When the OGL was released, Wizards of the Coast had a surprising lack of foresight when they didn't realize that people would start making sexually-charged material for it.  Their actions against the Book of Erotic Fantasy only served to weaken the D20 license, and even with the dawn of Pathfinder people continue cranking out sexually-themed fantasy products.

Sisters of Rapture was produced sometime in 2007 and sold through Drive-Thru RPG.  Shane O'Connor, a staff member, became so enamored of the product he went about advertising it all over said website.

On the surface and by what other reviews exist, indications point towards the product being about an all-female good-aligned religious order of scantily-clad warrior-maidens dedicated to the virtues of love, sexual freedom and women's liberation.  Sounds awesome, right?

Oh no, it gets real bad real quick.

You know how in another review people mentioned that the Book of Erotic Fantasy was juvenile?  Well, if that book's personification is a group of teenage boys drooling over cheesecake pictures, then Sisters of Rapture is that scumbag who slips roofies into the drinks of women at nightclubs and offers to "give them a ride home."

The author repeatedly stresses the sex-positive and free love nature of the "feminist" Sisters, yet manages to include just about everything feminists find awful about society: stigmatization of promiscuous women, sexual abuse, and pedophilia among other things.  And this isn't just a few instances, it's systemic throughout the entire book!

Chapter One starts off with the Sister of Rapture Core Class.  Basically it's a Charisma-based Cleric who trades in heavy armor for the ability to dodge blows easily if they're nude or scantily clad, and they gain supernatural Kisses of Power which have a variety of effects.  As a class they're pretty powerful.  The text goes out of its way to mention that 1st-level Sisters start out as 12 + 1d4 years of age, because the Sisters must "properly shape the initiate's sexuality at a most critical juncture in their life."  Yes, by RAW, your sexy half-naked warrior maiden can end up as a 13 year old girl 25% of the time.

And one of their Kisses of Power can afflict a target with random uncontrollable sexual urges, including bestiality and pedophilia!  And other can make a target feel so sexually inadequate that they develop suicidal tendencies.  And the book goes out of its way to stress that the Sisters are Good-aligned.

The Prestige Classes are nothing to write home about; they include the Inamorare, a spellcasting muse, the Patron Mother, senior Sisters who train and look over initiates, Spellswingers who fuel their powers with sex, and the Stormsisters, an organization of women dedicated to fighting oppressive patriarchal cultures and ending abuse of women and innocents.  And their required Kiss of Power's the random pedophilia one; obviously the author did not think this one through.

A similar pattern emerges within the next couple of sections, from feats to spells to magic items.  Every so often you get a couple of generic love-themed abilities, but then some horribly creepy sex shit jumps out and sidelines you before you even get a chance to recover.  By the time we finish the mechanics and reach chapter four we've encountered no less than traits which make it easier to molest people in grapples, magical harlot boots which attract the attention of rapists, orgasm spells which affect targets of all ages, and sex magic for sacred prostitutes whose game rules specifically point out that they can be used while raping people.  And if you're wondering how much of this stuff can be transferred to non-sexual gaming sessions, don't bother.  Most of it's deeply tied into sexual themes and the Sisters themselves, not to mention that your money can best be spent elsewhere.

The later Chapters go on about the hierarchy of the Sisterhood, the three main deities (Isis, Aphrodite, Parvati, and Freya), and some monsters, but that's all minor really.  This product never gets better, continuing its trainwreck of tying in the author's dark fetishes interspersed with an in-game chorus repeating the "Free Love and Female Empowerment!" mantra as though it will help make you forget the horrors you've witnessed.


And in spite of it all, Sisters of Rapture would not even register amid all the other filth in the tabletop fandom.  Where it not for the blatant dishonesty of it all, from the book itself, to being advertised all over Drive-Thru and recommended by a staff member, to all the so-called 'reviews' too busy drooling over the artwork and calling it tasteful, and the fact it was apparently popular enough to be revised for the Pathfinder ruleset.

When the Neros of the hobby stop singing and look out their window as they watch Rome burn, we can point to Sisters of Rapture and its ilk and say "this is why."

I'm sure there's a good RPG book that could be written on sex magic, but this doesn't sound like it.

Quote from: Ladybird;697060I'm sure there's a good RPG book that could be written on sex magic, but this doesn't sound like it.

The Tabletop Sex Curse: any attempt to write a sexy rule book for RPGs ends up creepy or awful in some way.

Quote from: Libertad;697066The Tabletop Sex Curse: any attempt to write a sexy rule book for RPGs ends up creepy or awful in some way.

Back in the mid 70s TSR got a number of them.  I remember one at least that Tim Kask burned and wouldn't let anybody else read.  His only comment was "Those people are fucking sick."

So... This is Macho Women With Guns, or more aptly Renegade Nuns on Wheels...

Except its A: Not funny and B: immensely disrespectfull. (And C: not a minis game.)