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S@tanicoaldo
2017-10-03, 06:58 PM
So I'm doing a horror fantasy game with a group of friends and they are loving it, the game in centered around 7 entities that embody the seven deadly sins and seven alternatives versions of earth where they have taken over, the run has been great so far, according to the players the settings and the symbology was on point and really disturbing.

The problem is that they are planning to go to the lust dimension and... I really got nothing.

I'm a very lustful person myself(I love erotic art and porn for example) and I have always found it to be an odd duck among the other seven, why is it there? i don't think it's that evil or bad, heck my idea of haven is the 2003 version of Zumanity (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCCEBtU2owc). NSFW.

The only real bad thing lust can bring to my eyes is rape, and although it's a horror game I rather not use it in my game since there are first time female players and that can be quite off putting.

So any tips on how to make lust look and feel like a horrible thing even thought to me is just a normal thing and part of what make us human?

And before anyone say anything I'm talking about lust as a concept not a religious idea, so no “it will taint your soul” or “God thinks it’s not ok” tangible and palpable things that would make a world dominated by lust a real hell.

afroakuma
2017-10-03, 07:08 PM
There's the Hellraiser-esque concept of "excess of sensation," i.e. pushing the limits to the point that a hellworld's vision of "lust" would be terrifying to those coming to it from more conventional perceptions. There's also the excess of lust and hedonistic behavior overriding self-management and self-concern, possibly to the point of being dangerously malnourished, if not worse. In a world where all beings are thusly devoted to self-satiety, there may be a desperate void of beings available to provide the required "services," causing those deprived of their necessary tools and other amenities to be driven to despair - begging, cheating, stealing, committing violence to obtain what they need for even one more moment's bliss.

Your best bet may be to operate through inference and implication rather than spelling things out in detail. Perhaps look into the Hellraiser films, or check out the forces of the daemon god Slaanesh from Warhammer 40K - I'm given to understand "hedonism past the point of sanity" is basically their stock in trade. Likewise the Dark Eldar.

druid91
2017-10-03, 07:29 PM
So I'm doing a horror fantasy game with a group of friends and they are loving it, the game in centered around 7 entities that embody the seven deadly sins and seven alternatives versions of earth where they have taken over, the run has been great so far, according to the players the settings and the symbology was on point and really disturbing.

The problem is that they are planning to go to the lust dimension and... I really got nothing.

I'm a very lustful person myself(I love erotic art and porn for example) and I have always found it to be an odd duck among the other seven, why is it there? i don't think it's that evil or bad, heck my idea of haven is the 2003 version of Zumanity (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCCEBtU2owc). NSFW.

The only real bad thing lust can bring to my eyes is rape, and although it's a horror game I rather not use it in my game since there are first time female players and that can be quite off putting.

So any tips on how to make lust look and feel like a horrible thing even thought to me is just a normal thing and part of what make us human?

And before anyone say anything I'm talking about lust as a concept not a religious idea, so no “it will taint your soul” or “God thinks it’s not ok” tangible and palpable things that would make a world dominated by lust a real hell.

The usual understanding of Lust is pretty narrow compared to it's actual meaning. Lust is any passion or desire taken to an excess to the point of folly.

The Traditional example is sex because more or less everyone feels that passion at some point in their life, or at least that was the presumption of the time. But it includes Lust for Power, Lust for Combat/Blood Lust, Patriotism, Religious Zealotry, Etc.

Throw out the idea of a 'Porn Dimension' and instead use "For the Greater Good." Nations committing atrocities in the name of Patriotism, People Committing horrible acts to further their own power, or simply because the act itself was gratifying, Holy Wars. And yes, murdering someone so they can sleep with their newly Widowed/Widowered spouse.

Any horrible thing that you can think of that could be justified in the name of some passion, Those are all crimes of lust.

S@tanicoaldo
2017-10-03, 07:32 PM
There's the Hellraiser-esque concept of "excess of sensation," i.e. pushing the limits to the point that a hellworld's vision of "lust" would be terrifying to those coming to it from more conventional perceptions. There's also the excess of lust and hedonistic behavior overriding self-management and self-concern, possibly to the point of being dangerously malnourished, if not worse. In a world where all beings are thusly devoted to self-satiety, there may be a desperate void of beings available to provide the required "services," causing those deprived of their necessary tools and other amenities to be driven to despair - begging, cheating, stealing, committing violence to obtain what they need for even one more moment's bliss.

Your best bet may be to operate through inference and implication rather than spelling things out in detail. Perhaps look into the Hellraiser films, or check out the forces of the daemon god Slaanesh from Warhammer 40K - I'm given to understand "hedonism past the point of sanity" is basically their stock in trade. Likewise the Dark Eldar.

That's my problem! I think Slaanesh is a very coll girl\uy patron of arts and poetry, awesome purple color, powerful and fun besides, again, the rape conotesions I can't see anything wrong with him, heck I even see myself worshiping her if I lived in the warhammer universe(Thanks the gods I don't). so I dunno, I could use hellraiser but most of my players (including a couple) are fans of BDSM ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


The usual understanding of Lust is pretty narrow compared to it's actual meaning. Lust is any passion or desire taken to an excess to the point of folly.

The Traditional example is sex because more or less everyone feels that passion at some point in their life, or at least that was the presumption of the time. But it includes Lust for Power, Lust for Combat/Blood Lust, Patriotism, Religious Zealotry, Etc.

Throw out the idea of a 'Porn Dimension' and instead use "For the Greater Good." Nations committing atrocities in the name of Patriotism, People Committing horrible acts to further their own power, or simply because the act itself was gratifying, Holy Wars. And yes, murdering someone so they can sleep with their newly Widowed/Widowered spouse.

Any horrible thing that you can think of that could be justified in the name of some passion, Those are all crimes of lust.

But violence and wars are kind of more like a warth thing.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/98/f9/8b/98f98bbc51f2eb415e3314e4c82e2c59--dantes-inferno-william-adolphe-bouguereau.jpg

Anymage
2017-10-03, 07:48 PM
The usual understanding of Lust is pretty narrow compared to it's actual meaning. Lust is any passion or desire taken to an excess to the point of folly.

The Traditional example is sex because more or less everyone feels that passion at some point in their life, or at least that was the presumption of the time. But it includes Lust for Power, Lust for Combat/Blood Lust, Patriotism, Religious Zealotry, Etc.

Throw out the idea of a 'Porn Dimension' and instead use "For the Greater Good." Nations committing atrocities in the name of Patriotism, People Committing horrible acts to further their own power, or simply because the act itself was gratifying, Holy Wars. And yes, murdering someone so they can sleep with their newly Widowed/Widowered spouse.

Any horrible thing that you can think of that could be justified in the name of some passion, Those are all crimes of lust.

While true from a literary/historical standpoint, the problem is that there's a lot of overlap between what the sins cover. Lust for money/power gets wrapped up in our ideas of greed, while lust for combat is the sort of thing we'd expect to see from wrath.

Frustrated desire, abuse of others' desires to control them, and abandoning morality in the name of following your own desires would be good baselines for the dimension of lust. As would the simple threat of falling prey to someone else's desires even if you don't go for the full-on shock value of rape; someone leering at you from across the room and making no effort to disguise that they're undressing you with their eyes can be more unsettling than going over the top.

Also, if we're going for a more modern interpretation of lust, it would be the sin of physicality and sensations. Junkies are lust's domain. So are extreme body mods that go far enough to actually damage the recipient, whether or not said mods are fully consensual. (You don't need to show the damage being inflicted straightaways. Just show mutilated people whose mutilations are clearly the result of going too far.) Capitalism is generally greed's line of work, but haves (who can provide experiences/sensations for the right cost) and have nots (who have given up almost everything following their addictions) would certainly be there.

But that wraps back around to the original point, that there's a lot of overlap between sins. It'd all depend on how pure and self-contained the other sins were presented as beforehand.

ZamielVanWeber
2017-10-03, 07:49 PM
That's my problem! I think Slaanesh is a very coll girl\uy patron of arts and poetry, awesome purple color, powerful and fun besides, again, the rape conotesions I can't see anything wrong with him, heck I even see myself worshiping her if I lived in the warhammer universe(Thanks the gods I don't). so I dunno, I could use hellraiser but most of my players (including a couple) are fans of BDSM ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Use the sin of lust's original definition as the sin of luxuria. Yes, the Deadly Sin of Lust now specifically refers to sexual desire but originally it was the sin of Luxuria: it represented primarily distorted and excessive passions.

If you want to keep the more common sexual meaning options include people consuming and discarding lovers, ignoring sexual safeguards (such as the safeword), carelessly spreading diseases, etc. Show the players what happens when the concept of "free love" is used irresponsibly.

LibraryOgre
2017-10-03, 07:52 PM
The only real bad thing lust can bring to my eyes is rape, and although it's a horror game I rather not use it in my game since there are first time female players and that can be quite off putting.

So any tips on how to make lust look and feel like a horrible thing even thought to me is just a normal thing and part of what make us human?


Lust is a tricky one, and I would reccomend talking to your players off-table first to let them know that the next one might get a little weird and uncomfortable, and give them an option to tap out if they need.

The easiest method is simply have someone of a non-compatible sexual orientation be openly, blatantly lustful towards them. Constantly. Touching them. Getting to close. Slobbering on them. Someone they don't want, won't want, and aren't remotely attracted to. Make them the objects of unwelcome lust, with people they have to deal with.

Vitruviansquid
2017-10-03, 08:05 PM
What do people stand to gain from having sex?

There is some emotional fulfillment to it, some link between recreation and procreation, it plays some role in traditional monogamous love, it does lots of things.

But lust is to forget about all those other things, abandon all those other things, and get sex for the sake of sex. It is simply giving in to compulsions without thinking about them. It is to lose yourself - as in diminish your actual control over yourself - to acting with purposes you don't know, or actions with no purpose, or even worse, acting to some sinister purpose and not caring that it is sinister. In Dante's Inferno, souls who gave in to lust were blown about by whirlwinds forever, unable to control where they go, and that is just a reflection of what Lust was doing to them in life.

