D&D General In Celebration of Over The Top Violence in D&D

[Reynard]

As a counterpoint to that other thread:

I don't like realistic violence. I have been too close to real wrold violence to enjoy it as entertainment.

But glorious, ridiculous, over the top ultraa-violence? Bring it on.

When the PCs take out a monster, I want blood spraying across the dungeon walls. I want bones cracking and gobs of gore flying. Spells should shatter teeth and boil eyeballs and set clothes, skin, hair, horns, scales and flesh afire.

The heroes should end fights knee deep in mud, blood and offal and be smiling like Billy butcher in The Boys.

D&D is metal. It is 80s B-movies. It is grimdark military fantasy. It is Garth Ennis comics. Or, at least, for me it should be.

On a scale of Superfriends to The Boys, where do you like your D&D violence level?

 

[Stormonu]

Middling, about PG-13.

There's blood from wounds, monsters get beheaded or sliced in half, but we don't get into the details. Certainly not Lone Wolf and Cub levels, or even Saving Private Ryan "realistic" depictions. Splattergore is not enjoyable to me. More about what you'd see in a Marvel movie.

I've actually been looking around for an RPG that reduces the combat to a single roll or two and instead focuses on the other elements of travel, interaction and the like and gets away from killing everything in sight. And no, I don't mean Beyond the Witchlight. There's one I've seen in the FLGS recently, but I can't remember the name of it ...

 

[Reynard]

More about what you'd see in a Marvel movie.

::laughs in Deadpool and Wolverine::

 

[payn]

For me, just like the other thread, it isnt so much that violence is present, its more about why its happening. I'd probably rank higher on the Superfriends scale than the boys because the conflicts likely have more thought put into them. The Boys is just gratuitous violence with dick and fart jokes and I need more purpose in my entertainment.

 

[Stormonu]

::laughs in Deadpool and Wolverine::

Well, I was thinking more like Avengers . The ones that are PG-13 and not R.

 

[Stormonu]

What other thread was this spawned by?

 

[Reynard]

For me, just like the other thread, it isnt so much that violence is present, its more about why its happening. I'd probably rank higher on the Superfriends scale than the boys because the conflicts likely have more thought put into them. The Boys is just gratuitous violence with dick and fart jokes and I need more purpose in my entertainment.

I'm talking more about the aesthetics of violence, specifically the splatter scale. I would quibble with you about the value of the purpose of the ultraviolence of The Boys, but that's not really the point here.

 

[Umbran]

I'm talking more about the aesthetics of violence, specifically the splatter scale.

For me, that's a question of genre. My generic fantasy isn't very splattery.

I have picked up a habit of allowing players to describe finishing moves in whatever detail they want. They tend to lean to dramatic, rather than gorey.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

"You just turned a sapient being into a side of beef. You may have had to, but you should feel bad about it and you will not cosplay Mortal Kombat by describing it."

 

[Guest 85555]

I don't necessarily want soppy gore but i do like a good bit of Chang Cheh style bloodshed in my games