Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

[Seenar]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

Do I live a charmed gaming career?

 

How have I dodged the freaks?

 

(where's a smirking smiley when you need one?)

 

 

Let me second that.

 

I met my wife in a Champions game. It was over the course of that game we feel in love.

[Beetle]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

Let me second that.

 

I met my wife in a Champions game. It was over the course of that game we feel in love.

Nicely done! How did you do that without coming off as the typical guy gamer hitting on the girl in the group?

 

Not that I expect any advice to be relevant in my own life, or course...

[gewing]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

At the risk of sounding like the classic old dude (damn, I'm only 35)

White Wolf and LARP really radically increased the number of female gamers, or at least brought them further out into the open and forced more of the rest of the gaming community to have to deal with real life.

I remember going to cons in the 80's where as little as 1% of the con population was female. And they usually reveled in the attention (I know my GF did)

 

And there was always the one girl with the smoking body in the chain mail bikini whos sole purpose in life was to leave chaos and madness in her wake.

 

WHen I was in high school my only real gaming group was at the house of a 32 year old woman... Her characters, and some of her Characteristics (personality) were not conducive to well adjusted gamers.

[gewing]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

Sounds kinda familiar....

 

One WoD game I was involved in back in my college days was run by an Anarchist friend of mine... my buddy and I joined somewhat late. It started out as a Sabat game, first this group of players had ever played. They went berserk playing out the "Woot! We're badA$$ vampires that don't hafta follow rules!" fantasies they'd always wanted to indulge. Rape, murder, and general mayhem to a degree that it sickend ME, which is a neat trick sometimes. My friend and I both came in with VERY unusual characters... he was a mummy, and I was a repentant Yakuza assassin (loosely based on Chow Yun Fats character from The Killer).

Honoring my contrat meant dealing with these fools till the job was done.

The rest of the group was absolutely slackjawed with suprise when, at the sucessful conclusion of the story arc, and subsiquently the fufilment of my giri, we proceeded to execute the lot of them as they triumphantly prepared to return to their lair.

 

Got the "Dudes? Like why did you do that...we're on the same team?" treatment.

My reply?

"The same honor that required me to work with you requires me to kill you. You're a bunch of rabid animals"

 

Just remembered that

 

 

I remember when Outsider's Character shot another character in the knee. He had her covered, in the shower, after she had tried to HIJACK HIS SPACESHIP! IIRC he tossed the character a pair of handcuffs and told her to put them on.

 

Then she tried to "Vamp" him.

 

SO he shot her. He had to maintain credibility.

 

 

[madgoblin]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

In this one game I am in; (Wont say which RPG), My character is known to be a bit of a sexual deviant. He is a Half-Elf who has a strong sexual attraction to Humanoids (Goblins, Hobgoblins, Orcs, etc.) and a sizable stash of Pornographic Images in His home. Thus giving the rest of the group a good reason to kind of suspect that He got His freak on. Well It has recently come out that He is Still and Plans to be a "Celibate" Virgin until he marries. (He may be a Perv but He does have ethics). It avoids the less savory aspects of My character going out and getting laid, but it still keeps his sexual deviancy as He Hits on Goblinoids.

I think the trick is if you are going to play a sexual deviant or Pervert, try to be a bit more creative about it. Dont Just do all the stereotypical "Pervert" things but rather, try to make it more of a character Affectation. A side thing to make the character a little more colorful.

[incrdbil]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

I think the trick is if you are going to play a sexual deviant or Pervert, try to be a bit more creative about it. Dont Just do all the stereotypical "Pervert" things but rather, try to make it more of a character Affectation. A side thing to make the character a little more colorful.

 

Agreed--my dirty old man of a Mechwarrior character wasn't just looking for nasty girls..he specifically had a kink he wanted to try--bisexual midget siamese twins for a really twisted threesome..twosome..whatever. That cost a lot of money--he did it once, and after that he was happy. (and all occurances happened 'off screen'.) His thought: Somethings you do just so you can say you did them.

