Tom Cashel
First Post
Looks like we cross-posted, John. And you're completely right. 
Tom Cashel said:
My last gaming session made me uncomfortable...
- Thread starter Arravis
- Start date
Belen
Legend
I have had uncomfortable moment in my games. The most recent happened two years ago. I had just recruited a new player. He decided to play an Elven cleric. During his very first game session, the party decides to investigate this performer that has the entire city attending her nightly concerts. People are addicted to this woman.
Of course, the lady in question is a Vampire Bard with prestige classes from The Quint Bard that make her an nasty seductress.
So when the party arrives, the vamp is only willing to see our mage. So our brand new cleric casts a spell that allows him to keep in touch with the mage while he is inside. The Vamp seduces the mage while he is in her clutches. I ask the mage if he is broadcasting it to the cleric. To my shame, the mage begins describing the encounter in detail including a maid that he added just so that he could describe a threesome. I was so shocked that it took me a moment to get the mage to stop.
Luckily, the new player starts to roleplay and says "No. NO...that just should not be legal!" He then asks the fighter to go get him a snack while he sits down and hums.
.......................................
I also once had a guy play in my games who decided to play a gnomish rogue with multiple personality disorders. One day, he announced to the group that he is going to his tent to "move silently." Of course, he rolls a one.
..........................................
Of course, the lady in question is a Vampire Bard with prestige classes from The Quint Bard that make her an nasty seductress.
So when the party arrives, the vamp is only willing to see our mage. So our brand new cleric casts a spell that allows him to keep in touch with the mage while he is inside. The Vamp seduces the mage while he is in her clutches. I ask the mage if he is broadcasting it to the cleric. To my shame, the mage begins describing the encounter in detail including a maid that he added just so that he could describe a threesome. I was so shocked that it took me a moment to get the mage to stop.
Luckily, the new player starts to roleplay and says "No. NO...that just should not be legal!" He then asks the fighter to go get him a snack while he sits down and hums.
.......................................
I also once had a guy play in my games who decided to play a gnomish rogue with multiple personality disorders. One day, he announced to the group that he is going to his tent to "move silently." Of course, he rolls a one.
..........................................
Are you guys still arguing about this?
Okay, since this is getting ever so slightly out of hand, I will explain.
Our party cleric has a large following of a certain group of people (Thayans) in Waterdeep, and lately someone has been picking off members of her flock. She made some official inquiries as to the occurences and requested that she be notified if a suspect was caught.
Surprisingly enough, we were notified via a high-ranking member of the guard who came to our party HQ at breakfast. They had a suspect, but needed help getting their hands on him. Turns out, the suspect was holed up in the Bloody Fist, and the guard suspected he was waiting there for someone to smuggle him out of the city. Problem was, the Bloody Fist being what Arravis made it, they couldn't just go in and get him. Since the party cleric had expressed an interest in the case (and because we were high-level adventurers), we were "hired" to go into the Bloody Fist and arrest the man.
We weren't given much information about the suspect beyond his gender, a short physical description, an even shorter description regarding what gear he was carrying, and a warning that the fellow was extremely familiar with magic and knew how to avoid it.
Having nothing else to go on, the party decided discretion was the word until we found out precisely what we were up against. We went to the Bloody Fist at noon and, predictably enough, encountered this clod and his fellow bar-flies. The guy grabs my character's bottom. At this point I reiterate: discretion is the word. Certainly she could have roasted him, disintegrated him, crushed him, cast any number of spells on him (and she wanted to), but that may very well have meant alerting this suspected murderer to their presence.
She decides to try a different approach. She goes along with it in order to pump what information she can get out of this guy. She giggles and plays along (making her bluff check). He guides her roughly to a stool and toasts her chest. Charming, but completely IC for a half-wasted bartroll. A few more bluff checks and a diplomacy check later she knows a few things she didn't know when she first came in.
