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Sex and violence has nothing to do with maturity.Including it in your games and then calling it mature is just silly.
Your reply betrays a lack of thought and foresight. In other words, you sound really immature yourself.
Sex and violence by themselves are not mature nor immature. They are just facts of biology and society. Good writers, however, can craft them into something that goes beyond disturbing, and enters the realm of scarring. Because of that, we relegate them to an audience better equipped to deal with what they are seeing and experiencing: the mature.
Yes, we understand your game of semantics and how clever you are. Congratulations, you bothered the folks at the grown up table and got a bit of attention. Now sit down before you hurt yourself.
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I like psychological horror in general. That means blood, yes, but I don't like slasher stuff. I do like weird - as weird as possible, and I do like making my players feel ill-at-ease when dealing with particular horrors such as major boss fights. I do not shy away from so-called "Body Horror." I like creatures composed of limbs and organs and what-not.
I am a big Silent Hill fan. I love David Cronenberg and David Lynch.
This is not to say that I don't run "normal" fantasy adventures - I do. But in terms of the level of maturity in the themes and images at the table, we get thematically mature. We definitely wander into R-rated material in terms of the visual and visceral.
On the other hand, though my whole group are kings and queens of dirty jokes, sexuality, character-wise is as rare a theme as you can imagine. As for myself, I think implied sexuality, including some level of possible abuse, is much more effective than anything you can do on-screen. Psychological horror often relies on terrible secrets for a lot of its power, and so sexual themes, though subtle and downplayed, do haunt my games around the periphery and in the background.
As a serious fan of good horror, that sounds like a fun game to play in. Rock on. :)
I feel Bruunwald would love my write up for the creature from the Thing and the adventure I have planned for him :) Very much psychological body horror :)
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Our campaign is terrifically juvenile, in the way that 8th-grade boys are juvenile: full of horribly offensive humor that hits pretty much every possible button for insensitivity. Sometimes it feels like a dare to see who will manage to actually offend the rest of us first. No one has yet succeeded.
There isn't any zone of humor that is off-limits. At one point we made a bunch of bingo boards to meta-game our sessions with: the squares contained most of the recurring tropes in our humor. We actually can't play at the married fellas' houses, because we don't want our spouses to hear the paint-peeling language and dialog.
In terms of campaign effect, this layer of immaturity helps us banter and keep the action light. OTOH, because we aren't deadpan "roleplaying," sometimes we aren't paying close enough attention to solve necessary puzzles. Bungling is a way of life.
In sum, my campaign is the story of possibly the most ineffective party of adventurers ever, who spend most of their time ridiculing one another and everything around them.
It's like Arrested Development in Golarion.
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There are a wide variety of tastes and styles, and it's only wrong if it doesn't work for you and your group.
Do you run more toward Game of Thrones, or My Little Pathfinder?
Politically?
Politically I suppose my games are more 'nuanced', if not actually mature. Very few high level characters in my games are particularly good or evil, with a few truly evil thrown in for villainous purposes. But most nobility and politicians are simply petty, short sighted, or possessed of an acute moral myopia. I want the PCs to be the heroes of the setting. Other powerful NPC's should be neutral parties at best, and outright adversarial at worst.
Regarding sexual matters?
I don't know if it's mature particularly, but I definitely don't shy away from it. My last BBEG was a sacred prostitute who had made a pact with a devil to save her Tiefling child. The one thing I try to avoid is rape. All triggering issues aside, it is completely trite (painfully so in D20 which relegated almost an entire player race to always being the product of rape) and I am sick to death of people using it as a story arc.
Grittiness/mortality?
I am not a killer GM or anything, but I prefer there be consequences to actions. Death being cheap robs the story of impact. Mortality rates are high for NPC's, and always a concern for players.
Any other aspects?
I don't shy away from horror elements for certain, and will occasionally invoke disturbing scenarios. As a player, I love to play evil and try to explore the character of a sociopath. I have a somewhat sick habit of exploring those things that make us shudder with discomfort.