And then you think about "lust" as it applies outside of sex. Don't people oftentimes give in to compulsion for other destructive behaviors? Think about drug addiction as drug-lust, serial killing as murder-lust, procrastination as work-avoidance-lust.

Xuc Xac
2017-10-03, 08:14 PM
Lust is irrational and goes too far.

When eating a third piece of pie, Gluttony says "I've already had enough and another piece would just be wasteful and I should really share it with someone else, but I'm going to eat it anyway". Lust says "I know pie is bad for me and I shouldn't eat it, but I just can't stop." Gluttony over-consumes because it's selfish and wasteful. Lust over-consumes because it feels good and doesn't care about the consequences.

When you say "I know I should really quit" every time you light up a cigarette, that's Lust holding the match. When you say "I probably shouldn't drink, because I have to drive home soon", that's Lust holding the bottle and filling your glass. When you say "Man, I know this chick is crazy, but she's sooo hot!", that's obviously Lust.

No brains
2017-10-03, 08:14 PM
I also think going with the 'obsession' definition of lust is a good road to take. One way to make lust scary is the idea that it will never go away. A desire that can never be quenched. The creatures in the lust world would have one-track minds and the world around them would crumble as they single-mindedly pursued their obsession.

You can express this in a game through charm effects or something similar like Geas. That will make creatures feel the pain of a lust they can't let go. If you want a critter to embody obsessive lust, make it something hard to stop. Some outsiders and undead aren't even stopped by death and just keep pursuing their lust forever. Creatures with regeneration can also pull that shtick to some degree.

Of course, layering sexual desire onto any of those things can make them extra creepy if you still want to use that definition of lust. I know if I got a bouquet from a rakshasha, a ghost, or a troll, I'd be pretty nervous.

Another scary side effect of excessive lust is unwanted children. Reducing living things to the side effect of desire. The lust world might have no children and everyone is slowly going extinct. Maybe the children are starving and wandering with no one to care for them. Either way, the link between lust and life can be a good source of horror.

Kitten Champion
2017-10-03, 08:14 PM
Supernatural did something where sexual desire becomes literal desire for the flesh - as in cannibalism. It's one of more effective uses of gore in the show, as lovers go from heated passion to rending each others flesh with their teeth and finger nails. The idea of being empty and having another to fill you is taken to a pretty evocative extreme.

There was also an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (there are several on this theme, but the one that jumped to mind) where Xander becomes the center of sexual focus for every woman around him due to some magical influence. It goes from living out an immature fanfiction-esque fantasy to an outright terror when they start swarming him and fighting one another to possess him. Goes with a "mindless fervent desire works in the realm of sexual fantasy but can be a kind of insanity when you deal with the consequences with people you actually care about".

It's been a while since I've seen either, though.

A more classical example, I would point to The Bacchae - where Dionysus revenges himself upon Thebes by driving its people into a crazed form of madness.

Esprit15
2017-10-03, 08:15 PM
Think about the desire demons in Dragon Age. While sexual in depiction, they tended to play to the wants and desires of people to get their way, like the templar who wished that he could have a family (even at the expense of following his duty) or a desire demon being the one to teach you blood magic, presumably because you desire an easy path to power.

Mr Beer
2017-10-03, 08:15 PM
- Constantly and obsessively sexual is pretty off-putting. Sex is great when you're in the mood and/or ready to get into the mood but at some point normal people would rather stop having sex or talking about sex and do something else instead. But not the Lust Monster! He/she/it is on all the time. Note this doesn't have to be rapey, just monomaniacal.

- Find a fetish that you're not into because you find it icky. Then find another one, and another. Most people are going to be grossed out by something, I'd probably skip rape and pedophilia but you can get a reaction with say scat or crush or diaper fetishes or whatever. Depends on your group of course, some people are going to get squicked out pretty fast by mild BDSM and others are determined to be unshocked by absolutely anything. Obviously you're trying to find a way for people to be unnerved and/or challenged by the environment as opposed to seriously uncomfortable or triggered. So again, very group dependant. Maybe have this as a background thing, billboard advertisements for highly awkward fetish products but everyone is totally OK with them because it's normal.

- If people are doing an awful lot of sex, maybe other important things aren't happening. Infrastructure and public transport and utilities are not working well. Rampant STDs could be a problem, maybe everyone is taking penicillin and using an awful lot of soothing ointment on chafed parts of their anatomy.

- Whatever society is into, some people aren't, and that's weird and gross to everyone else. If there's a world full of people being non-stop sexual, the reaction will be some aggressively non-sexual people. Maybe there's a movement to deal with these deviants. Are they being arrested? Do they have to operate as an underground movement? Do they have to pretend to be sexual in public in order to keep up the disguise? Maybe the Sex Police observe passers-by to make sure they are sufficiently aroused and not just pretending.

bulbaquil
2017-10-03, 08:36 PM
My recommendation: Obsession with beauty, dating, and sexiness (not necessarily sex) to the point of being ludicrous.

Think the entire world operating on a high-school mentality taken up to eleven. Runway models worshipped like gods. Elections are literally popularity contests. Beauty salons, clothing stores, plastic surgeons, and hairdressers pretty much everywhere you'd see a Starbucks in the real world. The news is even more obsessed with celebrities than they already are. If a discussion isn't about dating, parties, dances, boyfriends/girlfriends, etc., it's a prelude to a flirt. Everyone's on some sort of fad diet or fad workout, even people who don't need to be. Things like safety goggles and other practical but "ugly" or unfashionable clothing aren't available for sale, even for the jobs that need them. Legal discrimination against ugly people, who are certainly barred from any customer-facing positions . . . that sort of thing.

druid91
2017-10-03, 09:10 PM
But violence and wars are kind of more like a warth thing.

In some cases yes. It's worth noting that all of the sins overlap to some degree. But Wrath is specifically the traits of being aware of Justice or Propriety taken to the extreme of being a spiteful jerk about it.

It's about letting the injustice or impropriety of the act tempt you to act improper or injust in return. Paying the crime back in kind. Because you've been "Wronged."

Slipperychicken
2017-10-03, 09:12 PM
It helps to have players who aren't complete thirstlords, and an idea of what unhealthy passion looks like. It's not just having fun more often, it's being mentally impaired and pursuing one activity or feeling to such excess that it endangers yourself and others.


Use the sin of lust's original definition as the sin of luxuria. Yes, the Deadly Sin of Lust now specifically refers to sexual desire but originally it was the sin of Luxuria: it represented primarily distorted and excessive passions.

This is a good angle for it. People under the influence of lust should be taking their desires way too far, even to the extent of hurting themselves and others (even killing others) in an effort to chase their passions to increasingly deranged and disturbing heights.

afroakuma
2017-10-03, 10:22 PM
That's my problem! I think Slaanesh is a very coll girl\uy patron of arts and poetry, awesome purple color, powerful and fun besides, again, the rape conotesions I can't see anything wrong with him, heck I even see myself worshiping her if I lived in the warhammer universe(Thanks the gods I don't). so I dunno, I could use hellraiser but most of my players (including a couple) are fans of BDSM ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I wouldn't equate Hellraiser with BDSM. In any event, this topic can't be usefully delved into on these boards, I don't think - in some way or another, it will end up getting squick. My personal recommendation remains a lean into the realm of body horror.

If you've seen the movie Se7en,
Imagine the "Sloth" victim - now imagine thousands of "people" existing like that, having indulged their lust so excessively that they have removed proper nutrition, movement, sanitation... atrophying into grotesque and skeletal wraiths whose only desire is to feel one more sensation before their self-neglect causes death.

As to suggestions to use the traditional definition, I feel like the players are likely to be expecting, you know... not that. :smalltongue:

ImNotTrevor
2017-10-03, 10:52 PM
Thinking of Slaanesh as a positive force is indicative of incomplete understanding, and a fuller description may merit where this sort of lustfulness moves into being gross and disturbing and scary

Slaanesh worshippers get to the point where what we already consider extreme is nowhere near enough. They don't get their jollies from being whipped or beaten or used.
Try having skin flayed from flesh, infesting victims with flesh-eating parasites and torturing them just to know what particular sound their screams will make. Pursuing perfection of appearance to the point where your face is no longer human, but a stretched and warped plastic thing upon your head shaped by your increasingly warped perceptions. Being drugged into a state of constant coma is just Tuesday for some, and being slowly impaled on a barbed pole just to feel something because you are numb to all lesser sensation is just wednesday.

The Dark Eldar are the perfect example of Slaanesh worshippers, and are best summarized thusly:
They're the people who bring a ton of drugs to the party and awaken from their drugged up stupor to notice that their family and friends are all dead because of something rotten in the mix. They deal with this by getting high again and pretending the bodies aren't there. If you can smell death on the air, it means you're not snorting enough chemicals.
The balance point between despicable and pathetic.

Those fallen to lust sit in that point. Despicable in their actions to themselves and their fellows, but pathetic in that they are puppets to their addictions and, like children, are functionally helpless.

Slaanesh is that. Slaanesh does not want you to be happy. Slaanesh wants you to be pleasured so much that you forget what matters and live your life in a drugged up haze until you don't even realize that tearing out someone's small intestine to use as binding rope doesn't even register as not ok, and their screams are just like the music of everything. And in the end, you are helpless, aimless, lost, and pathetic. No will of your own.

Make your Lust spook work like that, and you'll have something compelling and disturbing.

Bohandas
2017-10-03, 10:56 PM
There's the Hellraiser-esque concept of "excess of sensation," i.e. pushing the limits to the point that a hellworld's vision of "lust" would be terrifying to those coming to it from more conventional perceptions. There's also the excess of lust and hedonistic behavior overriding self-management and self-concern, possibly to the point of being dangerously malnourished, if not worse. In a world where all beings are thusly devoted to self-satiety, there may be a desperate void of beings available to provide the required "services," causing those deprived of their necessary tools and other amenities to be driven to despair - begging, cheating, stealing, committing violence to obtain what they need for even one more moment's bliss.

