Texas Fetish RPG Community Demands Right to Play
"We are gamers just like everybody else," said Alyssa Spears, president of the Fetish RPG Alliance. "Our games might be different, but since when is sex more offensive than murder, devil-worship, and property theft, which is what most other RPGs are all about?"
Spears and her friends have been meeting at "Mind Games" for over a year, playng such commercially-available role-playing games as "Gang Rape" and "Abduction!" in the back room.
When some of the customers complained last month, Spears and her friends were kicked out of "Mind Games" and told that they could not play adult games there.
When Spears and her friends returned and began to modify the rules of the "Wasteland" RPG to incorporate adult situations, the owner of "Mind Games," retired University of Texas Engineering Professor Dr. John Turnbull, banned them from the store altogether.
Dr. Turnbull claimed that Spears and her friends were being deliberately provactive, saying things in public that were offensive, crass, and bad for business.
"When somebody comes into my store, I want them to have a good time," said Dr. Turnbull. "My store isn't a night club or a disco. It's a place to play a quiet game of chess or Warhammer."
Role-playing games can range in complexity from simple, tabletop board games to "live action role-playing games," where people assume an identity and the whole world becomes a game board. According to Spears, while early role-playing games focused mainly on myths and themes from the works of Fritz Lieber and J.R.R. Tolkien, modern RPGs can be about anything.
"You can turn cooking or raising children into a game, if you want," said Spears. "Human beings love rules and discipline, and we just happen to like games about sex. We think they are hilarious."
Dr. Turnbull, on the other hand, feels that it is his responsibility to create an environment where everyone can be comfortable.
"I don't see why they can't play their sex games at home," said Dr. Turnbull. "There are parts of other people's imaginations that I just don't want to know about."
Posted by miracle on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:31:10 -0500 -- permanent link
