D&D General Which movie rating would you use to describe your D&D campaigns?

Which MPAA movie rating would you use to warn folks about what to expect in your D&D campaigns?

  • Rated G - General Audiences

    Votes: 2 1.8%

  • Rated PG - Parental Guidance suggested

    Votes: 3 2.6%

  • Rated PG-13 - Parents strongly cautioned – Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13

    Votes: 63 55.3%

  • Rated R - Restricted – Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian

    Votes: 33 28.9%

  • Rated NC-17 - Adults Only

    Votes: 13 11.4%

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pukunui

pukunui

Legend
I'd say my games are pretty solidly PG-13 with the occasional foray into mildly R territory, which I think the local M (mature) rating covers pretty well. (All of the Disney-era Star Wars films are rated M here in NZ, for instance.)

The NZ system also has an R13, but I don't think I'd use that to classify any of the games I run. I'd easily rate the one I play in as R15 or even R16. The DM can get a bit graphic in some of his depictions, and there's more swearing and adult humor than what I'm comfortable with when I'm DM.
 


U

Unwise

Adventurer
Normally a Soft R (In my country we have Mature 15+, which sounds about right), but if it was a movie and you actually had to show the violent stuff on camera, it would be NC-17 or banned. If I were directing it, I would have the more horrific stuff happen off-screen.

I was at a game somewhat recently where it took me a while to work out that everybody had dropped acid IRL. That was interesting. It was a horror themed game and the idea appeared to be trying to mix a (bad?) trip with a scary RPG. Everybody was fully invested, so they must have got the dosage right. Lights were low, ambient noise and music was on-point.

It was definitely "Refused Classification" even despite the drug use. The PCs self-mutiliated constantly, some of them had to do so to gain their normal powers, some to remove arcane infections, some to seal pacts with Greater Old Ones. It was pretty messed up and I was sober. I'm puzzled by people that would come so close to a bad trip on purpose.
 

G

Galandris

Foggy Bottom Campaign Setting Fan
Interestingly, I looked at the rating for The Lord of Ring, which I feel might be how many of us envision our RPG sessions if they were put on film.

Courtesey of IMDB The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) - IMDb

Click to expand...

I find it very interesting that it was rating anywhere from "everyone" to "16+". There are some I don't know what they mean (II-B and U, mostly).
 

Zardnaar

Zardnaar

Legend
pukunui said:
I'd say my games are pretty solidly PG-13 with the occasional foray into mildly R territory, which I think the local M (mature) rating covers pretty well. (All of the Disney-era Star Wars films are rated M here in NZ, for instance.)

The NZ system also has an R13, but I don't think I'd use that to classify any of the games I run. I'd easily rate the one I play in as R15 or even R16. The DM can get a bit graphic in some of his depictions, and there's more swearing and adult humor than what I'm comfortable with when I'm DM.
Click to expand...

PG13 with F bombs.
 

CapnZapp

CapnZapp

Legend
Lyxen said:
The problem with these ratings is that they are one-dimensional, covering violence, sex, horror, other themes (slavery, etc.), etc.
Click to expand...
A bigger problem, in my opinion, is that these ratings are... basically insane.

Showing violent deaths and murder? No problem! PG-13!

Suggesting people are nekkid underneath their clothes, and might even have sex a lot? Lord Heavens no - MA or R!

Applying these ratings to ttrpgs is... even more strange. Our games are basically murder simulators - lethal combat and solving problems through violence is the core of the hobby.

Just about every rpg on the market (with very few exceptions) should reasonably be labeled MA or, if they have critical results tables, R.

While games featuring cheesecake or softcore nudity should be labeled PG-13. At most! (As if there were any games with a boob or three that still didn't feature murder and slaughter. I don't think there is a single such game out of the probably ten thousand ttrpgs published in the last fifty years or so)

Any game mature enough to ask it's players to kill other sentient beings, cause pain, suffering and loss; often pretty graphically; should have zero issues depicting nudity and sex. I mean, if the game is going to get a R rating, why not make the most of it.

Just a viewpoint. No, I'm not American.
 

AtomicPope

AtomicPope

Hero
I want to say PG 13 but lots of violence, gratuitous sex, lude sexual humor, foul language, smoking, alcohol, and drug use makes my game R rated at a minimum.

And that doesn't even get into what the characters are doing!
 



R

R_J_K75

Hero
Unwise said:
Normally a Soft R (In my country we have Mature 15+, which sounds about right), but if it was a movie and you actually had to show the violent stuff on camera, it would be NC-17 or banned. If I were directing it, I would have the more horrific stuff happen off-screen.

I was at a game somewhat recently where it took me a while to work out that everybody had dropped acid IRL. That was interesting. It was a horror themed game and the idea appeared to be trying to mix a (bad?) trip with a scary RPG. Everybody was fully invested, so they must have got the dosage right. Lights were low, ambient noise and music was on-point.

It was definitely "Refused Classification" even despite the drug use. The PCs self-mutiliated constantly, some of them had to do so to gain their normal powers, some to remove arcane infections, some to seal pacts with Greater Old Ones. It was pretty messed up and I was sober. I'm puzzled by people that would come so close to a bad trip on purpose.
Click to expand...
Seems like a waste of good acid. I couldnt sit there and play D&D after doing it, sounds rather terrifying, and Id be hard pressed to believe the game went that smoothly. Not to mention to be the only sober one must have sucked. I threw a party for my 21st birthday and only found out after they were all gone that everyone there except me ate me magic mushrooms, I knew there was something strange in my neighborhood...
 


el-remmen

el-remmen

Moderator Emeritus
CapnZapp said:
Just a viewpoint. No, I'm not American.
Click to expand...

Oh no worries, a lot of Americans agree this system for rating films is insane and inconsistent (and there is even evidence the MPAA is corrupt), but as a rule of thumb for describing your game to others, it is a familiar system (for Americans at least) even if (as I said in my OP) it has clear and obvious problems as a system for something that is so subjective.
 





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