Your best bet may be to operate through inference and implication rather than spelling things out in detail. Perhaps look into the Hellraiser films, or check out the forces of the daemon god Slaanesh from Warhammer 40K - I'm given to understand "hedonism past the point of sanity" is basically their stock in trade. Likewise the Dark Eldar.

I was gonna say Slannesh and Hellraiser as well

EDIT:
Also GWAR, the Marquis de Sade, and Insane Clown Posse (check out ICP's song "cemetery girl" for instance)

Thrudd
2017-10-03, 11:42 PM
In Ovid's Metamorphoses, lust/desire takes away a lot of people's freedom and humanity. Gods lust after women, who usually do not want to be lusted after and flee for their lives and end up getting transformed into plants or animals. People who lose control of their desires likewise lose their humanity. So I guess you could take the approach that it represents a loss of control, a form of dehumanizing. You understandably want to avoid it, but rape is pretty much what you're looking at if you want to use lust(sexual) as a dangerous theme. Lust is a one-way thing - when two desire each other equally, then they can easily resolve their desires. Lust is an act of dehumanizing, objectifying the other, and that could be taken literally in your hell realm. You are either fleeing with all your power from some being that is lusting after you, which you want nothing to do with, or you are made a statue, or a tree, or a flower, and are possessed by your pursuer. They take pieces off of your non-human form, or something similarly invasive and creepy. Like when Pan chases Syrinx until she begs her river father to save her and is transformed into reeds - which Pan then proceeds to cut into pieces and craft into the "pan flute", so he can at least possess some part of her.

I wouldn't really say this works for horror, so much, unless you're getting really graphic and aggressive - but as you said, this isn't necessarily one of those sins that has anything "scary" about it. Just unhealthy and dysfunctional. It'd be more like a dystopia that slowly reveals how the world is screwed up rather than a horror movie abattoir.

Floret
2017-10-04, 04:16 AM
I'd also go for the vein of "Desires, Hedonism, and the need to feel SOMETHING taken too far, without any regard to personal (or others') safety, health or, well, anything. And I'd second "If you think Slaneesh is appealing, you need to read up on what Slaneesh stands for".

One thing I'd like to add is to maybe focus a bit on the egoistic part of Lust. After all, it is a rather self-focussed sin, your personal desires, acted out because you want it, irrespective of other people. This doesn't necessarily have to mean rape, but merely a complete disregard for any input from others, or any feeling of remorse. Punching people in the face because you feel like it in the moment would qualify, as would just stealing candy from a baby - not because you wanna eat, or you envy the baby, but because you want Candy, you want Candy now, and it is the nearest piece of Candy there is.

In this kind of scenario I always have to think about the Apokalyptics from Degenesis - People who, during the Apokalypse, have decided that while the world is ending, there's no point in doing anything but savoring your last moments to the best of your desires, and to hell with consequence (We're all gonna be dead anyways). Of course, the world didn't end, but they kept pretty much the same morality: "I enjoy this = good"; "I don't enjoy this = bad". Pure, egoistical Hedonism, full with becoming numb from years and years of excess. An important element here is the desire for novelties - trying things just to try them, and to see how they feel, which in combination with the fatalistic view of the future leads to nigh-on fearlessness - after all, if you've never been shot, you don't know if you might not enjoy it, so why not walk up to the policeman with the gun? If he yields, you win, if he shoots, well, new experiences are always nice. (And of course, Apokalyptics in-setting deal in drugs, sex, and every other fleeting pleasure; and rarely live past 30.)
The problem with the kind of thinking behind putting Lust (In a broader sense than just sexual) first is the complete warping of Morality that happens - which might take a moment to sink in and be noticed as the horrible thing it is, and might not always look it, but always runs risk of leaving casualties. If nothing matters more than you experiencing emotions and sensations, all other things will suffer, at least eventually.

The most extreme case I experienced in actual play was one Apokalyptic character experiencing the loss of a friend, crying her eyes out, and afterwards the only thought being "Hey, awesome, extreme emotions. Which one of my friends could I kill to trigger that again?".

Dimers
2017-10-04, 04:25 AM
Lust should be incredibly scary for players! Not necessarily the PCs, but the players -- because the main negative to lust is loss of control. Take away player agency, use the power of desire to force characters into awful situations, and the players will feel threatened and strongly averse.

Still wouldn't recommend removing player agency without laying it out OOC first, though.

Mutazoia
2017-10-04, 06:07 AM
Maybe something like this guy? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEsNHlkEkXk)

Pilo
2017-10-04, 08:48 AM
I recommand you a Richard Matheson's novel called "Lover When You're Near Me".

I think you can totally disgust your players with Lust. You seem to add appealing with it. Why?
Why can't the lust be about that disgusting old woman with no hair, covered in dirt and precedent men love fluids who is winking at their characters right now?
Why wouldn't the characters be arroused by her? Isn't it the plan of Lust?

Zurvan
2017-10-04, 09:15 AM
I laugh at people who think lust can be pleasant! LAUGT!

Do you think Slaanesh is a pleasant god? Have you seen this picture (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/8/80/Tome_of_Corruption_by_RalphHorsley.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130323195720)?

Slaanesh will make you obsess over pleasure to the point where you acquires immunity to it, so you start looking for more extreme form of pleasure until you end up mutated, sadomasochistic, with pricings penetrating your skins so you can feel something and full of body modifications.

Sure the Succubi can look appealing, but they do it so that they can use their vagina dentanda (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagina_dentata) something the modern authors tend to ignore in favor of hot sex maniac demon who wants to have it with you no matter how much of a loser or ugly you are, their whole point is deception, YOU DOn'T want to have sex with demons, or you'll regret it.

My personal favorite lust incarnation is the one in the binding of Isaac.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/bindingofisaac/images/4/43/Super_Lust_transparent.png/revision/latest?cb=20130201225624

Sure a world where everyone has sex all the time may sound appealing, but just as with Slaanesh people will start getting bored with the whole "vanilla" thing and will start doing more and more (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bareback_(sex)) degenaradet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprophilia) things, tring to be wild and dangerous to the point where everyone is doing it, and you know what unprotected sex and sex with unhygienic things causes? STDS!

Yeah everyone loves sex but they forget that the it's not as nice, clean and risk free as the movies and shows portrait, the world is full of terrible and horrible stds, and with a world where everyone is too busy ****ing no one will be treating it so it will run repent like the plague.

Make the citizens of the dimension look like the preta (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungry_ghost), weak a diminutive hungry ghosts who can do nothing but eat, **** and dance on their own filth, never satisfied never content always wanting more and more and more.

Have them look like a mix of the Lust from Binding of Isaac, full of diseases, oozing blood and pus, with a small and pathetic creature such as Gollum.

That will certainly take away all the appealing of lust without having to resort to chock value things like Body suspension.

And if you are players think a mass of STDS, infected blood, tumors and pus humping their legs nonstop is appealing, you need new friends.... Fast.

Alcore
2017-10-04, 09:38 AM
The problem is that they are planning to go to the lust dimension and... I really got nothing.

I'm a very lustful person myself(I love erotic art and porn for example) and I have always found it to be an odd duck among the other seven, why is it there? i don't think it's that evil or bad, heck my idea of haven is the 2003 version of Zumanity (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCCEBtU2owc). NSFW.

So any tips on how to make lust look and feel like a horrible thing even thought to me is just a normal thing and part of what make us human?i haven't read the others so forgive me if i repeat.

Lust is a state of intense longing for something/someone. It does indeed cover "things", like greed, but lust is singular most of the time. If you are familiar with the Lord of the Rings the difference between lust and greed is Golum vs Smuag. Golum would not care about you unless your food or otherwise threaten Precious in some conceivable way (in his mind at least, logic and reason in short supply). On the other claw is Smuag who would kill whole kingdoms for theft or attempted theft of anything he claims.


Lust is also a corrupting force (whether religous or not) on those who succumb (which is the word succubus is derived). You submit to it, you yield to it and in some cases welcome it. Smeagle submits to the ring and becomes Golum. The clingly girlfriend submits to lust and locks up her boyfriend for his protection. When authorities come to free him she kills the two of them to prevent anyone from getting between her and her precious boyfriend.


Lust is a disease, a corrupting force or even the soil for the other sins. A boy gets beatings from his father and when he becomes a man he fights back with much hatred in his heart. He wins his freedom through wrath and comes to enjoy that feeling of freedom. His wrath helped him get free it did something good for him. He lusts after and submits to it and like a weed wrath is rooted in his heart even if the lust subsides with age/wisdom. He could remove wrath but that is another tale.


Unlike most sins lust highlights the goodness of Evil. They might have regrets when they hit the bottom but will enjoy the fall.

Mystral
2017-10-04, 09:42 AM
So I'm doing a horror fantasy game with a group of friends and they are loving it, the game in centered around 7 entities that embody the seven deadly sins and seven alternatives versions of earth where they have taken over, the run has been great so far, according to the players the settings and the symbology was on point and really disturbing.

The problem is that they are planning to go to the lust dimension and... I really got nothing.

I'm a very lustful person myself(I love erotic art and porn for example) and I have always found it to be an odd duck among the other seven, why is it there? i don't think it's that evil or bad, heck my idea of haven is the 2003 version of Zumanity (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCCEBtU2owc). NSFW.

The only real bad thing lust can bring to my eyes is rape, and although it's a horror game I rather not use it in my game since there are first time female players and that can be quite off putting.

So any tips on how to make lust look and feel like a horrible thing even thought to me is just a normal thing and part of what make us human?

And before anyone say anything I'm talking about lust as a concept not a religious idea, so no “it will taint your soul” or “God thinks it’s not ok” tangible and palpable things that would make a world dominated by lust a real hell.

Maybe take a look at erodaemons of pathfinder.

War_lord
2017-10-04, 09:53 AM
Well I think the problem here is that when we say Slaanesh you think "yeah sexy BDSM" rather then the reality that is "if Hostel had art direction by H.R. Giger". Sex is inherently horrifying, that's why so many horror films effectively combine sexuality with extreme violence. I think your view is more then a little naive.

icefractal
2017-10-04, 02:22 PM
I think that without even going into grotesque territory, you could get some mileage out of Lust as obsession/addiction.

