A video of the review is available here.

Greetings from the Chicken Ranch in downtown Renton.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe set of peoms, "Roman Elegies," are all about sex and this lovely set opens with a little ditty about forcibly sodomizing people who disapprove of orgasms. Those would be a suitable introduce to the topic at hand today, but I do not speak German. Today, we are reviewing the book of Elf Fannies.

(Ahem) I mean a review of the Book of Erotic Fantasy.

Ten years ago, during the heyday of the d20 license, third party publishers the Valar Project published Erotic Fantasy. The work is 192 pages long, hardback in glossy format. Gwendolyn F. M. Kestrel and Duncan Scott served as writers while Anthony Valterra, formally brand manager at Wizards of the Coast, served as the creative director for the project and the boss man at Valar. Yes, there are rules to cover when your character engages in sex. There really are all kinds of role playing experiences.

-Family Guy Clip-

Anyway, this book on fake sex possesses a somewhat silly tone, but then sex itself is somewhat silly, even if at its best it is fun and life affirming. Hell, so are pie fights. Come to it, pie fights and sex involve people working up a sweat, lots of shouting and usually ends with the participants messy. Treating sex with too much seriousness sucks the fun out of it. No pun intended.

Okay, I meant the pun because I have no shame.

Anyway, on to the particulars.

Erotic Fantasy is a visually striking book, with excellent composition, easy to read text and quality graphic design and aside from the erotica, most third party publishers in the early 2000s could only dream of this level of overall quality in a printed product – something still true a decade later.

Art in Erotic Fantasy consists of photographs with some Photoshop effects and feature real people in stage makeup and costumes – or completely out of costumes. The images are better than usual fantasy art by way of computer-edited photographs and as for the pornographic content, the images do show breasts and moderate full nudity but for all of that it is only somewhat more explicit than the usual art in many fantasy RPGs and comic books, which usually feature heavily sexualized women. Further, the penis content in this book is only slightly above the usual level in a fantasy RPG accessory. It would require stretching, or a low sexual boiling point, to call the art in Erotic Fantasy pornographic stroke material, if not being an outright phallacy. Speaking of phallicy, there are photos of magic dildos in the back of the book. And whips.

To clarify something right away, there are no rules for determining the size of a penis or breasts. Erotic Fantasy might be somewhat silly, but it is not stupid. Equally important, it is not juvenile book and avoids childish terms. As Dumbledore observed to Harry, fear of a name increases the fear of a thing itself, so use correct terms for something and the correct terms are penis and vagina, not cock or cunt.

A standard "what-to except" section opens the book as does a section pitching the idea of including sexuality in a tabletop role-playing game. While not redundant, it is arguably unnecessary or at least it feels like it is preaching to the choir, as far as the people purchasing the book probably already agree with the idea.

Chapter one provides a discussion of the sexual mores of the standard D&D races and sexual behavior by alignment, among other subjects. Over all, the first chapter is better than you might expect, given its preference of fluff over crunch because the fluff is well thought-out and well executed.

The second chapter starts with rules, discipline and safety words. Okay, that is a lie. There are not any "safety words" because safety words are for sissies. Anyway, the second chapter turns the focus from fluff to mechanical crunch with rules, skills and feats. There are rules for sustaining sex, which are fun and pertinent to the rules presented later in the book. Erotic Fantasy discusses sexual uses of several skills and adds Perform: Sexual Techniques to the roster. It also provides rules for sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy and conception in terms of actual game mechanics. A section of feats concludes the chapter, and as with most lists of feats it is a mixed bag, with some good, some useless and many mediocre.

Chapter three provides new base classes and prestige classes and the classes in this book are intriguing, largely due to thematic issues. The basis class Tantrist draws its power from how often the character engages in sex and Rake prestige class would be a lot of fun under a sex friendly gaming table. The Metaphysical Spell shaper, however, is an odd inclusion as it has no sexual connotation and is a weak prestige class as well.

Magic spells appear in chapter four, the strongest part of the book. This includes four new domains and spell lists for bards, clerics, paladins, rangers, sorcerers and wizards. New spells include ale goggles, disrobe and orgasmic vibrations. Not all of the spells directly relate to sex, such as mirror walk, which allows a caster to travel from one large mirror to another by walking through them as through a portal.

