What subjects are taboo in your game?

[the Jester]

There are no taboos in my campaign, but some things rarely come up, such as rape (only came up once before a recent orcish campaign I ran... ), graphic sex (hasn't come up since I was 16... well, whaddaya expect??), umm... I guess that's about it. I've had torture, I have a religion that's a (very) rough parallel of Christianity, I've had child sacrifices (by evil villain npcs), etc.

Interesting topic, by the way!

The thing about taboos is that, to me, it's not my place as dm to tell a pc how to act. It is my place to determine the consequences of their actions, but that's a different story.

 

[RobNJ]

Nothing is off-limits in my game. That said, explicit sexual descriptions usually don't happen. No one role plays having sex. That's probably because it's all men, all but one of which are straight, and 1.5 of which have not-that-latent-homophobia-although-they're-mostly-polite-and-pleasent-around-the-gay-player.

 

[Kanegrundar]

Graphic depictions of rape and torture are in the game, but are left along the fringes. You know it's happening, but all you hear is the screams or all you see is the shadows. Real world religions are not present in my fantasy games, and even in modern day games the issues are dealt with very gingerly as to not offend anyone. I have used catholic priests and such as villains before, but it was always made clear in the end that the church as a whole was a good organization that was falling prey to the "less pious." Beyond that, pretty much everything goes. I only go "over the top" when I feel that it adds something to the story. Such as really describing the slow motion process of a close friend of the party being slain by the main villian. Heck, the game is violent enough without describing every little cut, wound, and act of evil.

Kane

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

It's pretty much a free for all at my table. I have not taboos that I can think of, and I'm the most reserved one at the table.

 

[AngelTears]

As I said in the War, rape, and Madness thread, there are things that either are talked about with the severity belonging to them, or are simply dropped from the game. For me fun is getting into character, not the amount of gold or the foes I have vanquished.

I have not found anything particularrly taboo in the games I have played, except I don't hit on the players or their characters. And I expect they to do the same. Romance maybe, but then it is more of "love is in the air" style of gaming, where the characters are vehilces for "loves tender kiss".

-Angel Tears

 

[Paka]

Generally, I am entirely into a more subtle approach to horrific subjects, only because subtletly and allowing a player's imagination to fill in the blanks tends to be more horrific and effective storytelling.

With sex...I just do the old PG-13 movie stand-by, fade to the ceiling.

 

[SmokestackJones]

Taboo

Hey there,

Well, in my FR home campaign group, graphic sex has never come up. I don't think that's something we focus on, but I'm sure it would be of the discreet type. We're all mature with no kids among us.

Religion, that's abother thing that really hasn't come up. Yes we have clerics in the party and we've dealt with temples, but usually in a pretty straightforward fashion.

As for when I DM, I pretty much go along with no graphic sex. If PC's are gonna get romantic with NPCs/PCs, I usually say something like "well, things are progressing nicely with that elven guy you just met in the bar and he asks you if you want to go upstairs" and then cut to next morning...

Religion in my games are, like I said, pretty much straightforward, although I probably COULD use real-world religions in the game. My outlook is that I respect the dieties and the faith, not neccesarily the organization. Making fun of, say, the Catholics, Buddhists or Wiccans (of which I've been all three at one time or another) is one thing; mocking someone's faith (no matter how misplaced in my opinion) is out of bounds.

Now, if I can just figure out how to tastefully present the worshippers of Carl the Gray Ooze from Bluffside...

-Smokestack Jones
Maker of the Sampo!

 

[Gothmog]

I'd agree that graphic depictions of sexual assault are taboo in my games, although the PCs knows it happens from time to time- just off screen. Everything else is ok IMC though.

One question: I have noticed that in every BoVD thread so far, the mention of rape and half-orcs has come up. Why does everyone assume that a half-orc HAS to be a product of rape? Granted, many, if not most of them are, but there are people out there in real life who have some very weird sexual practices, and I don't think it would be any different in a fantasy world. Heck, there could be plenty of reasons a human might be willing to mate with an orc- perhaps the half-orc child is supposed to become some sort of religious figure, or the human is turned on by the orc, or whatever. Thoughts?

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

In the session of the game I played the other night, we came across a thing I found rather repulsive, a race of half-hobgoblins. Although this isn't any more repulsive than half-orcs, what I found disturbing was that their ancestors weren't raped, they willingly interbred with hobgoblins.

 

[the Jester]

On reflection, I do have a taboo in my game- and that's acting as if the campaign world works like the real world or another campaign world (like FR or Dragonlance).

I mean, my campaign setting takes place on the inside surface of a gigantic air bubble in an infinite ocean. Gravity doesn't exist, surface tension takes its place (and unless you're very far away from the surface of the bubble you can't tell the difference). The sun is a big ball of fire that orbits the island at a distance of half a million miles. There are four elements, not a periodic table of them.

Pcs who try to rely on real-world physics and chemistry get a talking to.

Most things function essentially the same as in our world, and I try to let the pcs know if something won't be the same, at least if their characters would know; and I just don't stand for characters who use player knowledge to try to get an advantage (I remember when I was in high school one of my classmates had a character who used our latest chemistry lesson to try to liberate hydrogen from acid using copper pieces so he could build little hot air balloons to bomb a bandit camp...)