I do however draw the line at "heads I win, tails you lose" morality traps. I might make a player work to find that third option, but if they're creative and find a solution I didn't see I reward greatly for it. I like to make gritty, deadly worlds of corruption and abject horror so the heroes of the story have a chance to be a beacon in the darkness. There's nothing more aggravating than a cynic with a chip on his shoulder trying to make sure that every single encounter is just as hopeless and unwinnable as they think the world is.
Um...if we are saying maturity is how grimdark it is than typically mine are pretty tame. I only allude to the darker elements because I often play in public areas. I dont shy away from it if I think the game will be better for it. I just dont gey explicit. But as far as exploring complex themes and plots it can varie from adventure to adventure but I usually try to have a bit of depth to my games.
Just as "mature" as my players.
We're all 17-20-somethings.
You do the math.
Basically, enough double entendres and references to other things to sink a ship, but other than that I'd call it PG-13-ish.
Somewhere between above 3rd grade potty jokes and below "old man grognard". We try and have fun, but we alos can be serious when the moment is right.
Lol ours really run the gambit, depending on which players are in which game, and what that game is about. All of my players run between 26-34, with 2-3 ladies and 3-4 gents at the table. I have one player who wanted to play a Priestess of Celestria (sp?), and she's got the perfect personality to play the character (she can get the GUYS at the table to blush if she puts a tiny bit of effort, and most of us are married)...
Sometimes it even changes from chapter to chapter, I'm running the RoTRL hardcover, and I ran chapter 1 kinda light hearted.. chapter 2 started to get a bit darker, with some dark sexual undertones... chapter 3 went full rated R, with one REALLY graphic encounter that I took some liberties with (I know my players, so I knew it would go over OK)... chapter 4 got a bit more on the light side again, chapter 5 I made sure to let the players realize they are in fact the new bada@#@# on the block... Chapter 6? Mwahahaha
No sex. Cartoon violence. Moderately complicated plots but very much with black and white morality. If the villains are truly bad, we find we dont get too bogged down in the moral issues of kicking in the door and taking their stuff.
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Do you run more toward Game of Thrones, or My Little Pathfinder?
You're not giving us much choice here, it's not as pretentiously immature as Game of Thrones, but it's also not as black and white as My Little Pathfinder. I'd say it's more akin to Mistborn, but if I had to choose between the two.
Politically?
Politically it's run a range of subject matters. Often times we actually do have a lot of political intrigue going on in the background, but aren't forced into it if we don't want to. In one case, we had to break a water restriction that a tyranical noble had placed over a city in order to exploit the populace (To the point of executing the clerics that decided to provide it), but because they were technically acting within the law, the king couldn't actually displace them without creating precedent that would allow later kings to abuse the same power to the detriment of the population as a whole.
I have the feeling that that was supposed to be a major political storyline, which we ended up solving in the first day by building a floating station 8 miles (The city border bubble) above the city using immovable rods, and stationing the clerics that sought to help up there. Create water was spammed, and it rained every day, forcing the noble to either abandon their water monopoly, or attack the group outside of their personal borders and overstep the authority that the king had granted them, and hence allow a legal method of replacing them.
Regarding sexual matters?
Pretty open. It depends on each individual player's comfort level. One of the PCs ended up completely abused to the point where they had absolutely no self-confidence and crumbled before everything, often reverting to a slave-name when terrified. Others had a loving relationship based on mutual affection, trust, and the idea of equals, two PCs ended up impregnated after selling themselves into slavery (don't ask), and the other has had nothing even casually related happen.
Grittiness/mortality?
In terms of morality, I think...
I'm giving you all the choice in the world. If it's somewhere on a perceived continuum, where on the continuum...if it doesn't seem to fit at all, feel free to explain. :)
I don't mean to tie your hands behind your back, just presenting examples. You seem to have run with it well. My apologies if it came off as a box, and a small one at that...it's really not meant to be.
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Grittiness/mortality?
I prefer death being permanent honestly. That was a contributing factor for me to run a DS campaign, and in the homebrew I'm working on there is no rez magic. I feel raising cheapens the character and game world. I default to the setting though, and if the setting has it, I tend to allow it.
