A little history...

Back in 2003, Promised Sands was originally released with a creature called the "Uzmek".  It was a creature designed with the intent to make something so evil and reviled that no one would ever request it to be made into a player character race -- while at the same time something that the cultures of the world would rally around to destroy it from the face of the planet.

It was designed along the lines of "what would happen if a creature like the baby from "It's Alive!" grew up and started reproducing?"

We extrapolated that the creature would be capable of reproducing without actual penetration taking place -- because it's blood contained semen, if it simply bled on a woman, it's "overly energetic swimmers" could impregnate her.

As there was no cure for this evil contagion, the cultures responded by killing the (potentially) infected women to prevent this creature from reproducing and infecting others.

It was received by some as a suggestion that "rape victims should be put to death".  Absolutely not something that was even thought of by the designers -- a complete 180 degree turn from the intentions, in fact.

Needless to say, this was harped on rather incessantly at the Big Purple.

Now, working with another group of people, in another company, the fate of the Uzmek (coined "rape ogre") is on the chopping block. Some of the long-time fans of Promised Sands want to see it continue to exist as online content since we're adamantly refusing to publish it.

Yet, we do not want to seem either A) insenstive to those who were offended or B) perpetuating something that has offended or hurt anyone.

The options that we see before us are simple:

A) Excise the Uzmek.  It never existed. It is a "creature non gratis". No acknowledgement or mention anywhere in the univese that is Promised Sands.

B) Post it as online-content.  You can voluntarily download the details if you want to include it, but load it up with warnings and disclaimers that identify the reasons why it was created and that it could be found to be offensive, so "download at your own risk."

Are there any other options? I don't see any, but you might.  So, I open this up for discussion.

(If you don't know anything about Promised Sands, you can check out the link in my signature to the kickstarter that is currently running.)

I've got one.

C) Fuck off away from this hobby with rape, rape monsters, rape trials, cabin boy throat rape, rape demons, rape gloves, rape everything, and this fucked up fascination with rape which appears to pervade some of the lower rent areas of fandom.

If that could be expedited with all haste, that'd be just great.

Quote from: The Traveller;688945I've got one.

C) Fuck off away from this hobby with rape, rape monsters, rape trials, cabin boy throat rape, rape demons, rape gloves, rape everything, and this fucked up fascination with rape which appears to pervade some of the lower rent areas of fandom.

If that could be expedited with all haste, that'd be just great.

Yeah, basically.

I don't care much about what people take offense to, but that's just in bad taste. The concept is puerile and just not interesting. Even the motivation for creating the creature is nothing to do with enriching anyone's roleplaying experience. Let it die, or drop the whole "rape" angle.

OK.

1) This is TERRIBLE, from the intent, to the execution, to the means of execution. This is just a TERRIBLE idea that somehow you thought was cool. The mind. It boggles.

2) I'm going to pretend I have not actually seen this thread and close it. If you feel that idea was somehow totally awesome, and you are over 12 years old, you should check yourself in for therapy.

/done

Quote from: Ben Rogers;688944A little history...

Back in 2003, Promised Sands was originally released with a creature called the "Uzmek".  It was a creature designed with the intent to make something so evil and reviled that no one would ever request it to be made into a player character race -- while at the same time something that the cultures of the world would rally around to destroy it from the face of the planet.

It was designed along the lines of "what would happen if a creature like the baby from "It's Alive!" grew up and started reproducing?"

We extrapolated that the creature would be capable of reproducing without actual penetration taking place -- because it's blood contained semen, if it simply bled on a woman, it's "overly energetic swimmers" could impregnate her.

As there was no cure for this evil contagion, the cultures responded by killing the (potentially) infected women to prevent this creature from reproducing and infecting others.

It was received by some as a suggestion that "rape victims should be put to death".  Absolutely not something that was even thought of by the designers -- a complete 180 degree turn from the intentions, in fact.

Needless to say, this was harped on rather incessantly at the Big Purple.

Now, working with another group of people, in another company, the fate of the Uzmek (coined "rape ogre") is on the chopping block. Some of the long-time fans of Promised Sands want to see it continue to exist as online content since we're adamantly refusing to publish it.

Yet, we do not want to seem either A) insenstive to those who were offended or B) perpetuating something that has offended or hurt anyone.

The options that we see before us are simple:

A) Excise the Uzmek.  It never existed. It is a "creature non gratis". No acknowledgement or mention anywhere in the univese that is Promised Sands.

B) Post it as online-content.  You can voluntarily download the details if you want to include it, but load it up with warnings and disclaimers that identify the reasons why it was created and that it could be found to be offensive, so "download at your own risk."

Are there any other options? I don't see any, but you might.  So, I open this up for discussion.

(If you don't know anything about Promised Sands, you can check out the link in my signature to the kickstarter that is currently running.)

It would seem that you got your answer.  And I can assure you that people like Traveller and Benoist are hardly bleeding-heart pseudoactivist progressives of RPG.net or something like that.

I reviewed Promised Sands in its original version, and I thought that, although somewhat flawed in some respects (burdened by a slightly too complex system, a bad propensity to make up difficult-sounding jargon for things) it was a very neat setting as a concept.  And having reviewed it, I realized just how tiny a single part of a huge setting this monster was. But unfortunately, its mere presence made it a huge part of the conversation about the game.

So I would say, first, that excising this monster really doesn't remove some kind of critical lynchpin from your setting as a whole.  And second, it might allow people to notice the rest of the setting who would otherwise be stuck on the blinders of a single monster; while critics try to make the whole game out to be about that kind of thing (which it decidedly isn't).

So yeah, there's your answer.

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