It was the release and subsequent outrage over the now
famous/infamous Tournament of Rapists
that sparked a controversy that was near inescapable in the RPG community. While
it was released via Skortched Urf’ Studios, it was written by Chris Field of
Otherverse Games. When released it was announced as a “new
monster sourcebook for Black Tokyo Unlimited. This adults only
sourcebook is actually really grim- a bunch of new sexual predators for the BTU
campaign world.”
So, despite how it
may have been described when it went up for sale, this product is not stated to
be about the glorification of rape, it was meant to reflect horror at an adult
level. Whether such a thing is distasteful or not is in the eye of the individual
consumer but American entertainment is filled with pretty horrific things done
in the name of fantasy escapism (for example Saw, Hostel, and other so-called “torture
porn” films). Among the things that the product did not do was to cast the
players in the role of rapists, or to encourage actual acts of violence.
Tournament of
Rapists was voluntarily withdrawn however Chris Fields did mention that the
materials within would be included in an upcoming publication Black
Bestiary II (now on sale at OBS). Chris Fields work with the
Black Tokyo Unlimited line certainly push the lines of accepted “good taste”
and it should come as no surprise that there are those who will be offended by
it. That said, Mr. Fields continues to produce products for the line and
releases them via OBS.
We at The Tavern caught up with Mr. Fields to see what his thoughts were on the OBS policy that his work had inspired.
We at The Tavern caught up with Mr. Fields to see what his thoughts were on the OBS policy that his work had inspired.
TT: Since that controversy exploded on the internet, are you aware of any other of your products having been flagged for review at OBS?
CF: I’m not aware of any of my other products being flagged,
which is somewhat odd. The Rape Pure Tournament, the rapist martial artist bad
guys who are the rapists in the book’s title has existed in some form or
another for several years, since they were first mentioned in Black Tokyo
Unlimited. All but one of the monster stat-blocks from ToR were
imported with no major changes into Black Bestiary II, the second major
bestiary for the campaign setting. I think the fact the title had the
word Rapists in it offended people more than having sourcebook full of
superpowered rapists for use as adversaries. The internet exploded over the
title of the book, without feeling the need to read the actual content.
TT: How do you feel
about the current review process?
CF: I really think the review process is too open to
abuse, and it feels like the onus is on the publisher to prove that a specific
product isn’t obscene and has some kind of cultural and literary merit. The
onus isn’t on whatever thin-skinned dipshit pushed the report button to prove a
specific work IS offensive. Personally, I don’t see the necessity of a
reporting function at all. Books will sell on their own merits, or not, and
public opinion has a role to play in deciding what sells. Especially since I
and other artists who publish mature readers content have an “adults only” flag
we can easily slap on any product not for younger readers.
TT: Do you feel that
"Tournament of Rapists" has made your products a target for abuse of
the content review policy?
CF: I feel my products have been a target for offense,
controversy and abuse since I began publishing. My first major RPG release, Choice
& Blood, published by LPJ Designs back in 2007 or 2008 attracted
enormous hate-threads because it portrayed abortion providers in a heroic
light. I saved 90+ page threads on my hard drive criticizing the book, my
intentions in writing it, and (most hilariously) the fact I used the D20 OGL to
write the book rather than making it an indy game or using a WOD-like system.
The sourcebook itself, if I remember correctly, was something like 25 pages,
BTW.
Then I published Otherverse
America, which was more of the same with a military sci-fi spin, and Black
Tokyo and some other books and everything about them was criticized. Some of
the criticism was legit- I’m no longer doing my own art for my books because
I’m not all that great an artist, and I made several rookie game designer
mistakes. Most of it however, was the same kind of internet nerd-rage and gamer
conservatism: how dare I publish a book with pro-choice themes? How dare I make
Christians the bad guys in my writing? How dare I publish something sexually
oriented? How dare I come up with perverted and squicky spells and monsters for
a setting that’s explicitly about perversity and sexual violence?
