Tickling in "Mainstream" RPG's

[Azrael]

I'm curious as to how many Tickling Forum members (if any) are into RPG's such as "Dungeons & Dragons" and "Call of Cthulhu." The latter, in particular, is of interest to me, especially after I read its bestiary section and discovered a monster whose primary method of attacking people is to fly off with them and proceed to "grope, stroke, caress and tickle" them with its tail, a process which causes "great distress but no permanent harm" and can thus be "continued indefinitely." Tell me that there is some genius short-story horror/sci-fi writer out there on these boards who can take advantage of that!

Anyone familiar with H.P. Lovecraft's writing might recognize the monsters as Nightgaunts, if that is helpful.

On a related matter, I'm currently working on a highly tickling-based RPG of my own, using the currently popular and open-liscense d20 rules. Anyone with ideas for anything (spells, items, systems, formats, literally -anything-) is encouraged (enthusiastically begged?) to submit it to [email protected]. The setting is a medieval fantasy one, in an original world I'm in the process of creating (submissions for world content, creation myths, etc. are highly welcome).

The completed RPG will be posted, rules and all, on a website... hard copies will be available for sale, assuming that naive little me can figure out exactly how one goes about making that happen. Contributors will have full credit attributed to everything they submit, and they will receive several hard copies free. Everyone who submits material which makes the final cut will be paid, but as of this time it's impossible for a commerce-ignorant person such as myself to say how much or on what basis (although it will likely be something along the lines of so-much-per-word per copy sold).

Hopefully I'll be able to make some sort of a deal with the administration of The Tickling Media Forum to offer the final product to registered members at a heavy discount.

The wonderful thing about these RPG's is that they're endlessly expandable. Numerous games exist where people have gone and thought up, written, and published additional books detailing new races, settings, items, histories, etc. Once the core rules are published, additional "supplemental" books will be taken under consideration.

I hope this proves to be an interesting proposition...

Azrael

 

[ShiningIce]

Go for it

 

[paszkowt]

Good idea

I remember the monsters, in "Search for the lost Kadath" Randolph Carter ecountered them ... As for materials I'll send you my Kittlars - Tickle Vikings as soon as I'll translate the story into English ... As for tickling in fantasy books look at Piers Anthony "Xanth". There are several tickle scenes there and a magical tickle bush which tickles it's vitcims senseless

 

[Shem the Penman]

Sounds quite interesting; even if I never play the thing, it'll be a good read (and I haven't played half the stuff in my games closet either, anyway).

I've done a great deal of fantasy-world tickling stories, and (plug mode) I've just submitted a large project to MTJ based on a tickling-based fantasy world I came up with (/plug mode). I'll have to look back and see if anything is adaptable....

 

[Phineas]

a friend of mine actually got his RPG published last year - it's a commendable effort but note that you'll be selling to a niche market of a niche market, and I really doubt the typical RPG group will want to sit down with something like this. I know MY group wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole.

Still, I am very good with number-crunching and game balance analysis, so you can always bounce rules off of me.

Nightgaunts also appeared in "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath".

 

[korovan]

Uh..... I dunno. I have been a gamer for 20+ years now, and I don't think a 'tickling-based' RPG would appeal to anyone except 'tickle-philes'like us... and even then only til the novelty wore off. Tickling could be introduced into any game milieu once in a while (like the Nightgaunts, or a villian tickling a heroine for info, or whatever) but trying to base a whole game on our shared kink seems a bit much.

BTW, I play GURPS a lot... and I certainly noticed the "Tickle' spell included in 'GURPS Grimoire'...

Speaking of Nightgaunts: I started a 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' tickling-story a while ago where the gang are menaced by Nightgaunts: if there is any interest I might dust off the idea and post it. I personally am not really turned on by monsters (or machines) tickling girls, but what the hell...

 

[duannewalton]

Any players of White Wolf's Vampire: the Masquarade ever encounter a Ventrue with a prey exclusion for ticklish women?

 

[LadyKilroy]

Since you asked.....

Here's something even MORE rare... a FEMALE RPG gamer with in interest in tickling.... beat THAT!