Imagine a world where some people were physically addictive, either as a yes/no thing or a hierarchy. The PCs are talking to one of the Beautiful People and someone comes up and starts begging him/her for a kiss, a touch, even a slap if contact is made. They get a kick in the face instead but it doesn't deter them at all. Annoyed, the BP tells them to go stab themselves. They run off ... only to return with a knife and do it. For their efforts, they're rewarded with a brief caress, from which they fall into a blissful stupor, not caring about the fact that they're still bleeding out.

But the PCs aren't like that loser, /they're/ special. In fact, please accept this kiss - it gives a morale bonus, much longer lasting than a Bard's song. Just make sure to get another before the withdrawal kicks in.

Mr Beer
2017-10-04, 02:29 PM
Do you think Slaanesh is a pleasant god? Have you seen this picture (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/8/80/Tome_of_Corruption_by_RalphHorsley.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130323195720)?

What is this? A Chaos God for ants?

denthor
2017-10-04, 02:40 PM
Lust can be obsessions. The people in that dimension focus on one thing. Each one different. They want out.


Gold leads to greed dimension.

How about they lust after an item in one of the other dimensions.

Obsession with power. Send the PC out on missions to recover an item that is never what they want so they send them out again each item should slack and release them but they have to be convinced happiness is within.

Lust to become knowledgeable again missions to get scrolls and things.

Lust to eat leads to whorship of the belly. Eventually they end up in gluttony domain.

One wants Beauty Beyond all else ends up in one of the others but I forget which one that has to do with appearance.

Lust leads to sloth.

Blackhawk748
2017-10-04, 05:15 PM
That's my problem! I think Slaanesh is a very coll girl\uy patron of arts and poetry, awesome purple color, powerful and fun besides, again, the rape conotesions I can't see anything wrong with him, heck I even see myself worshiping her if I lived in the warhammer universe(Thanks the gods I don't). so I dunno, I could use hellraiser but most of my players (including a couple) are fans of BDSM]

Trust me, you don't. For example, Noise Marines. They have pursued sensation to the point that they can't feel anything unless it physically hurts them. This the giant guns.

Next look at the Dark Eldar. They are basically excess the faction. They make drugs out of people's bones, warp themselves into horrific and disturbing forms just cuz, and a long list of other things. It goes way beyond BDSM, right into Hellraiser Turf and waves as it goes by into the dimension of chain sword sex toys

BRC
2017-10-04, 05:31 PM
It's been observed that when Pop Culture decides to depict the Deadly Sins, Lust gets special treatment.

All the other sins are presented as a person GUILTY of that sin. Wrath is somebody angry, Sloth is somebody lazy, Gluttony is somebody who eats too much, ect ect. But with Lust, it's presented, traditionally, as a seductress, a beautiful woman who is trying to tempt you to be Lustful. The equivalent would be Gluttony presented as a chef trying to make you eat, or Sloth as somebody offering you a really comfortable couch or something.

The reason for this, as always, is so it can be an excuse for Fanservice.

But, take that away. The Avatar of Lust is not the tempting seductress, it's the Creepy Stalker, one who believes that their desire means they are entitled to you as a person.

The Dimension of Lust is full of disgusting, unpleasant creatures who will fall head over heels for the PCs. While at first seemingly friendly and eager to please, they become increasingly demanding, frustrated that the PCs do not return their affections.

Blackhawk748
2017-10-04, 05:48 PM
It's been observed that when Pop Culture decides to depict the Deadly Sins, Lust gets special treatment.

All the other sins are presented as a person GUILTY of that sin. Wrath is somebody angry, Sloth is somebody lazy, Gluttony is somebody who eats too much, ect ect. But with Lust, it's presented, traditionally, as a seductress, a beautiful woman who is trying to tempt you to be Lustful. The equivalent would be Gluttony presented as a chef trying to make you eat, or Sloth as somebody offering you a really comfortable couch or something.

The reason for this, as always, is so it can be an excuse for Fanservice.

But, take that away. The Avatar of Lust is not the tempting seductress, it's the Creepy Stalker, one who believes that their desire means they are entitled to you as a person.

The Dimension of Lust is full of disgusting, unpleasant creatures who will fall head over heels for the PCs. While at first seemingly friendly and eager to please, they become increasingly demanding, frustrated that the PCs do not return their affections.

So its the Yandere dimension?

Max_Killjoy
2017-10-04, 05:53 PM
It's been observed that when Pop Culture decides to depict the Deadly Sins, Lust gets special treatment.

All the other sins are presented as a person GUILTY of that sin. Wrath is somebody angry, Sloth is somebody lazy, Gluttony is somebody who eats too much, ect ect. But with Lust, it's presented, traditionally, as a seductress, a beautiful woman who is trying to tempt you to be Lustful. The equivalent would be Gluttony presented as a chef trying to make you eat, or Sloth as somebody offering you a really comfortable couch or something.

The reason for this, as always, is so it can be an excuse for Fanservice.

But, take that away. The Avatar of Lust is not the tempting seductress, it's the Creepy Stalker, one who believes that their desire means they are entitled to you as a person.

The Dimension of Lust is full of disgusting, unpleasant creatures who will fall head over heels for the PCs. While at first seemingly friendly and eager to please, they become increasingly demanding, frustrated that the PCs do not return their affections.

That's a really observant point and good change-up of the typical presentation.

AMFV
2017-10-04, 06:01 PM
I think that here as with other things, it's good to look at the constructs that guided the ideas of lust as a sin. Lust isn't just sex, or procreation, its disordered sex, unhealthy sex. Now obviously your viewpoints probably don't align with the idea of sex as the Catholic Church thought of sex, but you can still have disordered sexuality and sexual ideals that are not appropriate. Lust is all about unhealthy sensations. A drug addict would be experiencing lust for those physical sensations. In the context of sex you might have a person who doesn't respect boundaries, or a person who is sexually aroused by mutilating another person, things that are so wrong that they would be diagnosable disorders.

I would actually look at diagnosable sexual disorders, as sort of a guide for the whole way that sex could be unhealthy. That's probably the way you should depict lust to people who are typically sexual people.

Jackalias
2017-10-04, 06:14 PM
Obsession and temptation, normal things taken to extremes. Lovers who won't stop pursuing you, people mutilating themselves to conform to a standard of beauty, flaying themselves so they can feel something, that sort of stuff.

Luz
2017-10-04, 06:20 PM
As someone born and raised catholic I must also say that the seven deadly sins are not the most terrible ones as most people think, they are dangerous because they may cause you to do one of the great and horrible sins called mortal sins (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_sin) those sins are the ones that are really bad, so that's the point they are dangerous because they make you sin more, if you have a lot of wrath it's not THAT bad but this wrath may cause you to commit the mortal sin or murder and that's really bad.

A bunch of moralistic people focus so much on the seven deadly ones that they forget the mortal ones are the truly bad ones, the fact you commit one of seven is just sigh that you need to be careful not a unforgiving atrocity.

In case of lust, it's not that bad but it may cause the following mortal sins:
-Abortion.
-Encouragement of another's grave sins or vices.
-Adultery.(Which is not nice even if your friends are sexual people with open relationships).
-Contraception.
-Divorce.
-Endangerment of human life or safety.
-Fornication.
-Homosexual actions. :/
-Incest.
-Masturbation.
-Murder.
-Polygamy.
-Pornography.
-Prostitution.
-Rape.
-Scandal.

So yeah thinking about sex all the time(Which is the most common form of lust) is not as bad, it's just that it can cause you to do all those horrible things above.

Anymage
2017-10-04, 06:59 PM
As someone born and raised catholic I must also say that the seven deadly sins are not the most terrible ones as most people think, they are dangerous because they may cause you to do one of the great and horrible sins called mortal sins (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_sin)...

Going into church history would be a long topic and against the board rules, so I'll just say that the big 7 have become cultural touchstones of their own. Just like how fictionalized versions of the greek or norse gods have proliferated to the point where they don't necessarily follow the original myths closely, the seven deadly sins have taken on an artistic life of their own outside of church dogma.

Mr Beer
2017-10-04, 07:20 PM
That looks like a list of sins that most humans are going to commit at one point or another. Creating and then managing an artificial chokepoint between the bulk of humanity and eternal salvation might be a convenient device to assist an organisation to seize and maintain a grip on power.

If you're cynical.

Nifft
2017-10-04, 07:34 PM
So I'm doing a horror fantasy game with a group of friends and they are loving it, the game in centered around 7 entities that embody the seven deadly sins and seven alternatives versions of earth where they have taken over, the run has been great so far, according to the players the settings and the symbology was on point and really disturbing.

The problem is that they are planning to go to the lust dimension and... I really got nothing.

So any tips on how to make lust look and feel like a horrible thing even thought to me is just a normal thing and part of what make us human?
Crowdsource.

Not just us. Ask your players.

Specifically, what I'd do for this very subjective material would be:


"Hey everyone, the heroes have been kicking butt & you're surely going to beat the Evil Lust Dimension, but the thing is that I don't really have a coherent framework for what evil lust looks like, and let's be honest we don't do much lust-related stuff at the table because we have sex lives.

"So, here's what I want everyone to do: write up what your PC's adventure were like in the Evil Lust Dimension, and you'll all get XP for beating it, because you are damn good at your jobs. This way we can cover all the sins, but I don't have to take you on a journey through my own psychological hang-ups and weird fetishes, shut up, mine are totally normal.

"Let me know if that sounds okay, or if you're rather opt-out of the write-up."


Basically make it about the PCs and their fetishes / hang-ups / fantasies / traumas / temptations / regrets instead of trying to find a general way to express Evil Lust.

NecroDancer
2017-10-04, 07:59 PM
What if everyone in the lust dimension was obsessed with a certain hobby? A pianist would play the piano for days on end without taking a break until their fingers are bloody stumps. A sword fighter would constantly challenge people to deadly duels for practice (they wouldn't take "no" for an answer). A horseracer would constantly run more and more dangerous courses without worrying about the consequences. Someone in love would become a crazy stalker who murders anyone they see as "rivals".

