D&D 5E Do you allow adult situations in your games?

[Hriston]

On half-orcs: One of the first PCs I played in my pre-teen years was a half-orc cleric/fighter. For backstory, I went for the clichéd trope of human mother captured by orcs and eventually tortured to death after being forced to give birth to my PC. Brought up by the orc-tribe, eventually he rebelled, killing the orc who "sired" him. I always knew it was a pretty bad story and I guess I just wasn't very imaginative. I couldn't, or didn't take the time, to think of another way it could have happened. It's funny that this issue doesn't seem to come up as much for half-elves, considering the evil that humans are obviously capable of. I think part of the idea, for me, is that an elf would voluntarily give up her life before giving birth to a child conceived in this way. Also some pretty terrible stereotypes there.

On a tangent, I suppose this is why Peter Jackson avoided the half-orc issue in the LotR movies. I'm pretty sure "half-orc" is never mentioned in those films, and Saruman's uruk-hai are depicted as just another breed of orc, although obviously superior. Of course in the book it is implied that they are the offspring of uruk-hai and hill-men of dunland that Saruman has bred to create his army. How he did this is not revealed, but there is no mention of the slime-pits that are depicted in the movie. As a child reading the book, my assumption was that this breeding took place in the "normal" way, possibly as part of some heathen rite that the dunlendings took part in to show allegiance to Saruman, or maybe they gave him their daughters as tribute, or both. I think these ideas have always influenced my assumptions about where half-orcs come from. Actually, what I find interesting about all of this now is the implication that orcs, humans, and elves are all one species, homo sapiens, which to my mind is an extremely Tolkienish idea.

 

[Herr der Qual]

When I'm DMing, I don't forbid any topic, that being said, there are consequences for player decisions including alignment shifts (with penalties), if a player decides to do something horrible, like beat the living hell out of a woman loosely connected to a man he's looking for to get answers and he's a "good" alignment, he gets downgraded and depending on class and L, N or C variable the penalty for behaving out of alignment can be steep. People change, people do stupid things, I let them live with their mistakes, I find it a lot more interesting for story line options if they aren't epic heroes who don't ever misstep socially, I try to never intercede in player actions with a "you can't do that" unless they clearly can't do that, from a standpoint of their character being physically restrained or some such thing. So yeah, murder, rape, arson, slavery, prostitution, poverty, desperation and such all exist in my games, though my game worlds are far from dystopian. Despite how the previous sentences mashed together in an abyss of sadness.

 

[Kristivas]

I think part of the idea, for me, is that an elf would voluntarily give up her life before giving birth to a child conceived in this way.

I disagree. Elves tend to revere life, and most won't kill except to protect themselves, their people, or their homes.

 

[aramis erak]

I tend to keep it PG-13, with some nod-n-wink moments.

 

[TarionzCousin]

So... when does the Book of Erotic Fantasy pdf go up for sale at dndclassics.com?

 

[MechaPilot]

Sex and romance (and jealousies, crushes, etc.): just about anything goes with our crew - I've seen inter-racial (as in, Orc-Human, Elf-Human, Gnome-Leprechaun, Hobbit-Human) romances and-or flings; gay-lesbian romances and-or flings; PCs marrying each other; having offspring with each other (and not always with who they married!), etc., and that's before any NPCs get involved! And it's not always limited to just two individuals at a time, either. I've seen PCs surreptitiously feed each other love potions then get away quick before the potion takes hold. I've seen PCs arduously kissing in the back line of a combat while the front line's been getting carved up! And so on...

Rape: no.

Torture, slavery, etc.: again, just about anything goes including on two different occasions PCs selling (or donating) other PCs into slavery.

Lan-"best excuse I ever heard for a couple of PCs failing a surprise roll while on night watch isn't directly repeatable here but it amounted to 'we were having sex!'"-efan

That's about where I land on adult content in game as well.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

By adult situations I'm referring too all the uncomfortable stuff that comes along with playing DnD that is more like the Westeros than Forgotten Realms. Sex, prostitution, uncomfortable violence, torture, where half-orcs actually come from (nicely put - forced "mating") and also the other side of the coin - romantic love, relationships and marriages for PC's.

