# Erotic Gaming in the Western World tags: #thoughts #game/apocalypse-world  > Come to think of it, I've seen unofficial D&D materials like the "Book of Erotic Fantasy" or "Book of Carnal Knowledge," but among English-speaking works, I've never come across explicit porno/hentai TRPG rules like the ones coming out of Japan… or maybe they exist but are so niche that they're not well-known. > > Back in the day, most of the stuff I saw on forums recruiting for that kind of play was just based on D&D or Pathfinder anyway. > > It could simply be because there is no market to sell to even after taking the money. The U.S. has always had a different attitude towards sex than Japan. I'm not saying it's healthier; it's probably very much not. Sexuality and eroticism is something to be kept private and to, at some level, be ashamed of. If you are unattractive, as many people in the gaming hobby have always seemed themselves to be because it's an outsider hobby, even more so. While there are games with some erotic content, in the U.S. in particular, they are very much outside the norm and, for the most part, involve alternate sexualities. As an example, *Wraethulhu* (https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/this-is-the-wraeththu-review-youve-been-waiting-for.244590/), which is based on a series of (bad) novels, is explicitly about extremely sexualized characters from an post-apocalyptic race who can basically only reproduce by rape. Needless to say, it wasn't particularly well received, even at the time, and it hasn't gotten any better. Interestingly, you would expect that I would definitely have a copy of this in my library, because it's exactly the sort of really obscure thing that should be in my library. But no, I've never actually been able to put my hands on one. That said, a lot more modern games have come out, particularly influenced by *[[Apocalypse World - Burned Over|Apocalypse World]]* and the system derived therefrom, Powered by the Apocalypse, which hinge on sexuality being part of the implicit gameplay. *Apocalypse World* (http://apocalypse-world.com/) itself is explicit about there being "sex moves" in which players can use to interact with the world. It is a legitimate and intentional game design choice, but the game itself is not particularly centered on sexuality as a core element. *Monsterhearts* (https://buriedwithoutceremony.com/monsterhearts) is part of that architecture and moves those issues a little bit closer to the center. In fact, it leans so heavily on subtextual and textual teenagers having sex themes, both functionally and dysfunctionally, that even I get a little bit uncomfortable, and I am a positive weirdo who makes jokes about starring in *Urotsukidoji*.. Follow that path a little bit further down the way, and you end up with *Thirsty Sword Lesbians* (https://evilhat.itch.io/thirsty-sword-lesbians). No, I'm not making that title up. That is a real game name. Remember when I said that a lot of the sexually charged games of the current generation in the US are about alternate sexualities? Yeah, this is a prime example. Explicitly intended to tell, "melodramatic and queer stories." It's more affirmational than interesting, in my opinion, but I'm not necessarily the best judge. Now, I wouldn't want you to think that I'm a humorless scold. In truth, I'm a twisted pervert with weird sexual urges and absolutely no sense of shame. So when I tell you that one of my favorite games ever written is actually part of the sexually charged RPG lineage in the West, you're not going to be surprised at all when I tell you that the title is *[[Dinosaur Erotica|Dinosaur Erotica: The Role-Playing Game]]* (https://digthezig.itch.io/dinorotica), inspired by the bizarre commonality of novels about women hooking up with dinosaurs, or men hooking up with dinosaurs, or women and men hooking up with all sorts of weird things. Needless to say, it's intentionally comedic, but it's also surprisingly interestingly well designed. I couldn't resist. I had to back it when it was on Kickstarter, which I have absolutely no regrets of doing. The world gets even weirder, actually. I don't know if you're familiar with some of the bizarre softcore pornography which has become popular over the last couple of decades. One of the writers, and I use the term advisedly, who became big in a sort of tongue-in-cheek way was Chuck Tingle. Someone actually sat down and wrote an RPG based on the universe of his books and their bizarre and unusual philosophy and universe. This is another one of those things I had to back purely because I needed to own this thing as an artifact, not necessarily to play. But it is totally playable. It's just really strange and more than a little comedic and over the top charged with weird sexuality. *The Tingleverse: The Official Chuck Tingle Role-Playing Game* (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1689960671) is a hell of a drug. There is a fairly common pattern here. Because sexuality in Western culture, and particularly American culture, is considered somewhat shameful, you have two major approaches to it when it comes to playing games in which those themes are prevalent. Either you focus on people who have chosen an alternative lifestyle. Because they have already internalized that it is alternative, and they generally have friends who are also so internalized, so it's less weird to make it a central theme in play with other people at a table. Or there's a strong element of comedy which diffuses the tension and social concern. You don't see the same kind of narrative presentation as you do in Japanese games, in which Ero and Hentai elements are both strong and not nearly as associated with something that needs to be kept private. Different strokes for different social folks, I guess. Pun fully intended.