“In the new books the magical and epic elements are combined with characters who have genuine passions, adult concerns, complex motives. It seems that in the best of these we shall soon no longer be able to discover heroes or heroines but read instead about real people. It will be interesting to see if the form will be able to take the strain!”

The Heros and the Heroines – Michael Moorcock

A topic that emerges every so often in roleplaying game discussion is the question of what is appropriate to include in a game. What should be allowed?

The short version of my answer is; What ever the designer, publisher, and players of the game want.

Old argument. Different medium.

Not long after the first comic books were published, there was an argument about what should be in them. This resulted in the creation of the Comics Code Authority, an agreement by the major publishers and distributers to censor comics. It went away because publishers found ways to circumvent the gatekeepers and the books with mature themes were wildly successful.

There have been many arguments about whether mature themes should be “allowed” in tabletop role-playing games. Generally speaking, that content has been avoided. While game companies have had content guidelines going back to the 80’s there is no authority preventing anyone from publishing whatever they want.

What’s kept games with dark themes from being the mainstream has been attitudes in the hobby.

RPG enthusiasts who want mature games have been underserved

Mainstream RPG publishers have avoided games for mature audiences, because every time a publisher goes there, they are accused (by a small but energetic minority) of being terrible people who advocate for terrible beliefs or are encouraging terrible behavior.

If we apply this logic to other entertainment mediums, the stupidity of it is self evident.

It’s the same rhetoric used to attack heavy metal music during the Satanic Panic of the 80’s.

Guilt by association

One reason why gamers don’t buy games containing mature material is the same absurd accusation is leveled at anyone who might be interested in playing such a game.

Oh, you like that game? You must be a sexist/psycho/pervert/racist/fascist/communist/imperialist…

We don’t assume that a person playing a barbarian who quaffs massive amounts of ale and goes berserk every chance he gets is a violent alcoholic in real life.

We don’t assume that a person playing a bard who wants to hump anything with a heartbeat is a sex addict with a raging case of herpes.

Yet, some idiots assume that if you play in a Dark Sun campaign that you must be in favor of genocide and slavery.

Again, the idea that people who play games that include some of the ugly realities of the human experience are immoral people is self evident nonsense.

My hypothesis about why most gamers don’t like mature content

When you watch a movie or read a book, you are not the person taking the action. You might put yourself in the shoes of the protagonist and imagine whether you would do what they would do or not. You don’t have to say that out loud. It’s passive.

When you are playing a role-playing game at a table, it’s different.

If my character does something unethical, immoral, or not what we would consider the right thing from a modern sensibility then I made that choice and there are witnesses.

Most gamers don’t want to play a game where they might have to say out loud something the devil on their shoulder thinks is great idea. They would have to confront their own inner shadow.

They’d rather play a game where they get to play the unambiguous hero.

Most gamers don’t want their games to be uncomfortable, disturbing emotional experiences. They want to be heroes who buckle swashes, swing from chandeliers, and ride off into the sunset. They want to have fun.

Fun is great but it’s not everything.

Fun entertainment experiences are often not particularly deep from an emotional or intellectual standpoint. I like reading Dickens but I wouldn’t call him “fun” the way reading a Conan story is fun. While While Conan stories have some heavy themes if you look for them, Dickens is more complex and thought provoking.

If you want to have a deep emotional or intellectual experience, you must go to some dark places. There’s no getting around it. Drama is not about nice things happening to nice people.

What should be excluded from roleplaying games?

Nothing.

Anything can be excluded. There are a lot of good reasons why one might want to exclude certain topics from their game or within a specific group.

Does that mean that those topics should be excluded from all games and all tables. No, it does not.

If a group wants to play Vikings in the 9th century raiding Balkan villages and selling captives in Byzantine ports then that is what they should do.

Is playing such a game immoral? No.

Is playing a character raiding villages and carrying off captives immoral? No.

It is no more immoral than reading historical fiction or watching a movie where the protagonist is a Viking who raids a village, burns down a monastery and takes captive a pretty Gaelic girl to be his new bride in Iceland.

We know that what the Vikings did was terrible. Most people alive in the 9th century thought the Vikings were terrible too. Playing a Viking in a game doesn’t mean the gamers think it was just swell.

That game won’t be for everyone. It could be very uncomfortable. Some people want that experience.

That doesn’t make them bad people.

Playing a fictional character doing terrible things to fictional people is not advocating for or excusing the terrible acts that real people do or have done to other people.

What I do

In most groups and circumstances the plain old fun action adventure RPGs is what I play and run.

When the notion to include immoral, unethical or down right evil topics in my games takes me, that’s what I’m going to do.

I chose to do that because sometimes I want to create game experiences which challenges the group (myself included) to consider difficult questions and have uncomfortable emotional experiences which go beyond merely being entertained and having fun.

I’m aware that not everyone wants to play that kind of game. I will discuss what the experience might be like and make sure that anyone who is playing is on board.

If not, then they will have to find a different group to play with because that is what I am running.

If a player in my group decides that their character does something that is disturbing, I’m not going to assume they are a psycho or an advocate for evil.

I’ll assume they are having a cathartic moment that they would not otherwise be able to experience. I will be glad that I was able to facilitate that and hope we have more of those moments together.