Book of Erotic Fantasy
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The Book of Erotic Fantasy is an OGL-compliant splatbook that's compatible with the worlds [sic] best selling Role Playing Game. It deals with the topic of sex in the world of fantasy role-playing games, written with the adult player in mind, and deals with mature adult subjects and it is not meant for underage or immature players.
Contrary to what one might expect after reading another /tg/'s favorite splatbook, Book of Erotic Fantasy does not deal with tentacle monsters, harems of underage girls, consequences of being drenched in questionable white substance or other common anime subjects. In fact, it is a (reasonably) mature and rather conservative book in many ways, to the point where a seasoned neckbeard is better off looking at the Book of Vile Darkness if they want to get off to something more exotic, like your PC dying by turning to formless goo due to unlucky roll on STDs, or getting violated with a unicorn horn to create a magical teleportation item.
Instead, the book explores how can sex tie into various aspects of fantasy worlds and then into your RPG, by introducing new rules, classes, skills, feats, items, NPCs and many other things. The problem is that while the rules and background treat the subject rather maturely, when you get to the crunch you get stuff like the Grope spell or the Cocksheath of Pleasure. At least it's not as bad as Nymphology.
Book of Erotic Fantasy frequently references other sourcebooks, such as Player's Handbook and Core Rulebooks I-III. However, it never actually says what RPG system those books, or even the Book of Erotic Fantasy itself, belong to. This makes determining what game is it supposed to apply to a rather difficult task.
Contents
This book contains over 20 new feats, 3 new classes and 12 new prestige classes, 6 new domains, over 75 new spells, 6 new gods, 12 new monsters, many usable as player. It also introduces a number of new items, pieces of magical equipment and special abilities.
The new base classes are sex sorcerer, sex wizard and sex monk who can use magic. Yes, as per tradition, martial classes get fucked. The prestige classes are themed around some kinks, like BDSM or piercing, or allow you to play a sex-centered game as a celibate or castrato warrior. Among those prestige classes is a Sacred Prostitute, a class that can use sex to remove various adverse effects, restore ability scores, cure serious wounds and regain any spell slots that another PC has used, because we all know that spellcasters need any help they can get. On the other hand, the rake is not only a pretty cool idea but probably a better rogue than the rogue.
The book goes into surprising detail on various races' views on sex, as well as on the process of gestation and childbirth. Dwarves, for one example, are supposedly able to have sex for a full day, if not more. For that reason, males should probably avoid dwarf girls unless they have a few levels in Perform (Sexual Acts) and a Sexual Training feat.
Even more curious is the choice of races to feature. For example, dryads, walking barks of wood whose only goal in life is to protect the magical tree that gave birth to them, are described as passionate lovers, able to have sex with and get pregnant from almost anything, in something of a hold-over from their component mythology. (And not once are male adventurers looking to jack some lumber warned to use something like a spell of Stoneskin, or at least to watch out for splinters!)
Compared to the amount of attention given to sex by fluff, crunch gets a much shorter end of the stick. Most of the rules deal with things like chances to get STDs, likelihood to get pregnant and other boner killers. And, while sex mechanics are there, they are still superficial. Intercourse between creatures of various sizes isn't given much detail. Those looking for simulation that's more detailed than "When creatures of different size categories attempt sexual interaction, each suffers a -4 penalty on all relevant checks (including Perform (Sexual Techniques) and Sustaining Sex) for each category of difference" would have to play FATAL, or port its circumference checks to their game as a houserule. Why you would want anything in FATAL to touch your game after those last few restraining orders is anyone's guess.
Gameplay tips
Book of Erotic Fantasy introduces a new ability, Appearance (App). Appearance measures your character's looks, and is not related to Charisma in any way. What this means is that it essentially gives you another dump stat for all your powergaming needs, if you really need to powergame in an ERP campaign, or if you manage to convince your DM to include this sourcebook in their adventure at the last second. Party faces and spies should note that this rulebook makes Disguise depend on your Appearance ability, while Bluff, Intimidate and Gather Information skills can vary between Appearance and Charisma, depending on the way those skills are used. In general, most players don't bother with it and consider Charisma to be quite enough on its own.
A new feat, Chaste Life, allows you to increase any one ability score by +2. You may take the feat multiple times, but each ability can only be increased once. All benefits are lost if you engage in a sexual act. However this only applies to consensual sex, and nonconsensual sex makes you immune to the negative effect. If your character were to lose it however you can restore the feat's ability bonus with Atonement spell. The effect that roleplaying a nonconsensual act has on this feat is unknown.
There are seven feats that grant a +2 bonus to one ability for the next 24 hours after 20 minutes of sex. Each of these feats can be taken up to three times, and provides a cumulative bonus of up to +6, although you must spend 20 minutes having sex for every +2 increment. And it has to be actual sex, so no jerking it for an hour. Also, theoretically, these feats stack with Chaste Life, if there is somebody to rape your character when needed.
