Roleplay and adult themes

[DanFernandez]

(This is my first real thread on the forums, so bear with me )

So, I was thinking about this yesterday, and I really wanted to open a discussion about it with you guys.



**WARNING: The following thread will touch upon adult topics and themes (as the title suggests). I'm sure that most/every person in the CotH community can handle mature discussions. However, reader discretion is advised.**



The main question is: How comfortable are you with roleplay that revolves around, involves, or even just touches upon adult themes?

What I mean with this: Strong sexual themes, extreme violence, hard drug use, etc (basically any "sensitive" subject, you get the idea).

Other questions to consider:

How do you agree upon the boundaries of a roleplay, in terms of how much it can/should involve these themes?

What have you noticed about the way the server currently handles this topic?

What are your opinions/how would you like it to change?


The reason behind this topic: I'm a Game of Thrones fan. After finishing the show's 4th season, I was thinking about the reason behind the story's compelling nature. I found that a big factor is the fact that it does not shy away from these themes, which to be quite realist, were probably a huge part of our own world's history. They are elements which should not be censored in contemporary fantasy (in my mind).

So...let's hear it.

[Loxmardin]

Let me start this off by saying I'm also a Game of Thrones fan.

On CotH, though, we tend to approach RP with a PG-13 filter at least in public (where exceptions happen, of course; references and in-game conversation easily cross this limit sometimes) with the general rule that anything is fine as long as everyone's fine with it.

What that means is that you need to ask, really. If the RP starts taking a turn in any particular direction, you need to ask your fellow player where they draw the limit before you proceed. This can be a bit awkward sometimes but it's sadly necessary since people come to the server looking for vastly different things in their roleplay and some draw the line sooner than others.

There's really no perfect way to handle this, but we've been handling it with discretion and the requirement of consent and the absence thereof can have pretty dire consequences if it's reported later. Respect is key.

So, mature and adult content should generally stay out of the public channels. It's okay if you're spewing out profanities (though not in excess) because your character's a potty mouth, but once things start crossing the line from "Tame" to "Explicit", it's best to take it to Party chat. The same goes if anyone kindly requests you to move your RP to private. You're free to continue it; just not in public.

And by public, I mean /say, /emote, /yell, /1 [General] or anything like that. Or a very crowded Raid. You get what I mean.

[DanFernandez]

I appreciate your answer, Lox. However, I'm kind of looking for opinion-based answers. I want to know how each member of the community feels about it (or at least, a bunch of you, if possible). I want to know how people like to roleplay in relation to this topic; how far do people like to go with it.

[FlyingSquirrel]

I don't really mind. Like all other things, it's good in moderation. Anything else I would say on the matter would just reiterate that sentence, so I'll leave it short 'n' sweet.

[Grakor456]

Opinions? Hmm.

Sexual stuff, generally speaking, barely phases me. I have a very high tolerance for this personally, and I'm very difficult to really "squick" out when it comes to sexual humor, kink mentions, whatever. I've seen the dark corners of the internet, man. With close friends I've been known to get into pretty dirty humor myself. That said, it's not something I necessarily go out of my way for. The last RPed relationship my character was in, and also arguably the most successful, had no actual sexual content at all (what with the character in question being undead and all.)

Violence? Violence is a part of fantasy roleplaying, it is what it is. That said, I've no interest in watching torture porn, so excessive descriptions of the bloody mess you're making or what terrible things you're doing to make someone scream? No interest, but I can tolerate it to an extent. On a somewhat related note, I tend to get kind of unsettled when people lovingly describe what terrible flesh-eating disease is afflicting their character, or other depicts of disease or filth. Warhammer didn't make me a Nurgle fan, let's just say.

Drugs are the one thing that really gets me turned off from an RP, though. I'm rather sensitive to the subject, so I tend to excuse myself whenever it comes up.

I know some people who are basically the complete opposite of me regarding the above views, so communication is definitely essential when anything like this comes up.

