ghost13 said:
CZ, I'm almost afraid to ask, but what do you think of Beast?
Also, yeah, Vigil is a big improvement over Reckoning.
I'd just like to interject for a moment in case anyone doesn't know what Beast is:
projects.inklesspen.com/f...ieg/beast-the-primordial/Time for me to bring a perspective from /tg/, which alternately mocks ERPers and desperately wants ERP to work.
WALL OF TEXT INCOMING.The biggest problem with erotic roleplaying games (as opposed to cybersex, which is what "roleplay" means to most fetishists and which causes /tg/ to recite the "I put on my robe and wizard hat" pasta almost by reflex) is that for an ERP group to really work, everyone has to have
exactly the same fetishes, or near enough to make no difference. If this isn't the case then inevitably someone will say or do something that isn't arousing for anyone except them, the effect is broken and you are acutely reminded of the fact that you're just sitting in front of a computer with your dick in your hand masturbating to other people sitting in front of computers with their dicks in their hands. (Edit as appropriate for your genital situation.)
The
other biggest problem with ERP, of course, is that 99% of tabletop players who have ever heard of it inextricably (and justifiably) associate it with tales of creepy assholes who constantly try to drag their fetishes into other people's games and other people's lives. These foul beasts, the dreaded That Guys, are why /tg/ hates and mocks ERP with a burning passion that only barely eclipses the nagging temptation to do it anyway in case the one girl at the table is secretly into that.
The
other other biggest problem with ERP is that when most people think of steamy collaborative fiction, combat tactics and rolling dice aren't exactly at the forefront of their minds. I'm always a little surprised when people suggest doing sexgames in D&D when something rules-light would significantly reduce the amount of mindshare you have to devote to the non-porn portion of the experience.
All that said, I think that you
can make it work. If the group is sufficiently jaded that they can fap to anything the former issue becomes moot; I know one dev makes bank selling an RPG with rules for every fetish under the sun to furaffinity based on just that principle. A GM who privately gathers ground rules from everybody and recruits within a very narrow niche (like, say, this website) can further mitigate the risk of TPG (Total Party Gross-out.) The second is again mitigated with careful group selection, and the third can be evaded by picking a rules-light system like Risus or PDQ.
And for the obligatory Squid Ops RPG plug, I plan on handling the ERP issue by not even risking it and just describing a detailed setting that's good for having adventures in. If you just want to have cool elf adventures you'll have plenty of material to draw from, and if you want things to get spicy you'll have a solid foundation to fill in with your group's personal kinks and turn into something everyone can enjoy, without having to write around my own sexual deviancy. (I've also toyed with the idea of releasing a separate PDF in the vein of Maid RPG's "Nun-Approved File" for all the NSFW ideas we come up with that would otherwise be left on the cutting-room floor.)