Nudity in RPG books?

[MerakSpielman]

RPG books are shooting for the young audience - even though a large portion of gamers are now over 18. It's not in their best interests to have anything remotely sexual in their books.

But I have an easy time separating nutidy from sexuality. So I wouldn't object to my kids having books with some tasteful nudity in them.

But it might not necessarily be in the RPG company's best interests to include any nudity at all, since a lot of parents are a lot less liberal than I am, and if they see a naked breast on a gaming book it'll get snatched away and the game forbidden.

 

[Henry]

I didn't vote, but if I did, it would be somewhere between #1 and #2.

I don't like nudity in my gaming products, just like I don't like lots of blood and gore in my gaming products. Violence, and scenes of action, no problem. Scantily clad women or men in scenes where it warrants it (someone mentioned succubi and brothels), no problem.

Outright nudity, like outright blood and gore, and excessive profanity, creates barriers between fellow gamers as well as product availability. If I am in an all-male group of roughly the same age and prefences, it might not cause a problem. But what when a female gamer joins, and picks up your "Book of Brothel Diseases!" ? What when "The Extended Succubus Handbook" is introduced to your fellow gamer's 11-year-old son, and he tells his non-gaming mom? "Dad let me look at porn over at Uncle Bob's house?" It may be OK, it may not be.

 

[Blue Sky]

I voted #1 for two reasons.

1. I'm the standard puritanical American, and I believe nudity should be regulated...

2. For similar reasons stated above, I think we should consider not just our own views on nudity, but the people we're around as well. I don't wanna have to hide my books when my family or more... reserved friends come over.

 

[Fieari]

I voted #2, but wanted to vote #1. The wording put me off way too much. I think that if I could change my vote though, I would.

Nudity isn't -necessary-. I was thinking in terms of nymphs and mermaids... but even there, you don't HAVE to display the salient bits... tasteful immersion in water or the stereotypical profoundly placed lock of hair/bush/tree branch/melon/folded arm,etc can be very well done, and I think that in this kind of work, where the purpose isn't to titilate or stimulate, that such simple obscurations are appropriate and tasteful.

 

[MDSnowman]

Nudity in RP products doesn't bother me, never did. That being said too much of it is just stupid... anyone who's been the the FATAL site can concur on that.

Even mature themed products like BoVD don't bother me. (I am not going to lump BoEd into that... there is nothing mature about it, it's a glorfied guidebook to paladins.) I honestly think that D&D has been stuck in the kind of kindergarten morality of silver age superman comics for way too long and I appauld any setting that challenges those moral absolutes.

I am bothered by products where sex and sexuality are the book's sole topic of discussion. Not only does The Book of Erotic Fantasy set back roleplaying as a hobby by going too far (and ruining it for companies that draw the line at the occasional nipple or chainmail bikini), as a DM can you honestly tell me that there is enough sex in your campaigns to require an entire book on it?!?!

That being said I didn't write nasty letters, proclaim that the end was neigh... I just didn't buy the book. Something I think that people undervalue value sometimes. Why give somethign attention you don't think it deserves by debating and discussing it to death when you can have your opinion and spend you money on something else.

Like anything else in the real world nudity and sexuality in RP is a matter of degrees, the nudity and mature themes (as long as those themes do not have a laser focus on sex) don't bother me. Other people's comfort levels are elsewhere... if there is anyone to watch out for in a discussion like this its people at either extreme.

 

[James Heard]

I don't have any problems with nudity, all of my favorite books from my teenage years had nudity in them. I don't have a problem with my FLGS bagging up game books to hide their naughty contents either, because most of the time my FLGS doesn't carry anything but the most standard gaming books anyways unless someone orders them and then doesn't show up for them - and if anyone said anything about a gaming book I'd likely be able to walk over to the art books and comics and show much worse than nudity without looking very hard. Heck, they sell anime too. Tentacles anyone? Blech. The only thing I don't particularly want is the front cover looking like a porn mag, because that would make it rather harder to explain walking around the park reading it.

 

[Oni]

Nudity doesn't bother me, I'm not going to be offended by such things flipping though a book. The caveat to that is that I'd rather if it's going to be done that it actually have something to do with the content or feel of the product and not just be there to get attention.

That said, I think it's something that publishers need to be careful, as they might be shooting themselves in the foot with regard to sales and the reputation of the industry (and thus it's future health as well), not everyone is as accepting of such things.

 

[random user]

I voted #1 even though nudity doesn't bother me in any way. I just don't think it's necessary for most RPG books.

I liken it in some ways to movies. Sure, you can add nudity to any movie, but it just doesn't fit into most movies. Imagine trying to jam a nude scene into The Matrix or into Shrek (yes I know that movie is aimed at kids, that's the point). Though nudity doesn't bother me, I just don't think it helps those movies.

On the other hand, I didn't have a problem with shower scene in Starship Troopers. It fit in. (It's been a couple years since I've seen it, so my memory is a bit hazy on that one.)

So, I guess I wish there had been an option like "Nudity is fine as long as there is a good reason for it." If you have a RPG book that deals with nymphs or succubi, sure, make them nude. If you have a sourcebook for generating players or towns or an economic system, I don't think there should be random nudity in it. (Even if you were to have a section of townbuilding for a red light district, I question the need to have actual nudity, though, I guess it depends on what the scene was depicting... I can see nudity being evocative here, but I can also see it being gratuitous, depending on what exactly was being depicted.)

 

[Henry]

Imagine trying to jam a nude scene into The Matrix or into Shrek (yes I know that movie is aimed at kids, that's the point). Though nudity doesn't bother me, I just don't think it helps those movies.

They DID jam a nude scene in The Matrix Reloaded, and no, it really didn't help there, either.

 

[subbob]

Echoing many others, your poll is biased and doesn't provide adequate choices. I chose #1 for the following reasons:

-- In order to grow the gaming industry, it is necessary to market to children as well as adults.

-- In my opinion, I can think of no instances where the presence of nudity would enhance the product.

-- If you want nudity, there are plenty of other places to get it.