Keldorn romance -- proofreading help needed

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Amen, Anjo, amen.

 

I think the biggest boundary for adding your character being raped as something to do with how to play it. In BG2, you don't have to figure out how your character rationalized initial violence. At this point violence is common place, the character's mind merely accepts it as something that happened. Now dealing with the aftermath of a rape is something wildly different. I don't want to try to role play my character's fear of members of the sex that raped him or her, I don't want to deal with my character's withdrawal from the world or how sex is now viewed as a painful experience and is something to avoid. It takes a aberrantly strong mind to not make a personality shift when victim of a stranger rape. I think a module in which one can get into sexual relations following a stranger rape is rather inappropriate as rape survivors aren't apt to do such a think in real life. If you want a module where your character gets raped, make it realistic, make the conversations betray the character's distrust for those who resemble the rapist, make them have odd reactions to whose who seemingly make sexual comments, make it almost impossible for your character sleep at night (like a, say 75% chance of not getting enough sleep to be fully healed or such), etc... this isn't something that is simply going to pass by most characters who haven't been able to externalize their sexuality (i.e. non-sexual workers).

I'd certainly think that breaking up Keldorn's marriage for the fun it is in no way can ever compare to making my character cut down a beggar for the fun of it, but you are essentially putting an upper class woman with no means of supporting herself out on the street and that needs to be taken into account. That's the biggest issue with breaking up marriages is that usually someone is dependent on the other for financial wellbeing.

As for (unprecipitated) violence v rape, I think you can make the case for either one being worse then the other, assuming you don't ascribe to a survivor's mentality. Unfortunately do to aspects of society, villains, like Joseph Stalin, are perfectly fine, but having villains, like the Hillside Strangler, aren't. I personally think, however, if used appropriately (such as knowing, but not seeing), a murder, who is a rapist as well, is a more vile victim, for he not only ends lives, but dominates them utterly before doing so. Could add an interesting (horrifically interesting that is) spin to BG2 if a villain if say, kidnapped and then threatened to have PC's romantic interest violated if PC didn't ignore said minions ravaging the countryside and deal with such and such instead. If the villain simply murdered the NPC, great, here comes resurrection or even if NPC is permanently dead, there is closure in that. The raped NPC isn't dead and their continued presence serves as a constant reminder of the failure (likely end to the romance as well as NPC isn't interested in sex any more, blames you for what happened to them, or in Anomen's case, wild bouts of self-destruction). Mind you, if you save your loved one, countless innocents are killed by marauding minions.

Arguably stuff takes the simplicity out of it for the casual gamer, but makes evil much more potent. Similarly why I like having villains mutilate certain NPCs rather then kill them (how does the town belle do when she's suddenly the ugliest girl in down because of her disfigurement), truly evil villains do more then just end lives, they destroy whatever sanity and dignity the individual had. Sorry, I've gotten to use to the Book of Vile Darkness and Horror Campaigns.

Anyway, I think on a bit of an about face twist, rather then asking why violence is ok in fantasy, I'd like to ask why other forms of depravity aren't available for the depiction of a truly evil character. Vile characters are interesting in despoiling life. Which is more evil? The villain who kills his enemies or the villain who cannibalizes the flesh of his enemies in order to strike back at his enemies' loved ones by denying or defiling the body for burial. It's rather annoying that evil should be dictated by parent's concerns about what is acceptable. Acceptable evil doesn't really feel evil as it's bland and contrived. A lawful evil gentleman knight merely steps on peasants. These types of villains are great for short modules made for NWN or PnP, but are rarely worthy of campaigns. NWN OC does a great job of making use of villains who act as head villains, but aren't worthy of this task.

What? I'm not on the Material Plane anymore? I'm in the Gray Wastes of Hades you say? Damn it.

 

I can just picture it now: Keldorn having problems in bed and asking somebody to cast a stoneskin on certain areas!

 

Gah! My mental eyesight is disfigured!

Damn you Klorox!

 

I thought that was "Harper's Call" - or perhaps "Resserection"...

 

Or Petrification for infinite fun...

 

That'd get uncomfortable... especially if he's wearing armor.