So the child thing. There is just so much that I love about this playbook. The moves are beautiful in their own bad ass way, and while I think that the creepy child often gets over played and played over the top, I think this playbook lends itself well to create characters with actual innocence but are just happen to be weird. I especially love the sex move as a mark of how sex can change ones perspective of themself.
But this also brings up a big problem for me. Just about the only thing I don’t want to see in a role playing game is an underage or otherwise unprepared individual entering into a sexual relationship they are not prepare for with somebody who knows exactly what their doing.
If it’s two kids, I’m ok. It might be a horrible mistake but it is an act of discovery. If it is two consenting adults, but one is domineering towards another, then at least there is a level of knowledgeable consent. Sure it might be shitty, and that should be revealed, not celebrated. To me, it would speak to how easy it is to fall into such trappings. If it were two adults where one is not completely consenting….well I tend not to think in terms of evil, but it’s still plenty clear what the perpetrator is. I am OK with despising a character, even if it is an npc I am running.
But somebody using another’s innocence to take sexual advantage of them makes me really fucking mad.
Maybe it’s my time as an educator. There was a power of inherent authority over kids. The idea of abusing that absolutely disgusts me. I hate everything about the stereotype of a teacher having sex with their students. I hate anything that resembles it. I have always strive to understand my emotions and to figure out the logic behind them. But this sort of shit I just hate. Pure unapologetic hate.
But this playbook I love lends itself towards something I hate. I don’t know if I’d want to see it played just for the possibility of this situation coming up unless it was played by somebody I have absolute trust in. I can maybe think of five living people who fit this bill. Only three of them play role playing games.
In other words, I’m a bit concerned.