Basically people take their love for a hobby, sport, art, item, or person so seriously they don't consider anything else at all or how their obsession might harm people.

Anymage
2017-10-04, 08:05 PM
Basically make it about the PCs and their fetishes / hang-ups / fantasies / traumas / temptations / regrets instead of trying to find a general way to express Evil Lust.

There are plenty of times when it's worth tossing the ball back into the player's court, but horror and squeamishness often don't fit the bill. Feeling out of control doesn't work quite as well when the player gets to specifically plan it. On top of that, while targeting player specific quirks can get a reaction (although playing off the player's hot button issues in the name of getting a reaction is usually bad form), not many players are comfortable sharing their sexual peccadilloes with the casual friends they game with.

Wrath can be scary without asking players what phobias of theirs you can prey on. Lust can be the same without having to ask players about their specific points of sexual squeamishness.

Nerd-o-rama
2017-10-04, 08:36 PM
This movie does a pretty good job of it while still being board-safe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQl7WO6xehQ).

You're welcome.

Rabidmuskrat
2017-10-05, 03:30 AM
For something a bit different, make them arrive in OUR world when they hit Lust. Just emphasize the parts that are appropriate, like adult shops, advertisements, skimpy outfits, whatever. Big city of course. If you feel that alone isnt enough, just change it in subtle ways like making people more corrupt (as in the 'bribe me if you want me to do my job' kind of corrupt).

Frozen_Feet
2017-10-05, 06:04 AM
People mentioned Bloodlust and how it seems to be more of Wrath's thing. But Wrath and Lust are quite different motives even when they lead to superficially similar acts.

To use an example from fiction: Zaraki Kenpachi from Bleach engages in violence because of Lust. He does not actually hate any of those he fights. He does it to get his jollies, and fights with a big grin on his face. The thrill of the fight gives him a boner, and that's why he'd seek a fight even if no other reason existed.

By contrast, someone who fights because of Wrath hates. They feel that they, or the world, is somehow wronged by the existence of the thing they hate. They do not get jollies from, they do not smile when fighting, because the sheer fact that they have to fight is a sign that there is something wrong in the world. Once the target of their Wrath is gone, they become empty and unmotivated, aimless.

Lust is internal. Its goal lies in the subjective experience. Wrath is external. Its goal lies in objective destruction or punishment.

Spore
2017-10-05, 06:11 AM
You do realize the seven sins are that way BECAUSE they are appealing? "Oh, so this is gross AND evil? Why would anyone do that?" is not a great motivation as "this feels so good but hurts everyone in my vicinity".

Sinewmire
2017-10-05, 06:34 AM
If you want to make it scary, throw in all the flesh and kink you like, and then have a character look in a mirror. They are gaunt, greyed, sallow.

How long have they been indulging themselves? Have they eaten?

Can they stop?

Amazon
2017-10-05, 08:48 AM
Wait I think you are doing horror wrong, you should never leave the cards on the table, you should make their own mind torture themselves.

If the rest of the alternative earths have been quite in the face with the horror maybe try to be subtle here? If they are quite sexual make the lust version of earth look like a paradise, but they know something will come up... Something wrong, it can't be this great... Something will come up and it will be horrible, let this doubt sink in and prevent them to enjoy the pleasures.

If they want to investigate it deeply come up with something horrible, if not make them leave and forever imagine what was up with this weird place.

pwykersotz
2017-10-05, 11:47 AM
People mentioned Bloodlust and how it seems to be more of Wrath's thing. But Wrath and Lust are quite different motives even when they lead to superficially similar acts.

To use an example from fiction: Zaraki Kenpachi from Bleach engages in violence because of Lust. He does not actually hate any of those he fights. He does it to get his jollies, and fights with a big grin on his face. The thrill of the fight gives him a boner, and that's why he'd seek a fight even if no other reason existed.

By contrast, someone who fights because of Wrath hates. They feel that they, or the world, is somehow wronged by the existence of the thing they hate. They do not get jollies from, they do not smile when fighting, because the sheer fact that they have to fight is a sign that there is something wrong in the world. Once the target of their Wrath is gone, they become empty and unmotivated, aimless.

Lust is internal. Its goal lies in the subjective experience. Wrath is external. Its goal lies in objective destruction or punishment.

Or Hisoka from HunterxHunter. *shudder*

Tinkerer
2017-10-05, 01:03 PM
Envy, Lust, and Greed are all obsession based sins. You can actually make a decent thief based on all three.

The Thief of Greed is the most classic of them as they steal because they are obsessed with gaining stuff. The article of theft is what is most important, the act of theft and the target are not important.

The Thief of Lust steals because they are obsessed with stealing. The act of theft itself is the most important, the article of theft and the target are not important.

The Thief of Envy steals because they don't like that the target has something. The target is what is most important, the act and the article of theft are not important.

ImNotTrevor
2017-10-05, 03:27 PM
Envy, Lust, and Greed are all obsession based sins. You can actually make a decent thief based on all three.

The Thief of Greed is the most classic of them as they steal because they are obsessed with gaining stuff. The article of theft is what is most important, the act of theft and the target are not important.

The Thief of Lust steals because they are obsessed with stealing. The act of theft itself is the most important, the article of theft and the target are not important.

The Thief of Envy steals because they don't like that the target has something. The target is what is most important, the act and the article of theft are not important.

The thief of Greed steals your money, because he wants to be rich.

The thief of Envy steals your stuff, because he wants to have your life.

The thief of Lust steals your old family photos. Because they are the one thing you can't replace.

(Which, incidentally, still sits on the crossroads of Despicable and Pathetic. Lust kinda fits that niche well.)

Tinkerer
2017-10-05, 03:40 PM
The thief of Greed steals your money, because he wants to be rich.

The thief of Envy steals your stuff, because he wants to have your life.

The thief of Lust steals your old family photos. Because they are the one thing you can't replace.

(Which, incidentally, still sits on the crossroads of Despicable and Pathetic. Lust kinda fits that niche well.)

I am familiar with the classical definitions of lust as well as the modern definitions and colloquialisms and I can't say that I recognize where the heck you are getting that usage from.

EDIT: To be more specific your definition of Lust in the above example seems to be closer to Envy.

Liquor Box
2017-10-05, 04:56 PM
I don't really see why Lust would be much different from Greed, except that Lust is desire for things sexual and Greed is desire for things material. In terms of my own moral code (and apparently yours as well at least as far as lust goes) neither is actually morally wrong in and of itself. However, I think the sins are contemplating an excess of lust and greed, so pursuing lust or greed at the expense of other things (including virtues).

For Greed, theft is an easy example of when the unrestrained desire for material things is strong enough to be sinful - and the Lust equivalent would probably be rape. Since you don't want to use rape. negative portrayals of Lust might be cheating, or when Lust takes over a person's life such that they spend their days in masturbation to the exclusion of all else.

Most people also have a line where sexual practices are seen as inherently immoral (putting aside issues of consent and monogamy). Wherever that line is for you and your players, you could cross it. I get the impression that you are not someone who thinks that sex is immoral unless it is between a man and a woman who are married, but I expect you and your group have a line somewhere. It might be incestuous sex or bestiality (which has possibilities opened up in a fantasy setting).

ImNotTrevor
2017-10-05, 05:24 PM
I am familiar with the classical definitions of lust as well as the modern definitions and colloquialisms and I can't say that I recognize where the heck you are getting that usage from.

EDIT: To be more specific your definition of Lust in the above example seems to be closer to Envy.

Envy would be stealing them because they want your family. No, they're stealing for its own sake. And the thing that makes an acquisition all the more rewarding in and of itself is when you know that thing will not be replaced.
You can earn more money.
You can get replacement stuff.
But old family photos are not replaceable. Their stolen-ness is forever. (Kinda like stealing priceless artifacts or paintings, but those have their own intrinsic monetary value whereas old family photos do not, hence choosing them over paintings)

If you steal for the love of stealing, I can't imagine that you'd fail to get extra satisfaction that what you steal is gone from them FOREVER.

(I'm literally just simplifying your presented paragraphs and turning them into examples of hpw they'd behave. As far as lust sitting between Despicable and Pathetic, that's just a thing I'm noticing. Most lustful acts seem to be well described by both words.)

Bohandas
2017-10-05, 05:39 PM
The thief of Greed steals your money, because he wants to be rich.

The thief of Envy steals your stuff, because he wants to have your life.

The thief of Lust steals your old family photos. Because they are the one thing you can't replace.

(Which, incidentally, still sits on the crossroads of Despicable and Pathetic. Lust kinda fits that niche well.)

I would think the thief of lust would steal your underwear and/or shoes

EDIT:
As an aside the Underpants Gnomes' missing step was most likely burusera (the practice of selling used underwear to underwear fetishists)

S@tanicoaldo
2017-10-05, 08:39 PM
- Find a fetish that you're not into because you find it icky. Then find another one, and another. Most people are going to be grossed out by something, I'd probably skip rape and pedophilia but you can get a reaction with say scat or crush or diaper fetishes or whatever. Depends on your group of course, some people are going to get squicked out pretty fast by mild BDSM and others are determined to be unshocked by absolutely anything. Obviously you're trying to find a way for people to be unnerved and/or challenged by the environment as opposed to seriously uncomfortable or triggered. So again, very group dependant. Maybe have this as a background thing, billboard advertisements for highly awkward fetish products but everyone is totally OK with them because it's normal.

Not gonna happen with this group... No.


- If people are doing an awful lot of sex, maybe other important things aren't happening. Infrastructure and public transport and utilities are not working well. Rampant STDs could be a problem, maybe everyone is taking penicillin and using an awful lot of soothing ointment on chafed parts of their anatomy.

STDs are a good one, I mean I know there must be a sicko somewhere who gets turned on by that(Will probably want to lick it) but I think that's almost universally undesirable. That's a good point.


I wouldn't equate Hellraiser with BDSM. In any event, this topic can't be usefully delved into on these boards, I don't think - in some way or another, it will end up getting squick. My personal recommendation remains a lean into the realm of body horror.