Chapter five covers items, such as an assortment of rods, potions, lotions, belts, whips, leather and lace and other such paraphernalia the characters may want to get their hands on to take a situation to the next level. The sixth chapter provides information on the gods and monsters of sex. Among other entries, this includes a memorable description the goblin goddess of fertility and cherubs, both celestial and the frightening fallen cherub.

The seventh chapter provides three NPC organizations, which amount to an escort service, a private sex club and an equal opportunity brothel. Reading the brothel entry takes me back to all those naked pie fights I was a part of back at university... the things a man will do to get into a good sorority. Wrapping up the book are a pair of appendixes.

With any accessory you purchase there is always a question of how much use it provides, be it a role-playing game accessory or a role-playing accessory.

How much use can you get from Erotic Fantasy, the RPG accessory? Can someone expect to use most of it, or will people mine it for ideas and various items? By comparison, how many gamers use everything in the Book of Psionics or even everything in a setting campaign guide? As compared to using what they need when they need it and generally just mining the work for ideas. In theory, Erotic Fantasy is a rich vein of ideas, tools, rules and the like just waiting for use in the right game. It would be a prerequisite if someone wanted to run a game in the world of Oglaf, for example.

In the end, I give Book of Erotic Fantasy a 20 on a d20 roll. Candidly, I have rarely used anything in Erotic Fantasy, though this is owing to a lack of opportunity rather than a philosophical problem. One memorable occasion involved employing a fallen cherub as the living phylactery of a lich. However, many adults can burst into nervous giggles when anything possibly sexual other people discussed by anyone in earshot. As such, no matter how intriguing the Rake prestige class is, and no matter how useful the spells, none will be incorporated into my current game, for reasons other than having to adapt the rules from 3.5 to 4E. As with many things, it is all about the group.

Even if you never use Erotic Fantasy in a game, it is worth owning a copy because it is a good addition to an RPG collection for what the book does with role playing and how it pushes boundaries. Lovers who enjoy the hobby can enjoy the book as well.

Speaking of the rules, the rules in Erotic Fantasy are 3.5, making them reasonably close to the Pathfinder mechanical system. People using that mechanical system who are interested in the opportunities presented in this book will have an easier time adapting the material to that system than interested groups using other systems or editions of Dungeons and Dragons.

***

A video of the follow-up discussion is available here.
 
Now I am going to take it down a notch.

In terms of books like this and others carrying a Mature Audiences Only label, some may say...

-why won't someone think about the children? -

I am – I am thinking about them staying the hell away from my books. Why should I lead a childish life because others do?

Valterra and friends published Erotic Fantasy in the early days of the d20 license phenomena. Valterra had already left Wizards of the Coast at the time and when Wizards learned about this impending publication from the Valar Project, they released a statement distancing themselves from the work and altered the then existing license by adding a "quality standards" provision that required publishers comply with "community standards of decency." This subsequently prevented the book's publication under the d20 system license. Valterra and Valar still released Erotic Fantasy under more general open game license; however the changes meant they were unable to use an official d20 logo on the book, which probably would have helped sales.

This is worth mentioning because the year before the release of Erotic Fantasy Wizards had published the Book of Vile Darkness. That book included rules for using torture to gain power, drug addiction, evil feats and generally was a grab bag of grotesqueries. The art matched the text and included an image of a dwarf torturing and murdering an angel.

So Wizards was stating that a book of angel murdering, drugs and depravity was acceptable, but a book of naked frolicking was unacceptable.

To judge from the gamer backlash and response, a response from many who never saw the Erotic Fantasy, the RPG fans agreed. This was akin to people approving of and embracing the Hostel movies but stridently protesting the making and release of the Red Shoe Diaries, loudly arguing against their appearance in the marketplace at all. Taking from this, torture porn is good, mutually consensual orgasms are bad.

Doctor Freud wants to know what the fuck is wrong with you.

In any event, someone making strident demands about a game in which they are not a part of is so asinine it can serve as its own metaphor for the asinine, which unfortunately does not stop the haters.

The corollary to this generally positive review of Erotic Fantasy, the cold fact as compared to the warm theory, is a need to be terribly careful about introducing any such material into a game or group. Gamers are people and the majority of people are no damn good at all. Individual people may possess a sex positive philosophy, but life itself does not. Sexuality is another proverbial chink in a person's armor, something others will inevitably use to exploit and inflict harm on others, regardless of the orientation or the degree of appetite expressed. Make a realistic assessment of what will happen to you if you try to introduce any of this material in a game, do not simply tell yourself the rosy lies you want to hear. People being people, even broaching the subject will likely open you to all kinds of ongoing vituperative attacks.

