Author: Eric Christian Berg (---.amherst.com)
Date: 12-05-2001 08:03
A lot of this has to do with gauging the capability of your group to handle certain topics, something which may require a bit of bumpy learning as you go but which shouldn't be too hard with any gaming group that's been together for more than a few monthes. I'll use my own two gaming groups as examples.
My Sunday night group has eight people and they are a great bunch. There are five men and two women and it is a group I would never introduce to a deep roleplaying game with serious, disturbing issues. Why? Because there is a fair amount of sexism at the table and a tendency towards strong political opinions and heated arguments. Thus, we stick to high-action games that don't require a lot of thought or depth of character. Honestly, it is the sort of game this group enjoys most anyway, but that's just a happy coincidence.
On the other hand, the game I am running my Saturday group through has dealt with rape, transgenderism, homosexuality, religion, racism, and colonialism, all within the context of Victorian London. It is a heavily researched and deeply roleplayed game where the characters have complex motivations and there's a lot of grey morality. The group consists of three men and two women and all of them I trust with being able to handle the topics and not take offense, and keep the OOC and IC stuff separate (which is still quite a chore, we've had a few sessions where one of the players had to reassure another that her character's reactions were not shared by her, but it is the fact that they communicate this that allows me to trust them with it). In a sense, it is a much more mature gaming group.
Being able to recognize the differences between the two groups didn't take long and it doesn't bother me at all. I rely on the Sunday game as a means to unwind, I play it purely for escapism. The Saturday game is my artwork and I love the total immersion feel of it, even though it often leaves me emotionally drained. It isn't that either style is intrinsically better (anymore than a drama is inherently better than a comedy), they are just different and better suited to the groups in question.
In the end, this is really the issue: knowing your players and what they can handle.
Eric Christian Berg
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