[Krilari]

I've seen the dark corners of the internet, man.

He's seen things, man. Once you go deep internet you never come back the same.

[Loxmardin]

*CRACKS KNUCKLES*

ALRIGHT.

OPINIONS IT IS.

Basically, I like most kinds of roleplay, even in the adult or mature scene. It's no secret among my friends that I very much enjoy the darker side of the Fantasy genre and, like Grakor, I've been places on the internet and seen much, so there's incredibly little that'll phase me. My policy is that if I have a problem, I'll tell. But usually I don't. Not as far as content's concerned, at least. It's mostly the people I may have a problem with, if that makes sense.

[Jonoth]

Hiya!

So, violence-wise I'm open to pretty much anything as long as it's more epic hard mode bash and slash battling. I don't mind a little torture, but there is a line where it goes from torture to tell the story, and torture done for its own sake, and I'm not a fan of the latter.

I don't mind RP of a sexual nature or theme, but most that I've seen at a glance tries too hard to be explicit. With anything mature in nature, if someone is going that route, I expect them to be creative.

Also, I love Game of Thrones and am patiently waiting for the next book. It gives a good general idea of what I'm okay with for explicit stuff.

Spoiler for spoiler..

Spoiler:

Just no shadow babies please.

[MstrCorvus]

I personally enjoy most types of roleplay and don't shy away from the hard and gritty 'slam an axe into someone's skull' type of gore. And the explicit touchy-feely stuff is something I'm okay with and will go along with as long as it serves a purpose for a character. These two characters just got married and it's their honeymoon? Doing the samba in the sheets makes sense. But a one-night-stand with a random character for whatever reason can normally be cut out or faded to black or something. Because that makes more time for more RP!

On the other hand, while I'm not squeamish about most things, torture that gets too far and stops being for character development and gets a bit too intense. Locked in a dungeon and beat up by your captor? I guess that's what happens. Torturing endlessly and explicitly for hours? I find it unnecessary and it makes me feel ill. And when it comes to topic like rape, the answer is a flat no. That is something I have never been okay with and something I will never be able to RP.

There's my two cents.

[Dae]

srs RP is great as people don't take it too seriously OoCly.

I'd say that an open, lighthearted OoC dialogue on the RP at hand is very useful in Adult RP; it lets you know how the other players feel about the situation and momentum going so people don't go off and browse the internets in between dialogue. :P

I do have to echo the sentiments of leaving rape out of RP. Even if it is used "well," RPing out even just the repercussions of that on a character is too personal for many people.

We already have the Lich King's mind control evilness, the Broken being cut off from the Light, and the destruction of homes, families and culture with, like, every race. We have the means to address similar themes without getting too real.

[CopperheadSnake]

Like most here, I am thoroughly unphased by pretty much everything. Unlike most here, I hate Game of Thrones with a passion, but that's just me.

I am in full agreement with Lox when it comes to making sure everyone is okay with a particular subject before diving headlong into it. I may not care either way if something gruesome or sexual, (Both the physical act of sex and orientation), rears its often ugly head, but the guy next to me might not feel the same. Everyone has their triggers.

On a more personal note, as a writer who likes to think of himself as 'professional', I think that touchy subjects, such as sex and violence, are great ways to probe the human condition, if done properly. (I write a lot of horror/dark fantasy) However, because of the setting and general tone, I really don't think Warcraft is the best place to touch upon these themes. Not that a serious story powered by real character development can't be told, (Just look at Toy Story for proof on that), but I still find it hard to take a rape/revenge story seriously if the avenger in question is a gnome. I know some of you will point out that all fantasy is inherently silly, but Warcraft doesn't even try to hide that fact, and embraces it with open arms. (One of the reasons I like it so much. Everything fantasy related nowadays seems to want to copy Game of Thrones, which as I said, I really don't like)

As for triggers, I really only have two to speak of: religion, and politics imitating real life. Even though I'm not particularly religious, I am still christian, and seeing any fantasy story paint its obviously catholic-inspired church as two-dimensional, mustache twirling bigots just rubs me the wrong way.

