hellbender
First Post
Precisely, I heartily agree with you here.Elephant said:
hellbender
Nudity in RPG books?
- Thread starter Sir Elton
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hellbender
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
I'm for appropriate nudity, and the sorority girls agree. 
Nudity has always had a place in art. It can showcase an artist's ideal of beauty, it can display a certain 'primitivism' in the subject. Both have a place in D&D -- the stunning beauty of a nymph or an angel, or the savage semi-humannness of a monstrous humanoid or unclad beast of the wood.
Nudity can be gratuitous -- the typical chainmail bikini would become free-floatin' jubblies, and there's not a good reason for that. However, I'd use that to help educate me on the book, since art is a pretty big requirement for me. If the nudity is pointless, it means the book won't be baught.
But I'd much rather have a nipple than these 'conviniently placed strands of hair and a bit of shrubbery in the dungeon' kind of situations. If it's got clothes, show it with clothes. If the PC's would see everything in it's alltogether, show it like that.
Nudity has always had a place in art. It can showcase an artist's ideal of beauty, it can display a certain 'primitivism' in the subject. Both have a place in D&D -- the stunning beauty of a nymph or an angel, or the savage semi-humannness of a monstrous humanoid or unclad beast of the wood.
Nudity can be gratuitous -- the typical chainmail bikini would become free-floatin' jubblies, and there's not a good reason for that. However, I'd use that to help educate me on the book, since art is a pretty big requirement for me. If the nudity is pointless, it means the book won't be baught.
But I'd much rather have a nipple than these 'conviniently placed strands of hair and a bit of shrubbery in the dungeon' kind of situations. If it's got clothes, show it with clothes. If the PC's would see everything in it's alltogether, show it like that.
hellbender
First Post
For the record, I didn't vote that nudity is evil, I agree that there is an intrinsic artistic value to some nudity. But there is a big difference between nudity and sexual themes. I honestly have a hard time (no pun intended) in seeing why Playboy is so bad and lumped in with more, shall we say, revealling periodicals.
Back to the topic at hand...
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Back to the topic at hand...
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RavenProject
First Post
I think nudity in core D&D is a bad thing because of the same reasons mmu1 wrote. However, I'd like to have more mature supplements. I'm talking about nudity even the BoVD failed to portray. No, no senseless and unneeded skin and sex for the sake of it but logical nudity in context of the artwork.
Look at the illustration of the "cauldron" on page 119 in the BoVD. Above you see zombies floating out of it naked but the undead in the front of the picture, that has just been spewn out like the others and is standing in front of the machine wears some kind of cloth to hide his genitalia. This makes no sense and is laughable in a book intended for mature audience. I always think monsters should be kind of a shocking thing and the political dreissing of even the most bestial and vile of creature runs afoul of that idea.
Look at the illustration of the "cauldron" on page 119 in the BoVD. Above you see zombies floating out of it naked but the undead in the front of the picture, that has just been spewn out like the others and is standing in front of the machine wears some kind of cloth to hide his genitalia. This makes no sense and is laughable in a book intended for mature audience. I always think monsters should be kind of a shocking thing and the political dreissing of even the most bestial and vile of creature runs afoul of that idea.
AFGNCAAP
First Post
I voted #2 as well. As long as a game doesn't dissolve into a personal tabletop porn session, it's fine by me.
Sex & sexuality can be part of the roleplaying experience, but it should by no means dominate it or enforced, esp. when it may be an unwelcome element for some participants. Plus, IMHO, I really see no need whatsoever for rulesets that focus on it: it's something that can be a pure roleplay element in the game, if so desired.
While on this topic:
My g/f was invited by a group at a game store (which has since closed down, but not for reasons related in this tale). This group placed a more historically-oriented GURPS game. However, this game was also quite mature-themed, to say the least. So mature-themed that it was mandatory, apparently, for all characters to actually have points spent on some sexual quirk/aspect/skill/trait/etc.--it was not optional per player, but mandatory, apparently.
