[BoVD, BoEF, Vile] Where do you say "unacceptable?"

[Olive]

I'll play:

NUDITY IN MY GAMES: Um... I've had naked people, but only as prisoners etc. Never really described them, just that their naked and wounded i guess.

NUDITY IN MY BOOKS: Totally uninterested. I don't like beefcake/chainmail bikini art really. But art rarely decides whether or not i buy a book.

SEX IN MY GAMES: Doesn't really happen. I think the topic would make my players feel a bit wierd, like we were playing out other kinds of fantesies.

SEX IN MY BOOKS: Same again.

NECROPHILIA: Never features, but I could imagine giving an NPC the lichloved feat.

BESTIALITY: As above

INTER-SPECIES SEX: Really, as above. It just never comes up.

VIOLENCE: Killing, with graphic descriptions on occasion. Imagine the WFRP crits table and you've got the idea.

TORTURE: Offstage so far, but it could easily happen onstage. In a campaign in which I was a player, there was some degree of torture carried out by the PCs.

MUTILATION: as above.

CHILD MOLESTATION/ABUSE: I can imagine using it to really make my players hate an NPC villian, but not likely. Has never come up, and I doubt it would.

INCEST/RAPE: I would probably not portray this in my game directly, but it could happen off stage. at least one PC in my game is the product of a rape.

MENTAL ILLNESS: hasn't happened but it should more often.

INFERNAL/OCCULT MATTER: Lots of it, all the time. I'm trying to develop a theme, based around fiendish cults.

EVIL PCs: sure, as long as it's not 'ha ha i'm evil, so i'll desssstttrrrrrrrroooooyyyyyyyy' kind evil. selfish, cruel, and violent sums up quite a few PCs. I'd be willing to entertain the idea of a PC being a secret devil sorhipper if anyone was keen...

Note, most of the unpleasant things that The Sigil mentions are part of my games in a 'these people you are fighting are really unpleasant' kind of way, like the BoVD suggests. I think this is an effective technique for building nasty NPCs the PCs want to hate.

edi: saw another category so i added it.

 

[shilsen]

Just about nothing affects me unless I think it should, so none of the topics are a problem for me. But I draw the line at things which make my players uncomfortable, since I want them to have just as much fun at the game as me. And I won't use any of it unless it adds to the game in even a small way (which is true for just about anything I put in my game, after all).

NUDITY IN MY GAMES: I probably won't go into details, but sure. Everybody in my campaign is nude. Some of them just happen to wear clothes, so you can't make out.

NUDITY IN MY BOOKS: Can't recall the last time I saw any, but that's probably because I don't get to read too many books with pictures

SEX IN MY GAMES: Passing references to it, involving both PCs and NPCs. Never roleplayed out yet.

SEX IN MY BOOKS: If it's appropriate to the book, why not? Coem to think of it, last time I encountered sex in a book was "Paradise Lost"!

INCEST, NECROPHILIA, RAPE, PEDOPHILIA, BESTIALITY, ETC.: I don't worry much about realism in rules, but as far as the setting I do try to inject at least some of it. So any and all of them exist, whether the PCs encounter it or not. If they do, it is unlikely to occur on-stage.

TORTURE: More likely to occur on-stage than the previous bunch, esp. if it involves a PC.

 

[ergeheilalt]

I can stand almost anything as long as it is tasteful, but for the most part, I have never expierenced anything close to BoVD or BoEP. It is mostly hitting on the bar wench and double entendre.

As a DM, I like to keep this teen friendly. Mostly implied, nothing overtly graphic when it comes to sex. I'd rather my books be free of nudity, but for things like the succubus, we have a creature that trives on sensuality ... so I guess its alright. I'd rather not have to hide my books in a brown paper bag.

Violence is a little bit more easy to forgive. I can and will dole out decapitations and disembowlments. And of course threats tend to be all the more fun with they sprinkled liberally with gorely tid bits. I try and gauge who I'm DMing for, if it is my High School Buddies, blood and guts is fun; however, my online games tend to be a bit more concervative when it comes to violence.

I suppose this sort of DMing gives my game a PG-13 or at the most a R rating (borrowing the movie rating here in the US).

 

[Ulrick]

I usually give my games an R rating.

And I make certain up front that the players know and can handle it.


NUDITY IN MY GAMES: Yes. But its not random. Usually there's a point to the story. For example: once a scene took place in a whore house. The guy who ran the place hired the PCs for a specific task. Once they agreed, he paid them up front with a few whores. One male whore for the female in the group. I even had it wrote into the adventure. When the female gamer said, "Um...I don't think there's anything for me here..." suddenly, he came out. She blushed.

NUDITY IN MY BOOKS: I don't mind it so long as it doesn't get overdone. I think it should be few and far between.

