Questionable content

Depends. Some settings are more accurate when trying to ape 14th century Europe than others.

i will give an example of the one most fresh in my memory.
>party is traveling to a city
>some old dude gave us a bunch of money and will give us more if we go to said city and take care of bad guys
>get into city
>the place is run by corrupt guard out the wazzo,
>guard captured and killed the king, so now they run the place
>guards are prostituting children, selling slaves etc...
>party finds a tavern and hangs out, listening in on some of the guards talking
>guards are waltzing around, molesting just about anything with tits that walks into the tavern.
>we go to bed, get woken up by screaming next door.
>party goes to check it out
>open door
>see guard doing some weird ass BDSM stuff with chains, torture devices in places not meant for said torture devices and alot of health potions.
>kill the guy, save the girl, session ends
>DM tells us we will probably be staying in that town for a while...

so far its walking on that grey area, but i need someone with more experience with this sort of thing to warn me if it's going to go south

Probably because the woman "validated" the creepy sex stuff.

If he goes into enough detail to explain the BDSM stuff... It's time for him to stop.

Unless you all enjoy that stuff.

>torture devices in places not meant for said torture devices
Like, the kitchen?

>Prostitutes are a must in many settings.
How about no? It really depends on the style you play - if you never interact with low-lifers or criminals (aside from murderkilling them) you will probably never interact with prostitutes unless you specifically want to do so.

I'd say worry level is about 60%.

Still pretty good odds he's just putting it on for maximum edgy evil to motivate you into wrecking the place.

With a skilled GM, you could use them as information gatherers.
Find out who the Vizier's favored whore is, and pay her a bit to pump him for information.

Currently running a melancholic game setting where everyone is shitty, miserable and a lot of nefarious deeds go unnoticed (in the right places).

>prostitution
Yes, although it's always mentioned in passing. The players don't seem to care.

>child slavery
Of course! How else can I be grimderp without children as chattel? :^)

>weird sex stuff
One of the PCs is into some hardcore degenerate shit, but its hardly a defining trait of their character and seldom comes up. Like, If I were to ask the other players "Who is John Doe", the last thing the would mention is that John Doe is a weird sexual deviant.

I think it's generally okay unless he detailed all tis shit too much.
Did he at least said it will be gritty realistic campaign before you started?

he said it was more grounded in reality than traditional fantasy...though i was not entirely sure what he meant at the time

Well, you'd better buy some anti-disease potions then.

Rule of thumb: keep it PG-13. You can do a lot with PG-13, and it is generally not going to be distractingly tasteless. In other words, they're the basis of shitty stories and even shittier games.

A lot "mature" story lines in RPGs and comics read like something an edgy 13 year old would write. "Didn't think I'd go there, did you? Well I _did_! Hardcore!" A bunch of cheap shocks meant to turn basic human discomfort up to 11 just to prove you can. But sooner or later, that just leads to one of two responses: your players stay engaged and start to squirm (in the worst way, the "please let me get off this subway before that old guy opens that trench coat" kind of way) until they leave, or they cringe until they completely disengage, completely distracted by the burning question, "what is _wrong_ with this guy?" (The DM/author, not the characters).

And as you get older -- married, kids, work -- and concepts like "rape" and "child molestation" that were formerly reserved for direct-to-DVD villains actually start to take on some palpable meaning, your tolerance for this sort of bullshit just plummets. Not because you're triggering on past trauma or because you can't take it -- although those are also good reasons for a DM to do that sort of shirt -- but because you just have no time to care about this ham-fisted, tone deaf bullshit that's supposed to substitute for characters and plot.

If you can't keep it PG-13, you're probably wandering into edgelord territory.

tripps and by far the most useful thing i have seen this month

I find that DMs will often confuse player wants with character wants.

For example, the last rogue I played had obvious character flaws -- lecherous, self-absorbed, greedy, often didn't respect the intelligence of potential marks -- mostly because I intended to play him for laughs. Many flaws means many opportunities for amusing situations: bar fights, chases, jailbreaks. Sometimes it worked -- like when I was caught with my pants down and failed a tumble check to dive out a window ahead of the town guards, or when I got knocked on my ass by a half-orc, but rolled well on the Dex check to save my drink.