Thank you. I hate resurrection magic.
Just do yourself a favor and start watching MLP:FiM. You won't regret it, and you'll never call it a kids' show again.My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a very serious show with political, sexual, mortal and moral issues. Sometimes, it makes GoT look silly.lol...I'm sure I don't get that one...
A little explanation, if you would?
FECKING LIVESTOCK.
For little girls.
Seriously, it's reaching InuYasha fangirl levels of proselytizing.
More on topic, my games range across the spectrum, but my most active ones are now more or less political dramas with copious amounts of fornication, backstabbing, and plenty of murder attempts and moral quandaries that go beyond baking goblin babies in cheese sauce and feeding them to their parents and the value of said plans as an act of curtailing the population or whether or not it's evil to feed offspring of evil to their own parents and the whole nature versus nurture thing.
And then I've got a beginning game that is basically Dynasty Warriors: Empires in a Western Setting, instead of Three Kingdoms China. It's PG-13 at most purely because of the thematic nature. Babies happen, but their making isn't chronicled. There are some sexy outfits, but things are mostly more about heroism, facing impossible odds, and slaughtering mooks by the thousands.
I tend to stick to more mature. Anything goes, aside from what anyone definitely isn't comfortable with. With my main group, that means no explicit stuff about suicide is allowed, but everything else is fair game.
Mine tend to be a bit silly. One of the big plot points of a previous adventure was that the corpse of a kobold hero was eaten by a rather large momma vulture. The party's plan was to feed it a barrel of jerky and wait.
Yeah.
It all depends on the group, where the game is going, and perhaps the determination of said group and their collective villians. Do I make use of the Book of Vile Darkness. Hell yeah. it gives our good guys something to worry about. Is it used "every 20 mins.", NO. But when needed its there. The same with politics and such. I don't force it down anybodies throat but its there in the background always.
GoT is not "mature". Anything but.
Gritty is overdone and so last week.
Mature is not being childish at the table. Childlike is OK.
No hogging the spotlight. No stealing. No PKing. Not going too long into rules arguments and being cool about losing. No hogging the snacks. Bring your share of snacks and sharing. Paying attention. Being ready when it's your turn. Humor is great but not too offensive. Never hitting on a fellow player at the table. (Never hitting a fellow player at the table goes without saying, I hope) IC flirting kept to a reasonable level. Hitting the brothels, taverns etc can be lightly mentioned, but not carried on about. Not acting like any of the Knights of the Dinner Table or players from the Deal Alewives. Cross talk and OOC talk is kept to a minimum.
We are pretty much all 40+ working professionals . I am the oldest at just turned 60. We have a CFO, a Lawyer, a investigator, etc.
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GoT is not "mature". Anything but.
Gritty is overdone and so last week.
Mature is not being childish at the table. Childlike is OK.
No hogging the spotlight. No stealing. No PKing. Not going too long into rules arguments and being cool about losing. No hogging the snacks. Bring your share of snacks and sharing. Paying attention. Being ready when it's your turn. Humor is great but not too offensive. Never hitting on a fellow player at the table. (Never hitting a fellow player at the table goes without saying, I hope) IC flirting kept to a reasonable level. Hitting the brothels, taverns etc can be lightly mentioned, but not carried on about. Not acting like any of the Knights of the Dinner Table or players from the Deal Alewives. Cross talk and OOC talk is kept to a minimum.
We are pretty much all 40+ working professionals . I am the oldest at just turned 60. We have a CFO, a Lawyer, a investigator, etc.
I guess I need to explain this...GoT deals with mature themes. As a rule, I doubt many people that run games for children have any plotlines that emphasize the homosexuality of a character. I like GoT...you don't have to.
My actual favorite RPG is RQ, 2nd edition...in it, a single blow by any person with a feasible weapon can kill even the best warrior without magical backup...and likely even then. That can get pretty gritty.
I don't think anybody wants their players to be utterly immature...it's disruptive to the game.