My dour skepticism comes from awareness of life in general and people over all.

Anyway, the issue has not changed in the ensuing years. Since the publication of the Erotic Fantasy and Vile Darkness books, Wizard's has since reprinted or adapted much of the content of Vile Darkness in subsequent source books without a Mature Audiences Only label.

The Valar Project dissolved and no one has reprinted or adapted the silly fun and sex positive material from Erotic Fantasy.

Out of print for 8 or more years now, the book is available in hard copy at Amazon and as a PDF at drivethrustuff.com

QuoteJohann Wolfgang von Goethe set of peoms, "Roman Elegies," are all about sex and this lovely set opens with a little ditty about forcibly sodomizing people who disapprove of orgasms. Those would be a suitable introduce to the topic at hand today, but I do not speak German.

German is definitely the language to use in describing forcible sodomy.

JG

Quote from: James Gillen;661226German is definitely the language to use in describing forcible sodomy.

JG

I thought it was Greek.

I thought it was a pretty awful product.

The art is really awful. It's like they got models from patrons of the local new age bookstore and put them in ridiculous outfits and/or photoshopped them badly.

It suffers from the problem of many d20 products - too much useless detail. Do we really need to use the Perform [Sexual Technique] skill, much less use size modifiers for it?

And DCs (for a Constitution check) for long it lasts?

And of course, tons of feats to modify all this.

Personally it's just as puerile as the Mongoose stuff, only this book takes itself seriously. It's also funny how it gets a pass while the Mongoose books don't, it has some spells and such which essentially coerce others into having sex with the caster...

Quote from: JeremyR;661263It suffers from the problem of many d20 products - too much useless detail.

That describes entirety of this product, as far as I'm concerned.

Quote from: JeremyR;661263I thought it was a pretty awful product.

You weren't the only one. Copy and pasted below is my own review of the product from eight years ago.


Tuesday, March 15, 2005
 

 Book of Erotic Fantasy - book, 2 stars


I'd pass by it on the shelf every day at work. I glanced at the cover, but didn't open it - until today. I knew where it was, anywhere in the shop. I was fixated upon it like a compass point. I could feel its presence, waiting for me to leaf through its pages....

I knew that I had to check it out for no other reason then to learn why the damn thing was written. See, in every RPG that I have played in where sexual situations have happened in character, the Gamemaster would let you know whether or not your character had sex and whether or not it was good/bad/indifferent. Sex was not an end unto itself while in character, but it was considered a plot complication that could be used to move the story of the game along. So why was an entire book of RPG rules about sex written for the d20 OGL?

Now, I'll give credit where it is due. I appreciate that the book makes all effort to let you know that it is for mature audiences. The book also explicitly only deals with consensual sex. There are some quite nice photoshopped pictures of naked or scantily clad nubile lovelies within its pages. That and well, its different (and that is important with the plethora of copycat d20 books out there).

Now that I've cleared my conscience, lets get on with euthanising this terminally ill dog of a game book.

Everything that is of merit within this book could have been condensed into an eight page pamphlet. It didn't and shouldn't have been drawn out into a 192 page craptastic writing exercise. The section on Alignment and the Sexual Attitudes that are associated with it are fallaciously obvious (Wow, Chaotic Evil people are self-serving users in regards to sex? Who would have thunk it!). The section on Conception, Pregnanacy, and Crossbreeding is pretty damn pointless (Humanoids are fast-breeding while Elves and Dwarves are very slow-breeding in comparison, not surprising). The three character classes they introduce are one-trick ponies centering on sex - they include the Imagist (a class that is so attractive that they have sorcerous powers, great for the narcissist in you game group), the Kundala (essentially a monk with minor spell-casting abilities who has to have sex in order to maintain the special abilities, also known as The Fucking Monk), and the Tantrist (a mage who must have sex in order to regain spells, a footnote lets you know that masturbation won't work to regain spells). Then there are the Prestige Classes, gimmee a break! (I howled with laughter at the description of the Dominator prestige class - for a book tauting consensual sex, here is a class whose entire repetoire of special abilities are geared for nonconsensuality). The Items section is off by a few technological advances, like the condom (The first known published description and trials regarding prophylactic condom use were recorded by the Italian Gabrielle Fallopius in the 1500's). Lastly there is the Gods and Monsters section which provides critters for sexual encounters, including the Pleasure Golem (a DnD version of a RealDoll, feel free to make little pukey noises now, I did).

