Sexual Innuendo...

Printable View

10-17-2002, 08:32 PM
Polanski

Sexual Innuendo...

Greetings,

Just wondering how heavy your sessions end up on sexual innuendo jokes?
Either generated by you (the Narrator) or by the players and what methods you find to deal with that?

No particular example in mind really...
Although since the captain of USS Courageous is a female (human, 43yo) the players make some jokes outside the game on occasions.

* Usually a visit to a captain's ready room under unfavourable circumstances is viewed/reffered as getting a second ... hole in the backside.
* There was a time when she (the captain) was reffered to (behind her back) as Iron Maiden (Iron for tough and Maiden for no one knew anything about her personal life so they assumed she never had one)
* When the captain came onboard after long shore leave she gained about 3 kg of weight, the CMO (PC) was happy to see the captain getting a bit more under her skin (for captain being ex-RRT always kept in shape) but some players (not their characters) joked that ... maybe she was pregnant.
* Having a betazoid and half-betazoid makes crew sexual fantasies ... less personal. It makes it even worst when the full betazoid is chief of security (war veteran)
* Chief of Science is up to some mischiev, she dresses in "barely within regulations training outfits" and usually asks the chief of security to help her with her workouts (this so far have lead to nothing)

Generally however things are clean, and when the game is concerned things are very pure, I think the captain have earned the respect of both players and their characters (or they are very scared of Narrator)

As a narrator I have observed an interesting fact (even in my current group of 1 female 3 males and me) that sexual innuendo jokes are non present if the commanding officer/or main NPC is not a female. This actually applies to Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D and so on...

Any comments and observations?

Kind Regards
Daniel
10-17-2002, 10:10 PM
Owen E Oulton

Having the captain rip you a new anus is not a particularly sexual comment - it's a general term in just about any military I've heard of, regardless of the CO's gender.

Sexual innuendo doesn't generally play much of a role in my games, although back in my movie-era campaign two different PCs made it with James Kirk. One strange running gag which keeps cropping up in my game is that there's always a Caitian players character around, and another character will always begin an antagonistic relationship with him/her. In my Excalibur campaign, the Captain and Navigator were Caitians and the Helmsman (from a canine species) was forever making asides about spray bottles and/or catnip. In the Relic campaign, the CONN officer is a Caitian and the Engineer is a Tellarite, so the Bajoran Sciences officer took the skill Animal Handling with specialisations in feline and porcine species. Go figure!
10-18-2002, 12:48 AM
RaconteurX

Thus far in our Enterprise-era campaign, the innuendo has been rather infrequent during actual play but a bit more prevalent in between-sessions correspondence. It's all been fairly PG, of a more romantic nature than sexual. It was amusing when our Boomer XO asked my Centauran chief engineer's grandmother (Tavas' parents were killed in a vehicle accident shortly after he was born, and he was raised by his maternal grandparents) for relationship advice, though... she got a primer on Centauran romantic customs.

:)
10-18-2002, 08:16 AM
Ineti

My Trek games generally don't focus on the ins and outs of relationships. Sexual innuendo does come up from time to time, but it's not the thrust of the campaigns.

:)
10-18-2002, 10:56 AM
Sea Tyger

1. Owen is right. Chewing someone a new @**hole is a generic military term that we all use. It has no sexual implications whatsoever. It just means that the boss was pissed about something, and you were his personal whipping boy.

2. I don't think "Iron Maiden" is anything sexual, either. It's not necessarily a nice reference, but it's no more sexual than calling someone an "Ice Queen." I just equate those saying to calling someone "rhymes with 'witch.'"

As for my games, I normally gloss over the romantic stuff, unless there's a plot device somewhere within. It really boils down to how comfortable your players are with it. I, personally, have a mature and intelligent group who can use innuendo in a clever and non-baudy way, and we all have fun.

Now, if I can only get them to play Star Trek....
10-18-2002, 11:38 AM
Sarge

Haven't had much innuendo in the ST campaign.