I first got into RPGs with Champions, and then through AD&D... and you might have a look, if you can find a good first edition description, at a first or second level Charm spell that's called "Tasha's Uncontrollable, Hideous Laughter". (No kidding, this really exists in the original edition!) It has a marvelous description of the debilitating combat effects of laughter, and while it does not describe what specifically causes this laughter, be it mental, emotional, or physical, I always used my imagination as to what the victim of this spell felt like! After all, one of the spell components IS a feather...

In Palladium's games, there is also a class of Chinese Demon listed in one of their sourcebooks that can be fought by manipulating one or more of its weaknesses. One of those listed in the Demon Hunter tactics description is that many of these creatures are supposedly extremely ticklish. It also goes into a dissertation on the combat effects in that system (also d20 system). Just a thought.

As for my own personal experience, it's totally true... you CAN get the occasional scene into a game even if it's not the theme. In fact, just a month ago in our D&D game, my half-elven cleric/ranger (he looks a little like Legolas, only younger) got "explored" by a curious fire lizard, and the girl playing the companion of said fire lizard and I had a little role-playing fun with that, along the lines of my character making a sudden, mirthful, valiant attempt to remove the beast, and the lizard drawing the obvious conclusion. We'll see if the playful beast decided to further antagonize me... *lol*

If I think of anything else, I'll let you know!

 

[Azrael]

Nice

The overall feedback here has thus far been far more positive than I'd dared to hope for. Great!

To clear up some apparent confusions... I'm doing this primarily out of personal interest and secondly for any members of, as one person put it, the "niche-within-a-niche" group of gamers who are also ticklephiles. Or ticklephiles who simply want the reading material, for story inspiration or whatnot. I certainly don't intend on restricting the setting or any major characters that pop up from use by others in their work. There is no intention whatsoever to get the work up on the bookstore shelves right next to Dungeons & Dragons, Palladium, Star Wars, and Everything White Wolf.

What will most likely happen is that at some point this work will be completed. The website will go up, I'll get some sort of hard-copy version of the book done and there'll be a largely one-time sale of... a few dozen copies? A few hundred? I'm not looking to retire anyone on this. It's not exactly going to be a sky-high pricetag either, I won't ask for much more than is needed to pay for costs, contributors, and maybe $1-2 for myself per book.

Anyhow... the feedback, ideas, etc. have been fast and wonderful and far more than I expected, thanks a lot to everyone

Azrael

"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but I personally believe that's not how they first became popular..."

 

[Oblesklk]

OK, I'll come out of the closet

I love role playing games too. It's one of my geekier pleasures, to be sure, but man we've had some fun in the past with them. Especially when I used to live just up the block from Microsoft, a lot of those guys are into both online gaming and rpgs.

I have developed my own systems and own worlds before, but never for mass market appeal. I was actually entertaining the thought of setting up an rpg over the net (there are tools and chat programs that facilitate this), that has tickling involved. The game itself wouldn't be a bunch of tickle fights, but it would be a normal rpg played entirely by ticklers...so you can guess what kind of themes and plots might happen there.

Anyway, I had entertained the thought, but wouldn't think anyone would be interested in doing something like that. But I might be proven wrong. It's happened before

 

[Shem the Penman]

Warning: Game Geekery Ahead

Well, I have to say I'd be interested, Oblesklk. My last game group, run over IRC, broke up over an interplayer flame war, and I've been looking to get re-involved ever since.

Tickling never played much of a role in my games, unfortunately, as the rest of the guys were, as far as I know, uninterested in the subject. But still, there were always ideas here and there.

LadyK: I remember Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter, but I never actually used it; charming as the idea might be, the spell itself was pretty useless, especially for second level. It's been considerably improved in the 3E rules. They did drop the "Uncontrollable" from the spell name, but the feather remains as a material component.

Actually, there are plenty of existing spells that could be tweaked for ticklish effects. I'm thinking Evard's Black Tentacles, or the various Bigby's hand spells....hmmm.

