The Book of Vile Darkness -- bad idea?

[Humanophile]

Pardon my being a latecomer, but for all the brouhaha about prostitution, drugs, slavery, and things like that, how likely are they to make a major showing in a book like this? I'm sure especially drugs of a sort will be given a nod, but much of this stuff is, quite frankly, boring from a game mechanical POV. Between my PHB and DMG, I can cobble together a fair going rate for a slave (P. 96, PHB), prostitute (P. 149, DMG), the benefits for worshipping a demon-god (Pp. 29-32, PHB), or even rape (P. 137, PHB). I don't see how repeating that can be good for pagecount, and I don't see a BOVD-style book being much interested in most of those. Quite frankly, if I want to know the economic and personal details of any of those issues, the books I'd look for wouldn't have or need D20 logos.

As a gamer, I want my sample demon cults, hell princes, squeamish magic items, prestige classes, feats, and spells with "Material Component: one living person". And I think that's what Monte'll deliver. Will it undoubtedly see use in some games, either teenager-y evil or munchkin, sure. Maybe even some good damnation/redemption stuff, too. And of course, it'll be there for villains and enemies who you want extra nasty and epic.

I can't say if I'll have use for this, since "warriors of light vs. the encroaching darkness" isn't really my thing, but I'll probably give it a glance when I see it, and although I wouldn't want my little brother having one, I don't see it as quite as gut-turning as some people here think.

 

[Numion]

Amen, Humanophile. And I'd like to add that if the price for such a book is some Jack Chick saying 'See, I told you so!', that's the price I'll pay.

Also I think that it's important for WotC to cater also to the older audience, as it seems that the player base for D&D is getting older across the board.

 

[TrizzlWizzl]

Well, I for one am glad that we'll finally, hopefully [fingers crossed] get recognized for who we all really are: a bunch of Stan worshippers![/fingers crossed]

Stan? Oh crap. I mean Satan of course.

But really, all jokes aside I think all the fundamentalists are right. We are bringing about the apocolypse (or... whatever). If the Book o' Vile Darkness helps others to realize that and, who knows, join our cause then so much the better.

Okay but really I'm one of those people who just like reads the first five posts then jumps to the last page (no, I know, I hate me too), so if it hasn't already been said before, I gotta say that some book about evil (which might have been done before... DMG? Monster Manual?) by Monte Cook is sort of weird. I don't know why, but it kind of freaks me out that for like the past four months I've been hearing about the Secret Project and how it's this huge deal and it turns out to be this mammoth book about killing baby seals or something?



I feel like someone got me all stoked for like the "Princess Bride 2" and then ran a print of "Salo: 90 Days of Soddom". Eck. Monte... dude, you've been wanting to work on a gargantuan book about the excact d20 mechanics of how to keep someone alive long enough to show them their spleen? Wha?



Those widdle pictures of you on your website working on your widdle minatures made you wook so harmwess... turns out you are actually a minion of none other than Stan himself!

SATAN!!

Oh for goodness sake.

 

[Gez]

This topic is one of the funnest I've read for a long time.

I just post to give an insightful link about who some people really are.

Look at this. Read it.

http://207.67.219.101/objective/propaganda.html

Seriously, if you see someone being influenced by this kind of crap, it is your duty as a Man to educate the poor thing.

If you need arguments these people, a good start is here: http://www.stardestroyer.net/Creationism/index.shtml

Read the Hate Mail pages, they are often very... insightful. And funny.

 

[Numion]

This topic is one of the funnest I've read for a long time.

I just post to give an insightful link about who some people really are.

Look at this. Read it.

http://207.67.219.101/objective/propaganda.html

Seriously, if you see someone being influenced by this kind of crap, it is your duty as a Man to educate the poor thing.

If you need arguments these people, a good start is here: http://www.stardestroyer.net/Creationism/index.shtml

Read the Hate Mail pages, they are often very... insightful. And funny.

"Furthermore, the Darwin OS is released under an "Open Source" license, which is just another name for Communism"

I KNEW IT! D&D is also communism with it's OGL and what not!

 

[Gez]

Of course D&D is communist. All this fuss over "balance between classes" is an obvious reference to the struggle of classes.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Okay but really I'm one of those people who just like reads the first five posts then jumps to the last page (no, I know, I hate me too), so if it hasn't already been said before, I gotta say that some book about evil (which might have been done before... DMG? Monster Manual?) by Monte Cook is sort of weird. I don't know why, but it kind of freaks me out that for like the past four months I've been hearing about the Secret Project and how it's this huge deal and it turns out to be this mammoth book about killing baby seals or something?



I feel like someone got me all stoked for like the "Princess Bride 2" and then ran a print of "Salo: 90 Days of Soddom". Eck. Monte... dude, you've been wanting to work on a gargantuan book about the excact d20 mechanics of how to keep someone alive long enough to show them their spleen? Wha?



Those widdle pictures of you on your website working on your widdle minatures made you wook so harmwess... turns out you are actually a minion of none other than Stan himself!

SATAN!!

Oh for goodness sake.

This is ample illustration of why it's always good to read the whole thread before posting. I realize you're trying to be breezy and funny, but some of what you're writing about has not only been directly addressed earlier in the thread, but has been refuted. Also, someone insinuated some unflattering things about Monte that they felt were implied by the book's theme, which caused quite a bit of consternation, including from Monte himself. So your post, while engaging, seems kind of inappropriate given what's gone before. No offense intended.

 

[drnuncheon]

This topic is one of the funnest I've read for a long time.

I just post to give an insightful link about who some people really are.

Look at this. Read it.

http://207.67.219.101/objective/propaganda.html

Seriously, if you see someone being influenced by this kind of crap, it is your duty as a Man to educate the poor thing.

The problem with really subtle humor is that sometimes, people don't get it.

J

 

[Wolfspider]

I personally feel a more serious, less tongue-in-cheek apology to Monte is in order, but hey....

 

[Gez]

The problem with really subtle humor is that sometimes, people don't get it.

J

Oh, I was laughing madly when I read that. I thought it was a joke also. The problem is, there are people who are really like that, without joking. I have seen people saying worse things in all seriousness.