That was the extent of the interaction. I didn't think it was such a big deal, and why Arravis is so bothered by it I can't understand. Whether this simple exchange makes us that couple, I don't know. That's for our group to decide, and nobody else seemed to have a problem with it. Whether this qualifies as "ridiculous innuendo" I also can't say. I certainly wasn't thinking about flirting with my husband when I was role-playing sweet-talking with that clod, believe it or not.
-Nydia
P.S. This is not me blowing up, I'm just explaining. Frankly, I don't see what the controversy is.
P.P.S. As far as I know, Arravis is not a misogynist.
Of course, he is rather fond of "A Clockwork Orange" so you never know.
Okay, since this is getting ever so slightly out of hand, I will explain.
Our party cleric has a large following of a certain group of people (Thayans) in Waterdeep, and lately someone has been picking off members of her flock. She made some official inquiries as to the occurences and requested that she be notified if a suspect was caught.
Surprisingly enough, we were notified via a high-ranking member of the guard who came to our party HQ at breakfast. They had a suspect, but needed help getting their hands on him. Turns out, the suspect was holed up in the Bloody Fist, and the guard suspected he was waiting there for someone to smuggle him out of the city. Problem was, the Bloody Fist being what Arravis made it, they couldn't just go in and get him. Since the party cleric had expressed an interest in the case (and because we were high-level adventurers), we were "hired" to go into the Bloody Fist and arrest the man.
We weren't given much information about the suspect beyond his gender, a short physical description, an even shorter description regarding what gear he was carrying, and a warning that the fellow was extremely familiar with magic and knew how to avoid it.
Having nothing else to go on, the party decided discretion was the word until we found out precisely what we were up against. We went to the Bloody Fist at noon and, predictably enough, encountered this clod and his fellow bar-flies. The guy grabs my character's bottom. At this point I reiterate: discretion is the word. Certainly she could have roasted him, disintegrated him, crushed him, cast any number of spells on him (and she wanted to), but that may very well have meant alerting this suspected murderer to their presence.
She decides to try a different approach. She goes along with it in order to pump what information she can get out of this guy. She giggles and plays along (making her bluff check). He guides her roughly to a stool and toasts her chest. Charming, but completely IC for a half-wasted bartroll. A few more bluff checks and a diplomacy check later she knows a few things she didn't know when she first came in.
That was the extent of the interaction. I didn't think it was such a big deal, and why Arravis is so bothered by it I can't understand. Whether this simple exchange makes us that couple, I don't know. That's for our group to decide, and nobody else seemed to have a problem with it. Whether this qualifies as "ridiculous innuendo" I also can't say. I certainly wasn't thinking about flirting with my husband when I was role-playing sweet-talking with that clod, believe it or not.
-Nydia
P.S. This is not me blowing up, I'm just explaining. Frankly, I don't see what the controversy is.
P.P.S. As far as I know, Arravis is not a misogynist.
Of course, he is rather fond of "A Clockwork Orange" so you never know.
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Hey... I like Stanley Kubrick's work, but I'm not "rather fond" of A Clockwork Orange. It's just one of those seminal movie experiences, it should be watched at least once. It's on the list with Blue Velvet, Naked Lunch, etc... not exactly "good", just something that should be seen. So... 
freebfrost
Explorer
I guess the question I have goes back to Arravis. Why do you have issues with that encounter?
As a contrasting experience, I recently took my group through the City of Shadizar supplement for my Conan game. The included scenario including running up against a cult of a "goddess" of lust.
Well, even after being warned to be very quiet, they infiltrated an abandoned temple to this goddess and proceeded to have a loud discussion while standing in the middle of the temple! A few failed saves later, two of the party were engaged in the most graphic sex you could imagine. I can't even think of a tame enough quote to say here, it was that over-the-top.
The participants were a single male friend and the wife of another of the gaming group.
No one even batted an eye. After all, they were in a gritty game, in the "City of Wickedness" and were under the spell of the Lust Goddess. They took to the RPing opportunity like fish to water.
