Originally, I was gonna write about glue here. Glue, in this case, referring to all that boring filler stuff that sits in between the porn and game mechanics that has to get done but isn't what you think about when you start. This is because glue is what I'm working on now. But instead, as I thought about literally any other project to take my mind off how monotonous the work awaiting me is, I wondered idly how important world building actually is for porn. (At the time of writing this I haven't yet done the days work, but I'm about to. It's just re-arranging the 150 new actors into rooms that match up with descriptions of rooms given, and maybe assigning slaves.)
I really like world building. I have spent the past two days plotting out the economy from farmers up in one of the nations of my D&D world to make sure the next game makes sense. That's how much I like it. As such I'm inclined towards adding world building to things that don't seem to need it, and hoping it adds value as it usually does. Porn, obviously, does not seem to need world building. In fact, for the most part, it has none. There's two people, there's just enough story to tell you why they're fucking, and then they fuck. That's it.
Obviously, porn games and stories have a bit more world building than that. The level of world building is pretty variable, from say...some of Toffi's earlier stuff, where the world building seemed pretty sparse, to the really intricate. I *think* TiTS has a lot of it, but since most of it's in the codex I've never bothered to learn any of it. I'm a hypocrite like that, I love a good wiki, but I'll be fucked if I'm gonna read it when I have the game open. To point to an example of world building I actually have bothered to learn about, I'm going to point to I Roved Out (in search of truth and loved). I Roved Out, for those not familiar, is a fantasy comic with a lot of porn in it. It goes a little overboard sometimes I think, since everything else is actually pretty good, and it weaves in the world building at just the right pace that though I'm not super familiar with the world, I'd probably read more about it given the chance.
But this all brings us around to one very central question. Does any of it matter? Does the world building improve my enjoyment of the porn? Sadly, no, it doesn't. But I don't think that's the fault of world building itself. World building is great, it makes everything better. But, if it doesn't impact the core of the experience, it's just filler. To use my own work as an example, if I just worked out how much money a farmer made (It's 2 gold, 25 silver and 95 copper a year) and left it at that, no one would care. If I used that number to influence how much an adventurers first sword costs, that's when people start to appreciate it.
And so the conclusion I'm coming to is that I think that world building does improve porn, so long as the information is relevant to the porn itself. If it establishes power dynamics between people based on external worldy factors, it makes the power dynamic of the porn potentially more engaging. When someone's dominant in sex, and it translates to total life dominance, the ability to ruin the submissive's life, it can make the scene more engaging, and thus, hopefully, hotter. Likewise knowing the reverse is true, that the dominant usually has no power, that the humiliation of submission is all the stronger for that detail can have the same impact.
How much work do you need to do to get that across? I'm not sure. But I think it's worth looking at doing. And while you're doing it, share some more of your world too. So long as it's done right, even if it doesn't relate to the porn, it can improve the overall enjoyment of the thing in question.
I think that's all my thoughts on the matter. Your thoughts are always appreciated however. Release soon, with some new slave content and basic AI.
Pudding Earl
Yeah, pretty much applies to everything, D&D or porn. If it's not relevant, it's not noticed. Even if it is, it's often not noticed.
ReplyDeleteLike the sword cost. If the player didn't know it's usually 30gp, the fact you made it 40gp due to a bad year in the harvest is totally over his head. As the player doesn't have all the inner workings knowledge, they are not going to understand the effect. Usually looking for cheap health pots and the next thing to kill.
But it does help keep the narrative consistent, and can automatically generate content as the world grinds through any mechanics. And with the consistancy players will better be able to understand the outcome of their choices (assuming the porn has choices)
For a game system that uses a lot of this, you can check out Stars Without Numbers (space rpg) and its use of Factions. Haven't used it myself, but seen it used and played on utube/twitch rpg streams. You'll probably hit references to it if you google. Basically there's a list of entities that are pitted against each other. Corps, planet government etc.. As they spend their resources fighting each other, it creates the background in which the players live. So a planet they go to could be blockaded, or breaking the blockade is even the mission.
Each faction has resources, armies, money etc. and turn might be a month. So one might spend money to send a terrorist group to the star port (where they players are at). Or if even not, the players asking at the bar about news can be given this info as part of the rumors. And it's nice as it's all real, lots of the background narrative being mechanically driven. You only have to supply the details if the players interact.
Seen a few reddit discussions trying to convert it (all spreadsheet done) to more sword and sorcery stuff.
So it's basically a background minigame in a way the GM(game master) does during the time off between player missions.