If you've seen the movie Se7en,
Imagine the "Sloth" victim - now imagine thousands of "people" existing like that, having indulged their lust so excessively that they have removed proper nutrition, movement, sanitation... atrophying into grotesque and skeletal wraiths whose only desire is to feel one more sensation before their self-neglect causes death.

As to suggestions to use the traditional definition, I feel like the players are likely to be expecting, you know... not that. :smalltongue:

Yeah but their line of BDSM is very close to hellraiser, trust me. D:

I liked that, it even ties in with a lustful cultist NPC they found earlier in the campaign who was almost like that, he was reformed and begging for the Lethe water the group had to forget about the pain he was in and the things he had done.


I laugh at people who think lust can be pleasant! LAUGT!

Do you think Slaanesh is a pleasant god? Have you seen this picture (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/8/80/Tome_of_Corruption_by_RalphHorsley.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130323195720)?

Slaanesh will make you obsess over pleasure to the point where you acquires immunity to it, so you start looking for more extreme form of pleasure until you end up mutated, sadomasochistic, with pricings penetrating your skins so you can feel something and full of body modifications.

Sure the Succubi can look appealing, but they do it so that they can use their vagina dentanda (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagina_dentata) something the modern authors tend to ignore in favor of hot sex maniac demon who wants to have it with you no matter how much of a loser or ugly you are, their whole point is deception, YOU DOn'T want to have sex with demons, or you'll regret it.

My personal favorite lust incarnation is the one in the binding of Isaac.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/bindingofisaac/images/4/43/Super_Lust_transparent.png/revision/latest?cb=20130201225624

Sure a world where everyone has sex all the time may sound appealing, but just as with Slaanesh people will start getting bored with the whole "vanilla" thing and will start doing more and more (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bareback_(sex)) degenaradet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprophilia) things, tring to be wild and dangerous to the point where everyone is doing it, and you know what unprotected sex and sex with unhygienic things causes? STDS!

Yeah everyone loves sex but they forget that the it's not as nice, clean and risk free as the movies and shows portrait, the world is full of terrible and horrible stds, and with a world where everyone is too busy ****ing no one will be treating it so it will run repent like the plague.

Make the citizens of the dimension look like the preta (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungry_ghost), weak a diminutive hungry ghosts who can do nothing but eat, **** and dance on their own filth, never satisfied never content always wanting more and more and more.

Have them look like a mix of the Lust from Binding of Isaac, full of diseases, oozing blood and pus, with a small and pathetic creature such as Gollum.

That will certainly take away all the appealing of lust without having to resort to chock value things like Body suspension.

And if you are players think a mass of STDS, infected blood, tumors and pus humping their legs nonstop is appealing, you need new friends.... Fast.

Yeah again the STD horny zombies sound like a good idea, maybe too in the nose but certainly something I can use, maybe they are hidden always in the lower sections of the city and people pretend they don't exist like what some real cities do with junkies.


As someone born and raised catholic I must also say that the seven deadly sins are not the most terrible ones as most people think, they are dangerous because they may cause you to do one of the great and horrible sins called mortal sins (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_sin) those sins are the ones that are really bad, so that's the point they are dangerous because they make you sin more, if you have a lot of wrath it's not THAT bad but this wrath may cause you to commit the mortal sin or murder and that's really bad.

A bunch of moralistic people focus so much on the seven deadly ones that they forget the mortal ones are the truly bad ones, the fact you commit one of seven is just sigh that you need to be careful not a unforgiving atrocity.

In case of lust, it's not that bad but it may cause the following mortal sins:
-Abortion.
-Encouragement of another's grave sins or vices.
-Adultery.(Which is not nice even if your friends are sexual people with open relationships).
-Contraception.
-Divorce.
-Endangerment of human life or safety.
-Fornication.
-Homosexual actions. :/
-Incest.
-Masturbation.
-Murder.
-Polygamy.
-Pornography.
-Prostitution.
-Rape.
-Scandal.

So yeah thinking about sex all the time(Which is the most common form of lust) is not as bad, it's just that it can cause you to do all those horrible things above.

That's... Interesting, I didn't know that I always assumed the seven were the worst. That actually makes sense. Thanks.


That looks like a list of sins that most humans are going to commit at one point or another. Creating and then managing an artificial chokepoint between the bulk of humanity and eternal salvation might be a convenient device to assist an organisation to seize and maintain a grip on power.

If you're cynical.

You mean even murder? :smallamused:


Crowdsource.

Not just us. Ask your players.

Specifically, what I'd do for this very subjective material would be:


"Hey everyone, the heroes have been kicking butt & you're surely going to beat the Evil Lust Dimension, but the thing is that I don't really have a coherent framework for what evil lust looks like, and let's be honest we don't do much lust-related stuff at the table because we have sex lives.

"So, here's what I want everyone to do: write up what your PC's adventure were like in the Evil Lust Dimension, and you'll all get XP for beating it, because you are damn good at your jobs. This way we can cover all the sins, but I don't have to take you on a journey through my own psychological hang-ups and weird fetishes, shut up, mine are totally normal.

"Let me know if that sounds okay, or if you're rather opt-out of the write-up."


Basically make it about the PCs and their fetishes / hang-ups / fantasies / traumas / temptations / regrets instead of trying to find a general way to express Evil Lust.

No way the best part of horror is surprise and the best part of being the DM is to create things.


People mentioned Bloodlust and how it seems to be more of Wrath's thing. But Wrath and Lust are quite different motives even when they lead to superficially similar acts.

To use an example from fiction: Zaraki Kenpachi from Bleach engages in violence because of Lust. He does not actually hate any of those he fights. He does it to get his jollies, and fights with a big grin on his face. The thrill of the fight gives him a boner, and that's why he'd seek a fight even if no other reason existed.

By contrast, someone who fights because of Wrath hates. They feel that they, or the world, is somehow wronged by the existence of the thing they hate. They do not get jollies from, they do not smile when fighting, because the sheer fact that they have to fight is a sign that there is something wrong in the world. Once the target of their Wrath is gone, they become empty and unmotivated, aimless.

Lust is internal. Its goal lies in the subjective experience. Wrath is external. Its goal lies in objective destruction or punishment.

Cool, good point, maybe they do some bloodspots, like a violent American gladiators, if skimpy outfits and acid pools. Ummm... That actually sounds really cool.

So it's not violence for the sake of violence, it's for the "art" of fighting and the trill of killing and being superior to the others.


You do realize the seven sins are that way BECAUSE they are appealing? "Oh, so this is gross AND evil? Why would anyone do that?" is not a great motivation as "this feels so good but hurts everyone in my vicinity".

Good point.


Wait I think you are doing horror wrong, you should never leave the cards on the table, you should make their own mind torture themselves.

If the rest of the alternative earths have been quite in the face with the horror maybe try to be subtle here? If they are quite sexual make the lust version of earth look like a paradise, but they know something will come up... Something wrong, it can't be this great... Something will come up and it will be horrible, let this doubt sink in and prevent them to enjoy the pleasures.

If they want to investigate it deeply come up with something horrible, if not make them leave and forever imagine what was up with this weird place.

Yeah that's actually a good point, my games are mostly focused on the weird and bizarre rather than the actual horror but that's a good point.


Thinking of Slaanesh as a positive force is indicative of incomplete understanding, and a fuller description may merit where this sort of lustfulness moves into being gross and disturbing and scary

Slaanesh worshippers get to the point where what we already consider extreme is nowhere near enough. They don't get their jollies from being whipped or beaten or used.
Try having skin flayed from flesh, infesting victims with flesh-eating parasites and torturing them just to know what particular sound their screams will make. Pursuing perfection of appearance to the point where your face is no longer human, but a stretched and warped plastic thing upon your head shaped by your increasingly warped perceptions. Being drugged into a state of constant coma is just Tuesday for some, and being slowly impaled on a barbed pole just to feel something because you are numb to all lesser sensation is just wednesday.

The Dark Eldar are the perfect example of Slaanesh worshippers, and are best summarized thusly:
They're the people who bring a ton of drugs to the party and awaken from their drugged up stupor to notice that their family and friends are all dead because of something rotten in the mix. They deal with this by getting high again and pretending the bodies aren't there. If you can smell death on the air, it means you're not snorting enough chemicals.
The balance point between despicable and pathetic.

Those fallen to lust sit in that point. Despicable in their actions to themselves and their fellows, but pathetic in that they are puppets to their addictions and, like children, are functionally helpless.

Slaanesh is that. Slaanesh does not want you to be happy. Slaanesh wants you to be pleasured so much that you forget what matters and live your life in a drugged up haze until you don't even realize that tearing out someone's small intestine to use as binding rope doesn't even register as not ok, and their screams are just like the music of everything. And in the end, you are helpless, aimless, lost, and pathetic. No will of your own.

Make your Lust spook work like that, and you'll have something compelling and disturbing.

That's just imperial propaganda, if chaos was so bad why would people follow it?

ImNotTrevor
2017-10-05, 10:24 PM
That's just imperial propaganda, if chaos was so bad why would people follow it?

Aside from the meme of this, I have some responses that are actually serious. If you mean this as a joke, feel free to consider them additional reading rather than some kind of tongue lashing.

People follow Chaos in 40k because Chaos offers power and "freedom" in exchange for servitude and loyalty.
The idea that there is anything close to a "good guy" in 40k is laughable. Even the Tau are strongly hinted to only be united due to being chemically manipulated by the Ethereals.
The Eldar will kill a million imperial children to save one Eldar child and not feel bad about it.
I explained why nobody likes the Dark Eldar already.
The Tyranids are Space Locusts: Ultra Murdermeat Edition
The Imperium is Space Nazi Catholics: Super Deluxe Edition
Chaos is a combination of Anger Management Dropout Satan, Unstable Psychotic Satan, Garbage Can Satan, and Methhead Stripper Satan. (And Not-Canon-Anymore Satan)
The Necrons are Space Skelingtons: Turbo Lazer Edition
And the Tau are Chemically Puppeted Self-righteous Weaboo Fish-horses.
The chaos gods were, canonically, born from the psychic terror, suffering, and agony of several millenia of war that happened before the Emperor was even born. They are exactly as brutally, oppressively vile and evil as everyone else in 40k. That's kinda the point.