But I also got what I did not want: awkward sex scenes that I immediately had to back out of. You see, at no time did I expect to take my -4 CHA modifier and actually seduce the mayor's daughter, nor did I even really care if I got any money out of the too-trusting half-orc. I just wanted to make my character available to the fireworks that follow.

So when in doubt, make sure that DM and player are both clear on what's setup (character wants) and what's payoff (player wants).

I played a group with some close friends before and freely magical realmed shit up for everyone, since I knew all of our likes. It's good, but only if you're 100% that it's both what you all want, and that you're ok with it permanently affecting the game. It's also not inherently wrong to include such real life things in your game, unless he's actively fetishistic it or getting off on it. Some splats like the book of vile darkness actively encourage such in order to make villains that much more disgusting enemies to face, and that much more satisfying to bring down in the end.

I've had to ask myself this question several times lately because I ended up playing a character whose sexual preferences are basically just listed as "yes".

It started off as playing an effeminate witch with the prehensile hair hex as "Bayonetta with a dick" but the whole flirting with everyone and dressing up in sexy outfits got out of hand. The next thing I know he's crossdressing, hitting on dragons, and sleeping with snake women. It all happened totally organically too. It's basically gotten to the point that he uses sex as a weapon against anyone attractive to stay on top.

Oddly enough he's also mayor of a town now and everyone in town is really good at keeping their mouth shut when he and the blacksmith go crossdressing together (she dresses as a man and escorts him about town in a dress). It'd be a hell of a lot more surprising if he didn't routinely make some showy display of power that'd make most kings feel inadequate.

Reverse Hetero is an underutilized fetish.
That and recursive crossdressing.

What makes it more fun is that he's insanely powerful in both a political sense and just by being one hell of a witch. She's a little awkward as a gentleman sometimes but he's insanely perfect as a lady.

Every now and then if someone fucks up he'll gently correct them and they'll start behaving right quick.

For instance, if someone tries to offer him the wine list at a restaurant rather than letting his crossdressing date pick a wine for them they get a sickly sweet smile that suggests that the town guards will raid the building for contraband nightly if they don't behave themselves and give the gentleman (the female blacksmith) the wine list. When it comes time to order a meal they should naturally ask the lady (him) what "she'd" like first, then move onto the blacksmith.

Admittedly, this is all part of a plan to corrupt the blacksmith in order to save her because her family is part of a "heroic" lineage which actually goes around fucking up everything in the name of the status quo, but she seems to be having fun with him.

Depends on the gm and players really.
Our old dm almost never threw the shit at us and if he did he eluded alot.
>find a farm but for some reason the crops haven't been harvested
>odd cause its getting cold and frost ruins that shit
>figure its abandoned
>the country IS at war and deserter and opportunist type bandits are an issue
>turns out its inhabited by a pretty big family of a dad 14 older brothers and their 6 year old sister
>give is this shpiel about other farmers getting sick after eater their own crops in the area
>claims they have supplies to last so they decided to just hunker down for the winter and start clean
>whole time sister is acting nervous and around the family and throws up a lot of red flags
>general flinches when touched by a brother, immediately gets close with the paladin in shiny armor who the family immediately seems to dislike, generally unhealthy looking and unwashed
>tells us they can't trust any travelers as thats how you get killed by bandits and the like
>says we can stay in their barn for the night and use the hayloft but we should be gone by day break
>second we're alone in the barn we're talking about that shit
>somethings off obviously
>paladin IC and OC is an idiot and doesn't see anything wrong
>conclusion is they might just be opportunistic farmers scavving local farm lands or something to survive harsh times
>rogue's gonna go check shit out come nightfall then report back before we move on this
>during the house check he finds out they've got local army equipment and set patrols on the road
>grabs the girl from her room and brings her back to the barn
>most of us, minus paladin again he's an idiot, have a general idea of the relationship between her and the deserters
>during the subsequent house raid and capture paladin finds the girls room complete with tons of ripped dresses strewn around and bloody bedsheets
>not sure if the dm was making a serious attempt to get the paladin to understand or was being grimderp

Anakin was a child slave. Maybe that's why the movie stank.

