I was reading Chill 3rd and A Red and Pleasant Land in public recently, which was fun because I realized I'd hit a new "too old to give a shift" plateau and was really enjoying it.

Not sure I'd think to read a DCC module in public, though. Will have to try.

One of my favorite "public consumption" tomes back in the day was Kult....also Unknown Armies later on.

...Honestly though, I think any funny looks I get have more to do with the shock of seeing someone reading a book at all anymore. I get the same looks from people who see me reading on my tablet (and realize I'm actually reading, not playing Candy Crush or whatever).

Quote from: camazotz;865457I was reading Chill 3rd and A Red and Pleasant Land in public recently, which was fun because I realized I'd hit a new "too old to give a shift" plateau and was really enjoying it.

Almost one of us. Almost.

I don't give a small flying turd about what other people think about what I'm reading, and if it keeps me off jury duty, so much the better.

a couple of the guys in one of my groups had really conservative christian parents, and they had issues with the cover of Kult.  Then they read the book, and they had even more issues with it.  They were OK with In Nomine because my friends had the 'angelic' hardcover edition,  I went with the 'demonic' black.

I have a copy of the Avalon Hill Runequest that is an all in one volume edition with that same cover.

Quote from: Phillip;865446The set I got has Michael Whelan covers.

You're right. Same comment holds to a lesser degree though. Maybe I bought older books--at that time, 25 cents at Half Price Books was a bargain. Or maybe I'm just confused because they used Vallejo art everywhere a lot back then?

I can't remember getting a stink eye for a reading anything in the past couple decades, but I remember lots of disapproving looks from old fucks and concerned mommies back when I was a teenager on the bus reading whatever.

My reaction? I'd start playing with my junk.

I'm pretty sure I caused spinal damage to a couple geezers as they whiplashed their heads away from the sight of me digging in my shorts.

What can I say? Momma always told me to stay classy.

Growing up under the Satanic Panic, I had to hide my gaming for most of my 32 years in the hobby. I got in the habit of not reading things in public or used something mundane as a cover.

I think of all the game books I have ever seen on a store shelf that ever made me go WTF?! was the Savant&Sorcerer book for Exalted... Our local game shop had on copy blatantly on one of the shelves, and I remember one mother shooshing her 12 year old away from the "porn rack" (her words) as they walked passed the RPG section. I dont know who thought that cover was a good idea, but he had some serious issues... Before I left the store, I moved the book so it wasnt displaying its cover any longer, just the spine...

Actually I have an older Ballantine ed. of "Thuvia, Maid of Mars" with a cover by an Italian artist (in name, anyway). It naturally has the female figure as its focus, but I'd say it's in thoroughly good taste (and rather classic style).

The only cover I ever had to think twice about was one of the Cyberpunk ChromeBooks. Frankly I never thought much about it myself, but one of my friends was mortified to read it. I just though the covers were very Cyberpunkish, and got to the stuff inside.

But then again, I figured reading an RPG in high school was basically a fast forward to nerd status, so what did it matter was on the cover of said RPG?

Quote from: Nexus;864985Which isn't to say there aren't some risque rpg covers (the old Avalanche Press stuff, the Savant and Sorcerer cover was kind of racy, etc). But was it really that embarrassing in light of what people read in public otherwise or more so than reading one of them satanic D and D books in general? Have things just gotten more uptight or am I just clueless so I didn't notice the horrified and offended stares?

It's all about moral grandstanding and signaling one's virtue by being righteously indignant in a loudly public way.  In order to engage in that sort of moral grandstanding, they need something to be loudly and righteously indignant about.  They need to find something, anything that they can express their righteous indignation about.  In an era where real sexism is pretty much gone from RPGs with the exception of a few fringe games no one takes seriously, this takes some work.  You have to search for something to be offended by and stretch to come up with some reason why it's offensive.  Hyperbolically describing mildly racy covers as "blatant misogyny" and getting worked up  "the misogyny" is a popular way of turning the non-issue of a midly racy cover into a big deal that one can be properly righteously indignant about.  It's a popular option alongside things like quibbling about pronouns and tallying which identity politics checkboxes aren't checked by the NPCs or sample PCs and then bitching about lack of "diversity" and "representation"

It's all just people looking for something to be offended so they can show people how Progressive with a capital P they are by being loudly and publicly offended.