Fantasy Sex Roleplaying Game Releases October 2003

[Ghostwind]

Edmonton, you hit the nail on the head perfectly and said it exactly in the way I was not only thinking and trying to get across, but in a manner that is precise and clear. Glad someone else sees the forest for the trees...

 

[Bendris Noulg]

No emphasis is added by me. It is treated as a direct quote from Anthony Valterra.

My bad... I had returned to the article a few times to send out links to it, and after repeated viewings of the first paragraph, I forgot it was mentioned by Anthony later in the story.

Hmmm...

You misunderstand me. I was not criticising the work, I was criticising that apparently S&M and the occult are listed as "previous work experience" for this project. That bodes ill to me. Also, no one discovered this and "outted" Valterra. He chose to take this out of his bedroom.

Actually, I think this goes a long way of indicating the nature of some of the content:

1. Sex will be discussed in a straightforward manner, not just skirted around due to personal hang-ups.

2. Items which are generally viewed as taboo (in America, at least) won't likely be represented as evil or counter-culture.

3. Homosexuality (if discussed in the book) will similarly not be represented unjustly.

4. The relationship between sex and pagan magical rituals may likely be discussed in detail, with theory adjacent to rules.

As such, his listed "qualifications" would indicate that he isn't going to base it on research (the source of which may be biased) or simply made-up (which may be as accurate as it is misinformed), but based on actual practices from religions, historical and current, as well as personal experience as well as a substantial part of the fantasy genre.

After all, if someone's going to write a book for Erotic Fantasy RPGs, who would do the better job: A person that has fully and completely embrassed his own sexual life on a physical and spiritual level, or someone that appears "normal" but could very well likely have certain hang-ups resulting from being raised in a sterile/purile environment and out of touch with their own desires?

 

[Liquid Snake]

Would somebody please think about the children!

I think a lot of people are overreacting with all of this "D&D is going straight to Hell" attitude.

The "Book of Vile Darkness" was, as Piratecat pointed out, quite non-vile. It had some interesting ideas on evil, and some crude but really cool artwork and that's it.

D&D has survied lots of things and certainly this book won't do anything but raise some eyebrows (unless some really freakish circumstances come to be).

Personally I don't think I'll buy it. The people working on the "Book of Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" on this forums are doing a great work.

A great FREE work.

 

[Simplicity]

Violence is the mainstream solution to D&D, I agree. I'm also allowed to dislike that aspect of the game. I prefer the roleplaying and a more gritty aspect of death as a finality. I think taking away the raise dead and ressurect spells goes a long way to cure the "attack first, probe later" mentality so prevalent in the game (lookie! An actual discussion of game rules and mechanics in this thread, woohoo!)

A more gritty aspect of death as a finality? You're still going out and killing the bad guy. Just because you reserve "the smackdown" for the end of the story doesn't mean that the story isn't violent. It definitely doesn't make it less violent just because death is final (though it does make character death more meaningful).

Violence is a natural ...ahem... climax to the progression of a D&D story. And without it, the ...uh... story's just not the same. If you take the violence away from D&D, I don't think it's D&D anymore...

 

[Bendris Noulg]

Conspiracy Theory

See, you don't need any of this UNLESS you are writing for an entirely new audience (say, Newsweek readers).

Yowza...

Damn. I'm watching you. Yer smart.

 

[Green Knight]

Oh, no problems Green Knight and as far as the LARPing this book publically at cons, I'm with you.

*shivers at the thought of a fat, balding, overweight gamer in his 30's who plays a nubile elf female coming on to him at a Con*

EEK!

1. Rules for seduction for beautiful evil witches and such. Can your paladin resist?

That's one definitely a keeper. Of course, beautiful evil witches probably already have access to spells like Charm Person or love potions, so it's not like they already aren't capable of doing just that. Anything beyond that and you're getting into ground you should leave alone. I.E. forcing people to do certain things with their characters based on a skill check roll. For example, Intimidate doesn't work on PC's. It's up to you whether your character is scared or not. Would you want that to be forced onto your character, that he HAS to check against Intimidate, and if he fails then he's scared witless of the Intimidator? Likewise, would you want your character to be as easily seduced as that?

2. Magical spells that require sexual components.

Would this be so vastly different than your standard ritual that you need to describe it? And what spells would use sexual components?