SEX IN MY GAMES: See NUDITY IN MY GAMES.

SEX IN MY BOOKS: It depends on how its handled. If its handled tastefully I don't mind.

NECROPHILIA: It happens off stage.

BESTIALITY: It happens off stage.

INTER-SPECIES SEX: Off-stage only, and then only between similar species (elves/humans, humans/orcs). Its really tough to pull this one off without the game digressing into jokes.

VIOLENCE: It really depends on how vicious I'm feeling that night or what type of enviroment I want to convey. It also depends on my player's tastes.

The most violent and goreful scene I've described thus far was in Hellbound:The Blood War as the characters crossed the Field of Nettles. A battleground of the fiends where corpses were piled high because millions had died there...

TORTURE: Sometimes onstage, sometimes offstage.

MUTILATION: Sometimes onstage, sometimes of stage.

CHILD MOLESTATION/ABUSE: Well, once I had an evil wizard charm young children to deliver messages with explosive runes on them to people.
The children would say, "Excuse me mister, I can't read this note that was given to me..."

The point of it was that the wizard was the most vile villain that the PCs had ever encountered. I wanted them to hate him so much that they would go to great lengths to destroy him.
--

IMHO, with any of these if overdone can make the game boring or laughable. If used, they must serve a purpose to the story.

 

[Mercule]

Lessee....

FWIW, my line for fiction and gaming is pretty much the same. I'll just break my answers into story and pictures, as appropriate.

NUDITY: Not really an issue to me, so long as it's non-descriptive. Basically, if the DM says "She's completely naked," or even "She's completely naked and quite well endowed," I don't have a problem. If he starts getting more descriptive, I have a problem.

As for pictures in books, for the most part, I'm against it. Every now and then, you find a nekkid picture that really isn't sexual at all. Those I don't mind, but they are rare.

SEX: Basically off camera. I don't want a graphic description of _anything_, including kissing. For certain character types, saying "He sits there with his hand under the wench's shirt," is appropriate from time to time, but I would not want to see it said very often (once or twice ever is probably enough). Nothing more graphic than that.

NECROPHILIA: Whatever. No more description than sex. I would generally disapprove of a PC doing this, too. Even necrophiliac NPCs should be used sparingly.

Picures: No thinks.

BEASTIALITY: I once played a 2E Viking Handbook Berserker who could shift into bear form. The party Ranger had a she-bear follower. I would sometimes sneak into her den and shift forms. We have a son who is a natural werebear.

What I just wrote is almost exactly as much as was ever discussed on the matter. I don't ever expect to see beastiality in a game I play again. If I do, I would not want to see anything more explicit.

Pictures: Double no thanks. Someone showed me a picture in college that I'm _still_ trying to burn out after twelve years.

INTER-SPECIES SEX: I guess this either falls into "sex" or "beastiality" (or "necrophilia", I suppose) to me. I'd handle it appropriately.

VIOLENCE/MUTILATION: Nothing particularly graphic, usually. I like the realism that someone might actually have a use for a stump knife or an eye patch, but only in small doses and never vivid.

Pictures: Actually, I have a phobia of dismemberment. I can divorce my mind from the words, but a picture will pretty much drop me to my knees.

TORTURE: Rather not. I've been there, done that. A simple statement of "You/he get tortured," is plenty. Don't need pictures, either -- see Violence.

CHILD MOLESTATION: Nope. No way, no how. Sometimes kids get killed, but usually even the bad guys refrain.

RAPE: It happens off camera. By NPCs, to NPCs. I used it in on a PC in a dream sequence once. I knew the player trusted me enough to do it. Even then, it was very much not described. I can't imagine ever actually using it on a PC, or having a PC do it.

PREGNANCY: Everyone comes from somewhere, right? Seriously, it tends to get in the way of dungeon-crawling, so it's a bad option for PCs. As DM, I did have a PC have a baby once, though. It happened during "down-time" (college break) while everyone's characters aged a couple of years. The campaign that followed involved the baby having something special about it and getting kidnapped. I discussed this (in general terms) with the player, first.

HOMOSEXUALITY: My gaming group has usually (and currently) been entirely heterosexuals. As such, homosexuality rarely enters into our train of thought.

RELIGION: Myths, especially manufactured for the setting, are great. Real world religions are right out: I don't want to insult anyone's religion, which I probably would be sticking it in a game. As a very strong Christian, I find it somewhat blasphemous to RP the "true motives of God".

I've even insulated my homebrew world from the ultimate answers. The deities that are worships did not create the fabric of reality, although they did build the world. They are simply the most powerful beings that directly interact with anyone. Even they don't know what is beyond themselves and there will never be any more answers.