I don't think real life politics needs an explanation...

[CappnRob]

I'm pretty resilient to sensitive material when handled maturely but I don't feel Warcraft is the optimal setting to explore certain aspects of these themes. Yeah its loaded with violence and war and nightmare fuel, but hyper-realism grimdorkery ala GoT just does not work here.

[Cressy]

Not that I have been role playing in the previous few months or anything..

I have no issue with violence or drug use. Most of my characters were involved in one or the other. Violence is just part of the world and without it we'd all be best friends, braiding hair and singing songs about ponies. Drug use/addiction tends to happen with more devious characters (something I enjoy).

Sexual themes? I tend to FTB. I have no issue having characters who are sexually aware of themselves but I don't want to RP it out anymore. I had some bad experiences where that is the only type of RP I would get on certain characters, something I didn't feel comfortable with. I'm down with romance and crud, but I don't want to have my characters doing sex acts just because the other player wants to. Ya know?

[DaveM]

Like most everyone: I'm down with anything really, but so long as it speaks to a point.

I think that "mature" subjects are a part of anyone's life after the age of anything from 8 to 13 and often feel odd about what is deemed inappropriate. In my experience as an educator, with few exceptions, people I've known exposed to mature concepts and content early have matured better thanks to it.

A note I would add to the conversation is that I do find something of an unreasonable double standard to be applied to violence and sex (in general). Not a word of complaint would reasonably be mentioned at emoting smashing a character over the face with a heavy hammer as blood spatters the sand and the body drops limp, but the same degree of explicitness about anything sexual would be inadmissible in "public".

I understand that this standard is necessary (or at least natural) because of normative taboos and sensitivities, but it is still evidently double. I don't blame CotH one slight for this: it is how "apropriateness" is generally measured right now: Violence simply gets more leeway. (And it's not surprising, either: Human civilisation has arguably needed to clamp down on it a lot less than on publically displayed sexuality. Because that can lead to sex, which in turn was macrosocially dangerous with contraceptives sparse for milennia).

[Otterpaw]

There's only a few things I have issues RPing, and they're fairly obvious ones... stuff you'd only find in the worst of the worst when it comes to the furrie fandom. One title: Two girls, one cup. There are some weird things out there that I can't ever .....

*Scrolls down, too distracted by Cressy's signature* @.@ ITS STARING AT ME

However, my fiancee is not comfortable with me RPing sexual themes with someone else, so that's something I will timeskip or FTB. My characters can still get with someone else, that part will just be glanced over. Which is fine, I realize that kind of RP did leave me feeling awkward afterwards, and wondering if the other player thought I was weird.

[center][/center]

Violence, I have no problem with RPing. I can write gory, I can write bloody, I can describe torture scenes and suffering. Which, I always thought was really odd, because I can't watch it at all. If I see gore on TV I freak out like a little girl and have to move away. That one scene in Peter Jackson's King Kong, with the bugs... Oh god, I was completely horrified. I had nightmares about Shawn of the Dead, and that was supposed to be a comedy!

Drugs and stuff... I can't say I ever RPed them. I get opinionated on some, disgruntled about others. Mostly, I don't know how most drugs work, though I have thought about RPing a character under-the-influence (A trait that would likely be worked out of them in due time) as a plot point. I think, at most, I had exactly one character who used drugs of any kind, and that was just a cigar for Brandaviel. It smelled like cinnamon.

Lesseee... adult themes.... Ah!

One of the things I absolutely will not RP unless the character lays -eggs- is childbirth. Just, no. No, no no. I can't do it. That is a legitimate fear of mine, and though it could fall under the 'torture' scenario... My characters are normally sterile. Just want nothing to do with that.