Incidentally, in the '83 version of the D&D Basic set (the one with Larry Elmore cover art), the sample adventure includes a magic bed that puts anyone on it into an unbreakable sleep -- and which bears a magical trap triggered if anyone tickles the sleeping victim! A pretty dirty trick, wouldn't you say?

 

[MadKalnod]

Er... I'm afraid I don't really see the appeal of the venture. It's probably just me, but I don't share an obsessive need to work my fetish into every aspect of my life. There are just some things that have to stay on separate plates, because it'll get ugly if they mix, and for me that's my fetish and my fandom. It's one thing to make sure I tape the rerun of FarScape where Jool is briefly tickled in a bathtub by the Fabio-looking guy giving her a rubdown; and it's quite another to pester the Sci-Fi Channel with a spec script I've written that revolves around Aeryn, Chiana & Jool tickling each other for an entire episode. It's crossing a line that shouldn't be crossed. Korovan said it best, it's a bit much.

I can't even begin to imagine the mechanics of gameplay:
GM: "Okay, you open the door and see Nicole Kidman chained to the bed wearing just a string bikini. She's asking you to tickle her. What do you do?"
Player: "Umm.... Let me think... Uh, I tickle her?"
GM: "What an unexpected reaction. Roll to see if you succeed."
Player: "Okay, I'm making a called shot to her feet, which is a -1 penalty, but I have my Elven Feather of Vellication which gives me a +2 bonus, so... Oh, Crud! I rolled a 1, that's a critical fumble!!"

Applying all the dice rolls and result tables would only serve to make tickling boring and banal to me, I think. I don't believe that tickling, or even my sexuality in general, is something I would want to base my entire everyday world around. This goes double for RPGs and other fandom activity, because I follow them precisely to go beyond my everyday world. Chaining the infinite possibilities of a gaming world to the contents of my shorts seems like an abyssmally limited vision.

Here's another matter to consider. What would your reaction be if you saw RPGs based around Golden Showers, Bestiality or Necrophilia? Honestly, what would you think of them, and of the guys on the Macroherpetophile Forum that said their "Dinos & Dildos" RPG was so wonderful? The view from outside is not as flattering.

That said, I'm not averse to sneaking tickling into a regular RPG session as a humorous bit of color and flavor:

The wicked sorceress may have cast a Compulsion spell on the D&D heroes which prevents them from acting to harm her with sword or spell; but feathers do no real damage and she may be tickled into submission.

The crew of a smuggler freighter in a Star Wars campaign meet with a decadent Hutt crimelord who has a reputation as a gambling addict willing to bet on anything, no matter how ridiculous. They find him and his gang eagerly watching two of his dancing girls engaged in a tickle fight and taking wagers on the outcome.

In a modern-day setting like Dark*Matter, the party is investigating a mysterious death. They go to a Dungeon club to interview the last person to see the victim alive, a Switch who is in the middle of a tickling session when they arrive.

Also, I recall an old April Fool's issue of Dragon with a joke monster called a Tickler. Creations of a mad wizard, these constructs are small grey balls of clay with feathers stuck in them like wings. Travelling in swarms, they slip beneath their victims' clothing and tickle them relentlessly, as they are powered by laughter. Victims must make a Constitution roll every round or so or lose 1 hit point. The Ticklers depart in search of a new target if their victim falls unconscious.

There's also a d20 sourcebook detailing the demons of various ethnic folklore (called "Denizens of Hell", I believe) which details the Rusalki and their preference for tickle attacks. Tickling is treated as a form of Suffocation attack in this entry.

 

[Azrael]

Er... I'm afraid I don't really see the appeal of the venture. It's probably just me, but I don't share an obsessive need to work my fetish into every aspect of my life. There are just some things that have to stay on separate plates, because it'll get ugly if they mix, and for me that's my fetish and my fandom. It's one thing to make sure I tape the rerun of FarScape where Jool is briefly tickled in a bathtub by the Fabio-looking guy giving her a rubdown; and it's quite another to pester the Sci-Fi Channel with a spec script I've written that revolves around Aeryn, Chiana & Jool tickling each other for an entire episode. It's crossing a line that shouldn't be crossed. Korovan said it best, it's a bit much.

