The Book of Erotic Fantasy

By Smaugdragon, Co-host

The Book of Erotic Fantasy is a 254-page mega-adventure published by Valar Project. The authors are Gwendolyn F. M. Kestrel and Duncan Scott. The cover is by Susan ‘Lupa’ Geluardi and features a succubus in a red bustier and it is available for $34.95.

The Book of Erotic Fantasy is a first in the world of gaming, an intelligent look at adding sex or sexual situations directly into game play. As is expressed in the introduction, fantasy novels from Conan to Fafred and the Grey Mouser to the Heralds of Valdemar all have sexual situations that drive or move the plot but the actual act itself is off-stage and not detailed as in an adult novel. The Book of Erotic Fantasy brings these actions to the game. There have been home-brewed rules to cover these topics but never a book like this. This book does carry an Adult Content Warning on the cover as the book has numerous nude photographs in it, however the nudity is not explicit sexual acts and is milder than most adult magazines, more on a par with art or photography books.

The Book of Erotic Fantasy is not a hormone-driven, adolescent, ‘if there’s a girl there, I wanna do her’ type book. It is a tastefully done, adult look at adding adult topics to your game such as sex, marriage, pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and the classes, feats, skills and spells to add these dimensions to an adult game. This is taking, “you go into a bar, get drunk, woo the serving wench and the next morning you’re off onto your next conquest” and details a few more levels to that scenario and add a bit of spice to the process. It could become easier or much more difficult to woo the wench dependent on the new rules covering Appearance, an aspect of Charisma, and the player’s skills or feats of seduction. Will the dalliance produce a child? What are the region’s mores on such an affair or any illegitimate children produced by it? How does a character’s alignment come into play? Is this a mutual act between consenting adults or has some devious magical charm been used? The Book of Erotic Fantasy brings many of these situation into play as examples covering the rules as they are presented.

Chapter one covers Love, Sex and Role-playing. The chapter starts by pointing out how society has changed since D&D first came out. There was no mention of gays on TV, now Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is a big hit, Buffy has affairs with undead men and such. With this thought in mind, sex and roleplaying is discussed with sex being a means to drive the plot along. Of course these elements existed before this book came out, but now there are rules to assist the GM. Ratings similar to movies are described in a sidebar and then applied to game situations. Subjects like consent, sexual orientation, kinks and fetishism, prostitution, sacred and profane, and pornography are all tackled with the briefest and most objective descriptions and ways to slowly integrate the concepts into active game play. The mores of sex and their consequences are also covered here. The traditions of Love & Marriage, Commitment and Infidelity, Pregnancy & Childbirth and Chastity are then given the same treatment. Taboos are discussed but also broken down into Cultural Taboos and Universal Taboos. Cultural taboos include things like nudity; homosexuality, gender equality and prostitution while universal taboos include rape, incest and bestiality. Rites of Passage are also discussed; these can include traditions such as marriage, piercings, menstruation or a personal journey or vision quest. Different types of marriages are also described, going beyond ‘’Till death do us part’ into some different forms of marriage contract like a year and a day as is common in ancient Celtic societies., different types of unions like monogamous, group or polyandrous (1 female and 1 or more males). Fidelity and/or chastity within the marriage and possible forms of dissolution of the union are taken into account as well. Alignment, as applied to sexual encounters is broken down as well with only Chaotic Evil not given an example or more detailed definition. Then they move onto the races, their sexual mores and traditions and pregnancy and childbirth practices. This section goes beyond the normal PC races and includes Giants, Centaurs and Dopplegangers among others.

Chapter two handles Rules, Skills and Feats. New rules include expanding Charisma into two categories, Charisma (Personality) and Appearance (beauty). Appearance Scores are also give charts on the differences in races and age, also described are Appearance and different species, like Dragons Aberrations, Outsiders and Fey. Size in sex and sustaining it are briefly talked about and sustaining is given a chart with DC modifiers. Applying existing skills to sexual situations is next, Bluff, Appraise and Perform are among some of the skills expanded. Sexually Transmitted Diseases is then described. These are not the Herpes, AIDs or VD of the real world but game plagues like Azure Balls, Black Withering, Crimson Welts, Lycanthropy, Vampirism and Mummy Rot, all have consequences as dire as some of the STD’s player’s are apt to encounter in real life. Fetishes are only very briefly described with little information, merely stating it does exist, what it is and how to apply it to the game. Pregnancy, conception and crossbreeding and their effect on game play is given much more consideration. The debilitating effect of pregnancy on movement and dexterity, methods of birth control and gestation periods among different humanoids are given and a large chart of species able to crossbreed with one another is there as well. Sexual feats are brought up next with Animal Magnetism, Limber, and Virility among the twenty-four listed here.