D&D, however... My character is a half-elven sailor who's been at sea too long, and there are two female players running attractive female characters. Occasional comments like "Arr, wish I had a figurehead like that under me bowsprit!" or "By thunder, ye're puttin' the shiver in me timber!" are all part of the role-playing experience. And you can guess what subjects he chooses for scrimshaw artwork when he has time to kill. :D
10-18-2002, 12:56 PM
qerlin

Innuendo, hell...our characters get laid !
10-21-2002, 02:12 PM
StyroFoam Man

This message has been removed on request by the
poster
10-22-2002, 02:13 AM
Phoenix

Nah, poor thing would never last...under the table!!

Besides, you ever have a die get lodged in a VERY uncomfortable place...
10-22-2002, 02:27 AM
Polanski

Now see ... this is what I am talking about ... the sexual innuendo in question.
Even you guys do it ... right now, right here in the forums.

:)
10-22-2002, 08:39 AM
StyroFoam Man

This message has been removed on request by the
poster
10-22-2002, 09:17 AM
Liz Not Beth

This message has been removed on request by the
poster
10-22-2002, 09:25 AM
Calcoran

Was that one of those dices that came packaged in these old D&D boxes? With very sharp unpolished edges? Cause that must hurt! :eek:
10-22-2002, 09:38 AM
Liz Not Beth

This message has been removed on request by the
poster
10-22-2002, 07:42 PM
Polanski

Hmmm ... this thread is going down the hill ... fast :)
And you tell me that your games are low on sexual innuendo?

:D
10-23-2002, 09:45 AM
Robbert Raets

My D&D game is completely innuendo-free.

But wait until the PC's are high enough level that I can introduce Stifmeister, the intelligent 'holy' longsword.... :D
10-23-2002, 01:09 PM
Anderyn

As Raconteur X's co-player (I'm the Boomer XO he mentioned, in fact), I will second his in-game comments. However, the GM does have the habit of creating off-screen relationships which , so far, I've been too shy to actually bring up in play --- the new security officer, for example ,is a past lover, but no one in play knows that. Which is good, because our very moral security chief would have kittens at the very idea of any player character and npc actually doing the romance thang.
I shudder to think of what he'd do if we actuallly do pull off the scene we would have done last night, if he'd showed. (The XO and one of the communications officers have just gotten engaged, and the communications officer happens to share quarters with the security chief. I still wonder what he'll do if he walks in on them sharing a simple kiss...)

Anderyn
10-23-2002, 07:22 PM
Polanski

Please see "Crew personal relationships" thread in Narrator's Ready Room...

Especially the following post: http://forum.trek-rpg.net/showthread...&threadid=5764
10-24-2002, 02:42 AM
C5

Hey in my ST game, the Science officer, a really good looking Vulcan/Human female (but with no Vulcan principles) is doing her best to be noticed by the Bajoran Security Officer (last attempt was "accidentally" losing the top of her bathsuit while surfing on a holodeck beach), but always fails.
Another time, the player asked me if his character could dream of the Security Officer, and after a few dice rolls, I allowed it, but didn't go too far in the description of the dream... :p
Given the player involved, I expect some more innuendoish situations to come... ;) :D
10-24-2002, 03:58 PM
RaconteurX

Quote:

Originally posted by Anderyn
Our very moral security chief would have kittens at the very idea of any player character and npc actually doing the romance thang.

Not that Lt. Moreau has any reservations about appearing, Garibaldi-like, in the turbolift any time our young Vulcan doctor (a player-character) happens to take it... it's just NPC love that is verboten. Who do you call when your security chief is the stalker?

:D
10-24-2002, 04:06 PM
calguard66

I dunno... but it sounds li8ke a great plot hook, and Halloween is coming up...