Thanks for the honesty... and also for all of the info you included in your post

If I may... I can definitely see all of your points in that. Roleplaying is... definitely a major fun part of my life. I also RP using a lot of different systems at any one time and am involved in many games offline and on. Roleplaying is not, however, the dominant part of my life, and I don't feel that introducing one or two games using this system (they'd likely be online just-for-fun adventures, not multiple-year-offline-campaigns) really dominates my RP, let alone my life. I don't view it any differently than... for instance... a tickling-oriented comic book, or story, or for that matter internet forum

If I were to pester Wizards of the Coast to put out an adventure all about tickling, that'd be a bith much, as you and Korovan have put it. But... I'm not. As I said... store shelves will never see this, assuming I can even figure out how to produce a good quantity of hard copies. It'll be briefly available in the one place where there is likely to be a large group of people who are interested in it.

Also, I believe you misunderstand just how much tickling there needs to be. Call of Cthulhu, for example, focusses on characters going insane to a great extent. Everything revolves around sanity loss. But in a typical adventure there are maybe... what, four or five brief moments of sanity loss? Even at higher level adventures the tendency seems to be for more sanity to be lost at once (usually by running into an Elder God or something similar). A good adventure can run for many hours... some of the "short" runs I've managed to make interesting for up to 8 hours each, and I'm not that great of a Game Master.

This RPG, which I've been working on in my free time since shortly before I made that posting, will have things like various types of tickle-related attacks (ones that simply cause a loss of control, ones that may result in suffocation, etc.). It will have some 'appealing' races such as Nymphs and Dryads... as well as the standard Elves, Humans, Dwarves, and so forth... available for characters, and monsters will include such beasts as succubi and feathered serpents. Tickle spells will be present but many will take different forms; Evard's Black Tentacles from D&D is a good example of what in this RPG might be considered a disguised tickle-spell. Most will be a little more upfront than that, but not much. The usual fireballs, lightning bolts, swords, crossbows, etc. will still be present. As will magical boots of speed... and cursed boots of... well, you know.

Basically I want it to be something with limitless fun potential for someone who wants a tickling RPG. But if not... every encounter need not hinge on someone getting tickled. There's merely the GM's option of that being so I intend to make it different enough from the existing D&D stuff, at least setting-wise, so that someone not into tickling might still pick it up for world inspiration or an alternate setting for a normal RPG.

 

[Azrael]

In other words I'm trying to please everybody. God save me, but later, it's time to get to work now

 

[sirbeartotickle]

about rpg

Well I would say if it is made, I would buy a copy. As most of my world DOES revolve around my fetish. Sure I have a normal family life like everyone else, but tickling is such a part of me that I would hope this venture takes off. Good or bad, it's my two cents worth.
Go for the gold, and tickle somebody along the way...lol

 

[Bagelfather]

RPT (Role Playing Tickling)

Yes I admit I'm a gamer who also likes tickling. However, I really don't see a need or interest to put the two together.

Here is a transcript from a recent RPG tickle session: as a sneak preview...


GM: "Gallstaff you have entered the door to the north. You are now by yourself standing in a dark room. The pungeant stench of mildew emenates from the wet dungeon walls

Player 1: "Where are the cheetos?"

GM: "They're right next to you."

Player 2: "I cast a spell."

Player 1: "Where's the Mountain Dew?

GM: "In the fridge, duh!"

Player 2: "I wanna cast a spell"

Player 1: "Can I have a Mountain Dew?"

GM: "Yes you can have a Mountain Dew, just go get it."

Player 2: "I can cast any of these tickle spells right, on the list?"

GM: "Yes any of the first level ones."

Player 1: "I'm gonna get a soda, does anyone else want one, hey GM I'm not in the room right?"

GM: "What room."

Player 2: "I wanna cast magic tickle"

Player 1: "The room where all the tickling is at."

GM: "He hasn't tickled anything yet!"

Player 2: "I am though if you'd listen, I'm casting magic tickle!"