S@tanicoaldo
2017-10-06, 10:39 AM
Aside from the meme of this, I have some responses that are actually serious. If you mean this as a joke, feel free to consider them additional reading rather than some kind of tongue lashing.

People follow Chaos in 40k because Chaos offers power and "freedom" in exchange for servitude and loyalty.
The idea that there is anything close to a "good guy" in 40k is laughable. Even the Tau are strongly hinted to only be united due to being chemically manipulated by the Ethereals.
The Eldar will kill a million imperial children to save one Eldar child and not feel bad about it.
I explained why nobody likes the Dark Eldar already.
The Tyranids are Space Locusts: Ultra Murdermeat Edition
The Imperium is Space Nazi Catholics: Super Deluxe Edition
Chaos is a combination of Anger Management Dropout Satan, Unstable Psychotic Satan, Garbage Can Satan, and Methhead Stripper Satan. (And Not-Canon-Anymore Satan)
The Necrons are Space Skelingtons: Turbo Lazer Edition
And the Tau are Chemically Puppeted Self-righteous Weaboo Fish-horses.
The chaos gods were, canonically, born from the psychic terror, suffering, and agony of several millenia of war that happened before the Emperor was even born. They are exactly as brutally, oppressively vile and evil as everyone else in 40k. That's kinda the point.

Did I say that Slaanesh was the good guy? What i meant to say is that he's the best option in THAT universe.

I would never join a crazy sex cult irl but in that horrible universe? Yeah better than serving Space Nazi Catholics as you put it.

Better than working as a slave my whole life for the Adeptus Mechanicus, or being sacrificed to keep the God emperor alive so that his name can be used to justify a corrupted version of his vision for a perfect world.

I rather join chaos, at least I'll get laid and enjoy some freedom instead of being a literal or metaphorical slave for Imperium of Man.

I rather not:
-Be sacrificed.
-Forced to work at the horrible Forge World like mars.
-Have no freedom.
-Constantly persecuted by the Inquisition.
-Worship a fake faith for a man who didn't want religion to exist in the first place.
-Serve people who are corrupting and twisting the real intentions and views of the God emperor.

So yeah sight me up for a chaos cult right now, if I lived in the warhammer universe, I rather live in a drug induced coma than face the horrible reality of this universe.

The Glyphstone
2017-10-06, 11:12 AM
You'll have fun at first, then you'll gradually lose the ability to have anything. That's the ultimate fate of a Slaaneshi - not an eternity of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll, but an eternity of numb apathy towards any sensation at all, but still obsessively addicted towards trying newer and more extreme things in a desperate hope of feeling something.

And that's assuming you actually make it into the tiers of worship where you get to enjoy it at all, rather than being duped into being the sacrifice for the higher-ranking worshippers who have fallen into the trap I just described. Most chaos cultists are exactly what they think everyone else is, meat for the grinder. But it's very, very good at hiding that behind its propaganda.

-Sacrifice? 99.9% odds you will be one, an offering to Slaanesh by stronger cultists who want to make liquor out of your organs or something.
-Have no freedom? Being the 0.01% who don't get sacrificed means you are sucking up to a stronger cultist for protection from the above, and you do exactly what they tell you to. Advancement means either backstabbing your boss or following him when he ranks up and gaining minions of your own.
-Constantly persecuted by the Inquisition? You're a Chaos Cultist.
-Worshipping a fake faith? Arguably false either way, the existence of the Sisters of Battle and their Miracles is pretty conclusive evidence that however the Imperial Church started, the current iteration means the Emperor is just as 'real' as his enemies.
-Serve people corrupting and twisting the views of the God-Emperor? See above, chaos cultist. It doesn't get much more corrupting and twisting than that.

So joining a cult pretty much guarantees everything on the list you wanted to avoid except for being a forge slave, with the addition of the extreme likelihood of dying in horrific agony when your luck runs out instead of just getting shot.

If you actually wanted to have a fairly normal life in 40K, you'd pick living on an agri-world or something. Sure, they spend their entire life as a farmer, which is hard work, but agri-worlds are also some of the safest and most well-protected places in the Imperium specifically because of how important they are to its internal economy. As long as you don't spontaneously develop psionic powers, you're safe from being sacrificed, and if you die in war at least a gazillion Imperial Guardsmen died first to protect you. Sacrificed to the Emperor, at least. Chaos cultists are less picky.

Go for Nurgle, if you have to go dark. At least he genuinely loves his worshippers, however demented that expression of love can be.

Bohandas
2017-10-06, 12:00 PM
Did I say that Slaanesh was the good guy? What i meant to say is that he's the best option in THAT universe.

Wouldn;t the Tau be the best option? You'll still get drugs and you won't have to get beaten or sacrificed or have to wear a thong made out of barbed wire

Tinkerer
2017-10-06, 12:18 PM
Yeah but their line of BDSM is very close to hellraiser, trust me. D:

I liked that, it even ties in with a lustful cultist NPC they found earlier in the campaign who was almost like that, he was reformed and begging for the Lethe water the group had to forget about the pain he was in and the things he had done.

Well assuming that you are continuing the modern interpretation of lust meaning sexuality I have one question. Do any of your players have pets or kids? Wait... that came out wrong (awfully close to the rape line). What I meant was that lust consumes the individual, as I stated above it is an obsession. Someone who lives their life in a state of obsession will not take the time to do something like feed a pet, raise a child, or water their crops. In addition to the above STD example they should also be sallow creatures, pale and emaciated. Any creatures kept should be showing obvious signs of neglect.

Actually when I was looking for a specific line from a book that I once read I did glance at the Wikipedia article on the seven deadly sins and I gotta say, I was somewhat impressed. It definitely resembles the classical education that I got on them a lot more than the modern bastardization. I would highly recommend checking it out.

Bohandas
2017-10-06, 12:20 PM
just have pinups of decaying corpses everywhere

EDIT:
"I need a girl that make me happy, a girl that make me cry, a girl that passed away back in 1985; A girl I plan to marry, a girl I plan to wed, a girl that I can choke because my lady is already dead" -ICP, Cemetery Girl

Clistenes
2017-10-06, 12:44 PM
Read the news. Lust has motivated far worse things that mere rape...

But since you don't want to use that... you will have to just suggest it, I guess.

Also, the actual sinners/living incarnation of Sin, don't have to be attractive. Anime and comics and movies always use hot Succubi as representatives of the sin of Lust, but they only do it for fanservice/titillating reasons... if you want it, the representative of sin can be repulsive and forces itself on helpless, horrified victims.

Or, if you want to go the Eldritch Horror route, make the Tsochari consider infesting new hosts a form of sexuality, and use sex (and rape) to lay their eggs inside unsuspecting victims, who are devoured inside out...

ATHATH
2017-10-06, 01:08 PM
There's also the excess of lust and hedonistic behavior overriding self-management and self-concern, possibly to the point of being dangerously malnourished, if not worse. In a world where all beings are thusly devoted to self-satiety, there may be a desperate void of beings available to provide the required "services," causing those deprived of their necessary tools and other amenities to be driven to despair - begging, cheating, stealing, committing violence to obtain what they need for even one more moment's bliss.
You know what that sounds a lot like?

Drug addiction.

S@tanicoaldo, have you ever played Bioshock?

ImNotTrevor
2017-10-06, 01:39 PM
Did I say that Slaanesh was the good guy? What i meant to say is that he's the best option in THAT universe.
let's see how long that lasts when a Noise Marine wants to try peeling someone today and thinks you're cute.

Remember: Chaos promises you everything you could ever want. But it takes away everything you have. To the chaos gods, you are food. Nothing more.

ijon
2017-10-06, 02:10 PM
The Necrons are Space Skelingtons: Turbo Lazer Edition

that sentence only got better and better, where do I sign up

The Glyphstone
2017-10-06, 02:12 PM
more like Egyptian Robo Space Mummies: Turbo Laser Edition. Which is even more awesome.

Segev
2017-10-06, 02:29 PM
People have pretty well covered it, but I'll just throw my hat in the ring. I'll be supporting some of the already-stated notions, and I may be contributing little new, but I hope that it's helpful anyway.

Lust, as a sin, is primarily about selfishness. It is a selfishness that debases others and the self. Like Gluttony, it is a sublimation of the Man to the Animal, of giving in to cravings.

Lust cares little about consent; it objectifies others for one's own pleasure. You don't have to go to full-on rape to get into treating others as tools for your pleasure; even willing tools who are also using you are still objects rather than people. Dehumanized things dehumanizing you.

People have mentioned the drug addiction connotation. Addiction to lust-satiation would look similar, but be even more disturbing in some ways. Sex, when we strip the hormones out of it, is kind-of icky. As people get more and more lost in pursuing the pleasures of it, more and more of the "ick" is ignored. Some even seek it out as it reminds them of the hormonal high.

But perhaps the easiest way to portray it as repulsive is also the most banal. Imagine the biggest losers you can, who hide in their parents' basements or in the bathroom with their magazines with stuck-together pages. Imagine them...enjoying...their literature. Or their videos. With whatever *ahem* self-indulgences *cough* they perform while doing so.

Now, imagine them doing it in public.

Imagine civilizations where important work isn't being done because the workers can't be bothered when they could be "getting off."

Imagine a world of pick-up artists who respect themselves even less than they do their marks.

In this world where Lust dominates all, the notion of "love" is buried in the concept, and actually caring about another person is weird, if it happens at all. It's seen as pathetic, as the fanboyish perving that some stalkers do. Not that anybody is ashamed of perving. Oh, and that's another thing: perverts perv on the objects of their lust without shame or hiding it. Publicly. See the losers and their public *ahem* self-indulgence earlier.

Make the whole thing lewd, rather than alluring, and you'll probably hit your mark.

Bohandas
2017-10-06, 02:57 PM
The only real bad thing lust can bring to my eyes is rape, and although it's a horror game I rather not use it in my game since there are first time female players and that can be quite off putting.