Now, I dare say that this situation, let alone the roleplaying out of it, would have been upsetting for a number of groups. As we stand, we are all long-time gamers, in our thirties, with families, careers, and kids. I let them run with it - if we can't handle this in a mature way now, when could we?
But that's my group - I let it go and everyone went with it too. No big deal.
Again, in light of that, I have to ask why you think it was upsetting to you (since your wife doesn't seem to be upset by it per her post)?
As a contrasting experience, I recently took my group through the City of Shadizar supplement for my Conan game. The included scenario including running up against a cult of a "goddess" of lust.
Well, even after being warned to be very quiet, they infiltrated an abandoned temple to this goddess and proceeded to have a loud discussion while standing in the middle of the temple! A few failed saves later, two of the party were engaged in the most graphic sex you could imagine. I can't even think of a tame enough quote to say here, it was that over-the-top.
The participants were a single male friend and the wife of another of the gaming group.
No one even batted an eye. After all, they were in a gritty game, in the "City of Wickedness" and were under the spell of the Lust Goddess. They took to the RPing opportunity like fish to water.
Now, I dare say that this situation, let alone the roleplaying out of it, would have been upsetting for a number of groups. As we stand, we are all long-time gamers, in our thirties, with families, careers, and kids. I let them run with it - if we can't handle this in a mature way now, when could we?
But that's my group - I let it go and everyone went with it too. No big deal.
Again, in light of that, I have to ask why you think it was upsetting to you (since your wife doesn't seem to be upset by it per her post)?
Tinker Gnome
Adventurer
This thread reminded me that none of the PCs in my game are virgins. All the PCs are male by the way.
Paladin(My PC): Raped by a female vampire
Dwarven Cleric: He one had to spend the night in a prison
Tiefling: Did it with a male shopkepper sp the party could get magic items
Mage: With a queen of a magical floating island in another dimension from the game world.
Paladin(My PC): Raped by a female vampire
Dwarven Cleric: He one had to spend the night in a prison
Tiefling: Did it with a male shopkepper sp the party could get magic items
Mage: With a queen of a magical floating island in another dimension from the game world.
Darth K'Trava
First Post
We had one game back about 4-5 years ago. We'd just had this kid join us (he was 13 at the time and chaperoned by his mother) and the DM decided to throw a succubus at the boy's character. Talk about one DM backpedalling when the boy's mother turned around and went, "WHAT??!?!"
Fortunately, it wasn't bad enough to keep her from bringing her son to game with us (we're all much older than he is- he's 17 now) and later just dropping him off rather than staying.
Fortunately, it wasn't bad enough to keep her from bringing her son to game with us (we're all much older than he is- he's 17 now) and later just dropping him off rather than staying.
Darth K'Trava
First Post
Algolei said:Yes.When the party failed to defend a rape victim from her attacker. It was the opening adventure hook, and my players decided to mess with my head. So they just watched. And kept asking me what was happening, and if anyone else was doing anything about it.
I tried to fight fire with fire by describing things in horrible detail. Like, then they'd HAVE to do something. It didn't exactly work. Ended up, we just put the game aside for the night and played Nintendo because the whole thing was soooooo bizarre and uncomfortable.
(I thought it was a great adventure hook! Who doesn't defend the defenseless maiden from her brutal attacker?!) Now all my adventure hooks involve cute little puppies with "send help!" notes....
*goes back into therapy*
I think it's your PLAYERS who need the therapy......... :\ They're the ones who both stood by and did nothing and wanted the graphic details of a rape.... probably a good thing there weren't any women in your group.... all the guys woulda gotten whocked upside the head after that.
Whimsical
Explorer
To answer the original post (I skipped over the responses) the way I handle uncomfortable roleplaying is by establishing the Irony Flag to the rest of the group. Whenever I make the sign language alphabet sign for the letter I that indicates that whatever I'm saying is the opposite of what I believe. My character doesn't represent the views of me the player or DM.
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