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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 2138601" data-attributes="member: 7240">I don't think that what D&D play represents or the stories it produces are as close to fantasy literature as people would like. Also, maybe it's just the Tolkien fan in me but I rather admired the great man consigning one romance in LOTR to an appendix and glossing over the other. But, in fact, many RPGs remove all cringe-worthy elements that appear quite commonly in fantasy literature. The D&D system doesn't even let people have lingering painful wounds that will hobble them for the next fight. It says something when the system itself effectively prohibits people from having festering wounds and dislocated shoulders. All aspects of violence that are cringe-worthy because they are persistent, painful and debilitating and drummed out of the game through the damage mechanic. Similarly, sexual violence and torture, again because of the discomfort they produce in the audience, are rarely present in D&D and again require mechanics that do not appear in the core and run counter to how the damage mechanic works. In my view, therefore, anything that appears in a book that has the potential to elicit significant discomfort and awkwardness is avoided in D&D while things that produce drama and apprehension in other ways tend to be over-represented in D&D stories (e.g. mortal combat).No dispute here. But I guess my question is this: don't you think people should be uncomfortable play-acting seduction with friends who are not their girlfriend or spouse? Isn't that normal? Romance is not emotionally identical or even comparable to political intrigue and comic book violence and to treat it as such is an exercise in self-delusion. Look at this another way: many games both RPG and non-RPG centre on the proxy representation of violence and deadly force. How many centre on representations of romance? And of those few games, how many are party games designed to facilitate sexual or romantic congress amongst the participants (or alternatively some habitual regime of self-abuse by the lone participant)? Politics and violence are normal things to represent in games; romance and sex are not.Sure. I'll concede that. But, in my book, a good role player also knows when such play is appropriate.</blockquote>

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