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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wayside" data-source="post: 834206" data-attributes="member: 8394">So, it seems that, to most detractors, vile content is gratuitous in itself.  I just think this is wrong.  I suppose it boils down to context.  Does throwing a pile of whacked out nasty into a campaign for no reason make it adult or mature?  Of course not.  Does tossing in bubblegum princesses and Paladins and the concept of an absolute good and an absolute evil somehow constitute a superior game to the ridiculously gratuitous one?  God no.  I don't think any campaign that isn't thoughtfully constructed has any value, whether it's gratuitous or candy striped.  And how about infinite resurrections so nobody ever really dies?  Nah.  Even Achilles and Gilgamesh couldn't escape death.Now, I have no idea what's passed off as vile in the BoVD or in Dungeon/Dragon, but anyone who tries to say categorically that it's something it has the potential not to be is just wrong.Believe me, I have stronger feelings about the idea of rape than anybody I've ever met.  If it were possible I would love to personally administer the death penalty to every rapist or child molester or sexual abuser in general on the planet.  BUT--the concept of rape can also illustrate the concept of perfect moral virtue, as in the story of Collatinus' Lucretia.  Livy wrote about this and so did Shakespeare.This is how I run my game, and this is how my players like it.  I'm sure it makes a difference that we've all been friends outside of D&D for 12 years, and playing D&D off and on for most of that time.  We play to create an interactive story that's as much a surprise to me as it is to them, not to level up characters, collect magic items, slay goblins or any other D&Disms.So, I think pretty much every aspect of D&D has the potential to be gratuitous, as much as they can be great devices for storytelling.  I'm sure there are plenty of vile content fans that run ridiculously immature games.  IMO games toned down for children are just as much a waste of time though.  My kids will be weaned on Vergil's Dido, on Agamemnon's sacrifice of Iphigenia, on a thousand other stories like these.  I can't imagine that they will blink twice at the BoVD.</blockquote>

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