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

[JRRNeiklot]

If we are talking what to use in my game, I haven't used rape, incest, or child molestation anywhere but off screen and probably won't. If we are talking published works, I don't think anything "goes to far." Don't like it? Don't buy it.

 

[dren]

NUDITY IN MY GAMES: Constantly. Paladins are constantly being swooned over and they have politely turned down the offers.

NUDITY IN MY BOOKS: Not since I was 18. I don't care for it.

SEX IN MY GAMES: Yes, but not graphicly and PCs are never involved.

SEX IN MY BOOKS: Not since I was 18. I don't care for it.

NECROPHILIA: Yes.

BESTIALITY: Yes.

INTER-SPECIES SEX: Yes.

PREGNANCY: Yes. Usually NPC, as PCs rarely get involve in relationships and or sex.

HOMOSEXUALITY: Extremely rare.

INCEST: Only once. Off-scene only but the PCs were freaked out and got revenge.

POLYGAMY: Yes.

VIOLENCE: Yes. Depending upon the situation, it can be very graphic or slightly skimmed over.

TORTURE: Yes. Both PCs and NPCs have been guilty of this.

MUTILATION: Yes.

CHILD MOLESTATION/ABUSE: Only incest as mentioned above.

MENTAL ILLNESS: Yes.

As DM I create situations where I get my players to see the best and worst in the world. Things get ugly and gross, and sometimes things do get vile, at least in game context. But, as far as I know everyone has always treated it a a game and didn't take it too seriously.

Paladins redeem the bad; but they destroy the wicked.

 

[magnas_veritas]

In the campaign I'm in:

Nudity: Not much of a factor. People sometimes sleep in the buff, and some sleep in their +1 Heavy Fortification Nightshirts. It's rare to see people nekkid* or nude.

Sex: Mostly off-camera, with the occasional Bluff or Charisma check for a barmaid/hot adventurer chick/fellow temple acolyte. Random sex has been a survival strategy in this game (which is a modified Birthright); the possibility of having a great number of bastards means they might not go gunning for you for bloodtheft.

Pregnancy: None of the main PCs are female, so we don't worry much about it. Most of the PCs are married or already have children. There are currently three pregnancies of concern; one a tiefling (with the PC and wife undertaking pilgrimages to ensure the child doesn't look all weird), one a shuttlecock in the war between the Faerie courts, and a third is a potential abomination.

Inter-species sex: Two of the PCs wouldn't exist without it.

Bestiality, necrophilia, and other such things are occasionally used by the DM to elicit "Ew!"s and groans.

Torture: Common among villains, less among PCs, though not unthinkable.

Polygamy: Jokes aside, doesn't happen.

Homosexuality: Rare, mostly ignored.

Brad

(Edit: D'oh!) * - "Nekkid:" The state of being unclothed in an embarassing manner or inappropriate circumstance. "There're nekkid people in the woods!" is an example. The difference between nekkid and nude is mostly in the eye of the observer; as an example, "Look at all them nekkid people on the beach!"

(Thanks to Lewis Grizzard for the definition)

 

[ForceUser]

While I am okay with getting graphic to convey the gravity of truly vile evil, I have to tread carefully out of respect for one of my players, who is extremely sensitive to such depictions. A rape occured off-camera to an NPC last session, and one of my players was quite upset when I introduced the situation. I have since had to reevaluate what I should and shouldn't portray in the game, which is a bit disappointing because I tried to portray the subject of rape as respectfully and maturely as possible and it still was too much for her. I have come to the conclusion that the topic of rape in any context is simply too upsetting to this player, so I can't use it anymore.

She is also quite sensitive to visceral subject matter such as incest, torture, blood and gore - you know, the sorts of things you can use occassionally to make the players understand the depth of evil they are facing. Since I like to shoot for gritty, darker settings, this is kind of a bummer for me.

As far as sex goes, homesexuality makes some players uncomfortable, sexual activity will always happen off-camera, and nudity is rarely acceptable. Truly deviant sexual acts are not acceptable except when used to illuminate villainy, and even then they must only be mentioned in passing (or avoided altogether).

I could stretch my legs a bit more, but you cater to your players.

 

[Steverooo]

Both the BoVD and the BoEF are unacceptable, to me. I have (and will) refuse(d) to buy either.

 

[PowerWordDumb]

Whatever makes the story

I have no intrinsic problem with any of the subjects, but my handling of them varies.

First and foremost, nothing is ever included gratuitously - even basic combat has to have some motivation in advancing the story, let alone the other issues.

Combat being what it is, tends to be foremost in terms of description and attention paid to detail. Not because we're gore freaks, but because it can help make that aspect of the game more impactful and less "disney".

Nudity/Sexuality never really comes up in any serious context, although we've all had the occasional player trying to bed a barmaid. It's typically dealt with off-camera in vague terms.

Necro/Bestiality/child molestation: If they are used, it is typically as fodder for more villainous villains. Certainly I can't ever imagine a player indulging without a shocked response from the rest of the group, and likely repercussions.

