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

[The Sigil]

DISCLAIMER: Please do NOT roast anyone else for their positions. I'm just curious to find out what people consider to be out of bounds of good taste in their games/gaming material (you may have different lines for each). Doing a poll would have too many options.

I'll throw out a few:

NUDITY IN MY GAMES: For me, suggestive outfits (e.g., a succubus in a "come-here" nightie) are as far as it goes. No actual nudity.

NUDITY IN MY BOOKS: No exposed genitalia nor pubic hair in the artwork. If used in proper context, female nipples are okay in small doses. Out of context, more than a couple sets of nipples is too much.

SEX IN MY GAMES: Flirting might be done IC, but getting past 1st base is always behind the curtain. "You take the barmaid upstairs... the next morning, you and your companions make for the castle..."

SEX IN MY BOOKS: As above, if mentioned at all.

NECROPHILIA: No to both.

BESTIALITY: No to both

INTER-SPECIES SEX: Off-stage only, and then only between similar species (elves/humans, humans/orcs).

VIOLENCE: Killing, but without overly graphic descriptions (blood, no guts).

TORTURE: Offstage.

MUTILATION: Offstage.

CHILD MOLESTATION/ABUSE: None at all, not even off-stage. Realistic? No. But as a father, and as someone who has had to help two dear friends recover from sexual abuse when they were young girls, I'm a more than a bit sensitive about this topic.

There will be more topics, I'm sure, but please weigh in with what you think.

And again, NO RIDICULING OF ANYONE ELSE... just tell us what your "line" is and that's it.

--The Sigil

 

[2WS-Steve]

My list probably looks a lot like yours though I have less problem with nudity in books.

One note though: there's a big difference between what I consider distasteful or what I wouldn't include in my game and what I consider immoral and I imagine that's the same for a lot of people.

 

[Arnwyn]

Let's see... to be honest, mine pretty much matches yours except:

Nudity in the game: yes, but it's: "you see a female slave tied up. She's naked."

Violence: can get graphic during combat, but rarely (usually only with critical hits); guts can be involved.

Otherwise, mine matches yours quite accurately. My demographic: group is all male, in our mid-20's, all professionally employed, all friends for a long time (no strangers allowed), none married, no children.

 

[Viking Bastard]

To answer all of that I'm forced to say: "Depends on context."

I wish I could give a better answer, but I can't.

Like, something that shocks me or offends me in a Superman
comic, usually only produces a small giggle from me when reading
something written by Garth Ennis. It always comes down to
context.

Or maybe, I've had a NPC that was molested, a little girl that was
abused by her father (all off-stage of course). Now, if one of the
PCs started doing that to someone, I'd be literally furious.

.

Except the beastiality bit, I can totally go without that. Ick!

 

[Remathilis]

NUDITY IN MY GAMES: Character in my game have been nude, but not usually for reasons of sexuality. (You wake up nake in dungeon...) I've used nude or nearly-nude evil cult sacrifices as flavor text also.

NUDITY IN MY BOOKS: After the 13 breasts in the Book of Vile Darkness (yes, thirteen), I'm not as concerned about nudity in a rulebook. AS LONG AS ITS RELEVANT or TASTEFULLY DONE.

SEX IN MY GAMES: Sex has been heavily implied in my game, but not mentioned. PC's have implied it, as have NPC's. People go to other people's inn rooms, or meet another out for a rendevous, but nothing beyond implication.

SEX IN MY BOOKS: I see no problem with implied sexual encounters between characters. I don't need details however.

NECROPHILIA: A heavy theme of necrophilia came out in a polymorphed lich and a young maiden storyline. By the same token, I once allowed a half-vampire race (like Vampire Hunter D), which had some implications as well.

BESTIALITY: Never touched the subject. It was hinted weakly at about the shadow druids in my game once, but never followed through beyond speculation and rumour.

INTER-SPECIES SEX: What? No half-dragons? tieflings? aasimar? genasi? vampyre (see above), half-gods? drageloths? need I go on?

PREGNANCY: No pregnant PC's, and only a couple of on stage NPCs. Most pregnancies are handled off stage, as is all births.

HOMOSEXUALITY: Pc's in my campaign have been gay, even falling in love with an NPC in return. I've seen lesbian adventuring partners too, but they were NPC's in another's campaign.

INCEST: Never touched the topic.

POLYGAMY: Never touched the subject, but hinted at it for an empire outside of normal campaign bounderies...

VIOLENCE: Only to emphasize a point. Graphic destriptions of blood, gore, and violence are used to describe the inhumanity of a scene, and a little goes a long way. I guess it depends on your definition of violence. Random fluids and organs aren't a part of combat however. (and I hate critical hit tables that make them that way...)

TORTURE: Nothing brutal... Its describe in a frank, just so matter. Evil PC's have used torture in game before to extract information... but its not elaborated upon.

MUTILATION: See torture. An evil PC lopped off a hobgoblin's ear as a form of torture (while the good PC's weren't available to stop) and our thief almost lost his hand.

CHILD MOLESTATION/ABUSE: Very vaguely hinted at. Children have been slaves to evil governments, or found famished and beaten, but nothing sexual or graphic.

