Rape in RP (was Re: [Discuss] Status ?)

[Gloria Santos]

You all must recall that a while ago I asked what the game's rating should
be, given that some of my content was rated unfit for young people (when I
asked that, our youngest player was probably Lyman) and later we had an 11
years old playing in a realm with us in Perdan.

That said, let me share my views on roleplaying rape.



On 7/3/06, Timothy Collett <danaris at mac.com> wrote:

>
> But forbidding people from including it in RP is simply wrong.
>
> Why?  Because it happened.  Trying to prevent us from RPing things
> that were really happening in the time frame BM represents is
> foolish--and like trying to stop the tide.



Even though it is realistic to include it, Rape is different from other
"realism attempts" in that it may inadvetently cause lots of bad feelings in
players.   I first realized how complicated it could be when I called a
character a "rapist" because he used the raping option under looting.  I was
all in character, but I accidentally hurt some player's feelings.



Furthermore, I would go so far as to say that just about anyone who's
> going to be including rape in their RP is going to be making it sound
> like a pretty bad thing.



People are not going to like someone else raping his or her characters or
npcs, and even if the characters were the raped and not the rapist, there
would have to be a rapist involved.  People don't like (their characters) to
be accused of being rapists.



I would agree that glorifying rape is not
> on, but I don't think anyone's really interested in that.
>
> *However*, as several people here have said, I don't think that the
> issue here was *that* a rape was roleplayed, it was *how* it was
> roleplayed.  It should always be treated with respect--that is, don't
> make it too graphic, don't make it too violent, don't be too explicit
> with it.



Granted, I do believe when Mikko played Sleanra being raped he did it
carefully and in a way that did not offend nor disgust anyone.  Still, I
don't like the fact that he created and controlled a female character only
to rape her.  It did cause strong reactions.


Trying to dictate *what* we can roleplay is not really within the
> domain of the GMs, but saying *how* we can roleplay is.



Perhaps there should be a warning on what content could be roleplayed by
other players, though.  If I were a mother, I wouldn't like my 11 years old
to join the game and have his/her characters raped.
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