Fantasy Sex Roleplaying Game Releases October 2003

[Geoffrey]

Patrick Y., many months ago I read in Cosmopolitan (the woman's magazine) a survey amongst women. I can't remember the percentage, but way over 50% of the women would rather see female nudity than male nudity. This is not to imply that the woman are all latent lesbians. We need to remember that women are not as aroused by visual stimuli as are males. I remember when I worked at Waldenbooks and homosexual men bought 9 out of 10 of the Playgirls sold.

Anecdotal evidence that a majority of women would rather see female nudity than male nudity:

1. My wife says so.
2. Several of my female friends say so.
3. Women's magazine are full of scantily-clad women.
4. I've been told by several people that women, when presented with a photo of a beautiful nude woman, often fantasize about being that woman rather than touching that woman. But when presented with a photo of a nude hunk they tend to just not be interested.


Ergo, I hope that this product heavily emphasizes female models rather than male.

 

[Gez]

On this subject...

a majority of women would rather see female nudity than male nudity

... One must not forget that if a woman's body is beautiful naked, this ain't so true of a man's body. Pretty curves on one side, over-abundant hair and a goofy-looking appendage on the other. Men are better looking when clad.

 

[Larry Fitz]

Hey Kenj!

This is more a Harald Henning/Joe Unfried kind of project than something I should spearhead. They are both more knowledgeable on the subject and much more detail oriented. We've had some conversations about the subject in the past. I'll bring it up and see if it's something LI might want to do. The question unfortunately is "Would it sell?"

The other problem is the scope, do we present only a single version? Should this be a capitalist economy? A barter system, communism, feudalism, oligarchal collectivism or even mercantile meritocratic distribution style economy are all viable models for a fantasy setting, which would you want to see explored or are you hoping for a 196-320 page book that details all of them, so different regions could have different systems... hmmm... ok, I'm beginning to get intrigued, but I suspect it might bore most other people.

Do you think I slotted up in there a little harsh as I lay my smack down?

BTW 1 out of 1 Larry's girlfriends surveyed agree that women would rather see scantily clad or nude women than men, unless I'm the model, and believe me when I say a book of pictures of me would ONLY sell that one copy.

 

[Kichwas]

I just have to ask. Why???

Seriously do any of you have a need in your game for this sort of supplement?

Since I have no desire to add:

"Ungh... Unghh... Oooohh, yeah baby yeah!"

To my roleplay voice [at the game table]...

The book to me just seems non topical to RPG gaming...


That said, given that it's Anthony Valterra, now I know how and why the Book of Vile Darkness got approved, and why Dragon started getting wierd in the last year and a half...

A suprise to say the least... One I didn't need to know.

I don't think I ever had any desire to know that he was really into S&M and occult...

Too much information, bad visual...

 

[Kichwas]

... One must not forget that if a woman's body is beautiful naked, this ain't so true of a man's body. Pretty curves on one side, over-abundant hair and a goofy-looking appendage on the other. Men are better looking when clad.

Certainly modern western and western-influenced cultures think so. But it wasn't always so. Classical Greece seems to have preferred the male form, and I'd wager the same was the case in east asia until recently.

-shrug-

 

[Mark Chance]

I don't think I ever had any desire to know that he was really into S&M and occult...

Too much information, bad visual...

Hear, hear!

After 40 years of people shrieking "Whatever I do in the privacy of my own home is nobody's business but mine!", how nice it would be if people finally starting keeping such things private.

What was it the late Patrick Moynihan said about redefining deviancy?

 

[mkarol]

For what it is worth, Valar Project, Inc. is a Washington based corporation incorporated on 02/11/2003 and lists AV as the Agent of service (rather than a profesional agent sucs as CORPORATION SERVICE COMPANY which WOTC uses). Makes one wonder how long this idea has been kicking around and who is really behind it (i.e. whether AV is out on a limb, so to speak).

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

This is simply pathetic. If this book is released with links to Dungeons & Dragons instead of just some typical cheap d20 book I'm done with WOTC. As it is now I don't really care for the dugeonpunk, videogame power-up mentality of 3e as it is. Now they are putting out a D&D SEX book? What kind of pathetic loser needs this kind of book? This is sad. If this true I can only hope it starts a backlash against Hasbro & WOTC and they end up selling the IP to someone who cares about it beyond just how much they can screw the game up to make more $$$. A nude of a goddess in a copy of the Legends and Lore? Fine. A S&M D20 book? Pathetic!



No, I'm not a prude, yes I have porn DVD's.


This is really bothering me.

 

[seasong]

My impression of Mr. Valtera is that he has always maintained a very professional front, both corporately and online. He's also a pretty cool guy - he was exceedingly helpful and informative during the kickoff of the WotC Setting Search (which got me involved in ENWorld), and he's consistently been attentive to ENWorld and generous with his schedule.

He has a life outside of that, however. And some of that life includes fetishism, S&M, paganism and the occult. And he's producing a product, outside of WotC, mind you, that explores some of those themes in a roleplaying context. At no point in that litany do I see anything wrong.

I just think it's a stupid product.

1. This is unlikely in the extreme to cover things to the extent that GUCK does. Sorry, just a fact. I'd be more interested if I'd heard Valtera was financing an illustrated GUCK. Now that would be an awesome product!

2. This is hardly the first product of its kind. Calendars of this sort have existed almost since the first print run of Tolkien finally sold out. Some of those calendars were even artistically interesting. But the odds are stacked against it.

3. This is hardly the first product of its kind. Retouched photos? We live in the Internet age. We live in the Photoshop age. I find it hard to believe they are that rare.

4. Perhaps most damning, the ad copy stinks on ice. If they can't even bother to pay adequate attention to their ad copy, how much faith can I put in a multi-page product? Or, alternately, if there's no writing (which the ad copy leads one to believe there is), why is this news at a d20 site?

 

[kenjib]

Hey Kenj!

This is more a Harald Henning/Joe Unfried kind of project than something I should spearhead. They are both more knowledgeable on the subject and much more detail oriented. We've had some conversations about the subject in the past. I'll bring it up and see if it's something LI might want to do. The question unfortunately is "Would it sell?"

I certainly can't say. I also don't know if it would sell better if it was based on the standard D&D economy instead of trying to re-shape it like I suggested. Who knows?

The other problem is the scope, do we present only a single version? Should this be a capitalist economy? A barter system, communism, feudalism, oligarchal collectivism or even mercantile meritocratic distribution style economy are all viable models for a fantasy setting, which would you want to see explored or are you hoping for a 196-320 page book that details all of them, so different regions could have different systems... hmmm... ok, I'm beginning to get intrigued, but I suspect it might bore most other people.

I think the primary focus would be on a couple of things. First, economics Europe during the dark ages and early rennaisance, from feudal to mercantile colonialism would probably be the most common systems used by folks. Second, you'd probably want to cover anything else you need for Twin Crowns, right?

Do you think I slotted up in there a little harsh as I lay my smack down?

Hehe. Naw. I think it's interesting how different the reaction is to this versus previous mature vs. anti-mature threads. It's very strange and seems almost like some kind of heretofore unspoken line has been crossed. I'm reminded of those situations where someone gets carried away and says "yeah, we all eat cheese wiz straight from the can while wearing our wives panties, right? Right? ....um....well neither do I, of course."

BTW 1 out of 1 Larry's girlfriends surveyed agree that women would rather see scantily clad or nude women than men, unless I'm the model, and believe me when I say a book of pictures of me would ONLY sell that one copy.

Well, the press release did say that the images would be heavily Photoshopped... You too can be a ripped and raging barbarian hunk warrior sans loincloth!