I'd probably enjoy your game...it sounds like you have some good, mature players...but I didn't get much of the essence of it from your post. ;)
GoT is not "mature". Anything but.
Gritty is overdone and so last week.
Mature is not being childish at the table. Childlike is OK.
No hogging the spotlight. No stealing. No PKing. Not going too long into rules arguments and being cool about losing. No hogging the snacks. Bring your share of snacks and sharing. Paying attention. Being ready when it's your turn. Humor is great but not too offensive. Never hitting on a fellow player at the table. (Never hitting a fellow player at the table goes without saying, I hope) IC flirting kept to a reasonable level. Hitting the brothels, taverns etc can be lightly mentioned, but not carried on about. Not acting like any of the Knights of the Dinner Table or players from the Deal Alewives. Cross talk and OOC talk is kept to a minimum.
We are pretty much all 40+ working professionals . I am the oldest at just turned 60. We have a CFO, a Lawyer, a investigator, etc.
I guess I need to explain this...GoT deals with mature themes. As a rule, I doubt many people that run games for children have any plotlines that emphasize the homosexuality of a character. I like GoT...you don't have to.
My actual favorite RPG is RQ, 2nd edition...in it, a single blow by any person with a feasible weapon can kill even the best warrior without magical backup...and likely even then. That can get pretty gritty.
I don't think anybody wants their players to be utterly immature...it's disruptive to the game.
I'd probably enjoy your game...it sounds like you have some good, mature players...but I didn't get much of the essence of it from your post. ;)
"Mature themes" is not the same as "Mature". Yes, showing nudity is a "mature theme" but gratuitous nudity is not "mature".
I played RQ for years, all editions. With decent CON, block and defense, few experienced PC's are going to be killed by a peasant with a hoe.
Mind you, I really enjoyed RQII. Great game. More realistic combat, yes, but combats took longer.
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Something that annoys me is that whenever somebody mentions a show portraying frank sexuality as dealing with mature themes, the culture brigade decides to all chime in at once and denounce it as crass or childish. Does it occur to anybody that these things are not mutually exclusive? That it is possible for a program to feature frank depictions of sexuality in a mature way? I think this insistence that anything sexual is sophomoric is much more a reflection of puritanical hang ups than it is the quality of a given work.
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GoT is not "mature". Anything but.
Gritty is overdone and so last week.
Mature is not being childish at the table. Childlike is OK.
No hogging the spotlight. No stealing. No PKing. Not going too long into rules arguments and being cool about losing. No hogging the snacks. Bring your share of snacks and sharing. Paying attention. Being ready when it's your turn. Humor is great but not too offensive. Never hitting on a fellow player at the table. (Never hitting a fellow player at the table goes without saying, I hope) IC flirting kept to a reasonable level. Hitting the brothels, taverns etc can be lightly mentioned, but not carried on about. Not acting like any of the Knights of the Dinner Table or players from the Deal Alewives. Cross talk and OOC talk is kept to a minimum.
We are pretty much all 40+ working professionals . I am the oldest at just turned 60. We have a CFO, a Lawyer, a investigator, etc.
I guess I need to explain this...GoT deals with mature themes. As a rule, I doubt many people that run games for children have any plotlines that emphasize the homosexuality of a character. I like GoT...you don't have to.
My actual favorite RPG is RQ, 2nd edition...in it, a single blow by any person with a feasible weapon can kill even the best warrior without magical backup...and likely even then. That can get pretty gritty.
I don't think anybody wants their players to be utterly immature...it's disruptive to the game.
I'd probably enjoy your game...it sounds like you have some good, mature players...but I didn't get much of the essence of it from your post. ;)
"Mature themes" is not the same as "Mature". Yes, showing nudity is a "mature theme" but gratuitous nudity is not "mature".
I played RQ for years, all editions. With decent CON, block and defense, few experienced PC's are going to be killed by a peasant with a hoe.
Mind you, I really enjoyed RQII. Great game. More realistic combat, yes, but combats took...
