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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GnomeWorks" data-source="post: 425700" data-attributes="member: 162">Hmm.Lots of interesting thoughts here.  This is a thread that has been needed ever since the BoVD had been known about.  A thread where the issues discussed in the said book can be discussed in a  mature matter, and things looked at from a calm, almost un-biased point of view.First off - let me say that I am only of 15 years of age, and have been gaming for a decade of that.  I want to state that first off, to help show what one who is younger than the vast majority of people here thinks.  Hopefully, of course, my age will not affect anyone else's thoughts regarding my own ideas.Now, to address the points that SHARK has put before us...I tend to try for a decently realistic game.  It is in my opinion that a game that is not realistic, in even a small sense, is not worth being played.  A world that is obviously false is unenjoyable - just as, in RL, a perfect utopia would be false and quite unenjoyable.  I often tell those IMC that the world is alive - as a matter of fact, I told those in the Psionicle several times early on that the world is alive, that they can choose the path they take and the world will react to it.I have oft pondered these four things that SHARK has mentioned.  War - it is present IMC, and as a matter of fact, there is no long stretch of time in which there was no war - in effect, there was/is no 'golden age' IMC.  Wars happen every few decades, and have varying motivational factors.I tend to gloss over wars, putting them in past history and in the past tense, having been done and partially forgotten.  War is hell, however, and they aren't pretty.  Slavery - for some odd reason, this hasn't worked itself into my campaign setting.  I honestly cannot say why.  There are no areas IMC that have ever seemed to have the chance to take slaves, or the 'need' to.  This is an issue that I haven't considered much.  Of course, the old illithid empire held an entire continent as slaves, but that is in the past and I haven't considered the implications much.And even though humanoids - I bring them up because they are often portrayed as having slaves - are present IMC, they are a moderately accepted part of life: orcs helped the humans live through the Coldlands and produce their civilization of technology; goblins assisted an ancient culture in throwing off the yoke of illithid enslavement; and kobolds helped research inward magical power and produce the art known as sorcery.  None of them hold slaves, and they are as equal as a human in many places.Rape - That one, I have not even touched.  Though I have considered the implications of it a few times, I have never used it in my world nor in a campaign.  To be honest, the people I game with in RL are too immature to handle it, and the games I run out here are on a public forum where such things are quite beyond good taste, IMO.As I said before, however, I go for a game and world that *feels* realistic, and go for it being that way in every way possible.  If such an act would fit and make sense, then I would perhaps make it so... and if I deemed it fitting, then it would occur, regardless of whether the character in question was an NPC or a PC.Why?  Realism, dear people, realism... it is IMO that the game, while played to be enjoyed, is alive and needs to reflect that life... in RL, do people choose to be raped?  No, they do not.  Therefore, I don't think that I would consult a PC before continuing the game with that in place.  Then again, I would probably only do such a thing with mature players in the first place - my RL group, as I have said before, is quite immature, and I probably wouldn't even consider bringing rape into the picture.  And if mature players can't handle it, then they probably aren't as mature as I thought they were.And, as SHARK has pointed out before, a PC who has lived through such an event becomes unique and has an interesting motivational factor.  NPCs, too, have an added depth to them, when past events reflect upon their current personalities.Is that an evil outlook?  Am I vile because I would honestly do such a thing to a PC before asking them?  Perhaps I am, and perhaps I am not... however, I would never do such a thing without much consideration beforehand.  Such a course of action is not to be taken lightly, and many hours would be spent in thought before it were done.Madness - Another one that I haven't really considered.  True mental diseases are rare IMC, although there are the traditional 'mad prophets'.  Other than that, however, there is a lack of this IMC, just like rape and slavery.This one I would be more comfortable with throwing into IMC than rape, though less comfortable than with slavery.  As I have said several times, I go for realism, and if I were to utilize mental illnesses, I would do research upon them to find what I was looking for, and attempt to portray it correctly.  Needless to say, this would be quite a bit of work... and while I would be quite willing to do so if the story needed it or if it fit within the world, I would not put it in if it were useless and hollow, nor if I would be unable to closely portray it as it is in RL.As for the BoVD - I plan on getting it, if my parents allow me to.  Although I like to think of myself as one who decently portrays a realistic world, I can see from SHARK's example that I am far from being as such.  I am uncertain how much the BoVD will assist in that venue, but it will hopefully provide a few insights into these areas that I am as yet uncertain of.Perhaps I managed to say something in my ramblings... perhaps I didn't.  Hopefully, though, I did make a point in there somewhere.  I hope I didn't just take up space with my post <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />.</blockquote>

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