TheRPGSite

A video of the review is available here. (http://blip.tv/GrumpyRPGReviews/05-grumpy-rpg-reviews-book-of-elf-fannies-remake-6597201)

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. (http://blip.tv/GrumpyRPGReviews/05-grumpy-rpg-reviews-book-of-elf-fannies-follow-up-6597217)
 
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 (http://www.evilhat.com/home/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.

Quote from: everloss;661919With this, a universally panned piece of shit, you don't really go into any details at all...

Do not be childish. I am under no obligation to conform to general opinions about anything, including but not limited to this book. You are perfectly entitled to your opinions - indeed opinion are inevitable - however I am uninterested in uninformed opinion or lies. I did discuss specific aspects of the book, including flaws such as a mediocre feats and the mistake of the Appearance attribute as well as the fact some material is not related to sexuality including a prestige class and some of the spells, which weakens the focus of the work. The review itself is 1,200 words in length, which is sufficient to get the point across. The additional remakes are about 700 words, where I expressly suggest adding it to a personal collection (do you use every single RPG book you own, or do you have some simply because you like them?) but not employing the BoEF in a game because people will react badly.

How often do you employ the torture and addiction rules from BoVD?

Quote from: jeff37923;661992I think GrumpyReviews just wants some attention.

Do not be childish. I am no more interested in attention than anyone else who posts to the internet. If I was utterly unconcerned with "attention," I would have neither written the review nor composed the video, to say nothing of posting the material.

Quote from: GrumpyReviews;663201Do not be childish. I am no more interested in attention than anyone else who posts to the internet. If I was utterly unconcerned with "attention," I would have neither written the review nor composed the video, to say nothing of posting the material.

So, did you do this just for attention or not?

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

JG

HA! :D

I like that the guy giving the "Oh gee! I can finally have fake sex in my D&D!" book a glowing review is calling people childish :D

But seriously grumpy, your reviews are not very good. And it's not because you have shitty taste in games but because they're very light on actual content. After reading your reviews I rarely (never) feel informed about the game so much as I simply know your opinion.

I actually just read the review just now and . . .

What the fuck? "10"? Seriously?

This is up to the highest standards of RPG game design to you, Grumpy? What the fuck?

Quote from: GrumpyReviews;663201Do not be childish. I am under no obligation to conform to general opinions about anything, including but not limited to this book. You are perfectly entitled to your opinions - indeed opinion are inevitable - however I am uninterested in uninformed opinion or lies. I did discuss specific aspects of the book, including flaws such as a mediocre feats and the mistake of the Appearance attribute as well as the fact some material is not related to sexuality including a prestige class and some of the spells, which weakens the focus of the work. The review itself is 1,200 words in length, which is sufficient to get the point across. The additional remakes are about 700 words, where I expressly suggest adding it to a personal collection (do you use every single RPG book you own, or do you have some simply because you like them?) but not employing the BoEF in a game because people will react badly.

But you gave the book a "10", a rating generally reserved for the crème de la crème of books. You're basically saying this book is a "must have", not "I liked it, but it may not play well with everyone's group."

A fucking "must have". :rolleyes:

Quote from: Novastar;664411You're basically saying this book is a "must have", not "I liked it, but it may not play well with everyone's group."

I also gave "Charnel Houses of Europe" a 10, and it has a narrower use than BoEF. CoE requires a game be in the Wraith setting/line, in the WoD and deal with the Holocaust. But it is still a good book and worth adding to an RPG collection.

BoEF is silly fun, like some sex joke, and is among the books which won't see much game use but is another RPG worth having anyway.

If you are a creepy gamer, this book deserves a ten for your uses.  I don't think you are a creepy gamer Grumpy.  So, this is some form of sarcasm.

Quote from: GrumpyReviews;665096BoEF is silly fun, like some sex joke, and is among the books which won't see much game use but is another RPG worth having anyway.

I basically liked it, but in my review at The Banning Place, I said that it doesn't answer the essential question of why I would trade a Weapon Focus feat for a Sexual Endurance feat.

JG

Quote from: GrumpyReviews;665096BoEF is silly fun, like some sex joke, and is among the books which won't see much game use but is another RPG worth having anyway.

But that's the problem, it's not fun. It's exceedingly dull and clinical. It's about as exciting and fun as the typical 3.x WOTC sourcebook.

They managed to make a book about sex boring. That is its real sin.