Quote:

Originally posted by RaconteurX
Not that Lt. Moreau has any reservations about appearing, Garibaldi-like, in the turbolift any time our young Vulcan doctor (a player-character) happens to take it... it's just NPC love that is verboten. Who do you call when your security chief is the stalker?

:D
10-24-2002, 07:51 PM
Polanski

Better yet :)

Had one of the player characters considering to call upon escort services... at least they did not used their personal communicator for this one :)

Kind Regards
Daniel
10-25-2002, 10:10 AM
Anderyn

Quote:

Originally posted by RaconteurX
Not that Lt. Moreau has any reservations about appearing, Garibaldi-like, in the turbolift any time our young Vulcan doctor (a player-character) happens to take it... it's just NPC love that is verboten. Who do you call when your security chief is the stalker?

:D

The XO! Bring it to Katherine's attention and she'll have some disciplining to do with our security chief. (Given how Moreau has been bellyaching about it being incest to even *look* at a shipmate, and totally ignoring the GM's attempts to have some very attrctive NPCs flirt with him, I find it very ... disturbing ... that he's been stalking our doctor.)

Anderyn
10-25-2002, 11:29 PM
RaconteurX

Quote:

Originally posted by Anderyn
[The XO]'ll have some disciplining to do with our security chief.

Discipline, eh? Now that's innuendo... :D

Quote:

Moreau has been bellyaching about it being incest to even *look* at a shipmate...

Except in his most recent letter home, he was commenting about the lack of eligible women on board Artemis. :confused:
10-26-2002, 12:52 AM
Polanski

:eek:
10-27-2002, 03:46 PM
Ovar

My games have lots of relationship stuff in them, or do as long as the players are into it. My last game on of the PCs had dozens of affairs (including one with the Barollian spy in 'Blinded By Science' from the Neutral Zone Campaign, and a one-night stand with the Captain's ex-lover and mother of the Captain's child! Long story.)

Whereas my current campaign has very little 'action' one of our PCs currently is interested in our Chief Engineer, while he's seeing the daughter of the Govenor of a colony world. And one of our NPCs constantly hits on women, though he the one time he did get a date, he got into a fight over her, and then got caught up so much in the fight that he forgot about the girl until asked about what happened to her by our Chief of Security.
10-27-2002, 06:52 PM
Polanski

Greetings,

Still this can get off hand very easily ...
Especially with Betazoids onboard ...
They just keep sensing things when they are not supposed too ...
Captain cannot have a romantic dinner and keep in a secret :(

Kind Regards
Daniel
11-08-2002, 07:10 PM
Anderyn

During our last game, our security chief Moreau had a discussion with the captain about the new relaxed regulations and he said *snicker* "that it would be bad if senior crew started having relationships, it'd be terrible if I started dating Bryce (my XO character)". I gasped, but the GM just stroked his chin and said that he thought we'd make a cute couple. THEN we finally did what I'd been waiting for -- the GM steered him to his room where Dovenov and Katherine were waiting for him, sitting on Dovenov's bunk, hand in hand. His eyes popped out of his head, and he gurgled when I told him that we wanted to discuss our wedding plans with him. He then made the quintessential remark about "it's like cats and dogs living together!" and raconteur x got ten xps for predicting it. Dovenov then asked him to be best man, and he shuffled around, but finally said yes. Now all we have to do is get out of the cliffhanger our GM put us into....
11-10-2002, 02:46 AM
Thanatos

Hehe... haven't posted in ages and I end up posting in here for my return :P

I'm going to start by saying that sexual content, in any form including innuendo or PCs "getting laid", is really a decision up to the players of the game and that the "default" setting should be that the possibility is there, but the PCs have to make the first move to open that flood gate.

On to more important things: my tales of PC sexual innuendo!