MENTAL ILLNESS: I've had a mentally ill NPC before, and my god of maddness could be described as such, but I've rarely dealt with the issue.

*** To be fair, these elements are not commonplace in my games, nor are they all elements I've personally used. Over 10 years of gaming, I've seen or used some of these techniques to heighten emotional responses from PCs and to give them moments off pause. In dramatically appropriate areas, they add a lot, abusing them makes them lose this affect. If you're worried about abuse because of BoVD/BoEF/BoED (people forget the WotC is releasing Exalted Deeds as mature) I don't think you have alot to worry about, most good DMs could come up with rules to cover this anyway, and most groups that can handle it already have.

 

[Maerdwyn]

My line moves epending on the group I'm gaming with. In general though:

Sex is handled off camera when it is in the game at all, which it's not when I play with younger teens. Necrophilia, Beastiality etc. have never come up, but they'd be, at most intimated, probably. Child abuse is out, for the same reasons as The Sigil.

Interspecies relations: The idea sex between sentients of various species doesn't bother me. Still off-camera, though.

Tasteful nudity in books doesn't bother me. OTOH, even clothed artwork will turn me off if it's trashy and gratuitous. (I've not bought much Avalanche stuff because of the covers. Their Celtic Age book is great, though, and doesn't have a cheesecake cover.) I don't want graphic sex depicted (either with words or pictures) in a game book I buy.

Violence is in the game, but not usually graphically described unless I'm making a point and want to evoke a particular reaction from my (adult) players. Rape has been part of a story line recently, with the pcs wreaking vengeance on behalf of the victim. I have used torture and mutilation in the current campaign off camera, except for one scene in which a PC druid was captured by an orcish army that had been hunting druids. I and that player handled the scene via email, and the other players found out about it next session.

Fiendish issues: The scariest villains, IMHO, are those who choose their path, not those born to or created for evil. My fiends are usually supporting cast, and act through tempting, or by briefly serving mortals. Usually on camera, although when DMing for younger teens, I have a chat with parents first, and use alternate villains if they prefer.

Real world religions: I leave it out of my campaigns unless (as with my current group), I've talked with them about it first. I always leave them out when Dming minors.

 

[hunter1828]

NUDITY IN MY GAMES: Fairly common, though no one is a nudist or anything of the sort and most cities/countries have laws about public nudity. But if someone says their character walks around their room at the inn naked as a jaybird that's fine with me.

NUDITY IN MY BOOKS: I have no problem with admitting I like seeing naked women, so nudity in my books is just fine. However, there are limits. I don't want nudity in the PHB...that's not the place for it. But in another book, say the BoEF or BoVD, that's acceptable.

SEX IN MY GAMES: Flirting is very common, as is some innuendo. My current game consists of myself (33 and a DM of 24 years), a 31 year old male, a 44 year old male and a 25 year old female (my wife), so we have a fairly mature campaign. Though the specifics are left to the imagination or to an e-mail contact for the most part, it does happen (my wife's female wizard gave birth to twins by her husband, a ranger/cleric and another player's male dwarf fathered a child out of wedlock and had to get married).

SEX IN MY BOOKS: Ditto to Nudity In My Books.

NECROPHILIA: The players don't do it. It's evil. But evil people do it. It makes them that much more evil. However, this has actually never come up before in a game.

BESTIALITY: Again, hasn't happened in one of my games, but I wouldn't shy away from it as something an NPC does. And depending on the NPC would depend on whether it was an evil act or an insane (but not evil) act.

INTER-SPECIES SEX: One campaign I run my wife plays a half-drow rogue/ranger. Her lover is a cursed minotaur (a man born a minotaur but should have been born human). One aspect of the story is the search for a way to make him human again.

VIOLENCE: Killing with little graphic description. Sometimes during a very heated combat I will use a slightly more graphic description for a critical hit, but nothing gross.

TORTURE: Off-camera, but I do let the PCs know that it took place and the mental state of the one tortured.

MUTILATION: Never happened outside of combat (there have been more than one lost ear or eye in my games).

CHILD MOLESTATION/ABUSE: Never been a subject in my games unless you count the player that included in his characters background "magical genetic manipulation as a child, along with forced trainging, to make her have superhuman strength".

hunter1828

 

[Tiefling]

I say "unacceptable" when something is gratuitous, that is when it's there just for the sake of being there, not for the sake of adding another dimension of realism to the world or advancing the plot. Otherwise, anything's fine.

 

[Piratecat]

DISCLAIMER: Please do NOT roast anyone else for their positions. I'm just curious to find out what people consider to be out of bounds of good taste in their games/gaming material (you may have different lines for each).

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.

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!

 

[Psion]

Well, generally, my list is pretty similar to yours, Spencer.

In my gaming books, I prefer NO nipples. However, as far as that goes, I am more sensitive to random plasterings of nude women than context appropriate illustrations.

I have no problem saying "you see a nekkid woman." Graphic depictions are, of course right out.

I have no problem with bikinis or fantasy equivalents.

Perversions are right out, in text or pictures. No necrophilia derived magic, no tentacles groping women, no demon semen.

Sex scenes strictly off screen.