D&D General Gore in D&D

[generic]

So, to use a specific example, do you, as a DM or as a player, prefer gore when the players are the ones seeing it happen to them or their allies (horror) or when they inflict great violence on their enemies (power fantasy).

Do you use gore to enhance 'realism', or just because you can?

Is it something else entirely?

 

[Leatherhead]

My campaign would be rated R. Mostly for comedic violence.

 

[Tonguez]

I like the Shoguns Assassin school of gore

”When cut across the neck, a sound like wailing winter winds is heard, they say. Id always hoped to cut someone like that someday, to hear that sound. But to have it happen to my own neck is ridiculous.”

 

[Oofta]

I use gore sparingly so that it stands out when it does happen. For example, werewolves are extreme examples of chaos and evil in my world (and generally worshipers of Fenris) so coming across a scene where they attacked is going to be pretty gruesome. At times I also use smells as well as other atmospherics. Once I was describing facing a zombie horde and a couple of people started turning a little green. I think I may have overdone it on that one!

But if you use it all the time it just kind of fades into the background so it's not special.

 

[tetrasodium]

What is your approach to gore in D&D, and in violent RPGs in general?

Are you someone delights in describing bloody scenes, and when might this cross the proverbial 'line'?

What is your method for describing gore in D&D, and do you recommend and forms of description, especially of violence.

If this varies by campaign, why is that, and how so?

Generally, what is your approach to gore and gory imagery in RPGs?

It depends on the style of game I'm running. If I'm running a pulply game I'll be very descriptive in how Bob's axe tears open the bandit sending blood everywhere before shattering ribs, but as a pulpy game Bob might ripple the one of the same guy's arms three times (obviously one more than the guy had). If I'm running more of a grim dark game where I want my players to either feel the visceral horror of the "setting". A game/adventure going up against war criminal type horrible individuals... I'm likely to describe things that baddie has done in ways that make the players entirely certain that this individual is horrible... especially if they went in thinking/knowing this was an upstanding pillar of the community or someone who's help/resources/knowledge the party needs to stop something worse.

With that said, there are limits & often less is more when it comes to describing gore & horrors gone beyond the pale.

 

[Celebrim]

People and things die violent deaths, usually by sharpened melee weapons which are not notable for cleanly killing things. Text or speech can describe clinically things that would be overly gory to depict visually except by suggestion, so it's very hard to equate what is going on to PG-13 or R but if I was making a movie of the transcript I'd try to use suggestion to tone down some of the more graphic and brutal scenes. Personally, I find the gore in a movie like 'Kill Bill' (to use one example) ruins for me a movie that I might otherwise enjoy.

Gore is not accentuated or treated as a thing that adds value to a scene, but I think at the same time it would not do violence justice if the reality and tangibility of its was brushed over. Violence that is sanitized too much becomes too easily glorified and celebrated violence. It's important I think to stop and consider violence as a terrible thing, even in the necessity.

Of course, if the players are butchering a giant squid bent on devouring a crew of sailors, then I'm pretty much going to go with the full physicality of that without too much worry that I'm being insensitive to squids or glamorizing violence committed against them.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Mostly PG-13, with few exceptions if the case warrants it. I’ve seen enough gore and major trauma wounds in real life that I don’t need to keep reimagining them in a game that I’m supposed to be having fun with.

 

[StormbringerAUS]

I play in one game where the DM goes into great detail on just about every death.

My games not so much though not unknown just abit less graphic.

 

[iserith]

The odd Mortal Kombat fatality or brutality is fun, but in general I'm not terribly graphic in my descriptions.

 

[dave2008]

I like the Shoguns Assassin school of gore

”When cut across the neck, a sound like wailing winter winds is heard, they say. Id always hoped to cut someone like that someday, to hear that sound. But to have it happen to my own neck is ridiculous.”

Gotta love me some "Lone Wolf and Cub"