1) In the last game I ran it was almost unavoidable, and it was my fault. The game was a home-brewed pseudo-D20 Brigandine (PSX game) inspired RPG with Lovecraftian influence (one of my PCs was a cultist of Shub-Niggurath for example). One character (an Orc bandit) got turned into a female by magical amulet and basically turned into a whore (*shudder* but it was the male PCs decision on the last part... i just made him a girl :P ) and the priest ended up getting regular... ummm... services from a collection of slave-girls he'd converted to the temple of shub. This particular track only got worse as the sexual innuendo seemed to steadily increase from game session to game session until finally it became a tertiary factor in me calling off the game telling my players "I need time to fix some of the damage you've done to my campaign plans..." which was unfortunaetly true as only the priest actually seemed to think, ever, leaving me with a world that's life expectancy was until the next game session (hello Nyar, going for a walk are we??? uh oh...)

2) I'm rather pleased that my current Mechwarrior campaign is, shall we say, sexuality-lite. Some innuendo, plenty of jokes (about both genders). This has lead to an almost universal agreement by players that the game is more fun (that and the characters work better together which helps, but i attribute it more to the tone of the game).

Moral of my stories: Sexual innuendo can add a few laughs and light-hearted moments to a mature gaming group... but only if used with some degree of decency. Letting it get out of hand ruined one my games when I could've stopped it and yet in my current campaign, and previous Star Trek, Shadowrun, and others, the few moments where we let sex, something that does btw occur in real life in case you didn't know, into the game added a degree of versimilitude and made great NPCs for me to capture/kill/torture/whatever (errr... sorry evil GM speaking).

Its also worth noting that my entire troupe of role players is male (including myself) which probably doesn't help (that Y chromosome just makes us do things that makes others go "Why?"), though it is worth noting that there are female player characters in the party and with the one magically altered exception above the players are mature enough not to be their ideal woman but behave like independant free spirited individuals.

Sorry if that came off as long-winded, but I consider this a relatively important topic because, as I stated above, well used innuendo can only add a degree of realism and occaisional fun to the game. Unfortunaetly its also very easy to let out of hand so GMs really should make personal choices regarding this one.

Heh, think I'll use this in my GM chapter for the RPG I'm *still* trying to write :D

--Arawn
11-11-2002, 02:35 AM
qerlin

Quote:

Originally posted by Polanski

And you tell me that your games are low on sexual innuendo?

:D

Don't recall anyone saying that... :D
11-12-2002, 10:32 PM
Polanski

Hmmm ...
Sounds like there is sexual innuendo and ... Sexual Innuendo. It might be worth nothing that I was refering to the first one.

My question was not as 'blunt' and 'direct' as to be converted into 'characters getting laid' situation.
As much as that adds the reality to the game, it need to be handled very carefully.
I was touching on the subject involving a general every day life comments related to the different gendres.

So a pleasent and well liked but somewhat relaxed commanding officer may, while having a friendly drink with his friend, comment on how 'foxy' that particular female captain looks like. While after the drink and discussion is over he returns to his professional self.

As an example...

The captain ordered red alert exercise in which she participated as a member of intruder team with orders to take over the vessel. She was going in with RRT platoon (being ex RRT platoon leader herself) and due to the camouflage was unrecognizable to her crew.

After the training, chief of engineering went to speak with the RRT platoon leader and mentioned to him that 'he has seen this tall female soldier in his platoon in action during the exercise and being a sucker for females in uniform that can take care of the situation he was wondering who she was'

The RRT platoon leader (this all was indeed happening over a friendly drink) said that he should look up in the chain of command and he will find his mystery commando girl.

The engineer, still slow from the drink ... asked who is the RRT platoon leader's superior officer. To which the RRT leader answered politely ... I report directly to the EXO (who is a male) and then to the Captain (who is a female).

At this time the chief engineer bitten his tounge ... and the player went into the 'oh shit' mode looking scared like hell for a brief moment (since the captain is GM's PC) until the GM (me) smiled and said, this was fun, have some extra XP for your interest and role playing.

We all still recall that time with fond memories :)

Kind Regards
Daniel