S. John Ross writes on Google+ that he noticed «a PG-13 rating for including “brief teen partying.” Another threatened both “crude humor” and “thematic elements.”» And so he started to collect MPAA jargon. Who’s going to finish it? Who’s going to polish it and make it useful? I’m reminded of Zak Smith taking the TSR’s Code of Ethics and suggesting we all do the things we should not.
I take S. John Ross’ list to mean: If you’re running D&D for adults, take a look at this list of things that differentiate movies for adults from movies for kids. Roll some dice and pick the elements you will include in tonight’s adventure.
1. Crude humor
2. Futuristic violence
3. Brief teen partying
4. Thematic elements
5. Brief language
6. Comic nudity
7. Strong sexual content including dialogue
8. Language
9. Strong language
10. Brief language
11. Violent images
12. Racy innuendos
13. Non-stop action violence
14. Brooding, dark violence
15. Intense depiction of very bad weather
16. Intense depiction of urban disaster and related injuries
17. Brief teen partying
18. Crude humor
19. Thematic elements
20. Sci-fi action and brief historical smoking
21. Momentary sensuality
22. Kids’ rude language and pranks
23. Rear nudity
24. Comic nudity
25. Slime and gore
26. A mild birds and bees discussion
27. Mild peril
28. Some menace
29. Ribald humor
30. Off-color humor
31. Macabre humor
32. Jungle adventure terror
33. Satanic war violence
34. Unsuitable teen behavior
35. An opening accident scene
36. A beating
37. Reckless behavior
38. Kids in jeopardy
39. Mock terror
40. A brief crude reference
41. A crude comment
42. Quirky situations
43. A humorous drug related scene
44. Irreverent humor throughout
45. Momentary sensuality
46. A poignant death
47. A mother’s sociopathic behavior
48. Intense fantasy action
49. Intense sequences of bat attacks
50. Graphic heroin use and resulting depravity
51. Mature theme
52. A smoking caterpillar
53. A wide range of perversions in explicit detail
54. A murder and other action sequences in an adventure setting
55. Grisly afterviews of horrific and bizarre killings
56. A bawdy puppet show
#RPG