After reading through this book, I've come to the conclusion that its primary purpose is to piss off Wizards of the Coast and show just how warped their Open Game License can become. With its high gloss pictures of fantasy women, totally erroneous and/or extraneous information on sex, and actually having rules for erections in its pages - this book is a must for rabidly masturbating fanboys, Gorean whackos, and Anne Rice Prince/Princess wannabees.

This book actually has made me uninterested in sex for a night.

The BoEF was also notable for lowering the public faith of the OGL among designers, at least according to the book Designers & Dragons.

How?  Wizards of the Coast threw a shit fit and tried to do everything in their power to dissociate the book from D&D.  Except that it could be published under the OGL.  They revised the license such that the Valar Project could not say "compatible with 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons."  Instead it had a d20 logo on the front, saying "compatible with the world's most popular role-playing game."

Then more third-party designers realized that they didn't need the vaunted "D&D-compatible" statement on their product to get sales.

Quote from: JeremyR;661263I thought it was a pretty awful product.

The art is really awful. It's like they got models from patrons of the local new age bookstore and put them in ridiculous outfits and/or photoshopped them badly.

To me it looked like Bob Guccione doing a Disney theme.

QuoteAnd of course, tons of feats to modify all this.

Well, at least Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Whip) is actually worth something now.

JG

Quote from: Rincewind1;661237I thought it was Greek.

Well, to specify, German is the language for conveying the sound of being forcibly sodomIZED.

JG

Quote from: jeff37923;661328Everything that is of merit within this book could have been condensed into an eight page pamphlet. It didn't and shouldn't have been drawn out into a 192 page craptastic writing exercise.

This might be said of every source book ever for every game ever. Particularly the Book of Vile Darkness.

Quote from: jeff37923;661328This book actually has made me uninterested in sex for a night.

You have my pity.

Quote from: Libertad;661426The BoEF was also notable for lowering the public faith of the OGL among designers, at least according to the book Designers & Dragons.

I have never heard of this allegation nor have I heard of this book. Can you provide a link to information on Designers & Dragons?

Quote from: James Gillen;661461Well, to specify, German is the language for conveying the sound of being forcibly sodomIZED.

JG

Oh ja ja, naturlich.

Quote from: GrumpyReviews;661557This might be said of every source book ever for every game ever. Particularly the Book of Vile Darkness.

Well, Book of Vile Darkness at least had some usable actual play content. I don't see this pile of garbage being used by anyone, outside of a few cheap laughs.

Quote from: GrumpyReviews;661557I have never heard of this allegation nor have I heard of this book. Can you provide a link to information on Designers & Dragons?

Designers & Dragons is a comprehensive history of the tabletop game industry.  It's written by Shannon Applecline of Evil Hat Games.

I'll look for the relevant entries and page numbers when I get the time later and edit them into this post.

Quote from: GrumpyReviews;661557This might be said of every source book ever for every game ever. Particularly the Book of Vile Darkness.

Yeah, I can agree with you on that.

But I have a problem with your review methods. Basically, you give this shit- stain a glowing review, without actually mentioning anything specific about it, other than you like it and that other people should like it because you do.

With this, a universally panned piece of shit, you don't really go into any details at all, you just tell us it's good and we should take your word. So why should I, a gamer who has known about this book for whatever amount of years, and heard how stupid, ridiculous, and absolutely worthless it is for nigh on 8 years, care about this book and buy it? That's a legitimate question.

Quote from: everloss;661919Yeah, I can agree with you on that.

But I have a problem with your review methods. Basically, you give this shit- stain a glowing review, without actually mentioning anything specific about it, other than you like it and that other people should like it because you do.

With this, a universally panned piece of shit, you don't really go into any details at all, you just tell us it's good and we should take your word. So why should I, a gamer who has known about this book for whatever amount of years, and heard how stupid, ridiculous, and absolutely worthless it is for nigh on 8 years, care about this book and buy it? That's a legitimate question.

Well, we might've not understood the joke.

Quote from: Rincewind1;661941Well, we might've not understood the joke.

No, that is why I posted my own review of it in this thread. The BoEF is pretty damn useless as a gaming resource. I think GrumpyReviews just wants some attention.