 

[Azul]

My group consists of 9 people (6 male, 3 female), including 2 DMs. Most are married couples, and one is a father of 5 year old twins. Ages range from 20 to 32, with most being 30-32.

In a broad answer, context is everything, but my group is generally pretty laid back about so-called mature material. We're hard to shock and our female players crack very raunchy or dark jokes as much as our male players.

NUDITY IN MY GAMES: Never been a point of debate for us (we allow it). Common whenever it is appropriate (e.g. a romantic interlude gets interrupted by the villains). Bathing, sleeping, sex or reincarnation (clothes don't magically appear with the spell, so if you were dust, you come back in your birthday suit) are the usual moments.

NUDITY IN MY BOOKS: If it fits, I'm fine with it. My players could care less (unless it's somehow more shocking that what you can find on the net). If it is gratuitous chainmail bikini cheesecake, then it's just tacky.

SEX IN MY GAMES: It is not uncommon for players of either gender to play characters with strong sexual appetites. Hell, we've had PCs have affairs. In the last campaign, one in-game couple (both players were married to other players) got married.

SEX IN MY BOOKS: Not a problem.

NECROPHILIA: If it is suitable to the situation, then I'll include it. It usually produces a fair level of disgust with my players, which is generally the point. Typically used with seductive/powerful undead types who take mortal lovers.

BESTIALITY: In graphic detail, no, but "Henrik and the sheep" was a run-on gag in our last campaign. Henrik was a dimwitted country bumpkin of a hobgoblin who's sheer religious devotion led him to become a paladin. During his youth on the farm, he was rumoured to have umm... learned the birds and the bees with the livestock.

It was merely a rumour (he eventually lost his virginity when he was duped into "getting an education" at a brothel (the player played the bewildered and clueless virgin role to a tee)... his summary of the event when he turned up at breakfast the next day, delivered in a very earnest and mildly flustered way - "Elves are tight!". Our entire gaming group just about died laughing and the player got bonus XP for his roleplaying and humour.

INTER-SPECIES SEX: If both are sentient, eh, no problems whatsoever. Half-breeds of all varieties are common in our campaigns. Our party orc barbarian gave birth to a half-fey child as a result of a night (subjective, one month passed to the rest of the world) of drunken revelry in the fey lands. The party sheltered and protected the kid. It produced lots of good roleplaying.

VIOLENCE: We get graphic and no one seems to mind. We've had a PC get his innards eaten by a ghast (while still alive) on-stage. The party burst through the door at the last minute to his rescue. Again, the gory descriptions added to their sense of urgency (and statisfaction at rescuing him). That was probably our goriest scene in the past while.

TORTURE: Sometimes off-stage, sometimes on-stage. As a DM, I will only torture a PC on-stage if it is needed to further a plot point (e.g. this is when the torturer would let some important detail slip). As for my players, well, they've used heavy handed techniques when pressed for time, but they prefer to bluff than actually torture (although they will back up their threats if they feel the need to).

MUTILATION: Again, only for dramatic effect. PCs do as they will, and usually save this for foes they have deep-seated hatred for - the ones where killing them seems like it's not enough.

CHILD MOLESTATION/ABUSE: Off-stage as a rule, with a possible suggestive scene if we want to make the abuser out to be a monster. This is probably our most solid "don't go there" zone as far as on-stage stuff. Party it's respect for the player who's a parent and partly is just that we all find the idea distasteful.

However, child molestation/abuse has turned up as a significant factor in some PC background stories, including one of my own PCs, who was a mentally ill, psychologically scarred chaotic evil halfling assassin - how did she get that way? by having a horrific past which led her to place very little value on humanoid life, except the lives of those people she cared about. It made her both fierce (and feared) yet vulnerable and explained why she was that alignment. She would butcher an entire city just to save a friend, because she placed zero value on the lives of those she did not feel personal attachments to. It was a different take on the Chaotic Evil alignment. Interestingly, even the Lawful Neutral and Neutral Good characters in the party had some attachment to this character. They saw her as a tragic figure, in need of redemption. She was very interesting and very complex to play. Not a character for a young teen crowd, but our older bunch found her depth appealing.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

Well, for me anything goes. I will not balk at any subject matter for the sake of the subject matter alone. If it is useful to my story and has a compelling reason to be there then thre is very little I wont use.

NUDITY IN MY GAMES: Yup, if needed.

NUDITY IN MY BOOKS: The human form clothed or otherwise does not offend me.

SEX IN MY GAMES: If it adds to the story absolutely.

SEX IN MY BOOKS: Sure, i enjoy the odd bit of erotica.

NECROPHILIA: I like this one for villians, it is especially appropriate for necromancer. I doubt that i would go into great detail describing said villian's amorous acts with a corpse though.

BESTIALITY: Same as above

INTER-SPECIES SEX: Yeah, I like half-breeds.