Yep- most of the GMs in our group occasionally interject stuff like that. It isn't a focus of any game or story arc, but it isn't avoided, either.

 

[Hriston]

I disagree. Elves tend to revere life, and most won't kill except to protect themselves, their people, or their homes.

That was the "for me" part. I guess we all have different concepts of the demi-human races. My elves like to choose when and if they bring a child into the world, and having that choice taken away from them by violence, even if it were by a member of their own, high race, may very likely break their will to live, or possibly, to seek the farthest shore, to find healing in the Halls of Mandos. I could also see how a strong-willed elf-woman might feel a responsibility to bring the child to term, or even do it out of love. Like I said in the post you quoted, these are the not entirely PC stereotypes I have about these issues. YMMV.

 

[Grainger]

I'm surprised no-one's said it already, but I wouldn't call the sex in Game of Thrones (the TV series; can't comment on the books) "adult". Don't get me wrong, I like GoT, but I'm not a fan of the sex scenes; I don't want to start a political argument, but I find them (the ones I've seen so far anyway) pretty exploitative.

I gloss over sex in my campaign (if it even comes up) because it's not a part of the fantasy which influences my game (and even with GoT, by and large, I think the sex scenes could be glossed over - we all know why they're there). I also don't really want to hear my friends' sexual tastes - I wouldn't talk about it in detail with them - so I don't want to hear about it in a game. When I was much younger, a detailed sex scene did come up in a game that I was playing in, and I found it very, very uncomfortable. *** Can't. Unhear. It. *** That's not to say that player characters can't have sex in my game - it's just I don't want it described in explicit detail - we can leave them at the proverbial bedroom door.

I probably wouldn't dwell on torture either - it's a bit grimdark for my game. I have occasionally hinted (or even stated) that NPCs tortured someone, but again it's off-screen, and I would usually do this to indicate they're a villain or someone not to be entirely trusted or comfortable with. I doubt I'd go into explicit detail of someone being tortured in front of the PCs. I also think there's a qualitative difference between mentioning gore in a fight or trap context and having another an NPC inflicit pain in a calculating way. As I said, over the grimdark line for me; it can happen off-screen. On the question of PCs torturing NPCs - if a PC started doing this, I'd start to question whether they were heroic enough for my campaign. They can have shades of grey, they don't have to be Peter Perfect, but there's a limit.

 

[Li Shenron]

What about your campaigns. How do adult situations show up or do they at all?

Mostly the same as you. Generally speaking, neither I nor my fellow co-players have been interested in these.

IMHO what really makes the difference between "acceptable" and "unacceptable" is two things: gratuity and level of details. If you get the feeling that the "adult situation" doesn't serve the game, then it is a negative idea and it's better to avoid it. Honestly, I can't remember how many times this happens with sexual scenes in hollywood movies... really there has been for at least 2 decades now a strong tendency in every damn movie from the US to include a sex scene that is unneeded, as if the viewers are considered so dumb that they wouldn't understand that characters A and B are having an affair unless they see sex. It has become an incredibly appalling cliché. I don't want to go on a tangent, but in a RPG it's better to ask yourself "is this functional to the story, the setting and the game atmosphere?". Don't ask trivially "is this functional to the fun", because I guess there are a lot of people who would consider farting and loud-burping at the game table to be fun as well, but that's fun for some doesn't mean the rest of the group will enjoy it.

Similarly, the level of details in the descriptions is often largely unneeded, and it can make a huge difference in the offensiveness. Saying "the evil dragon has raized many villages looking for children to eat" or "the orcs torture their prisoners" is one thing, but adding descriptions is another.

Then it's certainly possible that some game genres almost 'require' these, e.g. a subtype of horror RPG. But that's just not my type of game.

Additionally, you never know what troubles some of your co-players might have experienced, so unless you are absolutely sure, I really suggest every DM to completely avoid the topics of violence against women and children.