[FenrisUlf]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

The whole idea of "adult themes" seems like a misnomer to me. Given the reactions you described above (in-game rapes' date=' pregnancies, scantily-clad nymphomaniacs, etc.), it sounds to me like you've had the misfortune of being in games weighed down with [i']juvenile[/i] themes. In other words, you generally haven't been able to explore adult themes in gaming, because your socially-stunted nitwit players have dragged them down to the level of junior high toilet humor.

 

Unfortunately, it's been my experience that when someone in gaming or fannish circles says 'adult' or 'mature', what they really mean is 'high school boy's locker room'.

 

And what is up with constantly having female characters raped? I'm getting grossed out just thinking about it. Then again, I've known some games and gamers, all at 'cons, who get all hot & bothered over gay rape scenes. Really gruesomely detailed gay rape scenes, one right after the other.

 

I have to wonder about some of the folks you meet at 'cons.

[Ghost Archer]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

This subject never came up for me until I started playing online. For sixteen years my games, the ones I ran and the ones I played in, never really had an adult overtone. In fact I can only think of one instance in all the time that where sex was even an issue and that was a total disaster. As a group we were interested in being superheroes not super studs and studettes.

Since I have gone exclusively online, all that has changed. Maybe its the anonymity on maybe its something else. Since going online I have had one of my characters, a male character, raped. I have had the girl-friend so-to-be wife of another of my characters kidnapped and gang raped. I have had my primary character’s future wife’s clone pose in Playboy and generally given the original a ‘slut’ label. Strippers, drug addict prostitutes, child molestation, teenage hookers . . . I as a GM I haven’t introduced a single one. My co-GM is female and she can be truly evil.

In the case of having my male character raped, he was in a coma and it was a girl that did it, she screwed up an outstanding game, one that came to a total stop not long after that. On the gang rape thing I had to tell her I’d never play in another game with her if that ever happened again. So far she’s left that one alone. And on the ‘wife the centerfold and slut’ thing, my character pretty much ignored it, that being his nature. I am glad she never imported the clone into his life; it would have trashed that game too.

Adult themes are fine and I enjoy the emotional side of it but I guess I'll never be comfortable in the Dark Champions type of world she seems to prefer.

[Curufea]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

And what is up with constantly having female characters raped?

 

Maybe this is more common in your culture than mine?

20 years of gaming, and attending a half dozen Cons, and I've never come across this. Ever. I have come across licentiousness - people hitting on people all the time, but never non consensual. (this beggars the question - were these players using "evil" characters? Non consensual would never be contemplated by a "good" character). Mind you, there have been a few characters that have had rape mentioned in the backgrounds - but it hasn't been something that was ever done during a session.

 

The most adult concept I've so far done in a Con is roleplaying a funeral, set in the present day. A loved one had died, and we all had various types of relationships with the deceased, and with the other PCs. We met for the funeral and at one of the friend's houses afterwards. That was it.

No sex, no violence, no torture, no deviance - but definitely adult themed.

[FenrisUlf]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

Maybe this is more common in your culture than mine?

20 years of gaming, and attending a half dozen Cons, and I've never come across this. Ever. I have come across licentiousness - people hitting on people all the time, but never non consensual.

 

I never ran across it until I sat in on a few games at cons ('furry' cons, it must be admitted). I've heard more about it here at the forums than seen it in real game-play.

 

It's just that I've gotten the idea that there are some gamers out there who have a fetish for rape and humiliation scenes involving female PCs.

 

Maybe it's to get girls out of their game?