>recursive crossdressing.
What's that? Like a chick dressed up as a guy dressing up as a little girl?

Corruption too? Why do you know all my fetishes?
Think like a Reverse Trap that has to put on a dress. Most everyone assumes they're a male crossdressing.

>paladin just starts cleaving prisoners we'd tied to a log
>gets maybe half of them before we get him stopped
>kids been there watching her knight in shiny armor hacking up people the entire time
and thats how we got a child rape victim as a party mascot. That was also the only time that DM dipped into grimdark territory. Not sure if that was him trying to break into it and then pulled back after paladin went full autist or what but the only person who actually lost their shit over it out of game was the paladin player even though dm warned us he was going "gritty and realistic" with that one which we fucking asked for.

Oh okay, like this right?

It's pretty clear that the paladin was too thick for subtext and needed to be clubbed around the head with the obvious.
Sounds like he's a pretty good DM really.

That's it exactly! Some of the best parts of Ouran were when Haruhi had to wear a dress in front of people.

Wait. So is that a tomboy dressing like a girl or a tomgirl dressing like a guy?

It applies to both, and wondering where it ends is part of the fun.

Androgyny is the one true path.

Again, it happened organically. Like I said, her family line was basically a bunch of dudes being assholes that somehow lead up to her. Technically my boss is a semi-immortal conqueror who got screwed over by them in the past while trying to take over the world (and not even in a terribly evil way. Just normal "whole world is at war right now" kinda land grab shit).

Anyway, she kinda wanted to make daddy angry and I didn't want to have to kill her to appease my boss so I got to work corrupting her to prove she could be better than her family was. All the weird sex stuff was basically there to make sure she was good and open to some weirdness when I tried to make an empire full of kobolds and dragons and shit in a very much anti-monster setting.

Also I needed someone to escort my character when he was busy dressing like a pretty pretty princess.

Now and then the shit they get up to is just random and awesome. Most recent thing was stripping down and floating around the bay getting drunk by moonlight.

Even if she does turn against him and everything goes wrong there's no way she's going to go back to ordinary lovers at this point...

So basically the twins from black lagoon.
Which ones the boy which ones the girl?
The answer? yes.

>Also I needed someone to escort my character when he was busy dressing like a pretty pretty princess.
Really, do you need any other excuse?

Ignoring sex is just as weird, well not just as weird but it's wonky, as too much sex.

My character is an oathbreaker who killed his lord when he found out he was forcing himself on his niece who was under his care. I don't go into crazy detail about it, but it is a part of my character's backstory. We also had a player that, during our 1 week off (which equated to 2 years of downtime in-game), got married and had a child. handling it the right way is key.

WELL I FUNKING QUESTION QUESTIONABLE CONTENT DON'T I?
JESUS FUCK

Those are just as grounded in reality as murdering others for wealth.

So now we're just talking about how enjoyable magical realming can be.

Personally I think the real answer to all these threads (whether they're bait or not, I don't really care) is that to have a sort of "open and spirited" discussion about what tone of game the participants are all interested in (and perhaps okay with) before the game, and then stick mostly to that.

I mean if you all go "oh gosh that sounds like fun" when someone approaches the idea of ERPing, you might end up doing that. Which is... great? So what's the issue, then? Maybe don't blurt out your most heinous fetish first, but if you talk about what stuff is okay and you all keep escalating, you're gonna find out where people's limits are (or aren't) eventually, either in terms of what they think could be fun to play or what they get squicked by.

Addendum:
I also agree All the classic fantasy/sci-fi/adventure/pulp stuff fits pretty well within something like a PG-13 rating, especially since blood and violence doesn't come across very viscerally in a tabletop RPG, so you don't have to let it affect the predictability of the story (affecting how/why someone can die, for example; a huge problem with PG-13 movies, in my opinion.)

