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I know I may be cold to this thought but in a role playing situation were playing someone were not. To me it's all part of the story. Should a Dungeon Master actively attempt to put it in, no. But if you have a character who is...I don't know, a Dread Gnome let's say. These Gnomes are basically Emo's that get satisfaction from seeing others in pain and suffering. Take this a step further, their now chaotic evil and are essentially a psychopath and serial killer who seeks to torture, harm, humiliate, etc. To their victim player or NPC alike. In this situation I'd ask the players what they felt comfortable with but if I had a player who's character totally would do this I as a Dungeon Master want that vivid picture, detail, and wordplay to see how others would react to create that realism that perhaps the rest of the party wouldn't want to see it go on to far and ask to see it stopped.
Should we mutilate genitalia in the vivid detail that many witnessed in the viral video pain Olympics, [hell] no. But if someone castrated someone I would go into some detail explaining how so and so screamed in agony whilst the player sadistically smiled, enjoying the act of demasculating and maiming the poor victim going slowly over the scrotum and masterly, or poorly carving off the genitalia. It's classy, sophisticated, and gets the point across enough to make you cringe in RL knowing what is going on and leaving a vague, but powerful image in your mind reading it.
That is the type of response any writer should want. For the audience to feel emotion towards the character. Some may even say, sympathy towards him/her. Especially if it's a villain or someone we have hated throughout the role play or story yet this happens. No matter how much you hate a person, you will feel sympathy over something like that, even a little.
Plus it's not like it will happen all the time, if not at all!
See, the trick with that is, it's rare that I'm playing a character who would adventure with someone like that. If I'm risking my life for a living, I want to adventure with people who aren't sociopathic mass murderers, so if that scene crops up, it results in instant party conflict, and someone is making a new character.
Now, if everyone's on board with that from the start, then fine, whatever. But often, it hasn't been discussed ahead of time and someone is likely to end up unhappy.
Yes, any artist wants to evoke emotion. It's practically the definition of art. That said, you're more likely to evoke revulsion at the act than sympathy for the fictional character. And there are plenty of ways to evoke emotion for a character outside of graphically depicting their torture, especially a PC driven torture.
Again, depending on the game, perhaps torture is appropriate. I'd expect torture if I were running the Way of the Wicked adventure path, for instance. I just don't think the PCs being terrible people should be a default assumption.
(Laugh) yeah I totally agree. Honestly if I ever put torture in my game it would be a prisoner scenario. The party walks in to witness the prisoner chained to the wall. That way you can describe in GREAT detail to let people know just what happened to this poor NPC but at the same time you don't need to witness it, nor actually partake in it so it is far less likely that you would get offended by this. Even if the party were prisoners or something sounds are all the party would witness unless one was taken and it's not fun to keep them trapped. The torture would be just starting when the remainder of the party stopped it I hope (Laugh)!.
I've seen where some games have a rating level although this is a public site so it might not work unless its a game for the mature / adult section in the community.
Its all about the depth of the description.
I can say "Rape", or "Torture" or "Kill" and it won't mean anything unless I go into long descriptive details about the act. The fade to black idea is a good way to handle that.
I'm on board with that, for the most part. However, there's a difference when it's a PC, especially with hot button topics like sexualized violence.
Even if they don't describe the act, if a fellow PC was all, 'I rape the prisoner.' that will likely provoke a response.
I thought this would only be an issue for the Horror & Mystery Board so there is a Rules Thread that states it: Mystery & Horror Rules, Updates & News, however it applies to all Role-playing Games: