While reading through all those answers, I realized I had forgotten to mention something in the torture/rape/defile PC question.
To give an example, while any rape in my campaign will take place off screen,...
If you (and your players) decide, that you are all able to accept and handle the rape or torture of a PC, you still have to decide, how much you all can handle; it is a big difference between describing a scene with a sentence like "and bound hand and foot to iron rings on the long, wooden table, there lies your friend. His naked body is full of dried blood, which floats in brown-red flakes the groud with every laboured breath he takes. Countless cuts and wounds are visible and an assortment of many different, sharp and malicously glittering knives in all shapes lies strewn around the table." and describing the actual act of torture or rape.
And while you and your players might be able and willing to handle the act of torture (as opposed to the results like my exampel above) being inflicted upon a NPC, they might not be willing or able to handle it if it is inflicted upon a PC.
Additionally, there might be a big difference in what you and your players are willing/able to accept in description of the actual act; it is quite a difference telling a player "Your character is being tortured.", "Your character is being tortured; the vampire-lord is repeatingly cutting into his naked body, bound to a wooden table, with one of the many blades." and a lengthy, minute description of the actual torture.
Keep this in mind, while discussing these questions with your players.
Thanx everyone for all the input. It seems that most of you tend to share the same setiment that I did so I am glad to see that I have not gone to far from... sanity? Anyway I have another question regarding ethics between a DM and his players.
Currently I have one player that is getting... out of hand. He constantly talks about his character raping the female PC's and then says "he he just joking.". So far the girls who play The character's havn't really said anything but I can tell they starting to get annoyed with it as am I and the other member's of the group.
I have asked him to stop it several times and each time he is good for a session or two and then is back to it. So I was wondering if I should just tell the guy he's not welcome at the game anymore?
Vote Cthulhu! At least then we know we are going to get screwed.
well I listened to you guys and myself and want to report I kicked his butt out of my game. He swore at me some and then took a swing at me (and learned why that was a bad idea) and is now gone hopefully for good. and I have to agree why are there so many of these people playing DnD.
Vote Cthulhu! At least then we know we are going to get screwed.
ScS of the Fraternity wrote:Jez-US! That is so wrong. Drop that guy like a bag of sand.
What is it about D&D that attracts that kind of nut? This has got to be the fifth time I've heard the exact same story.
I found a group after three years of non-gaming two years ago. I went twice. The first week they accused me of cheating and laughed at me simply because I wanted to play a female Halfling druid, the second week the entire group where taking bets on who was going to rape my character first.
I left and never went back.
"Blood once flowed, a choice was made
Travel by night the smallest one bade" The Ballad of the Taverners.
The Galen Saga: 2000-2005
If he's making other members of your playing group uncomfortable, confront him about it. If he doesn't change, get rid of him... either that or the girls you game with will probably leave.
On a second note, maybe talk to your girls about it too, see how much they're willing to put up with, assure them that you are trying to remedy the situation, etc. That might convince them to stay while you try and deal with your problem player.
Hi all,
I read this thread and now wonder where do you meet these sort of creeps. I have played DnD for about ten years now as a player and as a DM and none of my players, coplayers and DM's have ever suggested raping my characters, other people's characters or NPC's.
A good thing you ditched this guy, the little creep.
Well, I haven't played D&D as long as most of you, but my friend who usually serves as DM for our group has played for about 15 years (since he was about 13). We've only had one rape occur in the game, but it was in a mini-sidebar gaming session, and the character was actually his human female paladin, raped by an ogre as part of her torture after we were captured (it was one of the old 1e "Slave Lords" modules, IIRC). Because of the size of the group then (me, him, and one other person), he ran a couple of characters as well.
The actual act took place where none of the rest of the PCs could see it... they were just told about it by one of the Slave Lord NPCs. Then the paladin was brought in--clothing torn, stunned look, etc. It set up an interesting point later in the game when the PCs escaped and found the ogre--whom the paladin carved up in quite a poetic and ironic way. And the thing was, the rest of us players were just as happy as if we'd run the character. We liked the idea of the ogre getting some payback, I suppose.
I asked him later why he threw that in, and he said he was just trying to run the monsters the way they would likely behave. We were in a situation where we were powerless, chained up, had no magic or weapons, and they had all the characters totally at their mercy, so he thought that's what the monsters would do. I couldn't really argue with that, but thanked him that it was one of his characters rather than one of mine--sounds selfish, but (being male) I wasn't ready to try to roleplay something like that. It freaked me out a little, to say the least.
As time as moved on and I've become a more experienced player and DM, I've gotten a little more comfortable exploring some of the darker paths in D&D (and especially Ravenloft). Tragedy seems to follow the characters around--it's one of the chief reasons they become adventurers in the first place, really.
My DM and I also discussed some other gaming groups he'd played with, including one that greatly enjoyed running neutral and evil groups. One of his characters in that group was a human barbarian/cleric/assassin who became a natural lycanthrope through contact with some artifact similar to the Sword of Kas. This barbarian was incredibly evil--his chief joys were rape and wanton slaughter, feasting on flesh and blood, gratifying every desire, infecting hundreds of others with lycanthropy so he could control them... pretty intense stuff. But this guy fit right in with the rest of the group, a half-elf wizard/cleric who became a vampire, an elf assassin who also became a vampire, and a priest who became a mummy.
I guess the point is really just to underscore what the others have said. Intensely dark experiences can--if you choose to allow them--be an excellent way to develop your PC and become a better player. If it makes you uncomfortable (moreso than it should, maybe is a better way to phrase it), then you can call a halt to it.
“I let out a battle cry. Sure, a lot of people might have mistaken it for a sudden yelp of unmanly fear, but trust me. It was a battle cry.”
― Harry Dresden
I'd say in general, that good/evil/neutral alignment should only affect the way characters fullfill their quests. Anything on the sideway - like raping a female party member - should be strictly out of the question.
I don't want to go into detail, but really, the idea of such a 20-whatsoever usually-timid-still-a-virgin jerk indulging his perverted sexual fantasies into my gaming group is more than I would tolerate.
Really, and I am not a violent person - the first time one shows up with THAT attitude, I'd beat him until he doesn't stand up any more, just to show him what true fear is.
I mean, it's really disgusting how deep some idiots sink!
I have often wondered about my frequency of running into the real weirdo's out there and then it occured to me that I am the one guy who gives all those people who no one else will a chance to play DnD in a group. More often then not it works out real well but as is the case currently it was not a great idea. I think that if it had not been that there are two girls in my gaming group that perhaps he would of been different but because they were two real (and quite attractive) girls he didn't behave well.
Also remember that for the most part Ravenloft players tend to be a bit mroe on the sophisticated side while the average gamer is well just that the average gamer.
anyway enough prattling
Vote Cthulhu! At least then we know we are going to get screwed.
