[Brody]

In this Talking Point thread, share your opinions about the portrayal of sex in roleplaying. Do it? Don't do it? Just fade to black and say it happened? What do you think are the pros and cons? Tell us what you think. This can certainly include both heterosexual and homosexual roleplayed relationships.

[Jazuela]

I generally don't create my characters with the intention of getting them involved in relationships. As a result, some of them do, and some of them don't.

For the ones that do, it really depends on the situation, whether or not I'll act out the whole thing or fade to black. If my character is with someone who contributes to some earth-shattering experience in her life, I'd probably want to act it out. One PC for example I had her molested by her father when she was a kid..which led to serious emotional issues and a severe dislike of any sexual references at all. Then she met this guy who had also had his own issues - they became a couple - things were very cautious for awhile - and one day, BOOM. It happened. I felt I really needed to act it out, to see how my character would respond. Would she be even more traumatized? Would she turn into a slut? Would it be something in the middle?

I didn't wanna go the OOC route and rely on a dice roll, it just seemed way too cheesy. So we acted it out, because that player felt the same way about his PC's situation.

Most of the time though I tend to fade, or do an "emoted fade" - like:

A bit of foreplay, a few references to various body parts, and then: The chick and you go nuts with each other for a few hours and fall into a heap on the bed, panting and spent.
And then - the afterplay where we just kinda hang out nekked or whatever.

It takes a lot of time, I've learned, to act out anything significant. And in a game where an hour is only 10 real life minutes, it just doesn't make much sense to go crazy very often

[WarHound]

I don't think it's that big of a deal, either way. Most of the situations I RP in are adult-oriented int he first place, so I don't think a little petting, or alot of petting for that matter, would be out of the question for a scene.

That said, I feel that I can create a fantastic, beautifully sexual scene without emoting penetration and the like. I think that I get get my point across without writing a full fledged hardcore porno-story, while still showing passionate tender lovemaking, coarse, rough sex, or bumbling, pawing 'rutting'.

I don't really like the fade to black method, because like Jazuela said, something momentous could happen. Halfway through my character could fall in love, fall out of bed, or sock his lover in the kidney.

Text doesn't really excite me sexually, for some strange reason, so I guess it doesn't matter to me, either way. I'm more than willing to comprimise if my partner doesn't feel comfortable with even a 'romance novel' sex scene, all scratching back, passionate kisses, sensual caresses, rather than thrusting, spanking, and riding. On the otherhand, if someone is eagerly awaiting me to drop the pants and take care of it in graphic detail, I'll probably tell them to keep it a politely sexy 'R' rating, rather than a full fledged 'X'.

[John]

I don't care what other people do. I personally have mud-sexed in the past, but if it ever arises in the future I think I'll stick with fade-to-black.

I do draw the line where mud-sex is coded though That just seems a bit too weird to me

[Maelgrim]

Some people, both on the mud that I play and on other muds, Don't consider mudsex to be true roleplay. Why? Because you're both instant porn-stars who can last for hours and always make your partner come at the end. Since a good many of the muds here are set circa medieval, did you really think that a strapping young knight gave a toss about nibbling on that certain spot on his lady's neck? No, he wanted his rocks off, and he wanted it NOW!

However, roleplaying sex WITHIN your character's defined limitations can be excellent roleplay, and I think everyone can agree that the Roleplay leading up to and following the act itself is often quite in-depth.

As for the act itself? Well I think along similar lines to WarHound. I find it often makes it MORE expressive to leave things unsaid and let the person you're RPing let their imagination go, than to emote graphic porn. Euphamisms and allusion are your friend!

[Jazuela]

Hehehe...just to show you it isn't -always- like that...

Once upon a time I played a Templar's aide. My character was a magicker, a commoner with an affinity to Ruk - element of stone. So my Templar, being the corrupt degenerate that he was, decided to "take" my chick one day in his apartment. He wanted her to "Sing for the Highlord!"

Meaning - he wanted to hear her scream. It involved him, a barbed whip, and my girl's back. Got him all excited, then he finished up with a quickie while I leaned over the living room table.

The quickie part was just 2 3-line emotes - a semi-fade, with only a reference to bodyparts - nothing graphic.

The whipping part was the important part in that scene because he had to explain to my chick that he didn't really mean "sing.." he meant scream. She wasn't the brightest bulb so that took awhile, plus she was extremely resilient.

She got no pleasure from it at all. But she got the satisfaction in knowing that her fortitude and strength of will allowed her to be safe from his whip from then on. He never touched her again after that, and this "event" brought a measure of trust into their employer/employee relationship that might never exist if the event didn't happen.

Generally? I'm opposed to actually roleplaying everything out. It has little point. I'm more for saying it happened.

On the same side of the coin though, I do think roleplaying what happens before and after is perfectly fine, just going over things real quick for penetration and all. At most just assume what happened happened, talk about it if needed. (As with a lot of roleplay, talking stuff out can be very important)

I favor the fade mentioned by Jazuela in her first post, and usually favor covering a little more than that just to make sure things don't get too graphic. Most of the time a point can be made without describing every detail, this isn't a text-porno or Tom Clancy book.