Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Darrin Drader" data-source="post: 769697" data-attributes="member: 7394">The only difference between the material that was marked "vile" and the standard material we see on a regular basis that is of a darker nature, are the terms "vile" and "mature." Had they not drawn that much attention to these two words in issue 300, there wouldn't have been a controversy. I will admit that the Book of Vile Darkness goes beyond previously published D&D materials, but the information in that book is useful.One of the things that happened when WotC bought TSR was that they said that D&D would change to include more mature topics. I think this is a definite improvement over the previously embraced "comic code" where evil can never win and sexuality is never overtly discussed. Under the comic code, evil is rarely portrayed as being truly evil. They typically have some megalomaniacal plan, and they occasionally kill a character or two to acheive their goals. Most people agree that 2nd edition sterilized the whole genre to the point where it was uninteresting. How can the struggle between good and evil be interesting, or even worth taking part in, if evil is never truly evil or only incorporates a few limited aspects of evil? True evil is rarely the power monger trying to conquer more lands, or take control of a city's underworld. True evil is when someone comes to your home, takes anything of value, has their way with the women and leaves no one alive unless they abduct them and plan to sacrifice them to their dark gods later. As for Dragon 300, I found the vile content gross, but hardly vile. The associated Dungeon adventure went much further, but people rarely mention that since so many people don't see a value in published adventures and didn't buy the issue. I won't get started on that subject, as its another rant. The discussion on the origins of evil and the new demons, devils, and daemons in the current issue are much more vile, in my opinion, than Dragon 300 was.The point being is that the triumph of good over evil seems worthwhile only if what you are fighting is truly evil. Traditionally, evil has been dragons eating villagers in their fields, minor humanoid infestations, and exiled gods running amok. I see nothing wrong with giving us the tools we need to add cultists and their fell ceremonies, demons, devils, and truly vile humans to the list of enemies for the characters to fight. Complaining that the subject matter is too dark and asking that it not be published merely serves to deprive those of us who use this in our games the privilige of having some new source material to draw upon in favor of making the vocal minority happy. I am not a puritan. I don't believe that those values are beneficial to society, and I definitely don't need those values imposed upon a fictional fantasy game. People who are offended by covers are free to remove those covers. They can throw away the unwanted issues or not buy the books that they don't like. If I have to suffer through another issue on gnomes, I want material that I find useful.Finally, I'm not saying this as some punk college kid. I have a family, but I am not one to blindfold them to the realities of the world and hope they do OK once they turn 18. They are taught right from wrong, and they aren't sheltered from anything that is shown on TV or the news. When they do reach the age where they can make their own decisions, they'll have the knowledge they need to handle situations when they arise.</blockquote>

Verification