I was getting a bit curious about the current Veeky Forums's definition of "magical realm", so I'll ask a question. Imagine Chad Buick comes to your game because he's barred from entry at the university bar. Chad does not have the slightest idea of the concept or expression of "magical realm". I.e. Chad is not meta-aware. Chad is also, unlike the stereotypical jock, socially conscious enough to know how you're not an asshole, and since he's not showing off in front of his friends, he's not going out of his way to be one. Chad, though, upon hearing that the game is set in Forgotten Realms and has drow, gets very intense for a while and works his character sheet with the fury of a thousand blazing suns. When the game starts, he's playing a female drow warrior in a set of armor that really toes the line of suspension of disbelief, armed with a whip, a scourge or you get it. Her Charisma is north of 15, natch. Chad will try to act the part of the character, but isn't autistic and understands it's a game.
What I want to ask is, do you think it's still "magical realm" with a negative impact on the game and group coherency if someone without much knowledge of the game or the community just wants to play an attractive character? Are you supposed to tell them they can't, and what are you going to tell them? When you juxtapose Veeky Forums with normal people, you see that this board is trying to be the most normal of all because nuance is scary.
Magical realm implies fetishes though. Simply playing an attractive character doesn't qualify as that, in fact I'd say it's to be expected. Especially from Chad whose only known fantasy archetypes might be a muscular fighter, a hot amazon and a scrawny wizard. I wouldn't stop Chad and I wouldn't stop fedoralords from playing an attractive character as I don't consider that a fetish or magical realm. What might be fetishy is what they do with their character.
Kayden Edwards
Attractive characters aren't magical realm, a fetish of some sort needs to be inserted which "attractive" isn't
Elijah Nguyen
Why is sexual attractiveness then inherently "purer" than an otherwise non-sexual but still universally maligned fetish? If I, an underfed, scraggly-haired neckbeard, came in with two female characters, one an extremely attractive and sexually outgoing "thot" and the other being a plain, unassuming and sexually nonconfrontative girl who wears a lot of heavy black clothes with straps and buckles, which one would you be more likely to let me play? Both have more focus on characterization than being attractive, but one uses pure sexuality as a weapon while the "fetishy" character only affects the game insofar that she's a small girl in big, bulky black clothes. The latter wouldn't even register as a fetish in most cases, even if I described her black clothes five times a session - but I describe my attractive female character's cleavage just once and in my own experience I'll be witch-hunted. This is why I posted it in the first place - the textbook definition is a hell of a lot different from the practical one, and doesn't make much sense given what people are trying to avoid (autismal overengagement and subsequent shitfit caused by boner hijacking higher reasoning).
Dylan Ramirez
That does not sound particularly magical realmy. If he goes around being all dominatrixy and shit and treats all NPCs as a potential lay, then we might talk about it getting into magical realm territory.
Carson Hernandez
So are you saying that you do not think that a character being attractive and female, not to mention maybe a bit skimpily clad, is magical realm? I won't disagree with you. But a horde of about two hundred unwashed incel robots will.
Isaiah Perry
No. I don't think that's enough to claim something to be magical realm.
Sebastian Torres
It's not magical realm if you're not shoving it in your face. The piss wizard is a good extreme standard. He's demanding other players participate in his fetish. THAT is magical realm.
Just having a cute girl isn't magical realm. If Chad kept trying to get other characters to fuck his hot drow character, that would be magical realm.
Carson Bell
Well I give my twin sister headpats and no one has realized yet that it's my magical realm. So i don't really know.
Nathan Powell
Absolute madman.
Scantily-clad is not always magical realm. Now, if he was to play up the dominatrix aspect of the Drow to uncomfortable levels, then yes, that probably would be.
Kevin Brooks
Literally just gave my sister a headpat before she left to go to the doctors office.
>*headpat* not magical realm >HA HA GUYS IM HEADPATTING THE FEMALE NPC *PAT PAT* HA HA HEADPATS HA HA GUYS YOU DO IT TOO HA HA magical realm
Leo Perez
>Chad who secretly wants to be a dominatrix It might not be his magical realm, but it is mine.
Mason Wilson
Just because they don't know it's magical realm doesn't mean I enjoy it. In fact, it's harder to get off to something that I'm being obvious about as opposed to secretly enjoying it while all the other players (or people irl) never suspect.
Gabriel Young
If people get the impression that you're doing a thing because you're getting off on it, it's magical realm. You can play a full on drow dominatrix if you want so long as everyone trusts that you're not one sticky keyboard short of ERP session. Characters who have their attractiveness emphasized are worrying not because they're magical realm in and of themselves, but because as a stranger you have not yet built up our trust that you're not in this to get off on it yet. It's a hueristic.
Caleb Reed
If it's secret it's not magical realm. The key thing that makes magical realm magical realm is trying to get other players to participate in your fetish, imo.
If nobody knows or notices, it's not magical realm at all.
Asher Turner
Magical Realm Is only when the table is made aware of a PC or GM's enjoyment. It is one thing to have fun but a certain awkwardness arises when you know for a fact (for example) that Chad fucking loooves dark skin, elves, or dominant women. More often than not I find someone in their realm at a table thinks they are under the radar but blatantly aren't or they joke about magical realm but the one guy who really knows that person knows they're not joking.
Long and short I think people think they're more clever than they are.
Christopher Evans
>your brother headpats you How would you like her to confront you about your magical realm?
Cameron Rivera
Yep. The reason everyone calls all fetish insertion magical realm is because it's usually a safe bet that someone has figured out what's going on and just doesn't want to rock the boat by calling you out on it.
I give this thread one thumb up for staying on topic and civil.
Caleb Baker
>Chad Buick comes to your game because he's barred from entry at the university bar.
I ask him to tell me the story of how get banned.
Benjamin Reyes
>Chad will try to act the part of the character, but isn't autistic and understands it's a game. Good enough for me.
Luke Myers
A character being attractive or fitting the player's tastes isn't a bad thing. Unless he starts trying to fuck every player or have lesbian orgies I see nothing wrong with that character.
Henry Peterson
You are always forcing your character on the group. Everyone ITT is simply laying out their aesthetic preference and asserting everyone else should/will be alright with your own personal boundaries.
If no one has any ground to say "I'm not comfortable with this kind of role play" for OP's scenario then no one should for any reason. This threads conjecture that the problem lies in the interiority of other players minds and their supposed motives and mental states is not something which can actually be policed and is a result of some western bias for mind control and hyper-conformity.
It's totally fine to establish your own boundaries but you are so against this idea of being an individual who actually asserts themselves you instead invent some excuse to go on a witch hunt for thought criminals who are pretending things for the wrong reasons.
Ian Sullivan
>Chad is (...) socially conscious enough to know how you're not an asshole
Your shitty grammar aside, this means he wouldn't make it a magical realm.
Anthony Collins
>western bias for mind control and hyper-conformity Another wild commie out of his camp