[Guest darthvegita666]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

the closest thing we have to a girl in our game is a fat guy with man boobs

 

we actually have a lot of those

[Vondy]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

I have never been in a game where a female player character, played by either gender, was raped. I did sit in a session with a GM who obviously had a problem with female players and PCs, but I never came back, and he was the clear exception to the general rule of my experience. Some very serious themes including murder, rape, torture, brutality, deviant behavior, absuse of power, and general sexuality, marriage and death, have been touched upon regularly in the games I have run and been a party to, but always as just that - a theme to be dealt with in a way that serves the story without pushing any of the participants hot buttons. I've always treaded lightly on rape and sex with female players for the simple reason that I am a man, but the truth is, some female players are pretty bold in that regard. I've had female players hand me characters whose backgrounds or pscyh lims raised an eyebrow because they went places female gamers usually try to avoid in the more juvenile gaming circles. I've had female players hand me characters who were rape victims, former pleasure slaves, and love 'em and leave 'em james bond types, and one fairly parochial character who was possessed by an ancient atlantean queen with some hedonistic principles of life. Maybe my general Phil & Dixie approach (good classification guys!) is why. Then again, maybe its because I'm less willing deal with rape and sex in a game with female players than my female players have been.

[Troll]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

I am lucky in that most of the games I run have more female than male players. As a result there isn't the all women are saints or whores mentality that can be found in some gaming groups. Adult themes are left to the discretion of the players. I have had female players run characters who had been victims of incest (fantasy hero game), escaped sex slaves (fantasy hero) and married couples (supers). I have never run a game or played in one where anyone was raped. Even if the player had suggested that it could happen I would probably not include a rape scene. I just am not comfortable with running something like that.

 

In many of my games the players have had thier characters develop sexual relationships with each other. In the vast majority of the cases these result in marriage between the two characters. Maybe this is because most of my players are married females or have been in the same relationship for 8+ years.

 

So, I do think that if you have a clear understanding with your players and it suits the campaign adult themes have a place (with the exception of rape which I have a bias against).

[arcady]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

80% or thereabouts of gamers are people who I find utterly distasteful. Sadly, that probably includes a lot of people in this thread and this forum.

 

I get about the exact opposite ratio from the general population.

 

 

Gamer geeks are just sad pathetic anti-social deviant-sex obsessed often drug abusing people...

 

So, yeah, I probably don't like most of you, and that's just the way it is...

 

 

Frankly, I've been burned by negative experiences so many times that I'm willing to say that opinion now, even here.

 

There's a thread around here somewhere about bad gamer experiences, I've got a long list in there, and a lot of it deals with the obsession some gamers have with raping female characters...

 

Here:

http://herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=479273#post479273

 

 

All of this, by the way, happening in the Bay Area.

 

If I wasn't addicted to gaming, I'd give it up. Dealing with gamers usually just isn't worth it.

[Kyle A.]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

Wow. I have got to say I've been gaming for years, with many different people. In some groups I was the only guy, in others there where no women, and in others there was a pretty even mix. I have never run a campaign with a rape in it, I've never played in one and I've never played with anyone who wanted to play out a rape or even play a character who was raped somewhere in their background. Hell if I encountered someone who had his character rape every woman in the game I'd take him outside, give him a beating and send him on his way. Rape is not fun, its not entertaining and people who disagree with me about this have deep seated mental problems.

[Vondy]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

80% or thereabouts of gamers are people who I find utterly distasteful. Sadly, that probably includes a lot of people in this thread and this forum.

 

I get about the exact opposite ratio from the general population.

 

 

Gamer geeks are just sad pathetic anti-social deviant-sex obsessed often drug abusing people...

 

So, yeah, I probably don't like most of you, and that's just the way it is...

 

 

Frankly, I've been burned by negative experiences so many times that I'm willing to say that opinion now, even here.

 

There's a thread around here somewhere about bad gamer experiences, I've got a long list in there, and a lot of it deals with the obsession some gamers have with raping female characters...

 

Here:

http://herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=479273#post479273

 

 

All of this, by the way, happening in the Bay Area.

 

If I wasn't addicted to gaming, I'd give it up. Dealing with gamers usually just isn't worth it.

 

Had you're morning coffee today?