I definitely also agree with that part of the rule of thumb of but i feel like the real underlying answer should also include the possibility that some people are going to enjoy playing something "distractingly tasteless."

I'm okay with it. It's just a game. I don't honestly understand why people are "triggered" by such things.

However, I'm not okay with it if it goes to ERP territory. I mean like sex becoming main focus of the game. I don't think it's sick or anything like that, but it just doesn't interest me. I'm not looking for sexual thrill when I play RPGs, there's porn for that.

It's a war. Bad shit happens in war time. Mind you we tend to skirt the details - that kind of thing is generally, not always, but generally better left to the imagination - but several PCs and NPCs have had bad things happen to them or people close to them. Those things definitely have an impact upon them, but they by no means define them.

There are some body-horror elements that I've been introducing slowly, over time. They seem to be enjoying that slow ramp-up, but at the same time I know them well enough that they would call me out if I crossed a line.

This kind of thing is worth discussing before, during, and in extreme cases even after the game. It's dependent on group, setting, tone, generalized goal of play. It absolutely warrants the designation 'questionable;' answering those questions help define the game you play. But we're here to do stuff that intrigues, fascinates, captivates, just plain engages us in some capacity, and so when we find it appropriate we absolutely touch on those topics.

The ESRB has polluted the meaning of the word "mature" to mean "Sex drugs rock 'n' roll". To me, something mature is something that hits you across the face with reality in a manner that adults have to deal with.

Catherine is probably the only game I can call "mature" because of affairs being a major theme of the game. Something that many people in relationships go through.

>i feel like the real underlying answer should also include the possibility that some people are going to enjoy playing something "distractingly tasteless."

Yeah, it all depends on group. Some might enjoy greasy ERP and others might want to have entirely asexual games. Neither is "right" by default. I for example think questionable content can make good basis for horror and moral dilemmas, but I find concept of bunch of neckbeards (I know it always doesn't apply, but usually) roleplaying sex really silly. I also don't enjoy games where players are chaotic evil edgelord because I just can't get into that mindset, but if rocks your boat then go for it.

You're going to run into prostitutes in any fantasy campaign that involves visiting seedy neighborhood, taverns and inns. Unless prostitution happens to be banned and the ban is enforced really hard.

>many people
Nah. Most human beings are cookie cutter shaped decent types.
Don't project.

Cheating isn't a bad thing. Unless you're a redditor.

Seriously, they defended the doxxing of the Ashley Madison people because they got their dicks in a different fanny for once.

As with just about everything, depends on the campaign and the players.

One of the adventures in my last campaign dealt extremely closely with an elaborate child kidnapping/slavery/rape plot. We were pretty shocked both in and out of character once we realised what was happening but that just made us more emotionally involved in the adventure - wreaking bloody vengeance at the end of that adventure was satisfying even for our usually evil party.

Of course, our GM asked for our input on the tone at the first session, made sure we were all okay with things getting a bit dark and felt comfortable raising any issues we had. Overall the whole campaign was one of the best I've been in.

Never said it was just that making sweeping statements are.
Whole "all women are sluts" type deal.

Anything goes as long as you don't play with puritans

I guess that depends on whether your friend has crossed the line. If he's gone right up to it, maybe you should have a talk with him about toning it down. Otherwise, if everyone's into the freaky deaky, I don't see what the problem is.

>Cheating isn't a bad thing.
Thousands of murderers and millions of divorcees disagree. Open relationships are far from the norm.

That's a personal problem though.

Exactly, being a cheater is a personal problem.

Whether its personal or otherwise affairs are the biggest factor of domestic abuse and domestic related homicides. It also tears apart families, including children, through the divorce court which is brutal on everybody and also tends to leave one half with an upwards of 18 years long monetary deficit while also not providing families of 2+ children the money they need for comfortably living. Not to mention the emotional issues and traumas that go with these things.
Either way you cut it cheating is a terrible thing and can't be justified without a warped moral compass.

