I've noticed that lately Dungeon has been publishing a few adventures where the villain is a serial killer. A bit mature for a "family magazine" is it not?
(Not complaining... observing.)
I've noticed the same. Perhaps people like the evening crime dramas on t.v., but I've had more than my fill in the magazine and I hope we've seen the last of them for quite some time.
|
Yeah, I noticed that too. Watching the news is depressing, watching TV at night is depressing (CSI, CSI:SVU, Medium, etc).
I watch Gilmore Girls, Commander in Chief (love Geena Davis!), and other "fluff" programming. I hate the glorification of murderers and serial killers. I understand that Dungeon mag has to make the bad guys evil and evil bad guys = Evil acts, but I hope they get away from the serial killer end of it as I don't find that particularly enjoyable. I like evil creatures, not so much evil humans. Here's to hoping the Dungeon staff stops watching CSI and all that crap.
FH
I watch Law & Order, CSI, American Justice, and Cold Case Files. I do like seeing serial killers and similar villains in D&D from time to time.
I don't see how a serial killer is any less appropriate for a "family magazine" than a necromancer or a demon. Quite frankly, I don't agree that Dungeon is a "family magazine", at least not how I define the genera.
~Qualidar~
|
|
I watch Law & Order, CSI, American Justice, and Cold Case Files. I do like seeing serial killers and similar villains in D&D from time to time.
I guess it is a difference in taste - both for the readers and the editors. These things probably go in phases too - maybe something floating in the zeitgeist that triggers off the inspiration in a number of people. And while it is currently flavour, maybe it won't be in a few months time (anyone remember those half-dragons?).
Personally, I don't really mind either way - the issue is the quality of the adventure, and whether it is interesting and different (repeating serial killer notwithstanding). I certainly disagree that it is preferably to have non-human villains. I suppose it feels morally "safer" to kill and monster, but some of the most interesting (from a roleplaying and tactical perspective) villains might be humans, or at least one of the core PC races.
Well...if someone was willing to make a submission to Dungeon where the villain was a harried, working mom or a District Attorney with a CHA of 24, there might be some appeal to the family players out there...
"Oh no - it's an Advanced half-Fiend Britney! Aiiii!"
;-)
M
I don't see how a serial killer is any less appropriate for a "family magazine" than a necromancer or a demon. Quite frankly, I don't agree that Dungeon is a "family magazine", at least not how I define the genera.
I wasn't trying to make any kind of moral judgment - just an observation. But now that you mention it...
There have been posts and other such messages left by Paizo staff stating that excessive gore, blood, and violence are a "no-no." Yet a recent adventure has a serial killer returning as well as it takes place in a slaughterhouse with blood, knives, and psychotic cult butcher-types. It seems a bit contradictory.
Creative Director
|
Excessive blood and gore is not the same as justified blood and gore. An adventure set in a slaughter house is going to be gory, and therefore rendering pits or hanging corpses or rivers of blood are not excessvie. What would be excessive in such an adventure would be a paragraph explaining how one of the villains butchers the bodies of captured NPCs.
Some guidelines for how far we'll go for mature content, using the movie rating system:
Profanity: PG
Drug Use: PG-13
Nudity/Sexual Situations: PG
Violence: PG-13 (although we slip into the lower end R material with some frequency)
There are exceptions now and then, (Issue #95's "Porphyry House Horror," for example, was hard R material). But as a general rule, the mature end of PG-13 is where we want to be for the magazine.
Dungeon is not a family magazine, in any case, any more than D&D is a famiiy game.
Although I'm still waiting for that Mr. Waddles, the wee li'l ducky paladin adventure.
