Games > Role-Playing Games

Tracy Hickman's rant

<< < (5/5)

House of Mustard:
I don't want to get off topic, but I need a little explanation.  My RPGing experience is fairly limited - mostly Rifts, After the Bomb, and Star Wars.  I don't see what the point of the book of Vile Darkness is.  In the games I've played, if you wanted to know the bad guy is evil, you could say he was a murderer or a rapist or something, but why would the details ever come up?  What are the point of rules about "overtly sexual necrophilia"?  I'm having a hard time seeing how it would ever even show up in a game.

Maybe I'm just a little naive in my role playing.  The only time sex has ever come up in a game I played was when I was about twelve.  My friend Giles thought it was very funny for his character to sleep around with everybody, and would tell us that he did.  Is the Book of Vile Darkness written with the same motives (to make pre-teens giggle?)  Is it simply a book for the immature to gawk at, or is there a practical gaming application?

Please, somebody explain.

Lord_of_Me:
the immature to gawk at, i think.
maybe wizards want to expand the audience and got it a bit wrong

42:
Isn't it sort of concerning that Wizards has already stated that they won't release online any of the art for BofVD because they say the art is for mature audiences only. In other words, they are concerned that some of the artwork might violate pornography or other public decency laws.

I agree with Fell that the line between game evil and actuall evil can get crossed very easily. Part of the problem is that not everyone agrees on what is the wrong thing to do (like they can't ever agree what is the right thing to do). What may seem as evil to one person may not seem evil to another. For example: I was in a campaign where the DM wanted my character to perform a certain action to further the plot. In his mind he saw the action as self-sacrificing and heroic. In my mind I saw it as masochistic and abusive so I refused to do it and he punished me for it. I didn't agree with the DM (and still don't), but it blew over after a couple of sessions.

Now there are people who clearly take things too far. For example, the guys I knew in High School who were into Vampire had serious problems. One got arrested for substance abuse and carried a dead mouse as a key chain. Another was locked up for sexual assualt on his girl-friend. And another had made scars in his forearms in various symbol patterns (mostly satanic). I like to think that those people would have been messed up anyways, but they did use the Vampire game as an excuse for their actions. I think they were probably looking for any excuse to having to deal with reality, but they took things way too far. Because of those people, role-playing had a very negative reputation in my high school and in the community.

42:
And yes Mustard, most sane people have no need to go into details as to how the bad guys did what.

Slant:
Just a quick thought on the whole "evil bad guys" thing.  The main antagonist in a game need not be evil, or even bad.  It depends on the point of view of the protagonists (the player characters).  It is perfectly legitiate (in my mind at least) to run a game where the players are all part of some outlaw group or secret society (maybe evil, maybe not) and the main antagonist could be the Order of Paladins, the Church, or even a powerful witch hunter, any of whom might have a vested interest in seeing the player characters either imprisoned or killed.  The point here is that the antagonist doesn't have to be evil to be effective, but merely has to be believable.  in the late, lamented Farscaps, the crew (ie: player characters) were being hunted through space by a soldier who was out for revenge over the percieved murder of his brother (a very believable motive) and had the ships and artillery under his command to make himself a very real danger and a reason for the crew to stay on the move.  Would he have been considered evil?  Maybe, but maybe not.  Even if he were a saint, the motivation of revenge and the power to back it up would have still made his actions believable.  A bad guy in your campaign might very well simply be the wife of a 1st level mercenary the players fought against and killed when they were beginning their careers, but who has made herself powerful through years of magical study and is now able to confront her husband's killers, even though she might be just as "lawful good" as those that she is seeking revenge upon.

Oh well, just a few thoughts.  I'm feeling wordy tonight.  Too much Halloween candy :)

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page