Can you elaborate a bit on this, Arref? I’m not sure how RPGs would be any less well-suited to eliding a mature topic and skipping straight to the less-challenging results, just as movies do.

Violence being somehow more intrinsic and necessary than sex. YMMV

Generally, my Players do not want to go anywhere near as grim or mature as movies are already doing. However, the game does move through these places with a “light touch” since a lot of issues cannot realistically avoid such plot points as movies can do.

This gets back to Trust.

The Players will walk into the dark because they have previous stated or agreed that the GM will not let them drown while they are in the deep end.

Treasure Tables » Mature Themes in RPGs When you are running an adult RPG, how far is too far? The first commentor pretty much covers my usual answer to this. I have run…

I typically enjoy RPGs as mindless relaxation; D&D’s focus on “gaming the system” fun channels me toward thinking more about feats and which class I’ll level in. Other games (like Under the Bed and Breaking the Ice) are games I’d drag out for a crowd interested in a serious or differently focused game. (DitV would probably be first, actually, due to my familiarity and comfort levels.) [Note: this is similar to playing Apples to Apples with one group and Scruples with another; preference at the moment and group make up guide all.]

I’d prefer a balance of both, but time issues have me enjoying D&D at the moment. Perhaps I’ll tackle something darker/ trickier/ more personal as the next game we play.

This is pretty much how I approach it as well, and part of what I’m curious about is how other groups approach their games — and how that correlates to whether or not they tackle mature themes.

Of course, I am not a sociologist, so I’ll move on.

Mature themes is pretty generalized subject. Harsh language (after checking to make sure the Host’s kids are not in earshot) is not uncommon. I’ve used a few choice themes for shock value, but any literary device overused loses it’s effect, so use it sparingly. I wouldn’t center a whole game on something particularly dark in the real sense, like say a drug gang that also has side buisnesses like a system of pedophilia, because it’s “too close to home”. I have a saying: “If I want to see the good guys win, I’ll watch a movie. If I want to see the bad guys win, I’ll watch the news.” Gaming is a social event, and escape from the worries of the real world- a relaxation. Mix in too much “real stuff” and I think it would lose that.

Besides….do you really want to role-play a detailed sex scene between two slightly overweight 30+ year old guys (who are both married with childern)?

Probably the ‘ugliest’ thing I’ve done in this sense is I had a braggart in a bar, whom someone in the party beatdown (as heroes often do when someone disrespects them). I had the NPC go home and beat his wife as real bullies tend to do. Later the party (and not by co-incidence, the cleric) find this information out. I was curious as to the reaction. They used diplomacy to convince her to leave him and gave her an offering to set herself up in another city (a 100gp stipend I believe). The other horrors I employ are so over-the-top they don’t have the ‘real factor’ of this theme (like the evil Necromancer wearing his brothers face as a mask).

No worries — I’m glad we got things sorted out. It is funny that we covered very similar topics, although in different ways.

I think I’ve got this on my brain because I pitched “dark, hard-choices WWII supers” to my group as an alternate game a few days ago.

I don’t really agree with this, although I think I see what you’re getting at. IMO those questions are present only by their absence. D&D tends to present those ideas — which could certainly be thorny moral issue — without any reference to the fact that they could be thorny moral issues.

In the end, I suppose, a “mature” game is simply one that actually tackles moral questions rather than evading them.

Precisely!

(Rudolf) A good way to start is with an NPC who has some serious issues. If it’s not working, write them out of the campaign.

This could also be handled by sitting down as a group and discussing whether or not to tackle mature themes — addressing is a metagame issue, rather than an in-game one.

Scott: Your post is one more tick-mark in the “why I need to buy DitV” column. I’m not at all surprised that Dogs handles those topics well.

(Matt) However most games, including RPG, CCG, board games, video games, etc…, are based on a topic that should be considered mature, but is not: violence, ranging from participating in a fist fight to cold brutal murder.

And interestingly, movies (at least Hollywood movies) are the opposite: violence? No problem! A hint of sex? Problem.

I do think it is true that some games lend themselves to exploration of darker themes better than others. But I like your 25%/75% split … it really is the gaming group that drives the dynamic.

One thing that I have always found strange is that when most people talk about mature topics, they really mean drugs and sex, under all their forms. However most games, including RPG, CCG, board games, video games, etc…, are based on a topic that should be considered mature, but is not: violence, ranging from participating in a fist fight to cold brutal murder. In our real society, violence is a very serious, mature topic that has very hard emotional and psychological consequences on the victims and even on witnesses. Violence is a criminal offense in most societies, and nobody I know takes that subject lightly when really faced with it.

But for some reason, nobody has the slightest moral restraint when comes the time to injure, kill and inflict physical pain in RPGs. And I am not talking about killing some random monster; most players kill a lot of human NPCs in their games. In fact, the very point of most RPGs is to create killing machines (the PCs) that possess a wide range of ways to physically eliminate the opposition.

Now, I am not trying to moralize here (I do enjoy these things immensely myself!), I am just saying that our perception of what is “mature” and what is not is strange. In RPGs, why is killing a human ok, and even very fun, but raping a woman is absolutely immoral and wrong. Even the description of sex (without any violence involved) is considered to be on the brink of immorality by some gamers.

Just wondering …

In any case, I certainly would have linked to your article if I’d know about it, and I’m sorry you felt slighted. If I received but somehow missed your email, I’ll feel like a dumbass.

Anyhoo, I’m off to post your link now.