Two questions about ratings (G, PG, NC-17, etc.) for your games

[Martin Ralya]

Inspired by What rating is your campaign? over on the GMF, here are two ratings-related questions for you about your games.

"Rating" here = U.S. movie rating, not good/bad/great or 5 stars or anything like that. Briefly:

G = OK for kids
PG = Some kids may need their parents around
PG-13 = No one under 13 should be here
R = For adults, not OK for most kids
NC-17 = Just short of porn/gore
X = Porn-ish or serious gore
XXX = Lots of porn

So! Here are my questions:

1. When you start up a new game, do you have a rating in mind? Why or why not?

3. Have any of your games ever changed ratings after they began? What did you do about it, if anything?

[Crazy Jerome]

We are always right on the border between PG and PG-13.  It's not as if we ever edge anywhere near the R level, or even stay solid in PG-13 for very long.  But we do cross that PG-13 line frequently, if only for short periods--usually for violence.  We "fade to black" for anything worse than that, though we aren't shy about clearly implying what went on.  (My 13 year-old son plays in our group, but we were this way before he played.)

Your European readers should note that the American ratings are probably stricter on sexual situations and looser on violence, than what they might consider acceptable within those definitions.  Also, PG-13 and R are not quite that strict in practice.  A parent is always allowed to bring in a younger kid, if the parent judges that the kid can handle it.  At NC-17, that isn't true anymore.

[Scott M]

Our games tend to be pretty PG with occassional IC cursing and the like that might make it toe the PG-13 line.  We have had "R" campaigns; usually a character concept will indicate the way it's going.  Fantasy games tend to be less adult, while modern era games tend to be grittier-- stepping into R at times.

The most amusing case of the line moving was in a Mage: The Ascension game.  I was running it, and my Dad was playing a Cultist of Ecstacy.  He was more graphic/sensual than I'd have expected... which was awkward the first few times, but easier to handle once I expected it.

Scott

[DNAphil]

I would say that depending on the game, it hovers around PG-13 and R.  Most of my fantasy games stay closer to the PG-13, and my moder ones are more towards the R side.  I think that is because I enjoy running high fantasy and gritty modern campaigns.  There are nights which will dip up towards the NC-17, but rarely do they ever dip below PG-13.   The worst I had was a Vampire game, which would have been an NC-17 on its tame nights and an X on its worst.  It was not done for effect, rather it was just a very violent and erotic campaign. 

I would say as a GM, I will describe my combat scenes with enough gore to make them descriptive, but rarely do I take it past that point.  When it comes to sex in games, I am more for having the curtain drop as soon as it becomes clear where the scene is going.

[Lilith]

R - all of my players are older than I am (I'm 26) and we don't have smalls (oops, SCA speak snuck in, err - children!) in the room when we game. I have toned it down to G or PG when doing the D&D Day demo or when teaching the basics of the game.

[Carolina]

PG 13 for violence, but the store owner where I play insists on a G for language.

As a place of business, he doesn't want to offend any potential customers, and aside from having to issue a few reminders from time to time, most players have no trouble with the restrictions.

[Stillfoxx]

R = For adults, not OK for most kids

1. When you start up a new game, do you have a rating in mind? Why or why not?  I don't necessarily think "rating" but the campaign is based on realism, thus it's pretty hairy. So, I'll say it's a solid R.

3. Have any of your games ever changed ratings after they began? What did you do about it, if anything? Only when I run for minors...usually when someones kids are joining for a one-shot.

[Streamweaver]

1. When you start up a new game, do you have a rating in mind? Why or why not?

I usually have a maximum rating possible in mind when I run a campaign but don't make sure to include elements to make each session meets the rating.  The max rating possible is usually a function of the players involved and how mature they are capable of being.  I'm an old man (39) so I don't mind dealing in mature or difficult subjects as long as everyone can handle them in a mature way.   Nothing annoys me more than childish giggling or an adult not being able to wrap their head around an adult subject. 

3. Have any of your games ever changed ratings after they began? What did you do about it, if anything?

I am sure ratings probably have changed but I don't recall any specific incidents.  If things went beyond the point where I'd usually let them but it was handled in an appropriate way I'd congratulate the player on their effort and for tackling the topic.  If things got tone done from an inability to handle a topic in a mature way I'd express my disappointment.


It's interesting to me that I've been able to handle more mature themes at my gaming table since we've added more female gamers to the group.  Right now I have a split group of 3 women (ages 28, 27, 25) and 3 men playing (ages 34, 29, 25) and the women have brought up the level of maturate of the group as a whole and I honestly I think the level of the game.  Not that the group was bad before but they didn't handle things with an emotional depth before that they are now.  When we talk about ratings and adult themes I think people usually tend to think about sexual themes in a game but I'm not really referring to that.  I'm more referring to moral implications of character actions like killing, social implications of things like betrayal and so forth.  Previously I didn't cover relationships  as topic in most games because gamers get too giggly and it annoys me to no end.   The women in the game have brought the topic back in with some class and maturity while still keeping it in the background.

