The Book of Erotic Fantasy - Where did it go wrong?

[Voadam]

Also considering the unlikelyhood that any professional "adventurer" would even be able to get pregnant or carry to term after getting repeatedly stabbed and beaten in the abdominal area. So crunch in that area is almost laughable.

Normal D&D rules for 100% cover work well here. Extrapolate from the fact that if you put a familiar in your pocket it is protected from everything and fetal indestructibility seems to fit.

In D&D people don't usually get stabbed or beaten in the abdominal area, just in the hp.

 

[jdrakeh]

Also, while the tone was supposed to be serious (and it was somewhat pretentious) some of the stuff in it was kinda puerile. A lot of the spells. (Wasn't there one about Beer Goggles? Something like that. That's just silly.)

This was the biggest issue for me and the issue that led to some unflatterring comparisons to FATAL and Promised Sands on my part. The oft repeated claims of being a serious text were completely undermined by the inclusion of much puerile humor. It's kind of hard to take a game seriously when it is filled with intentionally crude sexual humor (e.g., Command 'Masturbate') and indulges heavily in anachronism for humor content (e.g., Gnomish Kama Sutra).

Both FATAL and Promised Sands had this same thing going on (to be fair, FATAL had several other far worse issues, as well, but it shared this in common with TBoEF). Promised Sands notably had its Semen-blooded Rape Ogres (I wish that I were kidding) and FATAL had everything from a Command Word "Orgasm" to Force Fart spells. And both games declared themselves to be "serious" fantasy works. Neither were.

There was a bunch of stuff in TBoEF which the editor should have red-lined out of existence early on if the editor wanted serious people to take The Book of Erotic Fantasy seriously (or avoid unflattering comparisons to FATAL and Promised Sands). I can forgive all of the book's other failings but the puposeful inclusion of utterly rediculous content coupled with the overt claims of intellectualism still make me want to wretch.

 

[Alzrius]

This was the biggest issue for me and the issue that led to some unflatterring comparisons to FATAL and Promised Sands on my part. The oft repeated claims of being a serious text were completely undermined by the inclusion of much puerile humor. It's kind of hard to take a game seriously when it is filled with intentionally crude sexual humor (e.g., Command 'Masturbate') and indulges heavily in anachronism for humor content (e.g., Gnomish Kama Sutra).

To be fair, doesn't verisimilitude demand that this be present to some degree? It doesn't seem like a stretch to say that some perverted wizard somewhere invented a spell to cause the target to orgasm, and it's not unbelievable to say that sexual spells would be, if not popular, then at least ubiquitous.

There's certainly something to be said against including ridiculous content for the sake of (crude) humor, but there are also some things that are expected in a world where magic is prevalent and sex is as popular as it is in real life.

 

[jdrakeh]

To be fair, doesn't verisimilitude demand that this be present to some degree?

No. The possibility of existence does not, in fact, demand it.

 

[Alzrius]

No. The possibility of existence does not, in fact, demand it.

At all? The idea that there are spells/magic items/etc. like this seems to be - questions of personal taste aside - obvious, if not ubiquitous. Ignoring it seems like it'd be worse than including it. To continue with the current example, having a spell that makes the target orgasm seems like something that's going to be noticeable if it's totally ignored.

 

[Xath]

At all? The idea that there are spells/magic items/etc. like this seems to be - questions of personal taste aside - obvious, if not ubiquitous. Ignoring it seems like it'd be worse than including it. To continue with the current example, having a spell that makes the target orgasm seems like something that's going to be noticeable if it's totally ignored.

I suppose I agree with you to some extent. I've sometimes wondered why a highly magical society wouldn't have a "clean the house" spell or a "fancy hair-do" spell. But then again, a book full of completely mundane spells would be pretty boring, and not particularly sale-worthy. In my high-magic campaigns, I usually just assume that most of these spells exist somewhere or another (or are just all lumped under Prestidigitation).

 

[Alzrius]

I suppose I agree with you to some extent. I've sometimes wondered why a highly magical society wouldn't have a "clean the house" spell or a "fancy hair-do" spell. But then again, a book full of completely mundane spells would be pretty boring, and not particularly sale-worthy.

Oh really?

 

[talien]

What I found odd is that a book of this nature is really suited to the anonymity of the Internet, where users could purchase it without having to feel embarassed, and yet BOEF is on quite a few Borders bookshelves.

There is no way I would pick this book up in a bookstore. As it is, I felt a little weird flipping through the pages (like I was some kid flipping through a girlie magazine). Erotic Fantasy? The words alone are a problem.

If you're going to be "loud and proud" about the book's content, then it's definitely better suited as a .PDF venture. But book publishing, sitting on a shelf next to traditional D&D, requires a lighter touch. Mind you, Borders puts D&D books next to the Pokemon guides...

I felt that BOEF was much more of a rebellious political statement by the publishers as a message to WOTC. As such, it was successful -- it certainly damaged any trust WOTC had in 3rd party publishers after it came out.

 

[Xath]

Oh really?

I stand corrected....and I now own it.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, as has been stated, one of the faults is that fetish holds dominance (sometimes literally...) over normal sexuality in the depictions. It did not seem to be a book about erotica, it seemed to be a book about kink. (One is using a feather, the other is using a chicken....)

I will admit to being a bit of a prude - and perhaps more than a bit. Sexuality exists in my game, but largely off screen. I have avoided books that otherwise came much closer to my tastes than BoEF when the depictions of unclad or semi characters seemed gratuitous. (Avalanche I am looking, err, avoiding looking at you.)

BoEF wandered past erotic and into the realm of distasteful.

The Auld Grump