I'm glad you liked RQ2. It was the pinnacle of RPGs, in my eyes. :)
Ok, point taken on 'mature themes'...still, that's what I was hoping for. What I really like about GoT isn't the gratuitous nudity...I have no problem with that, but that's beside the point...it's highly political...it deals with long-kept secrets, espionage, and political maneuvering that makes almost no character spotless from it. It doesn't give you a simple 'good guy' and another 'bad guy'...though there are some that definitely qualify as the latter. It's a more mature storyline that a lot of your typical LoTR ripoffs.
Oh, and I agree...few experienced PCs will be killed by that farmer. Eldon Guyre was actually a character run using the RQ rules...and he was notoriously hard to take down. :)
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Something that annoys me is that whenever somebody mentions a show portraying frank sexuality as dealing with mature themes, the culture brigade decides to all chime in at once and denounce it as crass or childish. Does it occur to anybody that these things are not mutually exclusive? That it is possible for a program to feature frank depictions of sexuality in a mature way? I think this insistence that anything sexual is sophomoric is much more a reflection of puritanical hang ups than it is the quality of a given work.
I hear you. To a great degree, I agree, too...and it does kind of make me sad that some people will discount it just because of the sexual content.
We are sexual beings by nature. It's a powerful drive. It certainly doesn't have to be featured in an RPG, but it's not automatically crass to do so, either.
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I think this insistence that anything sexual is sophomoric is much more a reflection of puritanical hang ups than it is the quality of a given work.
Indeed, such an absolute stance is often wrong.
Of course, including sexual themes does not automatically make your work 'mature'. 'Explicit' for certain, 'mature' only when handled as such.
Pornography is not mature, it is explicit.
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Sex and violence has nothing to do with maturity.Including it in your games and then calling it mature is just silly.
Your reply betrays a lack of thought and foresight. In other words, you sound really immature yourself.
Sex and violence by themselves are not mature nor immature. They are just facts of biology and society. Good writers, however, can craft them into something that goes beyond disturbing, and enters the realm of scarring. Because of that, we relegate them to an audience better equipped to deal with what they are seeing and experiencing: the mature.
Yes, we understand your game of semantics and how clever you are. Congratulations, you bothered the folks at the grown up table and got a bit of attention. Now sit down before you hurt yourself.
Sweet man,
Deliberately trying to piss me off is an excellent way of validating your points.Your halfwitted attempt at sounding smart really hit home for me.
I bet the explicit picturing of rape and murder at your table would really scar my innocent soul forever.
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My games err on the serious side of things, as I think you can only become truly invested in a game where the stakes of losing or winning are high, and you just can't take matters all that lightly when that's the case.
Dosen't mean Marry Poppins dosen't show up every now and again, but when she does, it's usualy to awesomley solve some very serious problems. Power word: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is a much more potent spell than most people realise.
There are a wide variety of tastes and styles, and it's only wrong if it doesn't work for you and your group.
I generally run a mature game.
Do you run more toward Game of Thrones, or My Little Pathfinder?
Neither as both are the extreme edges of the spectrum I find it immpossible to be mature when seriously considering them.
Politically?
Very Mature...characters often get involved with local communities as go into a dungeon and kills things.
Regarding sexual matters?
Alot...usualy it is fade to black...though sometimes people want a more general idea...but that is usualy asked and dealt with away from the table.
Grittiness/mortality?
Try to treat both in a mature way...wethout making the game unfun or preachy.
Any other aspects?
Describe these 'other aspects'?
Though one way is action of consequences in my game. Which seems to be a very mature topic at times.
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Rambling/non sequitur, unintelligible condenscension is his specialty.Sex and violence has nothing to do with maturity.Including it in your games and then calling it mature is just silly.
Your reply betrays a lack of thought and foresight. In other words, you sound really immature yourself.
Sex and violence by themselves are not mature nor immature. They are just facts of biology and society. Good writers, however, can craft them into something that goes beyond disturbing, and enters the realm of scarring. Because of that, we relegate them to an audience better equipped to deal with what they are seeing and experiencing: the mature.
Yes, we understand your game of semantics and how clever you are. Congratulations, you bothered the folks at the grown up table and got a bit of attention. Now sit down before you hurt yourself.
