How Explicit Are Your Sex Scenes? [+AP]

So far, in the Appalachian Windmills game, ours have faded out somewhere around second base.

The sex moves have created one of the more interesting RP situations I've had in years, though: my Chopper is a eunuch, castrated in the violent gang raid that killed his family when he was a child. But we ran into a situation where the Brainer was trying to stop me from doing something but couldn't do so physically, and figured he might as well try to basically brain-fuck instead. He hit on a 10+, we had 'brain-sex', the Moves triggered, but we've established that you don't necessarily remember everything that happens in the maelstrom when you get out, so my Chopper doesn't remember it, only a weird impression. When he opened his brain next time, the Brainer happened to be in the maelstrom too, so my Chopper, suddenly remembering the first time, demanded they do it again. Of course, when they emerge, he doesn't remember why seeing the Brainer makes him feel all weird, and the Brainer player has been happily taking shameless advantage of it.

It's definitely opened up singular RP possibilities that probably would never have occurred to us if the sex moves weren't there to nudge the players to think about that aspect of their relationships, and because it's all weird psychic sex, the idea that it may look and feel completely different to the two PCs means that a vague description actually works better than if we tried to nail down the details.

-JC

In response to the OP: it varies. I'm now only playing AW in one group and it's with old friends and we are open and comfortable with each other about everything, including sex.

There is a fair amount of sex in this game, at least involving our dear Gunlugger Barbarossa who has two steady girlfriends and is always looking for more. The player may well be influenced by the positive effects of his sex move. (Another player plays the Driver and despite his general smoothness he keeps it in his pants.) Thing is, we don't go into detail every time Barbarsossa gets intimate with one of his old flings, it's old news so to speak.

One of my favourites scenes in the campaign involved explicit sex. The third player's Angel (Bish) had a visit from Fluffy. Fluffy's one of Barbarossa's girlfriends who came to Bish to get some help as she wants to get pregnant but never manages. Bish starts working on her with healing touch or his infirmary (can't remember) and it becomes apparent that Fluffy's infertility has something or the other to do with the psychic maelstrom. In order to find out what's wrong, and possibly cure her, Bish has to explore Fluffy's sexual nature and we played it all out. It was awesome (and not only because Barbarossa's player's jaw dropped to the floor).

Of course, when they emerge, he doesn't remember why seeing the Brainer makes him feel all weird, and the Brainer player has been happily taking shameless advantage of it.

Yes, Jim, I have been. ;-)

On the explicitness, I find gamers often have a lot of preoccupations about A) agency in sexual scenarios and B) hardcore sex descriptions becoming parodies.  This is, in my opinion, because we often haven't read the right kind of erotica to off-set all the crazy dogma from both pornography and bleed from our childish sex imagination.  Nevertheless, I don't find the fade-to-black a bad thing amidst a group that's obviously uncomfortable with more explicit detail (i.e., most groups).

Pushing boundaries takes slow, concerted efforts over time, rather than shock and fluids and clichés thrown at us all at once.

....to off-set all the crazy dogma from both pornography and bleed from our childish sex imagination. 

Yeah, and there's the sheer homoerotic sexual tension that groups of males tend to feel. In my experience playing football and in the military, it gets bled off as homoerotic jokes, which might offset the tone of the game.

I mean, just asking a male friend of mine to share a coffee with me while we talked about a project last week lead to him feeling the need to make jokes about it being a date because he was uncomfortable with it just being two guys.

Humor bleeds tension, but isn't always the best for the tone of the game. Push until the tension is just before that point.