3. Magical spells that enhance one's sexuality or beauty in various ways.

Beauty I can see. But does anyone really need a magical version of Viagra in their game? And if such a thing existed, wouldn't Wizards get laid more often than Barbarians?

4. Anatomical details for various races. Just where do elves have hair, for example? How long is their gestation period? What is their cultural view on homosexuality? Abortion? Pre-marital sex? Polygamy? Etc.

Most of this is unnecessary. Gestation period is good, but really, who needs to know if elves have hair on their scrotum? As for the rest, that depends on culture. Just like the human race has wildly varying cultural norms, the same goes even for elves and dwarves, especially between different campaign settings. What's the point of detailing any of that if culturally, Evereska elves believe different things than Evermeet elves? And that's just in one campaign world.

5. Rules for strengthening one's abilities through indulgence or abstinence from sex.

Err ... what? Gaining strenth through chastity? If that were possible, then the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons would be the strongest man in the universe!

6. Rules for sex and fertility goddesses.

What rules does one need beyond knowing their alignment, favored weapon, portfolios, and the Cleric Domains they offer?

7. Evil magic devices that involve sexual torture.

Question: On which players would those devices be used on? The female ones? What female player wants to have her character sexually assaulted? D&D's supposed to be an escape from reality. It's supposed to be fun. How is playing a sexually assaulted character fun? Who wants to pretend to be a rape victim? Players already hate it enough when they're taken prisoner, but sexually assaulted?

And for the guys: Really, who would want to ever play their character again after he got Gimped by a Zed wannabe? Anyone ever read KotDT? Remember when Bob burned his character sheet after his character was put through an adventure based off of "Deliverance" by that crazy-ass DM Nitro? SOOOO-WEEEEEEEEEEE! LOL!

8. Good magic devices that can restore sexual purity.

Wasn't this an episode of Night Court? You step into a teepee or something and get your virginity back. Dan went in and came out as a 10-year-old. Again, I fail to see the point. A magical item that returns your virginity? If for some reason you need such a thing, you can make it up for your own campaign. But I doubt that the need for something like that will be so common that it needs to be put into a published book.

9. Rules on sexual rites and beliefs in various religions. I can imagine, for example, that some good religions would be very promiscuous while others are very abstinent. Evil religions would also be varied. I can imagine an evil religion that forbids all fertility and all pleasure (including sex).

Again, unnecessary. The DM can come up with this on hiw own. Or this can be extrapolated from the portfolios held by a deity (I.E. A deity of marriage would be more abstinent "wait until marriage" type, while a deity of love would be more loose).

While some of these seem fairly reasonable to me, I have to say these aren't the sorts of things I thought of when I read the press release. Quite frankly the press release left a very bad taste in my mouth. I mean Arwen naked, Conan's sexual prowess....what in the heck, thats just childish. Not to mention the listing of AV's supposed qualifications. Given the things the press release touted, I get the impression that the final product could have skewed view for sure.

Gotta agree with you, Oni. Stuff like gestation periods for non-human races would be nice, but given the press release, I very much doubt we'll be getting anything like that.

 

[Darrin Drader]

Re: Would somebody please think about the children!

The "Book of Vile Darkness" was, as Piratecat pointed out, quite non-vile. It had some interesting ideas on evil, and some crude but really cool artwork and that's it.

The only thing I found exceptionally vile about the BoVD was some of the art. I mean really, the Disciple of Mephistopeles gnawing away the flesh from his own hand? Blech. Makes me want to lose my lunch every time I look at it.

I really do like the book though.

 

[rounser]

D&D was at the height of it's popularity when the media was feeding on it the most...

 

[Liquid Snake]

I mean really, the Disciple of Mephistopeles gnawing away the flesh from his own hand? Blech.

Well maybe you're right. THAT one was kind of disturbing.

 

[La Bete]

There must be some catalytic effect of messageboards that causes people to get very vocal about things that mean nothing and will never have a tenth of the impact that people predict they will.

But I'll be damned if I know why.

Word.

I read 4 pages of the responses, got wound up. Took a walk to calm down. Read some more responses. More or less decided against replying, as any reply I could make would basically be having a go at someone - which is never the best idea, and especially in a thread as heated as this.

Seeing this comment however, sufficiently inspired me, as it eloquently stated my view.

Enjoy the rest of the show people!