Sweet man,
Deliberately trying to piss me off is an excellent way of validating your points.Your halfwitted attempt at sounding smart really hit home for me.
I bet the explicit picturing of rape and murder at your table would really scar my innocent soul forever.
He is...the least interesting man in the world.
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There are a wide variety of tastes and styles, and it's only wrong if it doesn't work for you and your group.
Do you run more toward Game of Thrones, or My Little Pathfinder?
Well, i would say i run full on R rated games, unless a player exibits discomfort. I always warn beforehand.
Politically?
I'm not really a fan of politics, but if my players exhibit an inclination (they don't whatsoever), i will be happy to run such a game for them.
Regarding sexual matters?
Usually fade to black stuff, maybe some rolls if something hinges on the sex. I really don't wanna roleplay female moaning. Or male for that matter.
Grittiness/mortality?
Fully R rated with visceral graphic combats. Death is serious, and i was thinking of doing away with resurrections and using an alternate rule system for that. One where players have a very limited time window to revive the dead character or he/she is dead forever, unless a wish or miracle is cast.
Any other aspects?
Full on swearing, off-color jokes, racism and other bad things abound in my worlds. Usually very dark places to live. Not Ravenloft, but GoT world for certain. Very Grimdark
Do you run more toward Game of Thrones, or My Little Pathfinder?
Game of Thrones is great. I love watching it. I think it is a crossover success because it is very good, not because it is compromising or selling out somehow.
Politically?
We haven't seen many recent games get deeply political. We mostly play adventure paths, so the story is generally a pretty direct railroad. Even when have homebrew stuff the politics is mostly part of the backstory/exposition. Once in a while a borderline villain might try to tempt the PCs with offers to get them special deals or craft magic items at a discount if they let him or her survive.
Regarding sexual matters?
Some games seem to involve more sexual themes than others. We've had some encounters set in saloons and brothels in the past. Frankly, it can be a great way to get the PCs into combat in the "sickened" condition (from alcohol and drugs) and often without their armor on. Beautiful prostitutes who fight with scarves and fans also just seem fun to me. In our Kingmaker game the first improvement we build in each city is a Brothel, but this is mostly just a joke because my PC's appearance is based on Eugene Hutz, frontman of Gogol Bordello. The Brothel is also a pretty effective improvement in game terms.
Recently a male PC on Second Darkness got raped by some drow during a roleplaying scene. I guess the player was convinced that he had to take it since we were trying to do some infiltration. Either way, the rest of the group found it pretty funny since his PC could have easily killed the drow in question.
While DMing I also once had a female player decide to let a flail snail have sex with her PC. That campaign is currently on hiatus, but I think folks would be disappointed if there isn't a strange outcome. Since she's a Witch maybe she'll get Improved Familiar (Snailbaby) - who knows. There was also an incident or two where ghoul rapists took advantage of their paralysis attack. That's obviously really nasty, but I think sometimes the bad guys should be really nasty...
Grittiness/mortality?
Death comes so easily at higher levels it seems that removing Raise Dead and similar options could lead to excessive PC churn. I feel like that could be more harmful to the story than resurrection magic. Perhaps a compromise where the PC "doesn't really die" but suffers some appropriate penalties could satisfy everybody. Hero points can also do a lot to help players who don't like PC death avoid it.
The DM running Second Darkness has killed PCs probably six or seven times through the first 10 levels despite Hero Points. Nobody has been brought back my magic yet, but the DM has let people trade permanent reductions in a random ability score for extra hero points a couple of time.
In Rise of the Runelords I think we had two PCs Reincarnated out of nine PC deaths. One of my PCs died in that game, which is something I usually try pretty hard to avoid. Honestly the PC in question was kind of a dud though, so I let him stay dead and made a more effective replacement.
My games run somewhere around PG-13.
Romance is around. Onscreen sex is not - but it is implied. But that doesn't happen often actually.
Violence, but sanitized. Nothing about severed body parts or blood all over the place - but piles of bodies or a description of something flying back from the power of the blow. Think old westerns where people got shot all the time, but there was no blood.
