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<blockquote data-quote="DwarvenDog" data-source="post: 3610154" data-attributes="member: 40792">If Talien's list is comprehensive, I'd be inclined to just toss the sex/brutalization entirely.&nbsp; There is no one element among them that adds anything really necessary, unless you WANT to explore those themes.(Thanks, Talien, BTW)Seriously, you can get away with simply portraying servants as extremely timid and unwilling to help.&nbsp; You do not have to get into anybody's backstory here, and if it comes up you can always have the servant/victim/whatever start sobbing and be unable to continue.&nbsp; That hammers home the point without &quot;going there.&quot;In terms of &quot;catching people in the act,&quot;&nbsp; well, just don't.&nbsp; Or if such a scene could be fun if done right, try for something tamer.&nbsp; Example, the &quot;30% chance of pirate with servant&quot; scene could be simply a chance for your heroine to stabbity-stab the naked, defenseless pirate.&nbsp; Perhaps servant sees that help has arrived and maneuvers the pirate so that his back is to the PC. Key point here is that servant becomes &quot;capable&quot; instead of &quot;victimized&quot; and that helps remove a level of ickiness from the encounter.If the goal here is to beat up a lot of pirates, I'm pretty sure you can keep the level of detail to a minimum.&nbsp; If the goal is instead to rescue servants and captives from depraved sadists, then I think you're in for a more serious balancing act.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DwarvenDog, post: 3610154, member: 40792"] If Talien's list is comprehensive, I'd be inclined to just toss the sex/brutalization entirely. There is no one element among them that adds anything really necessary, unless you WANT to explore those themes. (Thanks, Talien, BTW) Seriously, you can get away with simply portraying servants as extremely timid and unwilling to help. You do not have to get into anybody's backstory here, and if it comes up you can always have the servant/victim/whatever start sobbing and be unable to continue. That hammers home the point without "going there." In terms of "catching people in the act," well, just don't. Or if such a scene could be fun if done right, try for something tamer. Example, the "30% chance of pirate with servant" scene could be simply a chance for your heroine to stabbity-stab the naked, defenseless pirate. Perhaps servant sees that help has arrived and maneuvers the pirate so that his back is to the PC. Key point here is that servant becomes "capable" instead of "victimized" and that helps remove a level of ickiness from the encounter. If the goal here is to beat up a lot of pirates, I'm pretty sure you can keep the level of detail to a minimum. If the goal is instead to rescue servants and captives from depraved sadists, then I think you're in for a more serious balancing act. [/QUOTE]

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