Now we have played 'evil' campaigns, where torture has come up fairly frequently (great way to extract information when you're not bound by some uppity moral code), and the graphicness of the descriptions went directly into the effectiveness of the techniques used - as an RP tool of course. But even in those games the other darker aspects were generally dealt with in somewhat vague terms or off-camera.

There's a huge difference between incorporating darker content in order to legitimize your villains, and throwing in dark stuff as some sort of 'goth porn' self-gratification. If it advances the story in good way, I'm all for it.

 

[barsoomcore]

Okay, so right out of the gate, a female PC in my campaign is now retired because she fell in love with a vampire goddess who'd spent the majority of her undead existence insane and torturing and devouring young girls and had, through a series of traumatic experiences and forced realisations, come to a point where she was trying to atone for the terrible things she'd done.

So we've got GAY, NECROPHILIA, TORTURE, MENTAL ILLNESS and CHILD ABUSE right there.

Now, none of that was "on-camera", of course, and indeed the worst of her atrocities had happened over a century previously. I was interested in how an immortal being might come to acquire a sense of morality AFTER having descended into utter depravity. I'm not sure that she ever quite recovered, but it made for a fascinating story.

We had a moment in the campaign where one of the female PCs "went off to the inn room" with a male NPC who turned up dead the next day, rather hideously mutilated. They used the spell dead man's eyes from "Relics and Rituals" to see his last moments -- which consisted of a nude woman sitting atop him and butchering him. The party saw it, so I had to describe it.

And more recently, the party has been trapped in a prison formed out of the dreams of an insane goddess where things are... bad. Spider Women and Scorpion Men and other bad stuff, and most of these half-human creatures need humans in order to breed. The "action" has been off-stage, but you could make a case for BESTIALITY, or at least INTER-SPECIES sex. Some of the players were profoundly weirded out by it while others just shrugged and went on.

Generally, the female players seem to be more interested in these aspects of the game than the male -- or at least they play more sexually active characters. One is pregnant now, though I was careful to make sure the player was okay with that before going ahead. I wouldn't apply such a drastic influence to a player without approval.

My players are in their thirties, mostly pretty relaxed about sexuality and so on. Nobody's getting their jollies from detailed descriptions or anything like that, nobody's playing out unfulfilled sexual fantasies or whatever, but the people in Barsoom do things like that from time to time. And Barsoom being Barsoom, it's not always 100% clear that somebody is a bad guy just because they've done terrible things.

 

[Darth Shoju]

D&D limits

NUDITY IN BOOKS, ETC > As far as rulebooks and supplements go, the amount of acceptable nudity etc. depends upon the book. In the core rules? I say keep it clean (no nudity and so on), as these are required books for all ages to play the game. If it is an adult-oriented supplement and the subject material calls for it, then go for it.

NUDITY/SEX IN THE GAME ITSELF > Sure, although no real graphic explanations unless absolutely necessary. Usually I like to keep it to "ok you guys hit it off, you head to your room...next morning you are smiling" . However, one time my DM had to actually describe a sexual scene in a little more detail; my scout character stumbled upon two people in the woods at night...and being dark it wasn't immediately obvious what they were doing (although after his description it was ). So I guess I'm in favour of more detailed descriptions depending on the context.

ROMANCE/PREGNANCY> One of my campaigns featured a PC having a one night stand with a barmaid, but then falling in love with her, marrying her and then getting her pregnant. We basically kept it all in character as far as we were comfortable, which wasn't too far but far enough to get the point across and make it believable.

NECROPHILIA/BESTIALITY> Frankly, I never really considered using these as a plot device in any way, as I just couldn't see a reason for them. Both make me rather uncomfortable (and nautious), so I doubt I will except in the absolutely most vague implication (and then only if it seems really necessary for some reason).

INCEST> Well, again I hadn't really thought about it, although historically a lot of the nobility tended to engage in it to keep the bloodline "pure", so I guess I might allude to it in that context. That and Belial and Fierna seem to have that implied in the BoVD and I like to stick to D&D "canon" for fiends. But any frivolous or gratuitous use of incest would turn my stomach.

CHILD ABUSE> Again, this really upsets me so at most I would keep it to vagueness. Mostly character backgrounds and the like. I've played a few Call of Cthulhu adventures (Fade to Grey comes to mind) that dealt with this in detail and it really upset me, so I'd definately avoid it in my campaign.

VIOLENCE> Really, D&D feature violence quite prominantly, and as such it's going to be in my games. However, I usually shy away from really detailed gore.

TORTURE/MUTILATION> Again, not something that I'm really comfortable with but it does come up. One of my PC's lost several fingers to a torturer and one of my own characters threatened it (he was bluffing though).

 

[Darth Shoju]

D&D Limits

edit whoops. didn't realize I had double-posted.

 

[kreynolds]

just tell us what your "line" is and that's it.

When a player won't give me their character's name because "he keeps it secret".

Oh, wait. That's OT. Nevermind.

Seriously though, I'll take drugs, murder, sex, and devil worship over that kinda crap any day!