As for grit - not much of it. Torture, rape, illicit drugs - that sort of thing is pretty much ignored.
Themes tend to be about finding ones place in the world, achieving goals, growing personally into a better person - that sort of thing. Death is very uncommon.
Characters are always heroes - I don't think we've had a game without a Paladin or LG Cleric in decades, but we have have a number without rogues (or someone who is a rogue class, but is a good guy - say a ex locksmith that had his shop destroyed three times by monsters so he becomes an adventurer). Never any evil characters, and I can only think of one Neutral in the last 2 decades, and he wasn't around long.
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Characters are always heroes - I don't think we've had a game without a Paladin or LG Cleric in decades, but we have have a number without rogues (or someone who is a rogue class, but is a good guy - say a ex locksmith that had his shop destroyed three times by monsters so he becomes an adventurer). Never any evil characters, and I can only think of one Neutral in the last 2 decades, and he wasn't around long.
You're lucky then. My players detest playing good characters, so i have a lot of neutrals in my games, since i frown upon the evil alignment. Sigh. What i would give for them to play actual heroes. Just once.
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There are a wide variety of tastes and styles, and it's only wrong if it doesn't work for you and your group.
Interesting thread. My group runs from 30-60 year olds. I'm 54. It's a sandbox campaign with a lot of player involvement in the world / the lives of NPCs.
Do you run more toward Game of Thrones, or My Little Pathfinder?
I've seen GoT. Not ML Ponies. Although I've heard enough to catch the reference. Let's see... adventures, death, friends, enemies, gambling, whore houses, orphanages, nuns, holy orders, criminal guilds and gangs, crime, politics, nobility, adoption, miscarriage, loss of friends, vengeance, shopping. Oh, and more death. I'd say mature. Life happens. Sometimes it's roses, sometimes it's not. My players are, on the whole, more worried about events in the setting / world, than just leveling up.
Politically?
A new barony is being established. They're getting tied in to the local elite. There's a border war starting, more complex than it looks on the surface. And they are associated with one of the cities more unusual street gangs. And through it, although they don't know it, the Assassins Guild. They have connections at the local magical collegium... and with a fence for the Thieves Guild. They are also tied in to a number of businesses.
Regarding sexual matters?
It happens, Marriage and babies may result. We don't generally follow the action in the bedroom. They all have imaginations. Oh, and childbirth can be messy. In real life or game :)
Grittiness/mortality?
Players die, If they are low level, it's funeral time (if the body was recovered) and / or an epic wake. Often followed by bar fights, drunken walks home (?), attempted muggings and so on. And sometimes jail time. Or fines. Lots of fines.
To be resurrected you need to be mid level plus (worth a god's time), on good terms with a church / temple that practices resurrection (not all do), have the means to pay for it, and friends willing to arrange it. Or friends willing to pay for it. Or have a temple owe you a really big favor...
Any other aspects?
It's about a life of adventure in another world with all the pitfalls and promise of that. Big highs. Big lows. Hopefully a big life. Or an epic death. Sometimes not so big or epic though. Life can be like that.
Anything pretty much goes in my games/groups but I try to tone down the sexuality. Mostly to avert creeping out any women who happen to be gaming and to keep the less than mature players in check. As for violence, it's not much of a problem but sometimes I have to keep the women in check. Really ladies, what's with you and playing ultra-violent barbarians.
You're not giving us much choice here, it's not as pretentiously immature as Game of Thrones, but it's also not as black and white as My Little Pathfinder.
Actually, MLP isn't black-and-white. It's what we'll call "mild", but mild things don't have to be black-and-white. "Beauty and the Beast" ain't black-and-white--Gaston is a reasonably heroic man, in his arrogant way, and only really turns nasty later on. Same goes for a few other Disney villains, in fact. By the same breath, something can be extremely "un-mild" (apparently, we're only allowed to use "mature" to denote its secondary meaning) and be completely simplistic. "Game of Thrones" has plenty of very plain villains, for instance (fun as they may be). In a more mild example, three of Buffy's seven main Big Bads (The Master, The Mayor and, to be generous, Glory) were fairly sympathetic--the rest were complete, black-and-white monsters.
