Nudity in RPG books?

[CrusaderX]

Try to come up with a better poll next time.

 

[Goblyn]

• If nudity were present in RPG books, many stores would choose not to carry said books.
• Many parents would ban their kids from playing RPGs if nudity in the books bacame a more common occurance.
• There's no guarantee that the artist would make the nudity tasteful. More likely it would just be soft-core nymph and elf porn designed to appeal to the fanboys.
• I don't feel like hiding my RPG books every time my young cousins, nieces, and nephews come over to visit.
• Quite frankly, there's not much reason for nudity in RPG books. Yes, I know that creatures like nymphs and succubi resemble seductive women who wear little clothing, but I don't think that pictures of said creatures need to be any more explicit than the "wet t-shirt" versions found in the 3.5e Monster Manual.

Dark Jezter got a critical hit on the nailhead.

 

[Sir Elton]

Thanks you all. It's nice to know the results of this poll. It will be up a couple of more days.

Now, suppose someone is going to do a D&D supplement on the Mycenaean Greeks. Lets suppose that his integrity forced him to be truthful about the Mycenaean way of life. Now what if some of those essential things the Greeks did, they did in the nude? Say like farming? Or fighting?

However, in all honesty, I truly believe that I cannot be dishonest in showing how a particular Culture, in this case Greek Culture, lives. In other words, I cannot be culturally bigoted. It's well, wrong to think that way. Especially if you knew how the Greeks lived their lives.

Thanks everyone who responded.

 

[Laslo Tremaine]

I voted #1 even with the horribly biased wording. Many people have already commented about it, so I will just agree with those who have also voted (or wanted to vote for #1).

There is something I do want to discuss though, and I hate to pick on Gez, but he was the vocal one...

Well, it's not really bothering me, but I don't want to look at it. I don't find a male body to be beautiful or interesting, so the lads can keep their clothings, thanks.

And erotic arousement/disgust isn't relevant here. It's cultural. Maybe that's because society is machist, but I'm used to see, in life or in art, nude or scantily clad women, and clothed men.

So call me a chauvinist pig if you want, but I'm used to see the naked female body often in art, even non-erotic art; while the naked male body, nearly never.

I am very tempted to run a follow-up poll, that asks basically the same questions but divides the responses into male vs female nudity. I would bet that a large percentage of the responses would say that female nudity is OK, but male nudity is not. I guess I just want to point out the hypocrisy on some people's part (ie, "i'm not a prude, nudity is great, oh, except when we're talking about nude men, and then it's not ok...")

I personally would be quite happy if I never saw another naked female breast again in my life, but I'm certainly not going to deny someone the opportunity. In the same vein, I think there ought to be a tad bit more beef-cake in gaming art, but I'm not holding my breath for it.

I still remember the furor that the cover of Dragon #294 made when it came out. Many people were deeply offended by it, and all it showed was a bare male chest...

 

[dead]

I don't mind nudity (or violence for that matter) if it's in context. For example, the stuff in BoVD seemed to fit; but in the follow up, BoED, they seemed to *force* blood and nudity in there.

 

[Zappo]

Zappo, I respect your outlook and I am not arguing your point, but offering my view here.

I understand your point of view perfectly; I've found that it is shared by a good portion of gamers, too. It has a lot of merit. Mature material (both in the sexual/BoEF sense and in the graphical/BoVD sense) will not bring the doom of the hobby, but it can certainly turn away someone - or someone's parents - from it.

However, if we want to talk about economics/number of players, there is also a not indifferent number of people who will find such material attractive. Most of them aren't perverts, either. Some good members of these boards got into D&D precisely because it was controversial at the time. IIRC, Col_Pladoh said once that D&D sales increased, and not just a little, during the witch hunts. Only hard data from TSR archives could tell us the truth here, but I think that most people realize that controversy sells.

From the moral point of view, we can obviously only have opinions and not a "truth". Mine is that sexuality and its depiction, from the MM nymph to hardcore porn, is not a topic of morality, but rather one of personal taste and/or of education.

What is a topic of morality, though, is whether a subject should suffer and accept the consequences of a wrong for which it has no responsibility. And in doing so, perpetuate that wrong. In my opinion, this is simply unacceptable under any circumstance.

 

[Zappo]

As for the male nudity vs. female nudity debate, uhm... Michelangelo's David is ugly? ...and an orc isn't? Because the first is nude? Nevermind, I think - I hope - I'm just not getting the joke.

 

[maddman75]

Personally, I don't mind nudity if and only if it is appropriate for the game and the subject at hand. If its an illustration of a succubus tempting a paladin, then a flash of breast is not out of place. Done gratitously though, it just seems juvenile and pointless.

If I want porn I do have the whole internet, ya know. There's even elf porn out there.

 

[Elrik_DarkFury]

*

sigh*

*sigh*

_________________
The Wizard

 

[Elrik_DarkFury]

Elf porn?
I hate elves.

___________________
The Wizard