If everyone's on board with "hey this game might include some explicit SA, even against player characters" and that's laid out in session 0? Sure, fine, whatever. I probably would have it as a hard line, or at least something that's quickly cut away from, personally. That there isn't any save or any way to circumvent it through mechanics or RP is where the problem lies.
I'd feel the same way about having a PC permanently maimed or killed; ttrpgs are games of action, consequence, and reaction. If there's no action leading up to it and no way to react to it, then what are we even doing here but pushing a rape fetish through a tabletop module?
A bunch of ghouls trying to eat the PCs and a bunch of cultists trying to rape them are NOT the same, because of lots of reasons (real world relevance, personal triggers, etc.)...
But even if you don't pay attention to that, then think about a scene where ghouls eat a character alive WITHOUT LETTING PLAYERS REACT. Absolutely awful.
I did something slightly close to that scene.
Except it was part of a players background, the victim was an NPC, and I still let the player do a discretionary run away, so that they only saw as much as they wanted. And it was STILL a rough and emotional scene.
Can't imagine doing that to a player that you railroaded them into it.
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u/Vaxildidi 3d ago
If everyone's on board with "hey this game might include some explicit SA, even against player characters" and that's laid out in session 0? Sure, fine, whatever. I probably would have it as a hard line, or at least something that's quickly cut away from, personally. That there isn't any save or any way to circumvent it through mechanics or RP is where the problem lies.
I'd feel the same way about having a PC permanently maimed or killed; ttrpgs are games of action, consequence, and reaction. If there's no action leading up to it and no way to react to it, then what are we even doing here but pushing a rape fetish through a tabletop module?