Well, my g/f attended a few games, and she enjoyed them, but life got in the way & she wasn't able to attend regularly. After a few calls from one of the members of the group (who was upset that she couldn't regularly attend, and didn't really just accept her reasons for not showing but rather tried arguing against them), she decided to quit attending. Her main interest in the game was the more historically-oriented setting, but IIRC, it seemed that the sexual aspect was actually focused on more instead.
Interesting to note that a while after this whole mess occurred, we chatted with a few freinds who regularly gamed at that store as well. Turns out that said group wasn't liked much at all by many of the regulars, as it was.
I dunno--IMHO, it seems a bit less mature to focus on sexual elements in a game, and even to implement mechanics & a system around it rather than just dealing with it purely as a roleplaying (& rule/mechanics-free) element.
Sex & sexuality can be part of the roleplaying experience, but it should by no means dominate it or enforced, esp. when it may be an unwelcome element for some participants. Plus, IMHO, I really see no need whatsoever for rulesets that focus on it: it's something that can be a pure roleplay element in the game, if so desired.
While on this topic:
My g/f was invited by a group at a game store (which has since closed down, but not for reasons related in this tale). This group placed a more historically-oriented GURPS game. However, this game was also quite mature-themed, to say the least. So mature-themed that it was mandatory, apparently, for all characters to actually have points spent on some sexual quirk/aspect/skill/trait/etc.--it was not optional per player, but mandatory, apparently.
Well, my g/f attended a few games, and she enjoyed them, but life got in the way & she wasn't able to attend regularly. After a few calls from one of the members of the group (who was upset that she couldn't regularly attend, and didn't really just accept her reasons for not showing but rather tried arguing against them), she decided to quit attending. Her main interest in the game was the more historically-oriented setting, but IIRC, it seemed that the sexual aspect was actually focused on more instead.
Interesting to note that a while after this whole mess occurred, we chatted with a few freinds who regularly gamed at that store as well. Turns out that said group wasn't liked much at all by many of the regulars, as it was.
I dunno--IMHO, it seems a bit less mature to focus on sexual elements in a game, and even to implement mechanics & a system around it rather than just dealing with it purely as a roleplaying (& rule/mechanics-free) element.
Dark Jezter
First Post
I'm with Seeker95. The choices offered in this poll are extremely poor, especially choice #1, which is a condescending sneer at people who would rather not have nudity in their RPG books.
der_kluge
Adventurer
Yea, the poll is really pretty awful with regards to the choices.
That said, I think that nudity in RPG books is basically unnecessary. And I think when we're talking nudity here, I think everyone is specifically conjuring up images of naked nymphs prancing around in forests. That, certainly, is a very traditional image that would make sense in an RPG product (assuming the book was about Fey, obviously), but I think a lot of gamer's opinions on nudity would be slightly different if the typical nude image in an RPG book were of a naked dude.
I suspect there would be more resistance to that than of the other.
As we get older, and have kids, we are going to start rejecting products that have nudity for nudity's sake. I specifically did not purchase a product about Faeries because of the graphic images the book presented within, and on the cover. The images in that book (and the publisher escapes me ATM), crossed a very distinct line, and I felt like that book would be inappropriate should it fall into the hands of my daughter some day.
That said, I think that nudity in RPG books is basically unnecessary. And I think when we're talking nudity here, I think everyone is specifically conjuring up images of naked nymphs prancing around in forests. That, certainly, is a very traditional image that would make sense in an RPG product (assuming the book was about Fey, obviously), but I think a lot of gamer's opinions on nudity would be slightly different if the typical nude image in an RPG book were of a naked dude.
I suspect there would be more resistance to that than of the other.As we get older, and have kids, we are going to start rejecting products that have nudity for nudity's sake. I specifically did not purchase a product about Faeries because of the graphic images the book presented within, and on the cover. The images in that book (and the publisher escapes me ATM), crossed a very distinct line, and I felt like that book would be inappropriate should it fall into the hands of my daughter some day.
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