GM: "Why are you casting magic tickle? there's nothing to tickle here."

Player 2: "Uh... I'm uh...I'm tickling the darkness."

All: Laugh

GM: "Fine, you tickle the darkness. There is an Elf in front of you."

Player 2: "Whoa."

Player 3: "That's me right?"

GM: "He's wearing leather bondage gear and he has grey hair and a blue feather."

Player 3: "No I don't I have a green feather."

GM: "Lemme see that sheet."

Player 3: "Well it said that I have blue, but I decided I wanted a green feather."

GM: "Whatever, you guys can talk about tickling now."

Player 2: "Hello."

Player 3: "Hello."

Player 2: "I am Gallstaff, tickler of light."

Player 3: "Then why did you have to cast magic tickle?"

All: Laugh

GM: "You're being attacked."

Player 1: "Do I see that happening?"

GM: "No you're outside by the tavern."

Player 1: "Good I get plastered."

GM: (sigh) "There are seven sultan ticklers surrounding you."

Player 2: "How could they surround us? I had TMF Faithful Moderator cast."

GM: "No you didn't"

Player 1: "Cool I'm getting drunk."

Player 2: "Yes I did, I totally did. You asked if I wanted any equipment for this adventure and I said no, but I need material components for all my spells so I said I was casting TMFs Faithful Moderator."

Player 1: "Roll the dice to see if I'm getting drunk."

GM: (rolls) "Yeah you are."

Player 1: "Are there any ticklish girls there?"

GM: "But you didn't, you didn't actually cast it so now there are sultans okay."

Player 2: "I did though, I completely did when you asked me..."

GM: "No you didn't,you didn't actually say you were casting the spell so now there's sultans okay!"

Player 1: "Sultans? Many I got a Rib Tickler feather, it's +7 vs sultans."

GM: "You're not there, you're getting drunk!"

Player 1: "Okay but if there are any girls there I wanna tickle them!"


My appologies to the creators of "Summoner Geeks" and the original bit from "Dr. Demento."

 

[Oblesklk]

I think the two can go together quite well, if done right. I really don't know about the whole "making an rpg BASED around tickling" That would be kind of weird.

But what I was thinking of having a nice, normal gaming session, like most "normal" gaming geeks And in addition to that fact, we all know we're all ticklers. There's really no shame in it. If we were going with a swords & sorcery kind of setting, then some of your homemade spells would probably involve it in some form or another. And there might be one scenario a night where it's thrown in...

I'm convinced it can be done tastefully and well, if the proper form of subtlety is used. But that's just me. I'm a dreamer As for an entire gaming system surrounding it, I'm much more skeptical. I think it's a fun idea, but the logistics of carrying out an inspired and well thought out campaign seems too rough.

 

[Shem the Penman]

Well, I think it's worth trying (as if my other posts to this thread don't make that clear already). When I do a tickling story, I try to make it work as both a tickle fantasy and as something entertaining to read. And if I can do that, since gaming, in many ways, is a form of cooperative storytelling, it should be possible to create something that includes tickling but still works as a game. Not every fantasy has to boil down to "Nicole Kidman in a string bikini," and not every game session has to revolve around playing out a tickling scenario in exhaustive detail.

Regarding "Dinosaurs and Dildos" -- actually, if I saw something like that, I'd probably say, "Well, that's odd. I guess they must enjoy it, though" and think no further. I've been a gamer since Dungeons & Dragons came in one thin blue-covered booklet, and I've seen a lot of High Weirdness over the years. (F'r instance, go look at Dragonraid, the fundamentalist Christian RPG, and tell me that a tickling-related RPG is odder than that.) Certainly if some vanilla types stumble across the tickling game, they'll consider it silly, but those are the same sort of folks who would consider tickle fetishism silly in the first place.

Anyway, it's not as if the original creators weren't above including cheap thrills in their games, were they? Anyone who remembers the Random Prostitute Type Table in the back of the 1st Edition DMG or that topless picture of Loviatar (the Finnish goddess of pain) in Deities & Demigods knows what I'm talking about here...