>it's a magical realm thread

Might as well ask how everyone feels about

Nah, overreacting to it is a personal problem. This isn't the middle east. You don't own someone else's genitals.

Holy fuck, it is everything i've ever wanted and more.
This was the best decision, the rules seem fine-tuned for the use of quests.
I applaud our gook overlord.

Technically speaking you don't own the property your house is built on but i'm sure you'd be pissed if someone took your land and demo'd your house.

We have laws for that kind of thing.

...

We actually don't. Read up on imminent domain. They can take your land and not pay you for it. By saying you can either pay the 1 billion dollars in fee's of said construction OR they'll swallow that fee but not pay you for it. It just takes one person someone making a decent case.
It'd probably surprise you your other possessions including money are also not legally yours.

Maybe I'm naturally a chill mofo, or maybe I have been on the internet too long, but I really find it hard to give a single fuck about most of these things. I even struggle with coming up with any emotional response to people getting blown up in France or Belgium these days.

>Cheating isn't a bad thing.
There isn't a single good thing about you can say about cheating that can't be deflected with "why not just break up and then fuck someone else".

It's a fictional setting you fucking sperg, without anything questionable there wouldn't be a lot of heroics now would there?

Nobody leaves home and hearth to go fight evil if the entire world is neat and unobjectionable.

Stop reading horror stories on Veeky Forums and talk to your "friend".

You know what else has prostitution, child slavery, weird sex and stuff? The real fucking world, you giant baby.

Veeky Forums is stupidly sensitive over dumb bullshit.

Lying and betraying someones trust is a bad thing user.

Social disenfranchisement is an issue in a lot of people. Its actually an issue in seveal european countries since its causing turn outs of otherwise perfectly normal college graduates to aim for bare minimum living in all aspects of life. This means a job thats below their credentials which will cause economic issues, general lack of social life which is long term mentall issues in the waiting, buying small apartments which causes housing market issues, and lack of intimate relationships which will cause low birthrates.
This is also causing the middle class worldwide to shrink rapidly and will increase as older generations phase out of the workforce.

This.
>As with just about everything, depends on the campaign and the players.

You and your players are the bottom line at the end of the day. Go as crazy as you want, just as long as everybody is on the same wavelength. You can be honest with your fun and go full turbo-crazy, or you can toe the line and keep everything neat and clean as to not offend anyone. You certainly can't have both.

We don't make a point of putting an emphasis on it all the time, but the group setting has prostitution's guilds, slavery is acceptable, corpses are traficked to increase a lich's armies, intrinsic individual or child rights hasn't been invented yet.

There are horrible things which don't depend on he supernatural.

However, we also put some limits. There's a fluff about a slave owner selling some of their souls for a devil. You can still hear that guy screaming at the death god's domain. You do not take away someone's chance to die and be reborn.

>prostitution
whatever

>child slavery
whatever

>weird sex stuff
sex stuff shouldn't need to be more than implied.

I see nothing wrong with that.

I welcome it with open arms
I welcome it with open arms, until it's obvious to me it's badly executed as a concept

This goes for literally everything, because I play with friends who I'm comfortable enough to discuss shit with

The stuff you describe is nothing you don't have in more "mature" TV shows like Spartacus, Games of Thrones, Vikings, True Detectives, etc.

I really don't understand why Veeky Forums people are either extremely prudish and squeamish (sex can only be implied, no mention of depraved stuff even if it exists and is very present, etc.) or they are edgelords (welcome to my magical realm - will you dare to enter).

Where did all the normal players and DM disappear?

I've seen the dicked version of this? was it a shoop?

>how does Veeky Forums feel about questionable content in their games?
It's a lot like sticking your dick in front of a girl. Unless you're pretty sure she's going to suck it, it's probably a bad move, and you should never do it to strangers.

