Another one from Travis Miller at Grump Wizard. He really is one of the few writers that makes me think these days. A lot of others have me wondering if I'm even playing the same game as them when they describe things.
So this time he's talking about self-censorship more or less and it's a topic I've thought a lot about since I started developing Cults of Shadow for Shadowdark.
See Shadowdark mentions a handful of Gods but doesn't really go into depth so I though that might be a good idea. Go into depth on how the Cults work (not the mythology or anything). So I wrote Cults of Shadow based on that and one of the Goddesses is Gede. Gede is an Earth Mother Goddess of Health, Healing, and Love. It's that Love part that conflicted me. See I saw Gede temples as running hospitals, and to pay for that they run basically holy brothels. They use the Holy Brothels as a power lever as well to get what they want. Don't do what the High Priestess wants, she'll shut down the brothel and we'll see if the crowds don't tear you apart, or the Templars of St Terragnis don't dice you up (they are protective of the Sisters of Gede despite alignment differences).
The sect the Maidens of Love is in the book, but it's barely a paragraph. I felt the power-politics centered on sex could be unique and powerful but I self-censored myself and cut it out. Maybe part of my decision was because this is Shadowdark, it's not my world to start adding that sort of thing into. Still I feel odd about it and may add that to my Goblin Marches product when/if I ever get back to that one.
I'm not really sure how Awful it is because in the 60s I think the feminists might have applauded the whole idea, but I'm pretty sure modern feminists would hate it. Anyway I agree in principle. Don't self-center. RPG worlds should be complex and have awful things for Player to fight against.
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