 

[Oddjob0226]

Some people are saying "Go for it!" Some are saying "Why bother?" I'll be the voice of a guy stuck uncomfortably in the middle.

I don't game that often, but when I do, it's fun. However, I don't see my gaming frineds playing this, even out of curiosity. And as far as I know, I'm the only ticklefile in my group, and I'm closeted, as it were. Besides, what fun would it be to play this game in a room full of glasses-wearing fat guys (hey, that's my group! God help us, I'm the handsome one!)

On the other hand, if it were a co-ed game, that might be fun, especially if the gaming got out of hand and turned real.... And, here in Dallas, we might be have a local gathering soon. Which means we'll all meet more people like us. Those of us who do game, as we get to know each other and become comfortable with one another, might then indulge in this enjoyable outing.....

BTW, In the early 80s there was a D&D modual called "Inferno", based on Dante's inferno. One of the punishment rooms you could walk into featured victims tied down to tables while harpies dropped filth onto their faces, all the while the victims (6, I believe) were being "tickled on the feet" by demons with fans made of feathers. I nearly freaked out when I heard this description during the "straight" and vanilla game of D&D I was involved with......

 

[duannewalton]

Xanth tickle scenes?

I remember the monsters, in "Search for the lost Kadath" Randolph Carter ecountered them ... As for materials I'll send you my Kittlars - Tickle Vikings as soon as I'll translate the story into English ... As for tickling in fantasy books look at Piers Anthony "Xanth". There are several tickle scenes there and a magical tickle bush which tickles it's vitcims senseless

Which Xanth books do the scenes appear? It is a series.

 

[Phineas]

...there was a brief bit in Piers Anthony's "The Color of Her Panties" where one of the characters had to choose a new pair of underwear, and she skipped over the pair with the feather trim lest she be overcome with laughter during an important moment.

also, in that same book, another character asked a goblin (who is unable to tell the truth) which would be the better bush to take a potty break behind. she then chose the opposite of the one he recommended.

the bush, being a tickleberry bush, tickled her, and upon interrogating the goblin, saying "I thought you said it was the better of the two!", the goblin replied, "it was; the other one's a gooseberry bush."

That Piers...

 

[Cosmo_ac]

well

I think this is a very interesting idea, to say the least. I actually have something like this that i'm working on, although it's been on the back burner for a bit. It is something that will, in all honesty, be hard to pull off well. I'm not sure how one would be able to make it into a multi-player game, but i do have confidence, that in time, somebody will manage to pull it off.
I've always loved tickling fantasy, and with any luck, this will be a success.

BTW, Oddjob, did they give a sexual orientation of the victoms or the demons tickling them? And could you intereact with them? Also, what type of demons' where they? lol i love it when mainstreme mixs in tickling.

 

[duannewalton]

...there was a brief bit in Piers Anthony's "The Color of Her Panties" where one of the characters had to choose a new pair of underwear, and she skipped over the pair with the feather trim lest she be overcome with laughter during an important moment.

also, in that same book, another character asked a goblin (who is unable to tell the truth) which would be the better bush to take a potty break behind. she then chose the opposite of the one he recommended.

the bush, being a tickleberry bush, tickled her, and upon interrogating the goblin, saying "I thought you said it was the better of the two!", the goblin replied, "it was; the other one's a gooseberry bush."

That Piers...

I have got to check these books out.

 

[BigJim]

Wahooo! I'd love to actually BE one of these NPC's, never mind being in an adventure with one!

 

[Oddjob0226]

>>>BTW, Oddjob, did they give a sexual orientation of the victoms or the demons tickling them? And could you intereact with them? Also, what type of demons' where they? lol i love it when mainstreme mixs in tickling. <<<


No, there was no sexual orientation, or specified gender. I just imagined it was a mix (I think there were 6 people -3 men, 3 women.)

The demons were just some lessr kind, they were relativly eay to fight. Ou party had to go through that room twice. The 1st time we fought the demons, and set the people free. Since they were souls, they just floated up and out of the room when released. The second time we went through the room, we did nothing, just left the people there being tickled and the demons ignored us.....