Thread: SEX!
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Old 05-12-2006, 11:27 AM   #55
BrettH
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Join Date: Jan 2006
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You can pick out a few cultures that also have tabboos against nudity, and I can pick out a few that don't. Actually, quite a few. There is nothing universal about sexual or body tabboos other than people tend to invent some of varying and contradictory types.

As for its place in roleplaying games, I do believe it has one, since you CANNOT portray a realistic social environment without at least the lure and 'promise' of sexual interaction between people. Whether or not that promise is played out in detailed language is up to the players, but excising it altogether is disastrous to deep and believable storytelling.

I personally play it out in detail, but avoiding ridiculous 'titillation' language, because if the scene has been reached through good roleplay, then I want to explore how my character reacts to other people in that situation. It has, at times, been critical to character development.

However, I do not do it every time the character is getting laid. If, for example, the important interaction details have been played before and the next sexual encounter is not likely to show anything new in the character development area, I fade to black. If something has happened in the roleplay previous to the scene that is likely to make it an interesting scenario with new character development, then I'll play it out even if the characters have been married and supposedly boffing for 10 years.

The MOMENT I get the inkling that the other player is doing it primarily for getting their rocks off, I stop roleplaying such scenes with that player. It leads to a bad place when the motivating reason is to satisfy a player's personal cravings.  The roleplay goes to hell, players leave their real life spouses in order to come 'find you' and all the reasons I started playing out a storyline evaporate into the morass of human wackiness.

I equate this to a situation where a player has his character attacking others, robbing them blind, and interfering with their existence purely because the player is a dill that loves upsetting other people to satisfy his personal issues. That's when useful storyline conflict crosses over into problem land, and it's the same thing with sexual issues, because both lead to very emotional and irrational behavior of the players that are guaranteed to run roughshod over any story in progress.

If it's good for the story, I'm all over it. If it risks the integrity of the gameplay, I'm gone.

---Brett
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