Satyr - An excuse for rape, or an interesting creature?

[BryonD]

Never mind

 

[Piratecat]

I play D&D to have fun. I can't picture any circumstances where it would be fun to have a NPC or a monster rape a PC. So I wouldn't have this happen in my game; it simply wouldn't be appropriate.

Interestingly, I was in another game where a PC was knocked unconscious in a bar fight and tossed outside the bar, and the DM said that he was raped by sailors. The player left the game. I don't think anyone blamed him, and the DM later apologized for a poor DMing choice. Verisimillitude is less important than fun.

 

[Theron]

Read any George RR Martin? Rape is pretty common in A Song of Fire and Ice.

It really all comes down to how your group can deal with adult subject matter. If someone in the group is incapable of dealing with it, then I agree that it should be glossed over or left out entirely. In a group that is at ease handling such subject matter, I don't see a problem.

There's a world of difference between things happening to a character in a novel and things happening to the personal character of a player in a RPG.

There's a world of difference between "adult subject matter" and rape. Fact is, there's a world of difference between standard RPG-type violence and rape in a game, IMO.

For one thing, character death by combat or misadventure at least has the trappings of consent, since such things are to be expected as part of the risks of the game. Rape is an entirely different matter, and if it isn't for a group, then that's not the sort of people I want to game with.

 

[Desdichado]

Although I say all that "on principle" I'd also be very reluctant to have rape happen---even offscreen---to a PC, unless I already knew that they'd be OK with it and there was some kind of interesting story potential we were working on together around the episode. And by very reluctant, I mean, not any chance in hell. I think offscreen rape of NPCs is fair game, though. It's a pretty time-honored tactic to emphasize how evil they can be.

 

[ZombieButch]

There's a world of difference between "adult subject matter" and rape. Fact is, there's a world of difference between standard RPG-type violence and rape in a game, IMO.

Not to mention the fact that involving your character in hacking and slashing is a reasonable expectation for a D&D game; having a satyr slip that character the D&D equivalent of a fist full of roofies and raping them is not.

As far as what to do with a satyr? I'd probably give him a shoe fetish and have him steal all the players boots while they were asleep. They'd have to track him down, of course, because unless you wanto go all Die Hard on the Dragon of Doom Manor you're going to need them back, stained but otherwise unharmed.

 

[Particle_Man]

No gamer has ever been killed and gamed afterwards.

Few gamers have been physically tortured in a non-rape way.

Many female gamers have been raped. 1 in 4, apparently.

Thus there is a difference. I would say do not spring this on players. In fact, if you are going to introduce this sort of subject, talk it over with the players OOC first and make sure they are cool with it.

Frankly, if you had done this and my girlfriend was the player in question whose character got raped, I would have beaten the crap out of you. Oh, and quit your game.

 

[Glyfair]

I refuse to accept that there are certain situations where you are forced to rape a PC.

This is one of those things that should go in a "game contract." Some groups might be OK with it.

In absence of a contact, I'd say it's off-limits. Think of it this way, how would you feel if you found out after you made that ruling that the player had been a rape victim in the past?

I believe strongly that the rule should be "don't do it, if you haven't discussed it."

 

[TerraDave]

Is this about satyrs, or what can or cannot happen in game?

If rape happens in game, there are plenty of other problematic races, humans obviously being at the top of the list (since they actually do it). And you could argue with the violence, the looting, the evil (beyond the violence and looting by the PCs), you could have rape. But you probably don't want to.

Back to the satyrs...I don't know why we are picking on them...dancing or chasing nymphs may involve just that. And in greek myth--which has plenty of non or ambigous consent--its not really the satyrs you have to worry about. Lets take a directly relevant example:

"Amymone, daughter of Danaus, was sent by her father to get water for performing sacred rites. While hunting for it, she grew weary and fell asleep. A Satyr tried to seduce her, but she implored the help of Neptunus [Poseidon]. When Neptunus had hurled his trident at the Satyr, it became fixed in a rock. Neptunus drove off the Satyr. When he asked the girl what she was doing in this lonely place she said she had been sent by her father to get water. Neptunus lay with her, and in return he did her a favour, bidding her draw out his trident from the rock. She drew it out and three streams of water flowed, which were called the Amymonian Spring from her name." -

-Hyginus, Fabulae 169A

Its not the satyrs you have to worry about, its all those horny gods!

 

[der_kluge]

You know, as interesting as this is - can we steer the conversation back towards the actual creature in question - the Satyr.

IMO, this creature's basis is -sex-. The origins of it are sexual. The mythos, legend, art, and architecture of this creature are sexual in nature, and often deviant at that.


Does this creature have a place in D&D?


I admit - the idea of a creature stealing shoes is interesting - but that creature is not a Satyr. Killmoulis maybe, but not a Satyr.

 

[Vorput]

Frankly, if you had done this and my girlfriend was the player in question whose character got raped, I would have beaten the crap out of you. Oh, and quit your game.

Least we're being... umm... adult about this. ::rolls eyes::