Is D&D getting more "edgy"?

[Umbran]

However, ever since I heard about the Book of Vile Darkness, i've been a little worried.

I'll repeat, in case it was missed earlier in the thread...

One book does not indicate a trend.

Really. People weren't saying that WOTC was trying to inject psionics into every aspect of the game when the Psionics book came out. So, why worry now that they plan to make the whole game darker because of one book?

 

[Billiarmus]

Now, Umbran, I know that one book doesn't indicate a trend, but it does indicate at least a slight shift. Every time a new supplement is released, there are follow-ups in Dungeon and Dragon magazines. Take the ELH, for example. Dungeon had adventures for it and Dragon had a whole issue on it. Also, look at the FR books. Given, they're a campaign setting, but supplements get released to support major products quite often. DND has been building up to many things for a while, just like they waited to release the Psionics Handbook, the ELH and other major supplements. Often, while they don't change all of DND, the very existance of the options will expand the base of products offered for those options. We could, very well, only be seeing the beginning of "evil" products. The very willingness of WOTC to print such a book indicates it's willingness to do so in the future, and that may not be a good precedent to set.
Please, don't take this as an insult, simply a clarification and expansion to my previous comments. I just thought I should support my argument a little bit more.

But, that's just my 2 cents

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Y'know, the book hasn't even come out yet. Nobody's seen it. Seems like way too many people are judging it without even reading it - kinda like the D&D-bashers did.

Monte is a known commodity. I trust him to not write anything that is beyond the pale as far as "vile darkness" is concerned. Any who are really concerned should check out Monte's other work; I doubt many would still be having heart palpitations after getting acquainted with his material.

 

[reiella]

In all truth, it shouldn't be any worse of a 'red-flag' than Deities and Demigods.

With all those comments on how to handle ascension (ok, maybe not but hey ), evil pantheons, and even ...GASP deicide!

I wouldn't be too worried about it though.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Quite right. Which is why I disclaimed my post as to where D&D is going. Until the book comes out and perhaps even after it does, there's still plenty of time to find out whether D&D is going in a direction that we think it shouldn't.

Y'know, the book hasn't even come out yet. Nobody's seen it. Seems like way too many people are judging it without even reading it - kinda like the D&D-bashers did.

Monte is a known commodity. I trust him to not write anything that is beyond the pale as far as "vile darkness" is concerned. Any who are really concerned should check out Monte's other work; I doubt many would still be having heart palpitations after getting acquainted with his material.

 

[Desdichado]

WotC marketing research shows that most gamers are older. Few new gamers are coming into the fold, especially at a young age. The concerns about parents and all that are thus unjustified (especially when you look at stuff in older D&D books: naked succubi, for instance...)

Similarly being "edgy" probably isn't really it, unless it's just a trend in society in general.

 

[Zaruthustran]

"Yes"

To answer post #1, yes, it looks like D&D is getting more "edgy". Like another poster said, the most blatant, early evidence of this trend is the presence of armour spikes and strappies all over the iconics. Numerous interviews with WotC show that this new art style was a deliberate effort to make D&D less historical/medieval/"Tolkien", and more edgy.

I mean, just look at the laughably innacurate "Armor" section of the PHB. The one where "Breastplate" and "Full plate" are nearly indistinguishable. Look at all the spikes, patches, straps, etc. Then go to the Wallace Collection or any real world online armor catalog. Notice that real armor looks nothing like D&D armor. It used to (check your 1E and 2E books), but not any more.

Ah well.

 

[Monte At Home]

Y'know, the book hasn't even come out yet. Nobody's seen it. Seems like way too many people are judging it without even reading it - kinda like the D&D-bashers did.

Monte is a known commodity. I trust him to not write anything that is beyond the pale as far as "vile darkness" is concerned. Any who are really concerned should check out Monte's other work; I doubt many would still be having heart palpitations after getting acquainted with his material.

Thanks, Colonel. I appreciate the vote of confidence very much.

 

[Olive]

well there is some stuff in RttToEE that is pretty yuck. i wouldn't want my kids reading the stuff about the Quarters of the First myself... but i don't have kids, and like that kinda gritty/horror element, so it's a-ok with me...

Bring on the Vile Darkness, thats what I say!

 

[NoOneofConsequence]

Having suffered through Australia's first bout of DnD = Devil worship in the early eighties, I'm not going to wade very far into that. Like a lot of us from that generation, I'm still fairly tight-lipped about my gaming with non-gamers. Basically, we were treated like members of a cult so we started behaving like it - we didn't discuss our practices with outsiders because they didn't understand. From what I can see, things are different these days (not completely different, but different).

Anyway, on the issue of edgy? What edge are we talking about. When films like Blade II and Queen of the Damned are mainstream, you have to go a long way into the outer darkness to be "edgy". This is one of the great ironies of the whole vampire/children of darkness shift in gaming in the nineties. Most of the passionate gamer-goths tended to look down on the rest of us PnP gamers as out of touch, like they were the "edge", but they were more mainstream than any of the previous generation. They just took it a looong way. More people you bump into on the street will have read Anne Rice than Fritz Lieber.

Anyhow, as far as the BoVD is concerned, I won't buy it (not my thing) but as someone else on this thread pointed out, it's Monte, it's probably going to be better than fair.