The Book of Vile Darkness -- bad idea?

[Darkness]

SO wait
- Human Sacriifce and Slavery is Okay
- Prostitution is not Okay?

PLEASE some people have a major mixed up sense of Morality!!!

Not me, bro; re-read my previous post: I was just pointing out to another poster that his fears of "needless sexualization" because of prostitution being in the book are unfounded because, well, prostitution is not in the book.

 

[Westwind]

First Edition feel....

Didn't the 1e DMG have a d30 table for what sort of prostitute you encounter?

On a more on-topic note, I think that issues like prostitution would actually make for a pretty boring book since it would come down to economics, not explicit sexual acts. How much does it cost? What`s the pimp`s take? *yawn* I can`t imagine many campaigns need this sort of thing spelled out and if they do any DM should be able to come up with some figures.

Slavery might fall into the same category, although there are enough variations in a fantasy world in terms of types of slaves and such that it could be interesting.

The "darker" aspects of sacrifice seem appropriate for the fantasy genre though. You can spend the lower levels killing bandits in the forest, but if you`re playing in an epic campaign, you want to face something as evil as you are good. It`s a question of scale. Take a CR 15 giant with some fighter levels and a CR 15 True Necromancer with a pit of hapless victims whose souls he can consume for power. In a year from now which fight are you going to be relaying to bored friends?

I agree that WotC should not match WW's "Black Dog" line, but I doubt it would. One or two books of crunchy bits and atmosphere should be enough for any campaign.

 

[drnuncheon]

Re: First Edition feel....

Didn't the 1e DMG have a d30 table for what sort of prostitute you encounter?

Nope.

(That was before the d30.)

J

 

[Holy Bovine]

I was thinking the same thing when i heard about this new project. The fact that they are braggin about how disturbing the cover is just makes me wonder what Soccer-mom is going to think when Little Billy shows it off to her in the book store.

If i was WotC i would just call this little book the Jesus F*&%er Handbook or Deamons Aren't so bad Kids for all the image problems it could potentialy cause.

This book is not designed for 'Little Billy'. It is for an older audience and (hopefully) will be treated as such.

Your second statement is just ridiculous - third party publishers have already brought out books like Legions of Hell and Evil so this I doubt is going to go any further than those books. The anti-D&D bashers are a tiny minority (albiet a very vocal one) and don't need any one book to fuel their lies and censorship - hell I've seen them still using the 1st edition DMG and MM as 'proof' of the satanic overtones of D&D.

You cannot allow this minority to control what can or cannot be published because you are afraid of what extremists will say. That would be a worse crime.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I doubt very much that Monte's book will come anywhere close to being as graphic in its depiction of the mentioned vices as was The Book of Ebon Bindings for Empire of the Petal Throne (the world of Tekumel). More human sacrifice and depravity than you can shake a stick at.

 

[Umbran]

You know, irony can be pretty ironic

Did anyone else notice this...

The discussion on whether this book will make the game look satanic was started by a user who's nickname is that of the dismembered hand of an archlich-god.

No offense, HoV, but I find that incredibly funny

 

[kenjib]

On Monte Cook's site in the message boards he has talked about how the prostitution thing wasn't in the book and had no idea how that it would be in the book unless someone added something to it after he had turned it in. So, once more, according to Monte, prostitution will not be in this book.

Hey cool. This book is going to be grrrreat. I truly pity the players whose DM owns both this and Kenzer's Villain Design Handbook. Being bad has never been so good!

SO wait
- Human Sacriifce and Slavery is Okay
- Prostitution is not Okay?

PLEASE some people have a major mixed up sense of Morality!!!

Since you refer to "some people" instead of being specific I will assume that your reference includes me. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Now on to my reply...

It has nothing to do with morality, just what's appropriate and/or necessary to the genre and the game - I think Turjan's and Westwind's posts covered this very well and I agree with them. If you really want to get into the morality aspect, why should prostitution be within the scope of a book called "The Book of Vile Darkness." There are some people, myself included, who think it's pure madness that prostitution is illegal in most places, as well as bad for prostitutes and their clients because it's unregulated as a result. What does the sex trade industry have to do with Vile Darkness? I can see the "illegal" tie-in, but at the same time that is an arbitrary moral judgement since it's not illegal everywhere. Maybe you're the one making the call to morality this time?

Note that in my post I said "I hope that the whole prostitution thing doesn't materialize as all that much when we see the book." I never even said that it shouldn't be in there at all, just that it shouldn't be overdone.

Human sacrifice and slavery are classic themes that are central topics in much of the genre. Prostitution is completely tangential and in-depth coverage would come across to me as a cheap attempt to get sales at the expense of page space that could have been used on something more useful and topical. I'm not sure why you assume that my objection is on moral grounds. I'm sorry that my wording may have been ambiguous and I hope this clears up my position.

In any case, it's not in the book so it's a moot point.

 

[thundershot]

I like the idea of the book but I see it with a warning label, rating and shrinked wrapped!

Wait, why should this book have it if CoC doesn't have it? I didn't see a warning OR shrink wrap on that book...

Not that it matters to me. My wife already said I could get it.



Chris

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Maybe I'm too involved in the European mindset, but I think all this diiscussion is rather silly...

I'm an American and I find it silly too. But then again American attitudes are pretty puritanical on many issues.

 

[omedon]

The Book of Vile Darkness -- bad idea?

By BAD you mean GOOD, right?