Complexity and maturity--using its actual meaning of "not safe for kids" now--are two different things. ;)
FECKING LIVESTOCK.
For little girls.
Seriously, it's reaching InuYasha fangirl levels of proselytizing.
It's a defensive maneuver against people who shout "For little girls" whenever we enter the room. :)
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I think this insistence that anything sexual is sophomoric is much more a reflection of puritanical hang ups than it is the quality of a given work.Indeed, such an absolute stance is often wrong.
Of course, including sexual themes does not automatically make your work 'mature'. 'Explicit' for certain, 'mature' only when handled as such.
Pornography is not mature, it is explicit.
Absolutely. I would not begin to argue that sex makes a program mature, any more than I would argue it doesn't. However I cannot tell you the number of people I have heard immediately write off GoT and other media because they heard it was sexual or saw one part of one episode. I would bet the people in this thread harping on GoT being immature have not watched it and are basing their accusations on hearsay or first impressions. I would be delighted if I am wrong, but previous experience suggests I'm not.
Lots of blood, sex and death. Is all a part of life and the game.
I am just trying to have fun not really to make too violent still have npcs with personalities for players to deal with. I have a tavern run by an old widow.As a play by post is slow has not gotten into anything sexual but have had combats.
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My game has some strong horror elements, and has dealt with issues of sexuality. It's definitely a hard-R, possibly bordering on NC-17 at times. PCs occasionally engate in sexual activity, although I usually play it as a "fade to black."
There have been three scenes that dealt with the survivors of sexual violence (perpetrated by NPCs on NPCs), and one on-camera rape (ditto). I played these scense as tragedy and/or horror, not as titillation. They were very disturbing.
I have also included scenes of mutilation, torture, and existential horror. Again, I never play such scenes for laughs: they're always very intense and usually disturbing. But my players and I are all horror fans, and we're all OK with that kind of content.
That said, I ALWAYS check in with my players, individually and in person, ahead of the game BEFORE I introduce any potentially-triggering elements.
And I don't think it's ever appropriate for PCs to be the subject of sexual violence without the player's pre-approval.
I think different people describe "maturity" differently and feel it means different things, so I'm just going to say most of my games have a TONE of being...
... usually lighthearted, with a good amount of humor and non-graphic violence, but willing to "go deep" and get into some pain and suffering as it is warranted by the story and/or the PCs' roleplaying. I don't like to get graphic in my descriptions of gore and such, but if I'm trying to illustrate just how horrible a monster a character is (which includes a human being who is just terrible), I will try to get descriptive enough to do that adequately, without going overboard and disturbing my players and turning "immersion" into "not fun anymore."
Sometimes my players to an extent dictate the tone... some players are looking for a release and a good time, and I will adjust the tone to meet expectations. Some are looking for an experience that involves dealing with more serious issues, so I will darken the mood a little. After all, we're all creating this story together, so I try to be sure things are complimentary with the players' style while still covering the aspects of the story I want to cover.
For physical intimacy and romance, we usually RP flirtation (if it's warranted) and then everything else is handwaved as happening off screen.
I do not deal with issues of abuse or sexual abuse/assault without explicitly clearing it with my players, and only if for some reason it would make sense for the story. The only time I think it's come up at all was actually because of elements that a player wrote into his character background, and as he was being tastefully subtle, I asked if he was implying his character had been raped and if I could bear that in mind for the characterization of his background villain--and that I did not plan on doing any such thing TO his character, just trying to establish a baseline idea for the villain's evil deeds and the character's past.
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You guys do realize "mature" isn't the same thing as "maturity", right? Maturity denotes age and experience. Mature denotes "keep-kids-away". Now can people stop arguing over the semantics and get back to the main point?
I just think people should stop complaining about the use of the word "mature" when the word has more than one meaning. We all get that explicitness doesn't make something highbrow and sophisticated, after all.