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Profanity In RPGs?

Started by Zachary The First, June 20, 2011, 08:52:52 AM

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Caesar Slaad

#30
June 20, 2011, 08:34:18 PM
My thought:

Didn't everyone have their fill of this shit during the heyday of white wolf? Yeah, I get it: you're big boy authors and you can swear now.

Just throwing a bunch of swearing into your game isn't going to make it edgy and interesting. It should be used where appropriate. Just like I don't like the edited-for-television version of A Few Good Men, you shouldn't sugarcoat raw moments if you have mature adults at the table. But what I don't want to see is random profanities thrown in just for fun.

Thanks for the warning on Apocalypse World.
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flyingmice

#31
June 20, 2011, 08:39:46 PM
Quote from: Caesar Slaad;465036My thought:

Didn't everyone have their fill of this shit during the heyday of white wolf? Yeah, I get it: you're big boy authors and you can swear now.

Just throwing a bunch of swearing into your game isn't going to make it edgy and interesting. It should be used where appropriate. Just like I don't like the edited-for-television version of A Few Good Men, you shouldn't sugarcoat raw moments if you have mature adults at the table. But what I don't want to see is random profanities thrown in just for fun.

Thanks for the warning on Apocalypse World.

Got your back Mr. Slaad! That's the key word for me - appropriate.

-clash
clash bowley * Flying Mice Games - an Imprint of Better Mousetrap Games
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Zachary The First

#32
June 20, 2011, 09:12:38 PM
Quote from: flyingmice;465035Isn't that the point of this thread, to find out who cares? :D

-clash

I thought so, but then again I didn't see anyone I recognized in this clip. :D
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flyingmice

#33
June 20, 2011, 09:26:02 PM
Quote from: Zachary The First;465038I thought so, but then again I didn't see anyone I recognized in this clip. :D

Ed is the second guy on the left, in the back.

-clash
clash bowley * Flying Mice Games - an Imprint of Better Mousetrap Games
Flying Mice home page: http://jalan.flyingmice.com/flyingmice.html
Currently Designing: StarCluster 4 - Wavefront Empire
Last Releases: SC4 - Dark Orbital, SC4 - Out of the Ruins,  SC4 - Sabre & World
Blog: I FLY BY NIGHT

TristramEvans

#34
June 20, 2011, 09:36:51 PM
Quote from: Ian Warner;464983Well I'm not sure I agree here. I don't think swearing in book text is supposed to be "edgy" I think it's supposed to be informal and conversational. Like the designer is sitting down and explaining his/her game. I prefer that approach to anything "professional" myself.

Ah, well, it's a preference thing I suppose. I don't care for "conversational" tones in RPGs; I prefer the gamebook to be an easy to use (and easy to ignore) reference manual. But then, I also hate game fiction, and a bunch of meta-discussion about the game instead of detailing the setting.

Koltar

#35
June 20, 2011, 09:40:19 PM
Quote from: flyingmice;465035Isn't that the point of this thread, to find out Who cares? :D

-clash

No he doesn't  - and when he does cuss or swear its in Galllifreyan - so we wouldn't understand what he said anyway.


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Kyle Aaron

#36
June 20, 2011, 09:45:30 PM
In general, profanity is not useful in rules. I don't really learn much more if having zero hit points is described as "fucked!"

So in game books we'll usually only see profanity in flavour fiction. And flavour fiction is an abomination unto The Gygax, so should not be present in any book, profanity is irrelevant.

I suppose profanity could be useful in the practical game play advice section of the book, but those are usually sparse and included just as an afterthought anyway, unfortunately.
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GameDaddy

#37
June 20, 2011, 10:45:23 PM Last Edit: June 20, 2011, 10:48:45 PM by GameDaddy
^ What he said... profanity is irrelevant, therefore not useful in a roleplaying context. Have seen a few good moments however, when players involuntarily swear when something surprising happens to their characters... That's not roleplaying though, it's not even good acting. It's humorous moments.

If the players deliberately try to create those moments, they almost invariably fail.
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Simlasa

#38
June 20, 2011, 11:41:33 PM
I'm another who thinks the idea of 'dirty words' is ridiculous... but I do think that tossing lots of 'fuck' into your daily speech makes you sound ignorant. Mixing it up with 'shit', 'cunt' and 'crap' will assure listeners that your vocabulary is not limited and that you may, in fact, be well read.

Kyle Aaron

#39
June 21, 2011, 01:15:05 AM
Oh, there's heaps of profanity at my game table. But a rules system or campaign book's a different thing.
The Viking Hat GM
Conflict, the adventure game of modern warfare
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Peregrin

#40
June 21, 2011, 01:31:24 AM
If it matches the tone of the campaign/system, I've no problem with it being in the books.
"In a way, the Lands of Dream are far more brutal than the worlds of most mainstream games. All of the games set there have a bittersweetness that I find much harder to take than the ridiculous adolescent posturing of so-called \'grittily realistic\' games. So maybe one reason I like them as a setting is because they are far more like the real world: colourful, crazy, full of strange creatures and people, eternal and yet changing, deeply beautiful and sometimes profoundly bitter."

James Gillen

#41
June 21, 2011, 03:18:38 AM
"Will Smith don't gotta cuss in his raps to sell records"
Well I DO
So F*** him and F*** you too
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ICFTI

#42
June 21, 2011, 06:30:01 AM
some profanity in a game book is okay. when every other word is a swear, you are trying too hard to sound edgy and your editor needs to tell you as much.

HalfOrc HalfBiscuit

#43
June 21, 2011, 06:42:26 AM
Swearing in a rulebook - other than IC dialogue - is just lazy, and makes the author look a dick.

Swearing at the table - other than IC dialogue - is probably also lazy, but I do it all the fucking time. :p

GameDaddy

#44
June 21, 2011, 09:16:33 AM
It's just a distraction, that's all. For the most part it takes away the focus on more important things, like roleplaying, and ... creative thinking and problem solving.

It might actually enhance teamwork, if all the players swear together or in a colorful manner, but how many situations actually exist, even in a fantasy world, that would warrant such an emo outburst?
Blackmoor grew from a single Castle to include, first, several adjacent Castles (with the forces of Evil lying just off the edge of the world to an entire Northern Province of the Castle and Crusade Society's Great Kingdom.

~ Dave Arneson
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