[Mike Rainey]

So! Here are my questions:

1. When you start up a new game, do you have a rating in mind? Why or why not?

3. Have any of your games ever changed ratings after they began? What did you do about it, if anything?

1. I don't worry much about ratings because I plot out a campaign a lot like real life - violence, language, nudity, sex -  because after all, if it occurs in real life why not have it occur in the game? You can't ignore real life issues and themes if you really want realism in the game.

If I had to put the current campaign into a rating, it would be R to NC-17.

Hey, what happened to 2?

3. Since I plot out my campaign and there are no kids around, I don't have to worry about it. I really haven't had a campaign change in tone, although I have had sessions change. I really didn't do anything because the next session would bring a return to the correct tone of the campaign.

[gamerchick]

I don't plan "ratings" ahead of time, but I run horror, so chances are pretty good it's going to get an R to NC-17  for frightening content and otherwise PG 13 (for sex and general content/language).  While sex certainly goes on, it's all off-screen.  I encourage the players to have their characters develop emotional and physical connections to others - that way it's scarier when those connections are severed.

I'm uncomfortable with explicit descriptions of sexual acts, so I pretty much stop things short of that.  I have this dratted black-Irish complexion (dark hair, very fair eyes and skin) and I blush at the drop of a double-entendre.  This makes my players laugh, and it's hard to scare them when they're laughing at me.

Explicit, stomach-churning, spine chilling descriptions of unspeakable horror - those I have no problem with.

(Aside: this probably explains my lack of romantic life, hmmm?)

Other than shifting from PG13 to NC-17 in play (gotta have some serious contrast for horror to work) and back again, the rating doesn't change much.

I do hire a sitter for my 2 year old granddaughter when her parents come to play.  I'd rather wait till she's an adolescent to permanently scar her psyche.

[lebkin]

1. When you start up a new game, do you have a rating in mind? Why or why not?

I generally start my games with a PG rating in mind.  This is because I want to keep my games as just that, games.  They can be serious (and often are), but I want to keep the more extreme violence under control.  I don't want to deal with sexual issues in my games at all.  It is simply not something I want to deal with at the gaming table.  Some of this is tied to lots of varying ages and maturity (from 16 to 24).  My games are almost mostly family games, and its better to keep it clean.

Hey, what happened to 2?

Is this why 1 is the loneliest number?  That the number 2 won't even hang out with him?

3. Have any of your games ever changed ratings after they began? What did you do about it, if anything?

My games occasionally go up into PG-13, mostly due to violence.  Usually, it deals with more extreme descriptions.  Some of my players enjoy describing combat quite a bit, and they get carried away.  I generally reign them in by switching gears to something less violence related to calm them down.

[GlennZilla]

In my group we tend to hash this out when discussing starting a game. So the answer to number one is yes, and it's almost always the same.  We are in  a rut and we like it there.

I have a personal rule that I don't RP sexual situations with the same involvement and detail that I treat combat or an NPC conversation. Most of my players aren't into getting their characters into those situations, so it works out well.

When the Book of Vile Darkness came out we had a long talk about deviant behaviour, sex, romance and the nature of "evil" in the game. We decided that we would be comfortable with descriptions of deviant behaviour and evil acts in a large amount of detail. But it was almost unanimous that we tend to hand wave the details of sexual encounters and most romantic situations.

"Are there any girls there?  I wanna do 'em!"

This one line from a comedy skit by the Dead Alewives Troupe has ruined almost every romantic encounter in the game. We just can't treat it seriously. And with half the group married, we do tend to get a little uncomfortable discussing sexual encounters in front of our wives at the table.

The second questions of whether the rating of a game ever changes during play, that answer is yes. I tend to use moments of extreme violence to highlight the struggles the characters are encountering. It's also an easy example of just how evil the villain really is. But I have backed these descriptions down after one encounter that used several details about a murder scene caused nightmares for one of my players.  She asked me to tone it down and I did.

My new trick is to discuss something that is an example of the violence but isn't a gory detail.

For example, if the characters encounter the aftermath of a giant's rampage I might describe the scene by describing the corpses of the giant's victims. Whereas now, I instead mention that the victim's corpses are there and that the fight was so brutal that their weapons were flung several yards away into the brush.  Not as many details of the victim's wounds, and more anecdotal evidence of the violence.

[Wandering Monster]

I don't think I've ever considered the rating of my games prior to starting a game. 

No matter how the game begins, all my games fall firmly into the R/NC-17 camp, with occasional forays into X, but only for violence (my group has a stylistic approach approximating Tarantino with regards to violence).  Sexual situations are commonplace, but never explicit.

[zacharythefirst]

I kick around sort of a maturity (or immaturity, as it may be) level in my head while creating camapigns, especially since I run Iron Gauntlets for a usually younger rookie crowd.  Those games are probably solidly PG except for violence.