Sustaining Sex
Sustaining sex requires a Constitution check. Sex between creatures of different sizes gets more challenging the bigger the difference between partners is. For example, a pixie (a 2.5 ft. small fey) and a mature storm giant (a 21 ft. huge giant) attempting to have sex will suffer a -12 penalty due to being 3 size categories apart. While barely a problem for the giant character due to racial bonus to Constitution, a pixie is likely to fail any checks with her average score of 11 Con. Some solutions to this predicament are:
- Focus on Constitution during character generation. It’s not necessary to put your highest roll there - a score of 14 or 15 points will already make you quite a trooper.
- The Endurance feat provides a +4 synergy bonus. (Which already makes it better than the "vanilla" Endurance feat by miles.)
- The Sexual Training feat offers a +2 Constitution bonus for the purpose of sustaining sex.
- As usual, spellcasters come to the rescue. An invigorate spell offers a +4 bonus to Constitution and grants you Endurance feat for its duration. However, while powerful enough, as per the 3.5 standard, to make entire other class builds mood, it is also, in an unusual show of restraint, level 8 Druid magic, so it's best not to rely on its availability. It can be substituted with a wondrous item, a 6,000 gp acorn crafted by a dryad. Which still isn’t something to be relied upon, since, despite being massive sluts, dryads aren’t a listed playable race in the Book of Erotic Fantasy, but one can argue they'll be trading the shit out of these things if the real world is any indicator. Remember that birth-control herb the Romans literally ate out of existence?
- Osquin Root, a pretty dangerous drug, increases your Con for the purpose of sustaining sex by 1d8 points. Eating it more than once per 24 hours can render you permanently sterile.
- Having 5 or more ranks in Perform (sexual techniques) provides a +2 synergy bonus.
- Your partner having 5 or more ranks in Perform (sexual techniques) provides a +2 synergy bonus as well. You can benefit from up to two partners with Perform (sexual techniques) in this way. So, if sex with one giant seems troublesome, try having another one join in! Three or more partners provide no additional benefit, but they don't get in the way as per rules, either, so might as well have as many as you can, since attempting to have sex more than once within 24 hours carries a further penalty to Con checks.
With some of the above bonuses and 18 Con, a pixie can pass the DC 10 check and enjoy successfully fucking two krakens (gargantuan creatures, -16 penalty) for 20 minutes, provided that they both have their sexual performance skill! (you can replace the kraken’s Diplomacy +7 with it, since, let's face it, a 100 ft. long squid is hardly the best ambassador, even with its 21 Int and 20 Cha). And if any or all of the participants took the a couple feats and/or are spell-casters with the right spells? That is when shit starts to get freak-ay...
Criticism
One bit criticism thrown at this book is, obviously, lack of content. And we don't just mean the lack of weird Japanese porn stuff. The subject of rape is ignored completely, as stated by the authors in the book's introduction. There are no mechanics that add to your rape ERP experience (not really a bad thing - the world doesn't need a new FATAL; besides, you can just use Bluff, Intimidate, and grapple rules), and no classes that use sex as a martial weapon, even though it features plenty of sex mages, rogues and bards. Gangbanging is barely even mentioned, almost as if the authors (a man and a woman) expect campaigns that use this book to be played by just two people of the opposite genders looking to spice up their relationship, instead of a gathering of fat neckbeards that is your average tabletop RPG game.
On the one hand, good on them for trying assume we're not giggling thirteen-year-olds and treat us like mature adults. On the other hand, we are totally giggling thirteen-year-olds and have you seen the average tabletop RPG group? Those looking for lulz should look elsewhere, and everyone else probably doesn't want the story to slow down while two characters make love.
Another visible flaw is the obvious spellcaster bias. One would think that sex would be one thing where a Fighter or a Barbarian would finally be able to outdo a Wizard, but no. Wizards get spells that vary from increasing their own abilities, to making all the bitches swoon around them, to making Fighter's dick fall off while he's desperately looking to gain some pussy before his Appearance drops to the ground. It's not limited to performance in bed, either. All of the conventional birth control methods have a success rate of around 20% unless you decide to spend a coin. But even masterwork condoms (10 gp) only protect you 85% of times, and cumulative birth control success bonus cannot exceed 99%. For better protection, you must turn to alchemy (Birth Shield gives you 95% protection for 2 gp) or sorcery (100% protection with Block Seed, a level 1 spell that any Cleric, Wizard or Bard can learn). This is one of the rare instances where a 3.5 author's hard-on for mages was completely literal and factual.
Trivia
- Apparently, gnomes are noted for creating pornography that is both extremely humorous and arousing in the same image. We always knew half of us were basement-dwelling gnomes, /tg/, but who knew it was quite so literal?
- The book states that all but the most chaotic and evil societies view child molestation and rape as reprehensible, inadvertently giving some modern day African societies Chaotic Evil alignment.
- Most of the racial write-ups got outdone with twice the coverage and half the word-count by a rival rulebook available for free over here.