I think the most deeply serious things we've dealt with have been unwed pregnancy and abortion vs keeping the baby (Superhero game played in my Millennia setting years back)

Date/Acquaintance rape (and in general rape), as well as love, lust, and pregnancy in my AlienU Hearts & Souls game.


In general I like there to be consequences for pc's actions--for good or ill, and so I follow what they do, or what they tell me is important and interesting. Albeit I do shy away from some topics, I myself am not comfortable dealing with.

For example, I only run games where the characters are heroes, even if they are conflicted, sometimes outlaw, heroes.

I have dealt with enough real world evil and darkness in my personal life to ever want to dabble in that for fun.

In all my time gaming I introduced ONE really questionable topic (child prostitution) in a Werewolf one-shot I ran.
Basically the PCs were investigating a alleged breach of the Veil (strange happenings in a suburban town) and- after some research- came across a 10 year old who had drawn a picture of a "monster", which looked similar to a Werewolf in wolf-man form.
Because they were strangers in the town and couldn't get close to the child without alerting all kinds of authority figures (teachers etc.) they did some quiet observation and found out the kid was living with her (single) mom in a poor neighborhood. They saw a men coming, and- after leaving- giving the mother some money. The enhanced senses of the characters picked up the scent of sex in the air. They think: "OK, the mom has to sell her body tp keep up with the payments." While they felt sorry for her, they didn't feel compelled to step in. But they thought that might make for an excuse to get in the house and look around. So after the man leaves one of them rings the bell. When the door opens he tries to pitch his carefully crafted lie to the mom... until he notices she is not smelling like she recently had sex... and than he hears the sobs of the little girl from the back room...
At that point the players realized what they where dealing with (a really profound moment of silence). After they were over their initial shock, their characters did what they could to get the little girl away from her mom asap.
So that was it. Nothing really graphic, but nonetheless something I would describe as a "controversial/mature" moment in gaming.

A certain immature event occurred, when (during a Flash Gordonesque- pulp game) one player insisted (against all advice on my part) to play a spiderlike allien assassin with a hatred for humans (although he knew most of the other players were humans), that cherished eating his prey alive. Naturally I never made him meet up with the rest of the group and didn't feel compelled to give him extra spotlight time because of his "special concept".

Quote from: Balbinus...frankly I'm amazed after that I ever had sex...

We're shocked as well.  (Sorry had to be that guy!)

Quote from: Serious PaulWe're shocked as well.  (Sorry had to be that guy!)

Dude, I didn't say more than once...