Gothic Horror: how hard can gamers take in?

[Archedius]

It depends if your version of 'Loft has similar attitudes towards sex as the periods in history it represents. Obviously, having the varied origins, races, cultures etc will have an effect on views- but that's DM's purview.

Mordent and the other advanced domains could be seen as being in either the classical or the later romantic period of european history with the medieval domains being self-explanitory On a side note- this is about the time where gothic stories were written One could imagine fragments being written about Barovia even.

From there it depends if the DM wants to keep the outlooks similar to what they were in the comparable period of european history. Yes, sex was made reference to (by middle/upper classes) through metaphor, analogy and elevated language. However, most people still indirectly refer to sex, even after the 'sexual revolution' of the 60's- except without the beautiful words and skilled linguistics. (this goes without saying that lower classes were often very vulgar and lewd in their speech- and people think that there's a lot of swearing these days!)

It's simply a matter of capturing the feel of the time period that the domain is based upon. If the world is described in modern terms and language, the players will be in that mode. If you describe it in the manner that would be acceptable to the time, it can help players mesh into it.

[Joël of the FoS]

I like most of the advices here. Will collect them for the "DM trick" page.

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IMHO, I think this type of touchy topic needs trust between the DM and the players. So they can build bonds between their PCs and a NPC. Without this, it's just silly, IMHO, and can invites bad jokes as some posters here wrote.

As a DM, if you are not sure, talk to your players, or at least to some of the key players in your game, to find out if it's OK. In case of doubt leave it out.

And in any way, remember there is no mechanics for sex in D&D , so less said, best works. Subtelty is the best way to use these topics.

And please, a last no no: if you have a women at the table, do not rape their PC. That's rude and just reeks of an idiot DM.

Joël

[Zettaijin]

And in any way, remember there is no mechanics for sex in D&D , so less said, best works. Subtelty is the best way to use these topics.

And neither are there precise mechanics for a lot of other things in D&D with many complex and demanding tasks being boiled down to a single boring dice roll.

D&D was never meant to be realistic, because reality is too often dull and lacks fun filled group activities like going into a local dungeon to kill the riff raff and score some killer loot.

You can dress it up and call it realistic, but at the end of the day, there are bad guys to defeat and hapless folks to save. Sex, much like baking a cake or going into a mosh pit, just tends to fall a little flat whan translated into dice rolls and verbal descriptions which is why most players will prefer staking vampires to giving vivid orations on the art of sewing. And really, it's hard to make a pastry's chef struggle with flour and eggs into a heart pounding adventure - unless you enjoy hour long narrations about food with little to no player input.

Also, in reality, you're not accompanied by your "adventuring party" everywhere you go. You don't walk into every store followed by a sneaky fellow, stout stud and a stuffy bearded erudite now do you? Heck, how often do you even go around town with company in tow compared to alone? But in D&D, too much individual play leads to group boredom so players tend to stick together due to the nature of the game.

By downplaying necessary but mundane activities, the game allows players more time as a group where everyone can pitch in at the cost of realism.

[Joël of the FoS]

I wasn't really suggesting using dices for this , just saying victorian subtelty works best.

"OK... So the next morning, you meet the other guys downstairs and they tell ... (back to the story)"

[Zettaijin]

Of course, Joël, you probably know that I had my tongue partly planted in cheek when making my previous comments.

I understand and respect the virtues of modesty in the handling of touchy matters, however I maintain that usage of blunt, unpoetic and dare I say raunchy portrayals of sexuality can work if done properly.

Certainly a Succubus could have a modest man seeing things that are to his pure and honest mind thoroughly disgusting and immoral. The usage of graphic language establishes an appropriate contrast between the chaste pontifications of the victim and the fiend's obscene temptations.

[HuManBing]

For me, the greatest problem with incorporating sex into a dice RPG is that you can never quite get the thought out of your mind that your lover basically is the DM.

I'll let that sink in.

The inverse, however, is not true. Role-playing is pretty fricken awesome when you incorporate it into sex.

Choice of character is important though. My most recent girlfriend dressed up as Lara Croft, complete with two guns. The effect was somewhat spoiled by the fact that I dressed up as Anton Chigurh, complete with godawful hair. >_<

[Dominique]

For me, the greatest problem with incorporating sex into a dice RPG is that you can never quite get the thought out of your mind that your lover basically is the DM.

Heh. My husband GMs a Mage: The Ascension game, and he and my brother basically spent about half an hour of one session hitting on each other as my brother tried to seduce an NPC for information. That was one of the weirder evenings of my life.

Jumping back to the subject of cultural attitudes toward sex, an important thing to take into consideration is the religious attitude of the various domains. A recent story arc IMC involved a lesbian NPC who was in (unrequited) love with a PC, and since every member of the party except the rogue is devoutly religious (and to three different gods, too--the Morninglord, the Lawgiver, and Ezra), I had to figure out where each of their religions stood in terms of homosexuality in case a player asked. For the cleric of the Lawgiver, it was easy, since homosexuality would be seen as a distortion of the order the Lawgiver created. I was tempted to say that the Ezran Church of the Home Faith would have a dim view of homosexuality because it's basically Fantasy Catholicism, and that the cult of the Morninglord would have a live-and-let-live view of it since they have a live-and-let-live view of pretty much everything . . . but upon further thought, I realized that I had it backwards. The Borcan church bends over backwards to appease Ivana, who is heavily implied to be bisexual, so speaking out against homosexuality wouldn't be in their best interests. Furthermore, the cult of the Morninglord puts a huge emphasis on life, which means that they're likely to emphasize childbirth and family (I can't remember if the childbirth thing is canonically part of the religion or something that my player and I came up with when hammering out her backstory), which means that they'd be less approving of homosexuality because it's essentially sterile. If you're going to be including sex in your campaign--gay or otherwise--then making inferences about the attitudes of the various Ravenloft religions could be a good way to figure out the attitudes of the domains.

[crazybantha]

The effect was somewhat spoiled by the fact that I dressed up as Anton Chigurh, complete with godawful hair. >_<

ROFLOL

Reminds me of He-Man and my childhood. lol

For me, the greatest problem with incorporating sex into a dice RPG is that you can never quite get the thought out of your mind that your lover basically is the DM.

I'll let that sink in.

Sure, there can be some level of awkwardness between gamers in certain situations. To me, at least, roleplaying romatic or sexual situations is the same issue as getting past the awkwardness of really getting IC and delivering a performance at the table. How about roleplaying a character from the opposite sex? These are all the same stuff, IMO.

About sex portrayal, I couldn't help notice that when talking about sexuality, the thing most rememberd is graphic wording and explicit narrative. That's fine to discuss about, but when I talk about sexuality I mean it in the broadest sense, not just portraying coitus per se at the table. As a matter of fact, portraying coitus would be very uninteresting - just that, and nothing beyond that - IMO, save for some situations (like Zettaijin's succubus example).

When talking about sexuality, the things I like to talk about the most are stuff like morals and sexual orientation. In essense, why is X considered right/wrong and why things should go as Y. As I said before, I'm not the average person when it comes to morals. The fastest way to explain this is this - the kind of questioning Kevin Smith does about sex and religion in his movies is the kind I relate to.

This type of questiong is the one I want to deliver at the table. It's not to be the center of the game, my idea is just as an extra to add some flavor.

If you're going to be including sex in your campaign--gay or otherwise--then making inferences about the attitudes of the various Ravenloft religions could be a good way to figure out the attitudes of the domains.

Interesting insights. They'll help me alot, because I'm still such a neophite in RL canon.