Book of Erotic Fantasy...

[TheElf]

I think the book is childish, and very low quality, and we can say the same about the similar netbooks, but I think the book answers a very good question: In most games, the female characters are limited to a few stereotypes, and stay behind scenes. You have plenty of combat and almost no romance. While as is, the book isn't the best resource, it is an eye opener: you can know, how many important elements of life are left out from your characters. What do you think about it?

I think there are many other things left out from D&D and most D20 based fantasy games. Why the biology of most races are very similar to ours? We have many chances to add other fantasy creatures. So even the fantasy element is weak, spells, laws of magic, economics, etc. are equally left out. It is a simple hack and slash game with old 1st edition dungeon feel.

[TheElf]

Originally Posted by Zarelion

I think there are many other things left out from D&D and most D20 based fantasy games. Why the biology of most races are very similar to ours? We have many chances to add other fantasy creatures. So even the fantasy element is weak, spells, laws of magic, economics, etc. are equally left out. It is a simple hack and slash game with old 1st edition dungeon feel.

Good to see someone already expanding the list, but I think it is still very far from a full list.

[UncleDave]

Yes, and there is a good reason why such things are left out. Its because they are not interesting to the players. Maybe if you got a RPG group of 5 accountants, they might be interested in roleplaying the economics of running a dungeon, but I know I wouldnt. Similarly, if you got a RPG group of 5 horny teenagers they might find a use for the BOEF, but I like to kid myself that I'm more mature than that.

Cheers!

[TheElf]

I think these things are useless for dungeon crawling hack & slash heroes, mostly young ones, one who are interested in personality and views of the characters, ones who want life like settings with life like characters need the extras. Insulting all who is interested in a life like world and defining them childish isn't nice, and it can lead to harsh criticism of "who cares for life and personality lets hack and slash" style. I think you wouldn't want you called childish because of that, right?

[Sutenhotep]

Originally Posted by TheElf

I think the book is childish, and very low quality

I think this book was an excuse for someone to publish semi-nude pictures of his girlfriend and get paid for it outside of a website.

The only thing it added was the "Appearance" stat, which, was "Comeliness", (but I'm sure that was changed because in that book, that word might take on a whole different meaning) and I've always been in the minority that -liked- that as a stat.

[TheElf]

That stat has its strenghts and weaknesses, and maybe we will have a topic about it.

[UncleDave]

Originally Posted by TheElf

I think these things are useless for dungeon crawling hack & slash heroes, mostly young ones, one who are interested in personality and views of the characters, ones who want life like settings with life like characters need the extras. Insulting all who is interested in a life like world and defining them childish isn't nice, and it can lead to harsh criticism of "who cares for life and personality lets hack and slash" style. I think you wouldn't want you called childish because of that, right?

I have no idea what you are getting at, my friend, but since you posted right after me I guess you must be addressing me. In which case I think you have misunderstood my point. What I was getting at was that romance, economics, and many other such things do not make for an RPG that I would find interesting. Just because a game doesn't include romance, or sex, or economics, or stamp collecting or wtfever, doesnt make it a hack-and-slash game.

And, for the hard of thinking, I should point out that my crack about being mature, was just that. A joke. If you really thought I was calling anyone childish, you either need a humour transplant and/or a course in literary understanding.

Cheers!

[TheElf]

I think roleplaying is about the characters, and playing them, as persons. I think if they became stats, and not persons, that is a problem, and often to solve an adventure in a creative way, you need to have solid background knowledge, and a working world. Some say, having many spells are enough for magic system, but when someone got killed by a fireball in a game, and we had to investigate it, I was glad, the system modeled the world, and we had life like characters, with life like reactions. This way we had a solid ground for our adventure.

While 4 classes are able to create similar fire magics, we managed to find out the class of the attacker in about 20 minutes, by seeing interaction between NPCs we knew a bit about the reasons behind attack, etc. and it make the adventure work. A living world is full of hook, if you leave that out, leave life like interactions out, leave communities of NPC (based on shared interest) out, leave economics and related reasons out, etc. you lose a lot of story hooks.

[UncleDave]

Originally Posted by TheElf

I think roleplaying is about the characters, and playing them, as persons....

... A living world is full of hook, if you leave that out, leave life like interactions out, leave communities of NPC (based on shared interest) out, leave economics and related reasons out, etc. you lose a lot of story hooks.

I agree with most of that. But "life like interactions" dont have to include things that any given person considers uninteresting. To me, economics should be glossed over, briefly mentioned as part of the reason for a plot, perhaps, but not much more. And romance is even less appealing to me in an RPG game. None of that means I want to reduce characters to a string of numbers, it just means I want to concentrate on other plot hooks in my games.

Cheers!