VIOLENCE: Folks, melee combat was anything but clean and quick. I let my players see the results of their handiwork in vivid detail.

TORTURE: It happens, and truly evil characters would certainly rely on it as a standard method of getting what they want from recalcitrant prisoners (PCs)

MUTILATION: Same as above

CHILD MOLESTATION/ABUSE: Handled carefully I have used this before. My PC's recently took down a brothel that specialized in children, killing the madame and freeing the children. But all of the abuse is offscreen, i have no desire to describe such a repugnant act.

Here's one that might throw you Sigil.

EVIL PCs: No, never and absolutely not. I agree with you on this point Sigil, the PC's should be heroes and not evil doers. I have yet to see an evil party, played appropriatly, do anything but self destruct. I use things like the BoVD to make compelling villians, I don't let my players near the thing.

Dirge

Pretty much the same for me... I'd allow Evil PCs though, but only if the group was mature enough for it. Usually it doesn't work (the town guard was rude to me! We poison the water supply of every town village and hamlet in a 40 mile radius), but I would like to try an Evil campaign sometime.

 

[S'mon]

I allow Succubi to have no clothes on... I must be truly Vile.

 

[Snoweel]

Re: Re: [BoVD, BoEF, Vile] Where do you say "unacceptable?"

I appreciate the disclaimer - and we'll appreciate everyone following it, please. This is a temptingly controversial subject, so best that the thread stay completely on topic.

Like if I was to ask why male nipples are acceptable in Teh Sigil's game but female nipples aren't?

If arguments spring up in this thread, it will be closed without further warning. Please post about your game, not your judgments about anyone else's.

Thanks!

No worries!

NUDITY IN MY GAMES: I don't have a problem with nudity, but like Tiefling said (Hi Tiefling!) rarely can you put naked characters into the game and not have it come across as gratuitous, so I avoid it.

NUDITY IN MY BOOKS: Doesn't much bother me.

SEX IN MY GAMES: Like everybody else, it happens but I leave it in the background.

SEX IN MY BOOKS: I would consider the presence of sex in a gaming accessory unprofessional. Though the term "potential romantic subplot" is ok.

NECROPHILIA: I guess if I wanted to show how deranged or sick a baddie is, then I guess I could allude to it. But it is kind of revolting - if I was a real-life hero, and I opened a door to find the man-who-murdered-my-father shagging a corpse, I'd be like "Oh dude, yuck!" and leave, closing the door behind me.

So I guess it's a heroic mood-killer.

BESTIALITY: As above.

INTER-SPECIES SEX: By this I assume Teh Sigil is referring to sex between consenting sentients. This goes into the same category as sex between humans.

VIOLENCE: I've got no problems at all with violence, graphic or otherwise.

TORTURE: As above.

MUTILATION: As above.

CHILD MOLESTATION/ABUSE: I get the feeling this is a lot more common than we might realise IRL and I'm sure it is extremely common in places where life is cheap and children are forced to grow up quickly.

But it's a bit much to allude to in a game, though I might throw an underage sex-slave into the villain's dungeon to show how Eevill he is.

 

[jdavis]

Lets see:

NUDITY IN MY GAMES: Can and does happen, is not a problem.

NUDITY IN MY GAMING BOOKS: Depends on the book and the context, it doesn't bother me but I do have children, I'd hate for one to walk by while I was reading and see something graphic on the page.

SEX IN MY GAMES: Happens very often and is always offstage, we don't roleplay it out but the topic is not avoided, (graphic depictions only happen in jokes around the table, nobody seriously describes their fake roleplaying sex act, but we get plenty of humourous descriptions). Prostitution seems to be very common in our game world.

SEX IN MY GAMING BOOKS: Depends on the book and the context. It doesn't bother or offend me but there needs to be a reason for it or it's just taking up space in the book.

NECROPHILIA: Only something a evil NPC would do, has been joked about but has never come up seriously yet.

BESTIALITY: Only in jokes about the Halfling PC.

INTER-SPECIES SEX: Not a problem, offstage of course but no distinction is made by species unless it's just goofy.

VIOLENCE: Every attack is described in a detailed discription, we tend to get quite gory and violent in our discriptions, you never hear "you hit with your sword and did 10 points of damage, you hear " your mighty blow sliced through his leather armor and opened a long gash across his chest". ( I game with theater people, they love to describe everything in detail.)

TORTURE: Can happen offstage, common among evil NPCs

MUTILATION: Same as torture.

CHILD MOLESTATION/ABUSE: Can happen offstage as a discription to draw anger at a evil NPC, but it is extremely rare and gets rarer the older we get (most of us have kids of our own now). I haven't heard any mention of molestation ever and it's been years since abuse was brought up in-game.