Nudity in RPG books?

[Ottergame]

I want some -male nudity-. I am tired of nothing but jiggly boobs.

 

[Angcuru]

I dont mind nudity in RPG books as long as it is not nudity for the sake of nudity. If I'm thumbing through a book and come across an artfully done nude of a succubi, nymph, harem girl, etc., I'm perfectly OK with it if that's the subject matter at hand. However, if I'm reading a book on combat feats and suddenly see a bare-chested Amazon warrior raising a battleaxe above her head for no other reason than to display her ample bosom for all the world to see, then it's pointless and doesn't belong in the book.

 

[heimdall]

My thoughts are pretty simple. I was introduced to the game when I was 6 by my dad. My oldest is now 6 and sees me with the gaming books and is naturally interested as it appeals to his creativity, imagination, and desire to pretend to be a hero. Do I want my gaming books accessible to him? Absolutely. Knights, wizards, dragons, the stuff of myths is appropriate for him to recreate. If nudity is in there, I have to ask myself if that's something he should be dealing with and I'll always err on the side of caution here. Case in point, he's not allowed to touch my White Wolf books as a whole because some of them do have images and content inappropriate for one of his age. I'll be asking the same question when he's 10-12, which is when a lot of my friends first began playing the game.

 

[Sir Elton]

My thoughts are pretty simple. I was introduced to the game when I was 6 by my dad. My oldest is now 6 and sees me with the gaming books and is naturally interested as it appeals to his creativity, imagination, and desire to pretend to be a hero. Do I want my gaming books accessible to him? Absolutely. Knights, wizards, dragons, the stuff of myths is appropriate for him to recreate. If nudity is in there, I have to ask myself if that's something he should be dealing with and I'll always err on the side of caution here. Case in point, he's not allowed to touch my White Wolf books as a whole because some of them do have images and content inappropriate for one of his age. I'll be asking the same question when he's 10-12, which is when a lot of my friends first began playing the game.

okay. Your a good parent, Heimdall.

 

[Sir Elton]

I want some -male nudity-. I am tired of nothing but jiggly boobs.

Would this do?

 

[Ottergame]

Would this do?

lol, yes, thank you. XD

 

[Zaarastara]

Why?

All through history the choice has been for nudity.

Remember, all the cool kids are born nude!

Only because my 3 year old son occasionally plays in my gaming room and I don't want him coming in contact with that type of material for a few years yet.

I have been collecting gaming books since the early 80s. Saturday night my 15 year cousin was looking over my gaming books. Of all the titles I own, which takes up two six-foot tall units with five shelves each, guess which item the boy spent the majority of the night rifling through? Yep, the Book of Erotic Fantasy. Of course, it could have been the excellent writing he was looking at, but I would hazard that was not the case.

I'm all for nudity in certain cases and don't have an issue with it in the right circumstances. Hell, I've even argued both sides of American Booksellers Association, Inc. v. Hudut more times than I care to recall. Still, you'd be hard-pressed to convince me that a gaming product is better simply because of the inclusion of nudity.

From a marketing standpoint I would think that you reduce the number of consumers of your product by including nudity. It gets rid of the under 18 crowd and I think they spend a decent fair amount of money on gaming material. I could be wrong. I'm a grad student in history and political science, not economics.

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

While non-sexual nudity does not bother me, I am concerned at certain inconsistencies in the way certain sections of the community are under-represented. I recall reading of a recent survey which showed that the most under-represented group on U.S. tv are women aged between 35(40?) and 60. IMO the same is true for fantasy artwork.

I know we’re talking fantasy but a fantasy world must have children and middle aged people in it! Male wizards can be shown as wrinkled old grey beards but females are, in my experience, inevitably young, attractive, and usually sport an unfeasible décolletage. There are very few ugly, or middle aged, or elderly people ever portrayed (in this respect, again, men fare better that the ladies).

Bottom line, all fantasy artwork is unrealistic:
Armour either does not actually protect (the chainmail bikini) or is unwearable because of bulk or design (see the Complete Warrior).
Children do not exist.
Witches are hook-nosed, wrinkled old crones, unless they are dancing naked in the full moon!
All barmaids are young, attractive, and wear low cut blouses (but the barman can be old, fat & bald).
There is a sudden transition of the female form from young and attractive to wrinkled old crone, with no intervening middle age.
All prostitutes are young and attractive. (The few documentaries and interviews I’ve seen with workers in the ‘sex industry,’ as it is euphemistically called show that; while some of the upmarket ‘top earners’ may be young and attractive, the majority are neither).
Queens and princesses too, are attractive, history (and current events) show that this is only the case if they’ve married into the nobility.

I’m a realist, I know that youth and attractiveness sells, but lets not pretend that this has anything to do with anything more than the fact that men like looking at attractive young ladies wearing very few clothes.

GOM

 

[Zappo]

I was introduced to the game when I was 6 by my dad. My oldest is now 6 and sees me with the gaming books and is naturally interested as it appeals to his creativity, imagination, and desire to pretend to be a hero.

Wow. Your son is the first third generation gamer I hear of.

 

[Berandor]

I just wanted to know why some people would deem nudity in game books bad with regards to their small children, but giving them books where blood and violence is depicted extensively (just take the PHB) is no problem for their toddlers?

I also think that nudity is not bad per se; in fact, I think many pictures that do NOT show nude bodies are way more oversexed. But, well, I think that's also a cultural shift between European and American tastes/standards.

anyway, I thought the Dragon cover above was a very cool pic