 

More seriously: I run into gamers who have social problems all the time, but I don't game with them and had a long term policy that no one comes to my games, or gets invited to my games, without being cleared by me. Why? I had enough bad experiences early on (including one guy who attacked one of my players at the table) to lead me to immense selectivity in who I do and don't game with. Its also why I haven't set foot inside a convention in twenty years, and why I volunteered to have the game at my house where, since its my place, my gamers felt it appropriate to ask before bringing someone over. I don't want to deal with the social problems and abberant weirdness. At the same time, that selectivity has led me to meet some very normal, considerate, socially competent gamers over the years (normal people with other hobbies, healthy world views, steady jobs and healthy marriages with families). And I never had too much of a problem finding people I felt comfortable with (and most people would regard my social values as being "very old world" and the way I deal with people as "very polite" or downright "formal," though I try to keep an open mind, and I loosen up with people I know very well and feel comfortable with). As a result, I think you're being a bit harsh, or overstating your case. There does seem to be a higher percentage of social misfits and latent abberent (or just plain weird) behavior in the gaming crowd than in the general population, but I have a strong suspicion its a much lower percentage than you think. The bad experiences stick with us longer than the good ones, and the weirdos are more accutely remembered than the normal folks.

 

Here's ONE of the weirdos I've run across:

 

http://herogames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=467244&postcount=12

[Curufea]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

I have no doubt there are psychological theses on both gamers (and how they became gamers, the root cause being very relevant to how they behave inside games, usually wish fulfilment) and goths.

 

(FWIW, most goths I've known have been "anti-monogamous". I don't know how it ties in with the inherent deathwish, maybe they want death-by-STDs?)

[Black Rose]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

(FWIW' date=' most goths I've known have been "anti-monogamous". I don't know how it ties in with the inherent deathwish, maybe they want death-by-STDs?)[/quote']

 

I always figured it was the whole "rebelling against normalcy" thing. Also, most of the Goths I know have pretty big sexual appetites and not much in the way of denial abilities in that department.

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

I always figured it was the whole "rebelling against normalcy" thing. Also' date=' most of the Goths I know have pretty big sexual appetites and not much in the way of denial abilities in that department.[/quote']

 

OTOH, as someone who's philisophically non-monogamous, better known as polyamorous, it might just be that there is a lot of overlap in the Goth scene with a lot of other alternative lifestyles, including poly folk, fetish people, pagans and the like, many of whom have explored the social dynamics of non monogamy for quite a long time. Having access to a community of people who recognize that traditional attempts at monogamy often fail for many people gives them a doorway into a different perception of the matter. I'll take a partner who agrees that, while we might love one another, neither one of us are all that comfortable being each others "one and only" over someone who is hidebound to monogamy but still has the same urges and ends up sneaking around, cheating and lying about it.

Infildelity and/or "grass is greener" urges are some of the main reasons for divorce.

The divorce rate is staggering.

A lot of Goths come from divorced parents.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the appeal of a lifestyle that might allow them to avoid the sins of the fathers.

[Primal]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

I've been in two games in my life that touched on sexual topics.

 

1st was a game with 4 male players, a male gm, and 2 female (and cute!) players. Very fun game.

 

One female's character was clean-cut, straight laced -- added all kinds of fun non-combat social/high-society dimensions to the game. The player was new to gaming, and so knew none of the typical steroetypes. This is important because one of the male players' characters was an assassin, even though the party was pretty "lawful good". The player had a back story that made it somewhat plausible for him to be a member of our party as long as our characters didn't know. It's one of those things where everybody pretty much agrees not to pull too hard on a thread that may unravel the fun.

 

But the trick is that this one girl was such a sincere girl and playing such a sincere character that when the player asked the male player what his character was, he just stared blankly at her, afraid to say the truth. Somebody filled in the awkward silence with, "Hey aren't you playing a locksmith?" to which he agreed, "Huh? Yeah! I'm a locksmith.. " Well there you have it, he's locked in as a locksmith, and an unspoken rule was laid down in that instant that his "punishment" for playing the assassin among the priests and knights was that the player had to keep his identity from another player (whom he somewhat liked). This made for absolute great fun.. especially seeing how his lockpicking skill was really bad.