Quote from: JeremyR;665170They managed to make a book about sex boring.

No, I've read that book.  It's called the Kama Sutra.

jg

Quote from: James Gillen;665407No, I've read that book.  It's called the Kama Sutra.

jg

Like most people, you were reading it wrong. You are supposed to read it with another person, one going left to right, other right to left.

;)

Quote from: jeff37923;661328The 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).

a bit of a necro but that was one of the best parts of the book

as for the kama sutra thats really not about sex

The problem with the BoEF wasn't that the art was bad (though it was), nor that it was poorly edited (though it was). The problem with the book was that it's main theme was too weak to support all of the new crunch it put forward.

That's a rather vague statement, so let me instead phrase it like this:

If I buy an RPG book about deserts, I'll be able to use it the next time the PCs go through a desert. If I buy an RPG book about lycanthropes, I'll be able to use it the next time the PCs fight lycanthropic enemies. If I buy an RPG book about sex, I'll be able to use it...when?

Jokes aside, it's the inability to answer that question that reveals the central weakness of the BoEF. "Sex" by itself, isn't a game scenario that justifies that many new mechanical options (and, in fact, is virtually never a game scenario at all).

This is one area where I think that Sisters of Rapture - the BoEF's spiritual successor - exceeded its predecessor masterfully. Rather than focusing on sex itself, it's central premise deals with a free-love cult whose members are beautiful, promiscuous women (and it has better editing and illustrations).

(Disclaimer: I did some collaborating on this latter title.)

i myself am more interested in nymphology i was going to buy it but one of my players wanted to try a vow of non-violence character (on the understanding that the party was free to kill him and leave him in a ditch the moment they got sick of it) so i brought the book of exalted deeds instead because im a nice dm like that

oh god the book of exalted deeds is horrible how could they do so well on vile darkness and fuck up exalted deeds so much and thats just from page 9 im a bit scared to move on i had heard it had problems but this is just stupidity

i guess the idea of sex as a school of magic just appeals to me more then any of the other stuff

Quote from: tuypo1;806663

QuoteOriginally Posted by jeff37923 View Post
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).

a bit of a necro but that was one of the best parts of the book

as for the kama sutra thats really not about sex

My GM owns a copy of this and has used some of the classes and a couple of the races (notably Felids) in her own campaign.

She has also used the pregnancy/conception/etc chapter in her game and brought it into another as a counter to GM Shenanigans, and actually appreciates these rules as she's used the Real Life Pregnancy Rules herself (she's a mother so it speaks to her).

I am not as fond of the BoEF as she is but I can appreciate it for expanding these rules in particular. Not that pregnancy should be in every campaign, especially with younger players (I'd say the 10 to 14-15 crowd), but lately I've been of the theory of "have rules that can be used even if only optional."

I have it and I liked it and have even used material for it in my (non D and D) fantasy games. But sex has always been a hot button issue in gaming and hard to handle "well" (well meaning widely approved) except in the vaguest manner you can so it (and any other sex focused books) are very deep in "Your Mileage may Vary" territory.

I think it was a necessary book in a lot of ways and it was a brave attempt to tackle the subject seriously. Yes, there were problems with it in terms of presentation and so forth, but it was necessary. It demonstrated some of the faultlines we're still dealing with today, though the axes have shifted somewhat since then.

It was definitely instrumental in people moving away from the D&D label towards OGL only as it became apparent that Wizards could and would cause issues for people producing content and it just wasn't worth the bother.

Quote from: GRIM;807393It was definitely instrumental in people moving away from the D&D label towards OGL only as it became apparent that Wizards could and would cause issues for people producing content and it just wasn't worth the bother.

Frankly I can understand why Wizards wouldn't want their brand associated with the book (especially given the critical reviews) but it's not like there isn't interest in the subject.  Perhaps even legitimate interest.

JG

Well... Since everyone is determined to keep this necro alive and well...

I own the book, and I occasionally take it off the shelf to look at the pretty pictures.  Er... I mean read... :p

What I found, long years ago, was that it was a great resource for actually keeping out of control sexing OUT of the game.  My players (a mixed gender bunch at the time) were essentially destroying any semblance of a campaign with 'anything goes' sexy-time imaginings, but when I plonked down a big hardback full of rules to use on them they sobered up and played straight. For years after I've been able, with various groups, to use the book in exactly the same way.  Works better than a hose of cold water, and is far less harmful to my dining room.