The dog-pile after ToR was not
exactly unexpected, given that there’s a good portion of the gaming internet
where I’m the most hated man in the industry. (I’m speaking of RPG.net and the
Something Awful gaming forums most of all, though I caught criticism from all
quarters.) The same people who have hated me since 2008, and have been trying
to drive me out of the industry have the reporting tool as a new weapon in
their arsenal. However, I’m not going anywhere, and I’m still, circa 2016
working on plenty of Black Tokyo and Otherverse America content. Let them
whine, let ‘em bitch, I’m still here and I’m coming up on ten years of small
press publication!
TT: Has the
implementation of the content review system led to changes in which products
you make available via OBS, or to the content contained therein?
CF: I’ve not made one change to the way I write since the
controversy. I’m still writing the games I want to. I have published a fewer
works this year than 2015 but that’s more a combination of a new job occupying
more of my time, and my desire to produce bigger, prettier and better
illustrated full-length sourcebook in the 200+ page range, rather than shorter
5-10 page splatbooks. I actually feel that the raised profile that the ToR
controversy got me has helped me rise a few notches in whatever intangible
hierarchy exists for indy RPG publishers.
TT: Looking back on
the controversy and the conversations that it led to about censorship, freedom
of expression, and the rights of a business to carry which products it chooses,
do you feel that the overall outcome for the industry has been a positive or
negative one?
CF: That’s a hard one to answer. A lot of publishers, including
RPGPundit have been very vocal about the ‘irreparable harm’ the ToR controversy
have done to the industry and game publishing in general. Most of the arguments
that are Pro-Chris A. Field and Pro-ToR are also anti-SJW, which is an odd place
for me to be in. I’m a fucking pro-choice liberal pagan, and being used as some
kind of spearhead against left-leaning SJWs is an odd and somewhat unpleasant
place for me to be in. A lot of the arguments make me out to be some kind of
victim of misguided radical feminism or something.
I wish the arguments weren’t
all phrased in such bombastic terms. It’s not Chris A. Field vs the liberal
left and it never was. Instead, it’s Chris A. Field versus a bunch of sexless,
reactively conservative voices mostly clustered on two gaming sites. The entire
ToR controversy was very much the definition of tempest in a teapot.
However, I think the desktop
publishing industry will survive. I do think RPGnow hurt itself a little by
imposing the reporting function, and sooner or later some new storefront will
show up to challenge its dominance, but nobody’s there yet. I’ve seen a few
storefronts pop up after the debacle, but none of them are widely trafficked,
and compared to RPGnow’s interface, they’re primitive and more than a bit
glitchy.
I’m hopeful that some of the
voices raised in support of me start publishing themselves. I initially started
Black Tokyo on a whim. I was re-watching Wicked City one weekend, and realized
it would make a kickass RPG setting, and under the D20 OGL I could publish it
myself and make a little profit. I’d never seen a hentai campaign setting
before and I wanted to see what one would look like- so I started writing, and
a few months later, Black Tokyo was published. I want to see more adult-oriented
settings, I want to see more unique visions, I want to see campaigns that
incorporate sexuality or real-world politics, and frankly non-Christian
theology & philosophy. I want all those things, and I think a lot of the
people who wrote in support of ToR want them too. Hopefully, some of my
supporters follow my example and start marketing their visions.
TT: Thanks for speaking
with us.
CF: Thanks for the chance to talk to you and your readers, Mr.
Brinkman
Chris Fields offers no pretense that his materials are
for everyone or that some might find them offensive. Mr. Fields products tackle
a number of issues that some may find abhorrent to their personal tastes or values.
It is important to note that the majority of his products are behind the adult
filter, meaning to even see them an OBS user must be logged in and have their
account set to be able to view adult content. OBS defaults to adult content
being hidden.
We have seen two very different viewpoints from the two
men at the heart of the controversy. In our next installment we will discuss
this matter with RPG author Venger Satanis, to get his feelings on the policy
after one of his products became one of the first RPGs ever pulled for review under
the new policy.
Bob Brinkman has been playing RPGs since the
days of OD&D. Recently he has written for both the Goodman Games Fifth
Edition Fantasy and DCC RPG lines and has completed a project for the
Crossroads to Adventure books for GP Adventures. He co-hosts the monthly Sanctum
Secorum podcast focusing on Appendix N in
relation to DCC RPG.