 

Anyway, there was another girl in the party who was playing umm... I guess "chaotic neutral" (the system was not D&D, those terms are just being used in hopes of easy communication). She was playing a sorceress who was actually quite fearsome to our party and quite crucial to the success of our quest. The character was quite beautiful and was played quite flirtatiously (the player wasn't too far off that mark either), but when other PC's would try to flirt back, she would crush them with the "you're unworthy, go away before I make it shrivel up and fall off" stuff. As far as anybody knew, she could do it too. It was, again, a great source of mirth. The other players were genuinely afraid of this female character's powers, especially because the player was quite capricious enough to try to follow through on the threats, and the GM was likely to allow it in such a situation.

 

It may sound differently when read over the internet, but it was an intensely amusing situation.

 

In the other game, a male player in a "Sprint Campaign" (really short, quickly made up, kinda zany, with flavors of "Paranoia" group politics) I ran played a homosexual, drug pushing, posoning pedophile. He had a network of young boy informants who were his lovers and his information collection/drug distribution system. Again, this ended up working out as completely amusing, as he was, for example, forced to try make contact with one the boys while he was still in school, and was completely at a loss trying to explain to the adults at the school why this strange, scruffy looking man urgently needed to talk to a boy who was no relation to him. It sounds potentially disgusting, but so too is the idea of being an assassin, etc. And in the game, it mainly worked to provide funny binds to put the character in. (I had confidence that the player also had no wish to roleplay any sexual aspect of the character's sexuality, or else I wouldn't have allowed the character)

 

So, I guess in summary, I can accept sexuality to be used for a plot device to create inconvenience, or awkward situations... funny things.. mentally challenging things... etc.

 

I have never been in a situation in which an aspect of sexuality in a game turned into tittilation or anything that resembled sexual wish fulfillment. I guess I've just been lucky to avoid the freaks. Since I have no wish to interact sexually with gaming associates, I'm pretty sure that such a thing would completely skeeve me out. Your mileage may vary.

 

edit: grammar, spelling, and an extra sentence.

[Troll]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

I've been in two games in my life that touched on sexual topics.

 

I ran played a homosexual, drug pushing, posoning pedophile. He had a network of young boy informants who were his lovers and his information collection/drug distribution system. Again, this ended up working out as completely amusing

 

Amusing? No! Sick? Yes!

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

Right now, we play bascially PG/PG13. Romance exists, and sex is assumed in many relationships, but it happens offscreen. Mature themes show up and are handled well - the average age of our group is 37. The thing is that most of us play for escapism - to get away from the dross and intesity of the world, and we play a neo-silver kind of champions, or high fantasy. So while it shows up, it is handled delicately and no one really dives into the more adult themes.... just isn't the tone we want to game in.

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

Currently i'm playing/running 3 games, and here's how the issue is handled in each...

 

In a DnD game i play in, i have a half fire-elemental halfing sorceror (There is a reason), and he has the leadership feat and so has a companion who is an older matronly women who is supposed to keep him on a lease (since he's immune to fire, sometimes he forgets that others arn't). The GM has straight up asked me if they are "fuck buddies" and i replied with all seriousness, that i have no clue and he'd have to ask them.

 

In the Low Fantasy HERO game, one player aquired an NPC "girlfriend" (the same character who had boosted his comlieness (or as we teased him, took a bath)). It's been purely plation on camera as neither the player nor his roomate the GM want to RP it really.

 

In my DnD game, i have more Female PCs (and players) than I have male ones. I haven't raped a PC, but one of them was getting drunk and openly flirting with everyone at the bar. So i made one of them flirt back with her. Things progressed and she ended up getting pregnate. About a few months later she was sudenly "aborted" when a bugbear critical hitted on her and dropped her from full to negitive HP in one hit. She was actually sad about this, which suprised me, but let me realize that i must be doing something right in the amount of adult content because players weren't feeling it over the top, but able to RP adult themes when they want to.

