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Message: <blockquote data-quote="shadow" data-source="post: 425360" data-attributes="member: 2182">(begin rant) I personally DON'T want slavery, rape, and madness in my campaign.  Although realistically such things are very common, I don't see why a RPG campaign has to be realistic.  I like playing in a high fantasy campaign world.  The grittiness of the real world, doesn't need to come in and affect my campaign. Second of all, altough these issues are very real issues in the real world, they are also very sensitive ones.  For example rape is a horrible issue.  I've heard it described as the ultimate crime against women.  I personally know one woman who was the victim of sexual abuse.  I therefore, really don't feel confortable with having rape in my game. The same goes for the issue of "madness" (a term that I dislike because of its derogatory implications).  Contrary to over a century of pulp stories, mental illness is no laughing matter.  I've read that schizophrenia effects nearly 1-2% of the population of America to varying degrees.  Neurosis like Obessive Compulsive Disorder(OCD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Panic Disorder effect an even greater percentage of the population.  I've always disliked the insanity rules for games like Call of Cthulhu and Ravenloft because they present a skewed view of mental illness.  I've know a lot of people (including some close to me) suffer from different mental illnesses, and hence am often offended on how mental illness is trivialized and poked fun at in the media.  Contrary to popular belief, schizophrenics are not likely to be homocidal maniacs.  In fact most people suffering from schizophrenia (as well as other mental illnesses) are more likely to be a harm to themselves.  Schizophrenics have an unusually high suicide rate.  The perception of mental illness is changing with films like A Beautiful Mind, but most RPGs maintain the "homocidal maniac" stereotype.(end rant)</blockquote>

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