D&D comic, mature content?

BloodRiver · Post by **BloodRiver** » Sun Dec 27, 2009 11:48 pm

I'm creating a D&D inspired web comic,
but am wondering

what kind of mature subject matter
is oppropriate for D&D

what levels of
Violence, profanity, sexuality, etc.
would the average gamer want/expect in a comic

I don't have a target audience
or any plans to sell books

I'm open to any opinions and just want to hear
what people have to say

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 6:38 am

It's up to you to decide. As long as the content is appropriate to the story, I'm fine with it. (i.e.: combat is a bloody, grisly affair, while a band of mercs will occasionally wander in a bordello. Certain character swear a lot, but I would hate to read "excrement" every few words, for example, because nobody talks that way.)

BloodRiver · Post by **BloodRiver** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 8:05 am

for me it's rather hard to base it on players
because each player acts so differently

were some characters run around naked and molest every NPC in sight

other have only interest in slaying every living thing in sight for loot and XP

the problem is that they seem to irritate each other with these actions

swearing is the only thing that seems to offend most players
mainly because the other things are have to be imagined
and it's kinda hard to be offended by your own brain

were as in a comic this isn't true

wich brings up censorship
personally I don't like it

but I don't want to offend my audience
but honestly, I don't know what offends them

(I'm not to worried about pleasing children)

Pellinore · Post by **Pellinore** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 7:50 pm

Different people will be turned off/on by different things. Being an old school D&D dork I would vote (on a scale of 1-3 as priority) This would be my vote:

1 STORY (top priority)
2 violence
3 sex
4 swearing I suggest making up your own swear words CROM!!!!

BloodRiver · Post by **BloodRiver** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 11:25 pm

yeah I guess I wasn't really thinking to much on story
I'm kinda more of an artist, so writing stuff is hard for me

I appreciate the strong answer, it's starting to seem
violence is a key factor in D&D stories

I'm going to have to try hard not to make the made up
curse words sound lame

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 5:00 am

Don't put too much weight on swearing: it happens everyday, and probably more often with adventurers who encounter several reasons to swear on a day.
Most of them are more likely to say "It was a bloody damned dragon." than "Jolly good chap, that dragon." (Except Berserker from 8-bit.

)
Also, don't put violence & sex apart from story: if they aren't part of the story, don't include them for their own sake. But a D&D story without violence is pretty hard. Same goes for sex, since that's such an integral part of being human too.

Revan1993 · Post by **Revan1993** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 7:50 am

You are the writer,

that means you decide the level of violence and sex etc.
Do whatever you think is necessary to make the story good, if people think the level of violence is too high they can simply stop reading.

But perhaps it's not a bad idea to note some sort of warning in the book that it will contain violence and perhaps nudity, if that was your idea.

It's just a matter of where you'll set the limit.

BloodRiver · Post by **BloodRiver** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 9:21 am

so what your saying is that
swearing, violence and nudity doesn't matter
as long as it fit's into the story

and if the story's good people won't care

but what about censorship

in "Order of the Stick"
theres lots of slashing but no blood
nudity is blurred out/ off camera
there is no swearing

OotS does very well with this
but many other comic are much more relaxed as far as Censorship

the question is, does Censorship bother anybody,
or is it just an all around good thing to do?

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 1:36 pm

Censorship is a bad thing.
OotS is a parody/satire, and it's censorship is intended as a parody 90% of the time. Also, their target demographic includes younger readers.

BloodRiver · Post by **BloodRiver** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 5:06 pm

oh . . .

it is?

hmmm
I'm going to have to think through this more carefully

BloodRiver · Post by **BloodRiver** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 2:48 am

maybe if I explained my concept Idea
people will be able to help more

the story focuses on a DM and 7 players
the DM is trying to run a serious game
but all the players end up making terrible characters
and play them even worse

my Idea is that each player will be based on a different frusturating character/player type eg: the min maxer, the pop culture rip off, the whiner etc.

the players will be seen occasionally, but most of the story will from the characters point of view

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 5:19 am

I wouldn't care too much about censorship. You're making archetypes, parodies, so their characteristics should be over-the-top. Display a lot of violence for the Chaotic Stupid character, a lot of sex for the typical Slut character, a lot of expletives when the Whiner isn't happy.
However, do show all of these things in a funny context, i.e. violence more akin to Tom and Jerry. (Or Itchy and Scratchy, for that matter.)

holeraw · Post by **holeraw** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 7:22 am

I personally think that you approach the whole issue the wrong way:
First you need to develop your idea into a story worth reading - or to support a long succession of strips if you're going for that.

Any necessity for explicit content will then reveal itself naturally on its own - ie. your comic will need to have violence if that serves the purpose of the story etc. you will know, your characters themselves will 'demand it' - so it's not something you need to worry about yet.

Story is the most important part, especially on the web since there's way too much 'competition'. I'm personally happy reading a comic with unimpressive artwork (my favorite webcomic is [url="http://www.qwantz.com/index.php"]Dinosaur Comics - check it out[/url]) but there's absolutely no chance that I'll spend time reading one with uninteresting writing.

So my suggestion is: build your story a bit first. If you can't or don't want to do it yourself you could ask around for someone to work with I guess... there should be people who would want to do that but lack the drawing skills.

BloodRiver · Post by **BloodRiver** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 9:31 am

I can't compete with Dinosaur comics, iregular webcomic, or any other that web comic that focuses that heavily on writing

I'm just not enough of a writer, every thing I do comes accross a kinda dumb.
I've tried looking for writers.
I've been looking for 5 years, still am, most are busy writing novels, or fanfics, and have no interest in comics.
if ya know any I'm all ears

but that's not the point, my pictures can make people laugh, they can make people sad, they're the only thing I got going for me with these comics

what I choose to draw is crucial, maybe it's missing the point, but I think
sometimes how you tell it is more important then the story itself

. . .

I think Gawain has close to the right Idea with things needing to be shown in a comedic light

but Hole's Idea of characters/story eventually demanding these things seems effective too

holeraw · Post by **holeraw** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 10:11 am

Haha... no one can compete with dinosaur comics... not possible

But the great thing about that comic is that it shows that your work can be brilliant if you play smart with what you have. Because it's not just that that guy couldn't draw - which sounds like a very bad thing if you want to make a comic - but he took advantage of it, turned it around and made it the key feature of his work instead of trying to hide it and fool his readers. (sometimes it could be kind of like Fellini making a movie about not being able make that movie)

So what I'm saying is, it doesn't matter if you can't write, you can compete with dinosaur comics or with anyone else - just don't try to hide it, because that won't work - and I'm saying that because it seems to me that trying to decide on the appropriateness of your content is a bit like 'trying to hide it', in the sense that violence, profanity etc. are generally like the icing which can fool you into eating a burnt cake but it won't hide the bad taste for long.

Also whatever you do please please please don't have your characters fall in love with each other and make every single page about them talking about their feelings... that's the #1 fatal disease of 95% of webcomics!

BloodRiver · Post by **BloodRiver** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 5:44 pm

oh gawd no, I'm not delusional enough to believe I can write a relationship
especcially when so many others webcomics have failed in the attempt
*cough*c.a.d *cough*

I think I understand
it's not what I do, it's how I do it

beyond that, I suppose I'll just have to try my best
to make comics that don't suck

that said, I think it's time to get too work
on some comic makin

thanks for all the help everyone!