[Primal]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

Amusing? No! Sick? Yes!

Heh.. well, I admit it doesn't read well cold.

 

I think my point is that I've GM'd for and played characters who've had all kinds of absolutely deplorable personality traits.. but when it comes to a sexually deplorable trait, or really anything sexual in gaming, I can only deal with it on certain levels. With that particular situation you are reacting to, I wouldn't have been participating at all if I thought anybody there would be getting titilation out of anything about that character. The character concept was supposed to be a sick, deplorable person-- as were all the other characters in that game. A gaming session quite full of Black Humor.

 

It's seems kinda inconsistant that I can much more readily accept people roleplaying atrocious behaviors such as racism/species-ism, terrible cruelty, etc. ...I can deal with characters who are assassins or vengeful folks who kill a rival's entire family line in retribution (in the course of gameplay), and it doesn't necessarily bother me (as long as I don't suspect that the players themselves would behave that way in real life too, and the characters rarely "get away with it").. but as I said before, if anything actually sexual, consensual or otherwise, were ever addressed in game.. I think it would skeeve me out.

 

Some sort of odd American moral background, I guess. Beat them up? Fine.. Innocent? Tough break.. Kill them? Meh.. ...but consensual sex (much less rape)? Count me out...

 

Odd.

[Wilfred_Death]

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts

 

In this one game I am in; (Wont say which RPG), My character is known to be a bit of a sexual deviant. He is a Half-Elf who has a strong sexual attraction to Humanoids (Goblins, Hobgoblins, Orcs, etc.) and a sizable stash of Pornographic Images in His home. -x-

I think the trick is if you are going to play a sexual deviant or Pervert, try to be a bit more creative about it. Dont Just do all the stereotypical "Pervert" things but rather, try to make it more of a character Affectation. A side thing to make the character a little more colorful.

 

In a Long running D&D Game, I played this perverted Elf - no this is perfectly normal for us elves! -

Partly because of some of the players wanting to go into vicarious sexual details and because in D&D there are so many 1/2 breeds and X - Elves

I thought, as I designed my Character, "Hmm it seems Elves can breed with anything, and have a slight chance of offspring".

So I took this Mage Elf, who had lots of artistic ability and the correct spells to make 'long lasting' colored pictures, calligraphy skills and etc.

This elf also had this High quality like Spellbook ( blank ) he took everywhere.

What he was doing was writing this elaborate illustrated treatise on sexual experiences, - Something like 'Dirk Stig McNasty's Illustrated Alphabetical guide to Xenophila' -

 

It worked a treat, party would go into town and lascivious player would insist we all go to brothel and etc.

Dirk would pull out his tome, consult it for a while then in a deadpan voice say something like: "lets see, E , F , G... Hmm, no sorry I'm not doing Humans at the moment, don't start with G.... "

Other players would have their PCs walk off puzzled and in a huff..

After a while of this they wanted to know what the book was.

Dirk would explain that it was an Alphabetical guide to Xenophilia and then say something like "hmm.. L, M, hey! Anything around here start with M?...."

And then wander off annoying townsfolk with questions about what starts with 'M"

Of course sometimes Dirk would get a match and get the GM to 'fade to fireplace'

Or In battle yell out 'Hey don't kill it yet, that's a Jotun, I'm doing J's at the moment!' or such like.

Ended up saving a few HillGiants that way, sometimes you have to put your money where your mouth is

 

Totally effective in cutting down beeing nagged by stupid players.

Also became this like minor legendary book in later era in same campaign.

Also great 'revenge' when Dirk would do something like carry a Table up to his room at the Inn, just so if anyone still hadn't got the message and asked "what are you doing?", He'd just say something like "T, yeh I'm up to T, you know, this is a Table....."

 

Never had to describe anything in detail I didn't want to thereafter....