sex, drugs, politics, religion, bigotry, childhood pain

[Ben Lehman]

accurate presentations of wife or husband abuse and child abuse (as in *Little Fears*)

BL>  I have some experiences and research with the psychology and sociology of child abuse, and I can say this about Little Fears:
Disturbing: Yes
Accurate: No

There is a difference, I think, between RPGs that merely perpetuate stereotypes (FATAL), RPGs that address stereotypes without analysis (Little Fears) and RPGs that address stereotypes and the issues behind them (Orkworld.)

yrs--
--Ben

[Thuringwaethiel]

What considerations do you take when it comes to such modern controversies
as sexuality, gender, recreational use of
drugs, political systems and patriotism vs. nationalism, religion in RPGs, realistic presentation of bigotry or ideal world with no bigotry,
accurate presentations of wife or husband abuse and child abuse and so forth?

Well, I'll tell how I do this when GMing or making up stats/rules. Example genre is Middle-Earth. I consider many cultures there to be racist, sexist, homophobic and fanatically nationalist. "Good guys", too, maybe even more so. However, if a character is of mixed breed, woman, gay or separatist, s/he does not get statistical penalties (sometimes vice versa), and the player is not punished either, but encouraged to explore these more or less difficult issues. The world is more difficult, but the play just more interesting.

As for drugs, I tend to make them a double-edged sword; using them makes some good and some bad. Thus a now-and-then use adds up positive, whereas heavy-users end up in big trouble. The world however is absolutely irrational here: one culture encourages one drug and horrifies another. Cross the border and tables are turned.

Violence, sexual violence and abuse. Again, world has opinions, but rules allow it all, and GM orders the consequenses. If a character wants to kill and rape, so be it. Then he is a killer and a rapist. And usually word gets around, and if not, the deed is still done and in the characters' personality.

As a GM I try to not act according to morals, but along the action and reaction. You do good to someone, they are prone to return the favour. You do bad, and they are even more so. However, the surroundings may get in the way. Maybe your characters' fellow soldiers won't let him to spare the captured foe. And maybe they just encourage him when he beats his children and rapes his wife. The character might not get "what's coming to him", but the point here isn't that, but to show to the player what's going on by realistic description. Not necessarely graphic, but certainly real.

Besides, very often the character gets what's coming to him, and his fellow characters get their share, too. Not because it's moral, but because it's realistic (and it makes an interesting game). Group robs a store, group gets caught, group is ordered to perform a suicide mission (and everybody died). A character kills lot of orcs, becomes a hero, kills more orcs, orcs avenge upon his family and friends.

For example, I recall a controversy a number of years ago when some RPG gave
all female PCs automatic penalties to their strength scores.  I remember a similar
controversy when some RPG listed homosexuality and feminism as possible
psychoses in its madness tables.

Stupid, both cases. Yes, human males are on average stronger than females, but also less flexible. Feminism and homosexuality have nothing to do with psychosis, even less with each other.

We handled the first case in MERP by giving males a small bonus to Strength, Intelligence and Constitution, whereas females got same amount to Dexterity, Intuition and Presence. Equal, yet diverse, and realistic enough. Plus it helped if one rolled piss-poor stats.....

Sexuality and worldview do not sound like stat things to me. Important parts of character generation, yes, but not something to be calculated. And while I'm happy to play a feminist character in a misogynist world, I'm not taking it from the rules or GM.

Phew... Heavy issues and strong feelings. I hope you got something out of this, and that I didn't step on toes too much.

[Bob the Fighter]

I don't think I try to challenge my players in any way, but I often end up including some sort of "hot button" issue or characters anyway. Not so much a direct decision to provoke thought, but since most of us belong to at least one civil rights club, we just kinda think of these things all the time anyway.
So the lesbian couple the party relies on as an arms dealer isn't in any way remarkable in the game because of their status. As someone has already said, they "happen to be gay."