Fantasy Sex Roleplaying Game Releases October 2003

[BlackWych]

Question from someone who hasn't been paying attention lately:

Anthony Valterra still heads up the RPG division at WotC right?

He's the catagory manager but for how long more?....

 

[Olive]

Re: Warning actual mature content.

I was pretty outspoken against the BOVD because it was a) immaturity posing as maturity, and b) presented topics such as rape to be used in D&D games. I'm still against this. But if Anthony V (not going to try to spell), puts out a book that has cool fantasy erotica, both of men and women, in a tasteful way, I'm willing to take a look at it.

Balsamic Dragon

This is pretty funny. I'm assuming that a) you're assuming that it was immiturity posing as maturity because b) rape is never mentioned, and was never going to be in the book.

I mean, if you want the book, whatever, but please learn about what you're criticising before you criticise it.

 

[Geoffrey]

What a bunch of sissies at WotC. It also strikes me as a bit hypocritical that WotC published the Book of Vile Darkness and soon thereafter gets all snotty about the Book of Erotic Fantasy.

 

[Kichwas]

Alright... "Innapropriate" I can see them saying. But "distasteful"? There are a lot of gamers into D&D because of Erotic Fantasy and have run their game as such for years.

Given the book of Vile Darkness I find WotC's reaction to be pure hypocracy...

It's one thing to disaprove of this kind of material... but when you've already put out something on the same level, you have no room left to speak...

It would be like Larry Flint accusing Hugh Hefner of moral indecency.

 

[Bulletproof]

Ok, it's clear that WOTC and Hasbro want nothing to do with it, at least in hindsight. I say Hasbro as well because one of gamingreport's comments on the WOTC response mentions:

"Re: WotC's Response to the Book of Erotic Fantasy (Score: 1)
by Realmprotector (realmprotector@gamingreport.com) on Apr 29, 2003 - 03:37 PM
We spoke with both WotC and Hasbro it is my understanding this statment reflects both companies thoughts. "

But still no comment on the use of WOTC's trademark in the press release. Did WOTC approve the use of their trademark "Dungeons and Dragons" in the press release? Who at WOTC did so? Anthony Valterra? His boss? How can they not think of that as endorsement?

Or is it a mistake in the press release, proving that even A.V. can screw up on OGL issues? Or is it even a press release from A.V.'s company and not a accidental info-leak?

 

[Zappo]

Hm... when the BoVD was about to be published, people posted apocalypthic prophecies about the sky falling, D&D-haters rising from the grave, the general public coming into your house with torches and pitchforks.

As you might have inferred, I didn't quite agree. I was right. I'm sticking to that opinion: this or any other book won't affect D&D's reputation among the general public in any way, and even if it did, it would just improve sales.



While I don't run a campaign with sexual themes, I can certainly see other DMs running it and other players playing it in a mature and serious manner. Not the average gamer, certainly. I am glad to see a true professional like AV doing this, as opposed to some guy selling PDFs from his mother's basement.



I'm curious for the book's content, besides the pictures. Will it be of any importance (like, I dunno, sex magic rules, or fluff for the various races), or will it just be secondary to the images?



All of that said... I don't need it, just as I don't need any of the books that are currently out. However, it's something new and weird, something which elf book #213 isn't. This makes it rank fairly high on my "buy if I have a sudden availability of money" ladder.

 

[Olive]

Will we draw flack from those opposed to our hobby? I'll be surprised if we don't. Especially since it's the project of someone so closely associated with the cornerstone. I could see the critics right now: "See, those earlier books were the primers, now they're releasing their true agendas!" On the other hand, if it were released by someone not associated with the original publisher, it could be more easily explained as a fringe.

I've said it a million times, but i'll say it again. These people already assume our hobby is filled with 'deviant' sex and devil worship. books like this don't surprise them, they surprise us who know that it isn't!

If the major publisher can release a book with rules for human sacrifice and drug use and one of the second bigest can release a book with arcane symbols all over it, and these books don't get a mention, then i don't see why this book, which probably won't get distribution in many FLGS's anyway, would.

 

[Olive]

Given the book of Vile Darkness I find WotC's reaction to be pure hypocracy...

It's one thing to disaprove of this kind of material... but when you've already put out something on the same level, you have no room left to speak...

It would be like Larry Flint accusing Hugh Hefner of moral indecency.

Oh come off it. The BoVD did not have anything in it to do with sex. if demon worship isn't an appropriate topic for a fantesy game, then i don't know what is (and most of the book is more or less about that topic when you get down to it).

This book, at elast from the write up, is going to have sex rules for DnD. What did the BoVD have that compares to that? indeed.

 

[Shadowdancer]

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-

If I remember correctly what I learned in my art history classes, ancient Greece was the ONLY -- repeat, ONLY -- culture in history in which the representation of nude male forms was predominate. East, West, North, South, the only culture in history.

 

[sunbeam60]

Isn't this what the OGL is all about?

Yo,

To be quite frank, I really don't see what the fuss is about. I mean, really, what are we discussing?

a) Is the product endorsed by WotC? Nope, they said they found it distasteful.

b) Is the product going to be any good?
Who knows, we'll see when it comes out.

c) Is it right to make this product?
Well, if you don't think it is right, I really don't see how you can support the OGL. I mean, the very idea of the OGL is that anyone can produce whatever they want for D&D as long as they don't violate trademarks or similar.

I'm sure someone has produced an open source pr0n game, but in what way will that ever tarnish OpenRPG?

d) Are you going to buy the product?
Now see, this I actually find interesting. Will this thing have a market? Personally I think it will sell more than most non WotC products.

So it's about sex, big deal. I don't know about you, but I stopped giggling a long time ago. We all do it or we all want to.

The only thing that concerns me is that I'm afraid it might be a bit male chauvinistic, which I think might turn people away from RPGs. But if some girl is interested in joining a gaming group and she finds them drooling over this book at the first session, she'll just get an early heads up instead of a late one. Personally I don't hang around girls who aren't smart enough to realize that this product doesn't tarnish other RPG products. I don't hang around any guys who can't do the same either.

The entire point of the OGL, as I see it, is to ensure a wealth of different products for D&D so that sales of the PH will remain high. If some people want to give fantasy fetishism a try and buy the PH to do so, WotC will be happy, Anthony will be happy, we'll all be happy.

Regarding the photographs, we will obviously see what Anthony wants us to see. The photographer is just a guy for hire, so I don't think you need to expect girls with guns in their mouths.