My other games jump around from PG to an R, but usually stay in the PG-13 neck of the woods.  For example, we've had players who characters we're dealing with sexual matters or some severely disgusting Seven-esque crimes that naturally progressed to that stage, and I think both situations would have led to an R rating.  Games aren't (at least mine aren't) always even content or dealing with the same subject matter from session to session, so I don't know that I could give one concrete rating.  Do you err on the side of caution and go with "R"?  Certainly being upfront with your players and warning about possible issues insofar as you can anticipate them is a good idea.

[Samir]

My game ratings fit between 'PG' and 'X', depending on what goes down during the session.

My average game is rated 'R' ... I typically portray criminality and wholesale violence over the depiction of graphic sexuality.

-Samir Asad: "Elite" Game Master

[FlukeMaster]

1. When you start up a new game, do you have a rating in mind? Why or why not?

No.  Its been a few years since I last played but that's something I never bothered with before and I'm not likely to now.  Most of the guys I've played with in the past I've known fairly well and had a good idea of their taste in movies and such, which gives a fair indication of their tolerance of splattery violence and swearing.
And as far as sex is concerned, it just never came up.  For me and the blokes I've played with gaming has been an exercise in light escapism with a few fights, chases and explosions thrown in for good measure.  Any attempt at a sex scene would have quickly degenerated into a ludicrous farce.  None of us would have been able to take it seriously enough for it to be other than an opportunity for cheap laughs.  Myself, I would never have been comfortable with a serious attempt at it and I don't think any of them would have been either.  To my mind sex isn't something you talk about round the table with a couple of blokes, its something you do in the privacy of your home with a nice young lady.  I think most of my past players would have agreed.

2. What are your credit card numbers?

Its 555... wait, whats going on here?

3. Have any of your games ever changed ratings after they began? What did you do about it, if anything?

While they didn't have a rating as such I don't recall the gore level of them changing, but it has been a while now.  The profanity level was usually closely linked with the success of the dice rolls.  I usually tried to up the horror level in my D&D games whenever I brought in undead and dismembered zombies can be pretty messy, but I think the splatter level stayed pretty constant.  Of course our Cthulu shenanigans were always pretty nasty, that ichor just gets everywhere and a man with no skin trying to eat yours tends to leave a lasting impression.  But apart from special occasions the amount of claret splashed about was fairly constant and often quite low.

If I had to rate my games I would slap an R-18 on them.  I spose that would be about NC-17.  A large part of that is because of swearing, just about everyone I know swears like a sailor.  Interestingly enough I don't recall the characters swearing at all, just the players.
As for gore I tend to tell it like it is, which often isn't pretty.  After all shooting someone in the face is not particularly sanitary, in any sense of the world.  I find that describing the intact bits, which can often be stamped with an expression of bewildered suprise can draw attention to the other bits, which have changed consistency under the players attacks and are now dripping off.  Thrashing and twitching corpses can also be unsettling on the battlefield.  I've come to the conclusion that killing is a serious business and should be portrayed as such, even or especially when the killing is 'justified'.  An accurate description of a sticky end is just part of that.
Its been a while since I played but soon I intend to get another group together and get the show on the road again.  There'll be shoot outs and fist fights and explosions and ravening alien beasts.  And if that lot doesn't encourage some strong language I'm not a GM. 

[Knight of Roses]

Interesting, I never thought of apply a movie rating scale to games.

That being said, most of my games I would place in PG/PG-13 range, with violence, occasional horror and 'mature situations' pushing it to the more mature end.

When gaming with new people, I definitely scale my style to PG until I feel them out for what they are comfortable with in a game/social setting.

When planning a game, I think of the genre of the game and what it imposes.  For example, my planned return to my 1960s superheroic game implies a very Four-Color mentality and set of morals (US good, Soviets bad, heroes are HEROES and villains are evil, and so on).  So that is a G to PG setting, not that I was structuring it as such, that is just the genre.

[Stillfoxx]

When gaming with new people, I definitely scale my style to PG until I feel them out for what they are comfortable with in a game/social setting.

Good point...I'm a little on the "PC" side when I first start up with a new group or when a new player joins...definitely important to know the boundaries before I accidentally step over them.

I can say tho, that a social contract helps the new players understand what the SOP is for the session.

[Xaos_Bob]

1. When you start up a new game, do you have a rating in mind? Why or why not?

I typically don't have a rating in mind, because I like to keep my options open. I generally run PG-13 games that occasionally lean towards R (violence/disturbing imagery). However, my current group requires a solid PG-13 (two of my players tend toward a bit of anxiety), though someday I would like to play something more R/NC-17 rated--goodness really shines when contrasted against true darkness. That, and I love illithids and the Far Realm. :p

2 (the unasked question).

42. The answer is definitively 42.

3. Have any of your games ever changed ratings after they began? What did you do about it, if anything?

The current campaign took something of a turn after a minor intrusion of the Far Realm into the world. The weirdness had to get abstracted (this is when I realized about the need to maintain PG-13 instead of an R) at just about the point where I wanted to describe the horrendous fusion of people with the town's stonework and so on. Not a problem, though. Someday, I'll be able to run a truly Lovecraftian game.

[Stillfoxx]

2 (the unasked question).

42. The answer is definitively 42.

  indeed...thanks fer all the fish!