Dark Fantasy

[G@Z]

I think that playing that kind of crappy campaing is scary!!!. Perhaps because my young age (20) that i see that idea really repulsing, but that kind of campaigns really suck. A little bit of this and that is ok, but a campaign based in such actions, is, again, repulsive. Yack!. Brrr, scary scary scary! i dont wanna be in your neighbour!!!

 

[Creamsteak]

I can read Edena's formatting just fine. It's not good formatting,
but I'm used to it. Edena, you run great games, because your so
extreme. Your on the edge of the coin, not undecided, but not
wholy one-sided. (contrasting undecided with one-sided...
interesting) And it can be stated that you know how to use this
to your advantage.

But, in my humble teenage opinion, you may
have taken the game a little too seriously. I have friends who
play games that run the full gamut of extreme, but it doesn't
seem to translate into anything else. Hell, I've killed about 2
million aliens/mutants/zombies in my video game/gaming life. The
deal isn't what I say, or what my character does, but what me
and my friends come out of the session with.

If we come out with a feeling of victory, for overcoming a
challenge... then we've done what 3rd edition aims for...
challenge ratings.

If we come out with a feeling of power, for pretending to possess
some insane, world conquering power, then we gained
something similar to what fantasy elements, specifically strategy
games aim for.

If we come out of it with a feeling of accomplishment and robust
love for what we just did, like in the IR, then we have gained true
entertainment from it. This is what I prefer most.

But, even if everything you mentioned happened in my games all
the time, I really don't think it would meen anything. My friends
would have just proven them more immature than I originally
thought, but that's about it.

Hopefully at least they, if not you, played those sessions with a
light heart. The way I play all things... with a little bit of elf in me.
Cracking Skulls like an orc, but still with a little dance and frolick.

Dark Fantasy to me is probably a perverted sense of the
definition. I picture 5 guys and girls in a room dressed in black
trying to out-goth each other with thier next description. Lame,
pointless, boring, rantish, and most of all, a little too weak for my
tastes. I play like a hero, even when I'm the bad guy. Some
people don't, which must suck.

Also, in this community we see that most players and dms evolve
into something better. Something that can throw in elaborate
descriptions, and be very emotional, without seeming like a
complete and total pervert, moron, or other type of negative
adverb/pronoun.

Edena, your incredible charisma is obvious (if all mental and not at
all physical, it's still pretty fricken high). I think you know how to
tell a story, be honest, and be a hero. I also think that you are
the edge of the proverbial coin. The one in 100 trillion times you
flip a coin, and it lands on it's edge.

 

[zouron]

hearing these stories, yes I would be horrified, but I think those said teenage boys live through breaking certain boarders in a safe environment. I mena mentally there are a lot of things they might secretly find enchanting and this might be their way of getting it out.

that said, I will say I never experience that kind of "dark fantasy" you describe (in comparison me and my group were playing save the wrold super heroes in the best four color comic book code style in my teen years), and find it icking (for lack of a better word) to be thinking of being in such a game, that however doesn't mean I don't enjoy the idea of evil (edena you should very well know how much I love horror hehe. However while we all clearly see the difference between fantasy and reality we also ahve a limit, the dark fantasy wouldn't be one I would enjoy, but I am mostly certain that those playing it at the end of the day are clearly aware it is just fantasy and thus they are able to let loss every single (morale?) bond

*stops his rant and wanders off pondering silently what the use of a level 750 character is*

 

[Zappo]

*stops his rant and wanders off pondering silently what the use of a level 750 character is*

As far as I'm concerned, the big block of paper sheets will make a nice doorstopper, but only if it's bound.

 

[mooby]

Doesn't sound like Dark Fantasy. Sounds like Columbine kids with dice to me.

Hopefully, it will end at the D&D table.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Edena, I don't know much about you or your personal history, but I do know you've spent your time with a very small and very disturbed subset of teenage boys.

VERY few teenage boys are that off-kilter. Yes, they tend to be overdramatic. Yes, they tend to spend a LOT of time thinking about sex. Yes, some even have violent tendencies. But the things you talked about are FAR beyond normal for teenage males.

Also, I really don't get the connection you were trying to make between high risk driving behavior and acting out base impulses in a "role-playing" situation. 1) I don't see how the two are connected, and 2) That particular gender gap is closing rapidly i.e. high risk behavior (driving and otherwise) is decreasing in young males and increasing in young females. If you are making a point about the behavior of teenage boys, it looks like you need to factor the girls in as well.

At any rate, this may sound harsh, but I think your image of teenage males is somewhat pathological, and you really need to broaden your experience of them.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Ok, since nobody else has said it, I will.

Some teen-aged boys, when they grow up, give up Dark Fantasy (or, whatever you folks chose to call it, above.)

But many teen-aged boys, who enjoyed Dark Fantasy, turn into adults, who enjoy Dark Fantasy.

And some teen-aged boys, who enjoyed Dark Fantasy, grow up into adults with new and improved versions of Dark Fantasy.

- - -

Adult Dark Fantasy does not involve 1 trillion gold pieces, or 750th level characters, or blowing up the campaign world, or other things of this sort.
However, Adult Dark Fantasy DOES include such things as murder, rape, torture, mass destruction, multilation, gore, and other nice things such as this.

- - -

What is my point?
My point, which I am sure will be controversial, is that the part of In Real Life people that is primordial and savage (the beast, as it were) does not go away when one grows up.
It merely, for lack of a better word, matures along with everything else.

Now, the question is this:

When adults fantansize, in a game based on killing, about murder, rape, torture, mass destruction, and so on, is this healthy?
Or, is it unhealthy?
Or, is it a really good thing?
Or, is it a really bad thing?

Do not look to ME for the answer to the question above - you must find your OWN answer to it.

Because, folks, adults DO engage in Dark Fantasy.
They do, and sometimes their Dark Fantasies are truly hellish, far beyond the adolescent imaginations of mere teen-aged boys.

Edena_of_Neith

 

[Oni]

I know I certainly wasn't like that when I was a teenager (not all that long ago). I know my friends were not like that, most of the people I knew weren't. Those that were, I avoided like the plague.

 

[hellbender]

Edena, you need to learn to interject such words as 'sometimes', 'some', 'a few', and 'maybe' into your diatribe before I will buy into it. Nothing happens 100% across the board in all cases.

However, once you do add those words, I can see your angle, however, I don't really see the point.

People play rpgs for various reasons, high, low, dark, light, fantasy, science fiction, old west, modern ( and any other possibilities I left out), for me, rpgs back in the '80's kept me out of trouble. Now, it is sitting around and telling stories, in a way, as DM, it is somewhat like directing movies I want to see (with all ad-lib actors). I lead towards a dark, low fantasy setting, and get by just fine without getting extremely explicit.

hellbender

 

[hellbender]

I know I certainly wasn't like that when I was a teenager (not all that long ago). I know my friends were not like that, most of the people I knew weren't. Those that were, I avoided like the plague.

Amen to that (except I was a teenager a while back). I still avoid some of those freako gamers, as they are still freako, after all these years.

hellbender