>keep it PG-13
So, going by Wakfu, you're okay with prostitution, genderbending, slavery, sadomasochism, impregnation, and excessive fisting of holes

French don't understand the word "decency" thats why their country is a haven for pedos and rapists.

that's not realism, that's being an edgelord

There's also concubines and the like

Most insightful post I've seen on Veeky Forums recently. Screencapped.

>thats why their country is a haven for pedos and rapists.
I thought it was because they were so tolerant of muslim refugees

That much? I had no idea this was such a haven for scum and villains.

Well, all of those ARE PG-13 except for the last one. It should probably be expected that French PG-13 is not quite the same as anyone elses', though.

Wakfu is actually a pretty great example of how far to take things, IMO. Innuendo is fine for the sake of laughs, but when things are about to get seriously dirty it happens offscreen or behind a duck. Maybe French PG-13 is a better guideline for how to run RPGs than American, honestly: you don't restrict your DM to only one "fuck" per session, do you?

No, your world sounds like a shit hole which is normal.

Now get to fixing it.

>you don't restrict your DM to only one "fuck" per session, do you?
Well if we keep going past that we won't get anything done and the other players already feel uncomfortable enough with the one

I don't care if they're handled maturely and if the players make an effort to properly simulate how their characters would feel on the issue, not how they personally feel.

>prostitution
>child slavery
>weird sex stuff
OP what the hell does "questionable" even mean? Things you object to? Things that make you squeamish to mention in a group setting(or in general)? The former two can really easily (hell even the weird sex stuff if the GM does it flavorfully) fit a multitude of setting for plenty of internally consistent ideas. None of the things you mentioned have any really indication towards problems down the line.

>prostitution, child slavery, weird sex stuff

Look, magical realm isn't just having shocking or edgy stuff. It's deliberate catering to fetishes.

However, prostitution and child slavery (all slavery really) are actually super normal for medieval times and I'm never surprised to see them in a setting. If you're not a fan, the option is always there to roll a paladin-equivalent (or just develop a conscience) and save the world.

Weird sex stuff is the red flag. Sex can be in your games, but remember TTRPGs are a group activity so there's no call for flaunting it. Imply it, joke about it, fade to black. Maybe something really weird/horrible does happen, but there's still no need to orate a fanfic about it.

It's a gray zone though. Maybe an orc captures one of your party members and fondles them roughly, promising they will not enjoy tonight. That says a great deal without really getting magical.

In the same situation, to graphically describe the orc's fingers rubbing the party member's nipples and going into detail with what they do to their sexual organs, well that's just clearly playing to fetishes and therefore is what we're all referring to as magical realm.

Ah, the new argument in fashion on Veeky Forums.

"You don't agree with me. You have never played a tabletop game."

Just ignore them. It's a common logical fallacy to accuse someone of belonging to (or not belonging to) a group and therefore suggesting their argument should be disregarded.

It's a fallacy it doesn't address the actual argument, because regardless of whether they are or aren't in the group, the argument's validity is unchanged and unchallenged.

You have to be older than 18 to be here kid.

It's fine, for me it really depends on how it's handled and if anyone has an issue with it, as long as it's fun who cares?

"It was normal in medieval times" is a pretty terrible excuse. Fantasy is not medieval times, no matter how many anachronistic armour types and swordfights you throw in there. Nobody HAS to keep to the norms of the dark ages, and if it's making players uncomfortable, you absolutely shouldn't. As with all things Veeky Forums, open discussion for maximum fun is the way to go.

Of course, if they're uncomfortable around TOO MANY topics, they probably shouldn't play tabletop games given how tone-deaf some DMs can be to the anxiety of others. Like I personal love the shit out of most fantasy and sci-fi tropes but between my terrible maths skills, discomfort around sexual topics and slavery and the fact I don't like killing and the only OC I'm really interested in playing is like, stereotypical Batman levels of refusing to take a life, I personally realise it'd be pretty untenable for me to play much tabletop any more. So I just help with friends' brainstorming and stuff and avoid actually playing entirely.

Ah yes, I forgot indignance and anxiety both come with off switches. How silly of us all. Not always an easy thing to ask of people, I'm afraid.