hunter1828 said:
Your last point, though, really confused me. What part of the BoEF is "dark"?
Hunter, you're stretching here. You obviously like the BoEF, like the idea, like the concept, and like the people. But you're stretching. The BoEF has been described - by the Valar representatives themselves - as roughly equivalent to "not quite soft-core porn." Everything about the BoEF has been done in a manner (I would almost say "carefully caluclated") so as to grab the most juvenile "shock value" as possible - from the first press release being a thinly veiled attempt at juvenile shock value ('who HASN'T want to get under Arwen's dress?' or words to that effect). And it (the press release) was in obvious and horrible violation (again, I am tempted to say "and deliberately so") of the Open Game License... so much so that some of the biggest players in the d20 industry took notice (ask Clark Peterson of SSS about it sometime). I won't even revisit the list of "qualifications" AV listed in showing why he was the ideal person to write this type of book - they were unnecessary - his track record in the RPG industry should have spoken for itself.
In other words, everything about the BoEF that has come from Valar has been all about the "shock value" - and usually using SEX in big, screaming, flaming capital letters to get peoples' attention. Portray yourself that way - as an "attention whore" (no pun intended) intent on covering the "baser desires" of humanity - is certainly not intended to portray you as "on the side of goodness and light." Look at the review itself... Valar is "putting a little T&A in RPG." Most people do not regard "T&A" additions as things that scream "virtuous." But I'm getting hung up here.
The review linked to in the very first post of this long thread (your own) was most emphatically not a "review" of the BoEF in any meaningful sense of the word. It was essentially a story of, "I met the people that made the BoEF and they seem like cool people." The review breaks down roughly like this:
Introduction - Two paragraphs devoted to telling us that (surprise!) this book is about Sex, and we need a book about Sex.
GenCon - Two paragraphs devoted to telling us... well... that there are some kewl images here... and that the "tamer" images will be included at the end of the article. And one sentence mentioning that "there were chapters of Prestige classes, spells, deities, etc."
The Picture - A double-length paragraphs extolling the virtues of the pictures in the preview and how using live models has made the book come alive for him more than drawings. No doubt. :/
"Did I mention meticulous" - The first paragraph is hard to follow:
I have been reading some reaction to the book on the web and it's been a mixed bag. There are some who think it's a concept whose time has come; while others think of it as nothing more than pornography and that it cheapens the genre. I happen to fall into the former category. I also tend to think that those who espouse the latter philosophy are merely satisfying their voyeuristic tendencies and focusing on the male and female subjects.
So... those who think this project's time has come are like me. And those who don't are voyeurs anyway. Huh? What about those who have not seen the book, have not seen the preview, and have said, "The subject matter - regardless of the pictures - is offensive." Are these people voyeurs, too? Overly simplistic, and the "reviewer" seems to be a gushing fanboy at this point - "those who decry this product as cheap pornography are wrong... and they're voyeurs that like the pictures anyway." Come on.
But wait, it gets more ridiculous...
How does one go about defining the gestation period for an Elf? If you were Gwen, you consult Harvard medical studies and just about every tome you can find. You pore over a vast multitude of scholarly work, previous RPG volumes and the likes of the Kama Sutra and The Joy of Sex etc.
Hmm... could someone please show me a link to the Harvard medical studies on the gestation periods of elves? I am unaware of any "scholarly work" that has gone into studying such things... I must be naive. Previous RPG volumes? Okay, that's a reasonable place to look. But I fail to see how looking at Harvard medical studies will give any insight into the gestation period of an Elf. Similarly, what do the Kama Sutra and The Joy of Sex have to do with gestation periods? These books are not about gestation periods and such - they are instruction manuals on how a couple (or more) can derive greater pleasure in their sexual pursuits. Gestation doesn't enter into it. The reviewer's comments border on the absurd. Actually, they're beyond "bordering" on absurd. They're completely absurd.
How do you decide what attributes to give a particular self-gratification spell? It sounds simple, but in reality it's very complex. It is not something you and your buddies can knock out after a few pints and still have time for a little D&D before breakfast.
This one baffles me. Perhaps a morale bonus of +1 to all attack and saves for two hours after "self-gratification?" Do we have to look forward to a remake of the Guide to Unlawful Carnal Knowledge's "power word" spells? I have no idea what the reviewer can be talking about here. Sheesh.
We get a couple of paragraphs that can be boiled down to "why paladins can be as sex-crazed and frisky as any other character" - never mind that the archetypal paladin, Sir Lancelot, fell from grace precisely because he committed adultery (I could argue that both Lancelot and Guinevere knew exactly what they were getting into and even Arthur, the nominal "law" of the realm as sovereign king, wasn't exactly in any hurry to punish EITHER of them and they had to be publicly exposed before he acted - so by the BoEF standards, Lancelot should never have fallen since both he and Guinevere were upfront about things). As someone else has said, this is the CN justification for a LG character to commit CN acts (essentially wanton sex with any number of partners - the only difference between the CN and the "LG" is that the "LG" tells his partners what to expect and presumably does not couple with an unwilling partner).
Motivation and Fini and Postscript - Another five paragraphs about, "wow these are great guys."
Finally, some of the "tamer" sample pictures... these "Tame" pictures look very much like what one might find in Maxim or Stuff or any other "no nipples or pubic hair but anything else goes" men's magazine. If these are the "tame" pictures, I can't think it's a stretch to assume that the "not so tame" stuff will get into the realm of Playboy-esque. That may not be "hardcore" but "softcore" is still "porn."
*shrugs*
From all I have read and seen, I strongly believe the BoEF is likely immoral pornography. That's not a judgement of people, but my judgement of the book.
I believe that the act of willfully and knowingly publishing or willfully and knowingly viewing pornography is immoral. That's not a judgement of people, but my judgement of certain actions. You are not your actions. Your actions are not you. If you are the sort that reads this book, I think that reading it is immoral.
That does not mean I think YOU are an innately immoral person any more than it means I think my son is an innately annoying person because I find it annoying when he watches Blue's Clue's all day - or that I think my daughter is an innately disgusting person when she throws up or poops on me (which I find disgusting). It merely means I disapprove of your actions - which in no way indicates a disapproval of you.
Do I wish this book had never been published? Of course. Then again, I wish a lot of books had never been published (with overpowered rules or cliched situations). I don't see why I should be condemned any more for saying, "we don't NEED a BoEF - it's utterly useless" any more than I should for saying "we don't NEED a {Fighter Splatbook/Feat Book/Spell Book/insert favorite item here} - it's utterly useless."
I wish all of these things - including the BoEF - had never been published because I wish game designers would spend their time creating exactly the stuff I want and not waste it on the stuff they don't. (Of course, that requires them not just to read my mind to know what I want, but to read what I *will* want - not even I know what I'll want a few months from now LOL).
--The Sigil
