Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 4149350" data-attributes="member: 8461">This came up recently over on a thread about the GSL, so I wanted to start a new thread where it could be discussed without being a threadjacking.I think the BoEF is a fairly good d20 book, though it certainly had room for improvement. Everything I've read regarding what people thought of it seems to indicate that it had a rather lukewarm reception among those who bought/read it. I'm curious then what people expected regarding a book about sex and d20, and how the BoEF failed to measure up.As an aside, this isn't the place to discuss whether or not sex is an acceptable topic in d20 books. I know a lot of people didn't like the BoEF simply because of its subject matter; that's a valid opinion, but it's not what I'm asking about here. This thread is predicated on the idea that a "d20 sex book" is one that could be done well; it just hasn't been yet.Things (I thought) the BoEF did well:Crunch - There was a LOT of room for improvement here (which is why I list this again under the things that could have been done better) but the book did cover a lot of things that, quite frankly, need to be covered in a d20 book about sex. It's expected that it'll have sex-based feats, spells, magic items, etc. You pretty much can't be a d20 book without those, and I thought it covered those bases relatively well.Tone - I appreciated that the BoEF took itself seriously, rather than acting like a book of dirty jokes. I'd had enough of that in Nymphology and The Quintessential Temptress from Mongoose. Even if it was a bit clinical at times, it's attempt to rise above puerile humor was a welcome change.The Artwork - Again, this is one I had mixed feelings on. While traditional artwork might have been better, I can't deny that the photoshopped illustrations of real people was certainly an interesting technique. I don't know if it worked so well in every situation, but it was decidedly different in a new way, which I consider to be a good thing.On the flip-side, the BoEF also could have been a lot better in several areas:The Crunch - While I appreciated that the book had to have a fair amount of new rules, it sort of let that dominate the book. The majority of what was there became about new classes, feats, spells, magic items, and monsters.The (lack of) Fluff - The BoEF did have a fairly solid first chapter that dealt with the "fluff" of writing a d20 book about sex. Sex and the alignments, sex and various creatures and creature types, and the second chapter had a nice fluff/crunch mix regarding pregnancy, cross-breeding, diseases, etc. That part was good. Unfortunately, those chapters seemed to be virtually all there was in that regard. Small bits cropped up elsewhere about "laws against enchantment spells" and "new uses for existing spells" which were good, but beyond that the topic was largely abandoned. There should have been an adventure given to show how to better blend the materials presented into your game. There should have been some sort of local setting (the red light district of a city, perhaps) that could have been dropped into your campaign easily. Things like this weren't given enough coverage.The Monsters - This is something of a crunch issue, but I felt that the monsters in the BoEF were exceptionally lacking. There simply weren't enough, and too many of those that were there were focused on being PC races. There were a lot of creature archetypes - ranging from the sexy celestial that tempts adventurers to do good with promises of heavenly rewards to tentacle demons that breed half-fiends by force - that were ignored.The Artwork - Okay, the thing with photoshopped pics of real people were nice. But they just didn't work as well as actual illustrations would have, I think. There were a lot of places where the actual pictures actually hurt verisimilitude, and the sheer number of them that lacked backgrounds (or had such weird-looking backgrounds) made it painfully obvious that it was being done in a studio. Illustrations would have done a much better job than pictures.How do you think the Book of Erotic Fantasy failed to adequately cover sex in the d20 system? And, more importantly, what SHOULD it have done?</blockquote>

Verification