Base and Prestige Classes are detailed in chapter three. Three new classes, the Imagist, Kundala and Tantrist are given. Imagists are clerics of a sort attracted to beauty and beautiful things, their spells focus on curative, divination, protective and astral spheres. Kundala are similar to monks but travel the world seeking to reach physical and mental perfection, they gain spells that enhance their physical being and curative spheres. Tantrists are wizards who gain the power for their magic from sex. Twelve new Prestige Classes are then presented such as Divine Celibate, Dominator and Harem Protector. Others include Prestige Classes devoted to gods of sexuality presented later in the book such as Disciple of Aalluran and Knot Binder of Kaladis .

Magic, both new and old spells, are handled in chapter four. Six new domains for spells are give, Body, Denial, Joining, Perversion, Pleasure and Voyeur. Eighty new sexual spells are demonstrated including Blessed Seed, Cursed Orgasm and Unseen Lover. The spells have positive effects on characters like Blessed Seed ensures pregnancy or harmful effects such as Impotency. New sexual uses on existing spells are also described. One of the best sidebars in the book is in this section and talks about sex, spells, law and morality and goes into a good guideline on consent and magic.

New items, mundane and magical, are presented in chapter five. These items run the gamut of sex toys like dildos and ball gags to chastity belts to sensitizing oils. Aphrodisiacs are also described, as are birth control devices and sexual services. Special abilities for magic weapons such as Masochistic Burst and Sadistic Burst are given as are specific weapon like the Dark Talon bastard sword. Rings, potions Rods, Staves and wondrous items such as the Codpiece of Comeliness or the Gnomish Kama Sutra are given too. Special materials and Cursed Items are presented along with the Book of Erotic Fantasy as a major Artifact.

The gods and monsters of passion are defined in chapter six. Gods of seduction and lust, birth, denial and chastity, binding (this also includes marriage as well as bondage), fertility and rape are given here along with clerical use and descriptions and the dogma of the faith. Creatures of passion include Bliss Motes, tiny fey that can swarm and arouse other creatures. Celestial and Fallen Cherubs that inspire love or lust & hatred in other creatures. Crossbreeds such as Demonbred, Devilblooded, Feykised and Giantborn are given as well.

One hundred adventure ideas, groups and organizations are the subject of chapter seven. The 100 include a bardic song that raises libido and fleeing a wedding into a life of adventure to escape the angry bridal family. The Order of Unseen Lovers is a magic sex club and sample companion services and brothels are presented also. The book closes with an Appearance chart of the creatures from the Monster Manual AND finally, after 20 plus years, What’s New with Phil and Dixie’s Sex and gaming.

The Book of Erotic Fantasy has been plagued with enough bad publicity to fill a swimming pool. Much like the Book of Vile Darkness, the good or bad of the content is ultimately in the eyes of the individual players. There are a lot of concepts that recommend this book. Rather than take gaming into the arms of a porno movie, it instead treats taboo subjects openly and maturely in a way that has been used in games ever since it was created and now just formalized it. This is not the ‘Adult Conspiracy’ of Xanth, but a rather thoughtful and provocative addition to an adult campaign. The actual descriptions of slam-bang intercourse with all the appropriate grunts, moans and screams that need not be included but all of these Half-elves and Half-orcs had to come from somewhere and now there are guidelines to treat it as objectively as sliding a sword into someone’s belly or slitting an opponents throat.

This is not a book that is going to appeal to everyone and certainly is not intended for minors to use. I have heard from numerous people in the gaming field how this book will ruin gaming that should be intended for children and to an extent they are correct, parochial but correct nonetheless. I, myself, would not use this book in my campaign that my 9 and 10-year olds play in, but would consider it for a game consisting of all adults.

Swinger or prude, this book is now on the market and is one of the most handsome books produced. It was written by some of the best in the industry who have made their mark at Wizards of the Coast and other companies and it shows in the quality of production and the tactful and well-thought way this very touchy material is presented. There are always going to be those who object to this type of material but it has always been there, from Conan turning a raging witch of a barmaid into a purring kitten overnight to the pair-bonds of the Valdemar series. If you don’t like this material and don’t think it is appropriate, don’t purchase it. However if being able to implement a Sacred Prostitute encounter into your game or being able to game master or play a pregnant warrior is something you think will improve your own story, buy this book. Sex or Murdering and Stealing, it is still a game, if you can play a raping and pillaging Barbarian or a murdering Assassin then setting up a more detailed brothel encounter is really no different in the long run.

Added: January 21st 2004
Reviewer: Bruce Boughner
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