Poll: Rating your D&D game based on criteria in Monte Cook's article in Dragon #300

[S'mon]

Using MPAA ratings, I'd have thought that for most people:

U or PG: Lighthearted (Star Wars, Star Trek)
15: Standard (Buffy TVS, Blake's 7)
NC-17: Mature (Oz, The Sopranos)

And Vile would be XXX/Unclassified or extreme NC-17 (Natural Born Killers, anime like Urotsokidoji)

D&D under WotC's 'Standard' might be PG, but I find it hard to believe most people play a sword & sorcery game like that. A Star Wars game, maybe. Does Monte really think most people classify the average NC-17 film as 'Vile'? 'Natural Born Killers' is Vile, ok, but surely most NC-17 tagged films aren't generally regarded as such?

Edit: Admittedly the US & UK film raters (BBFC) in recent years have classed increasingly extreme violence in the '15' bracket - I was surprised that Verhoeven's Starship Troopers got a 15 in the UK, for instance. It seems that there's much more tolerance of violence, and perhaps less tolerance of sex, than previously.

 

[Wicht]

Does Monte really think most people classify the average NC-17 film as 'Vile'?

I'm not sure we really want to go there, but most NC-17 films I have ever got a whiff of seemed pretty vile to me, in terms of both content and quality.

 

[takyris]

In my most recent adventure, I tried to freak out the players with an evil sorcerer who had made a pentagram out of dead babies.

Pentagram of babies.

Just think about it.

See, I thought I was being horrific.

None of the players could say it without snickering.

Neither could my wife.

It was deeply sad.

-Tacky

 

[tleilaxu]

I'm not sure we really want to go there, but most NC-17 films I have ever got a whiff of seemed pretty vile to me, in terms of both content and quality.

well, i think there have been a lot of great works that one time or another were regarded as profane (not to glorify the profane for itself: there's lots of crap).
I can't remember what movies were originally marked X when they came out.

 

[S'mon]

I'm not sure we really want to go there, but most NC-17 films I have ever got a whiff of seemed pretty vile to me, in terms of both content and quality.

I'm not totally familiar with the US system - in the UK we have, U, PG, 12, 15 and 18, the usual assumption is that NC-17 = a UK 18, although UK film censors are traditionally more tolerant of sex and less tolerant of violence than US ones, the US is renowned for loving violence and hating sex...

 

[jmucchiello]

It'd be hard to sum up the criteria without reprinting most of the article. Basically, it's rated G, PG, PG-13 or R, to use the MPAA guides. Although it's not very clear-cut from his examples, as in theory the mature game is R, but most of his examples are PG-13. In theory the vile game is almost NC-17, but his examples range from PG-13 to actually NC-17.

But I'd say you can equate his ratings fairly well in spirit to the common MPAA ratings, even if his examples don't work very well. That is, light-hearted is pretty much G, standard is probably PG, perhaps leaning towards PG-13, mature is somewhere between PG-13 and R and vile is R with perhaps dips into NC-17.

Now, if I were to rate things based on MPAA guidelines (and I haven't read Monte's article yet), from the movies I've seen in my lifetime: G is lighthearted. PG is standard. PG-13 is Immature. R is Mature and NC-17 could be Vile but most likely just includes nudity and shouldn't be NC-17 but that's a MPAA rant inappropriate to this topic. YMMV.

I actually didn't vote because our games varies from Standard to Mature with the occasional Vile and Lighthearted piece thrown in. Maybe I'll read the article and be able to vote.

 

[Desdichado]

The US MPAA rating system has G -- General Audiences; no content should be objectionable to anyone of any age, PG -- Parental Guidance -- not really objectionable content, but parents may want to preview the material as some may be inappropriate, PG-13 -- children under the age of 13 should not see unless accompanied by an adult who consents to let them, R -- children under age 17 should not see unless accompanied by a parent who authorizes them to do so and NC-17 -- children under 17 not admitted even with a parent. NC-17 is a kinda loosey-goosey new rating that supposedly gives a legitimate rating to movies that want to claim to be something more than just unrated porn.

The examples you gave, Natural Born Killers, the Sopranos (which is TV, and thus not subject to the same MPAA ratings anyway) as NC-17 or worse are actually rated R. But as you say, in the US we're somewhat more tolerant of violence versus sex than the Europeans or the South Americans (can't speak for the rest of the world, although I've heard Australia follows a model similar to Europe in regards to tolerance of violence versus sex?)

 

[kenjib]

Perhaps it should have been checkboxes to account for multiple games. I run the gamut from lighthearted to standard to mature.

 

[The_Gneech]

My own game is solidly in the "standard" category, and that's where I like it. The other DM in my group is running something closer to "mature" with the occasional dip into "vile" and I keep wishing he would knock it off.

Yuck, yuck, a hundred times yuck.

Don't like it, don't want it, don't find it fun at all.

-The Gneech

 

[Davelozzi]

My game is mostly standard bordering on mature by Monte's standards.