]

Once upon a time, a Vile Darkness fell across the happy forest...

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I wanna hear Unca Eric tell us the story about how he got this all started way back when...

 

[rackabello]

Didn't he use the spell Wall of Marmots?

 

[Roland Delacroix]

Since this thread has degenrated into a BVD/mature/naked thread;

Do you think we can get a BVD Monster Manual III? Stuff with pics by Diterlizzi and others, but without those chainmail bikinis and stuff blocking the view. Hubba, Hubba, i'd love to see that Tiefling chick in a book for 'mature audiences' We'll even throw in that guy Titan (humans eye view, eh? heh heh) for Angelboi's crowd.......

 

[Grim]

Is dragon 300 actually out? Cause neither my friend or me got our copies. Maybe they didnt send it cause we are high school students and we cant handle dark rituals... or something.

Now just remember, at our next DnD meeting everyone bring a newborn lamb. We only need nine to summon the demon, but Bob will bring an extra one just in case everyone forgets...

 

[Celebrim]

Thanks, I did miss it. Some excerpts that I consider pertinant to my point:

"Well, that story is that after I was finished with the book and turned it over, I was called into the WotC offices because there were people there who believed that the book wasn’t “vile” enough. They wanted to “vile it up.” That’s the very definition of gratuitous, I explained. It was a definite battle, but one that I won. The book remained free of any additions created simply to make the book more disturbing."

What does that sound like to you? Maturity on WotC's part?

Monte says:

"yet still I think it addresses at least one topic that probably no one should encounter while casually flipping through the pages of Dragon."

Merely that you should encounter it is not so bad. What I find objectionable is:

"The article offers four types of gaming. None of these approaches is characterized as being better than any other..."

That's Monte's enherent PC talking. I'm not even sure he believes it, but he does apparantly believe that it is the right thing to say. The 'enlightened' and tolerant position, if you will. Later on he lets his real opinion slip, and I wish that he'd said this in the article if he didn't, because sometimes I get so sick of 'tolerence' I want to puke.

"The “vile” game, is, in my personal estimation, a description of taking the game a bit too far..."

"...To these players [those that play the "vile" game], the Book of Vile Darkness will probably be too tame."

Let's hope so.

Like I said, it's not Monte's as yet unseen content that I'm opposed to (though not being opposed to is not the same as wanting it), its this whole charade. None of the other game companies say fit to label their 'Evil' products 'Mature'. Of course, once I see Monte's content, I may have more to say about it. (I'm sure you are all thrilled. )