You want unappealing but not off-putting. To me this suggests concatenation of different fetishes until they are pushed to the far side of the uncanny valley.

90sMusic
2017-10-07, 02:28 PM
I read a book once that had characters in it that each represented one of the seven sins.

The lust character HAD to have sex every single night or he would die (or maybe something worse, i forget). Additionally, it had to be with a different individual every single time and he could never repeat with the same person.

IIRC, he was in love with some woman but they could never be together that way because of the one-and-done rule. So it was pretty torturous for them.

Also, it sounds like Lust is subject matter you don't really want to get into because the most negative aspects of Lust as a sin are because it does lead to things like Rape, Bestiality, Adultery, and Fornication. All of which are big no-nos in Catholicism.

You could approach it from more of a Slaanesh (http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Slaanesh) angle. Long story short: It's basically like Hellraiser where pain is a form of pleasure and those hedonistic demons like pinhead are just pleasure demons that torture and rip you apart because they believe it to be pleasurable.

Bulhakov
2017-10-08, 07:39 AM
I'd focus on the hedonism/egoism aspect of lust. Sinful lust is not about wanting sex with a consensual partner, but blindly satisfying your own needs/urges. There should be a clear hierarchy of those who get pleasured (Hellraiserish sexy androgynous BSDM elite), and those that are used for pleasure (despite their pain/suffering/lack of consent).

The enforcers (the "muscle") of the social hierarchy would be muscled grunts that get rewarded with sexual pleasure (either by time with slaves or brain/genital "pleasure implants" as in the Quake canon), maybe even satyr-like creatures that can literally rape someone to death.

Also as a few people mentioned before - the more someone's lust is satiated, the bigger/weirder the urges get, so expect people at the top of the hierarchy to be very twisted.



Another idea that comes to mind is a state religion that uses a mass mind-control radio signal that bumps everyone's libiodos up a 1000 times. Every day at nightfall (or maybe just on Sundays), people lock their children in basements/cages, maybe gather for big church orgies, because when the bells sound and the lust signal is transmitted, everyone will think only of sex until they collapse from exhaustion.

Perch
2017-10-08, 09:31 AM
Another idea that comes to mind is a state religion that uses a mass mind-control radio signal that bumps everyone's libiodos up a 1000 times. Every day at nightfall (or maybe just on Sundays), people lock their children in basements/cages, maybe gather for big church orgies, because when the bells sound and the lust signal is transmitted, everyone will think only of sex until they collapse from exhaustion.

That sounds like a sexual version of the purge! Hahahaha.

Or you could go the other route, if your players are verys exual make the lust land scary by it being non sexual.

Every got so laid in the first years that it got boring fast, so now everyone practices an extreme form of tantric sex, total and complete sexual abstinence.

Bohandas
2017-10-08, 11:28 AM
That sounds like a sexual version of the purge! Hahahaha.

Or you could go the other route, if your players are verys exual make the lust land scary by it being non sexual.

How about something that appears non-sexual because so many fetishes have been combined together that it circles back into normal things. Everyone who comes to lust land gets a balloon animal and a rabbit's foot keychain. Not for luck, but because it's the foot of a dead animal.

Rabidmuskrat
2017-10-10, 06:05 AM
Im going to take another shot at this. The goal? A world that is definitely "Lust" but is creepy without going to the squicky side. Note that I am freely making use of other suggestions I've read here for inspiration.

-----------------------------------

You step through the portal, not exactly sure what to expect... but secretly just a little excited. On the other side... you seem to have arrived at the edge of a fairly exotic looking city with towering spires and graceful domes marking its skyline.

In front of you stands a smallish, hawk-nosed man. He smiles very broadly, but it doesnt reach his wide, staring eyes. As he sees you, he stares at you, and seems to smile a little wider.

"Welcome to the World of Lust! Have a balloon animal! On the house!" He hands you one of the balloon animals that he is carrying in his hands. As you take it, his eyes turn up and he seems to shudder in pleasure.

"If you want to get into the clubs, you're going to need to bring your own rabbit's foot. I can sell ya one, but its gonna cost ya."

-If asked what it costs, he instructs the person to walk to a dome-shaped rock about 50 feet away and back. There is nothing funny about the rock and the person (though possibly quite paranoid) comes to no harm. However, as they walk, the remaining party members can hear the man mumbling to himself "Oh yes... that's the way... oh yeah, keep going..." etc. By the time they get back he is positively drooling over himself and hands them the rabbit's foot with shaking hands, his smile even wider than before.-

As you walk off from this strange encounter, you take the time to look around and start to notice the phallic symbology in the constructions around you. In fact, now that you pay attention, its EVERYWHERE. Every dome is a breast or a butt, every spire a phallus. Everywhere. It seems to absolutely dominate the architectural style of this place.

Around you you see ordinary people though. At least, they look ordinary, until you look closer and realize they are all smiling. And staring. At you.

----------------------------------------

So thats basically it. Everything is sexual to the inhabitants of this place. Except, ironically, sex. Because they either cannot or have no interest in having any, since that need is filled by every other activity they do. For additional weirdness, have the entire society be one giant political game where the goal is to satisfy your own (extremely) weird fetishes, without satisfying anyone else's (unless that's your fetish) without payment and so everyone is super paranoid about each other, but extremely happy to see naive, innocent newcomers who would be willing to perform simple mundane tasks if merely ASKED.

There. A creepy lust dimension without any actual sex :D

paddyfool
2017-10-10, 06:28 AM
In game terms... to make it unappealing, you can always have a whole mishmash of diseases, toxins, mind-affecting powers and spells etc around to debuff and mess up their characters.

In description terms: emphasise everything being out of control. Denizens of the plane should include strung out, malnourished seekers-of-addictions and/or those taking advantage of the same. Maybe also critters with a body horror vibe, e.g. worms that burrow under a victim's skin before they breed until the host bursts, or giant wasps with a paralytic venom who lay a hundred eggs in the body of a still living victim (perversely horrifying reproductive strategies seem a part of Lust's portfolio, after all). Maybe have shapechanging demons around who can sense party members' hidden desires and use them to sow dissension and confusion in the party too. (Ask the players to draw up ideas for at least one hidden desire each for their characters before they get there, perhaps).

Btw, though, what is the purpose for the party's travel through these sinful planes?

EDIT: You could, of course, also have a degree of scary-but-appealing. Succubi etc are obvious, but there's also the possibility of beings like Neil Gaiman's "Desire".

Honest Tiefling
2017-10-10, 08:18 PM
Do...Do the player characters need to be the ones to experience this? What if they got to see the effects of lust by interaction with the other NPCs? I mean, does anything say this dimension can't have the outward appearance of being relatively normal, giving a sense of relative normalcy that's only a thin veneer to hide the real horrors. An NPC for instance, could fall madly in love with one of the party members, and be more then willing to fling themselves into danger to protect them, even if the PC has combat experience and they don't because the pain of being separated is just that great.

Also, does anything say lust HAS to be a sin in this universe? If you don't want it to be a sin, maybe it isn't.

druid91
2017-10-10, 08:33 PM
Did I say that Slaanesh was the good guy? What i meant to say is that he's the best option in THAT universe.

I would never join a crazy sex cult irl but in that horrible universe? Yeah better than serving Space Nazi Catholics as you put it.

Better than working as a slave my whole life for the Adeptus Mechanicus, or being sacrificed to keep the God emperor alive so that his name can be used to justify a corrupted version of his vision for a perfect world.

I rather join chaos, at least I'll get laid and enjoy some freedom instead of being a literal or metaphorical slave for Imperium of Man.

I rather not:
-Be sacrificed.
-Forced to work at the horrible Forge World like mars.
-Have no freedom.
-Constantly persecuted by the Inquisition.
-Worship a fake faith for a man who didn't want religion to exist in the first place.
-Serve people who are corrupting and twisting the real intentions and views of the God emperor.

So yeah sight me up for a chaos cult right now, if I lived in the warhammer universe, I rather live in a drug induced coma than face the horrible reality of this universe.

Or sign on with a Rogue Trader.

Anymage
2017-10-10, 08:51 PM
Also, does anything say lust HAS to be a sin in this universe? If you don't want it to be a sin, maybe it isn't.

Seven Deadly Sins are like Ten Commandments. They've moved from their original religious base to being a cultural touchstone, and deciding to alter or remove a core element will feel out of place.

Honest Tiefling
2017-10-10, 09:18 PM
Seven Deadly Sins are like Ten Commandments. They've moved from their original religious base to being a cultural touchstone, and deciding to alter or remove a core element will feel out of place.

I feel like if the DM himself doesn't neceasarily feel that lust is a sin, and people have several different interpretations of lust that vary, it's not terribly universal. And if the entity that spawned the sins itself isn't present in the game world (which it might or might not be) why would they have the same concept of sin? I'd argue that trying to import cultural themes and symbols that exist in real life and jamming it into a fictional world can be very jarring because it ruins immersion.

And even if it did seem out of place...So what? It's a horror game, which tend to rely on the psychological and emotional. There's nothing to say that removing a sin and dangling it over the player's heads couldn't be a good red herring, or cause them to have to wonder why it wasn't included and what it does and does not mean in the context of these hellish dimensions.

Telonius
2017-10-10, 09:48 PM
Here's an idea, on the lines of Lust being all about treating others as tools - Bloodsport, spectacle, bread and circuses. Lust wants all of the experiences, all of the glitz and glamour - all of it, and doesn't care about who's hurt in the process. Gladiatorial combat, people bashing each other's brains out for the enjoyment of the crowds, that rush of adrenaline as your team delivers a bone-crunching blow that leaves the other guy wounded for life; that's Lust. And if somebody does happen to get a injured? Well, they have healing magic, of a sort. The bone stitches itself back together, but the experience of the pain is still there. Their bodies know they've been ripped and broken.

Bohandas
2017-10-11, 10:27 AM
Scantily clad zombies. Describe in detail how the flesh is rotting off the bones. Contrast this to the fresh and new tight see-through clothing someone has given them.

Bohandas
2017-10-11, 11:09 AM
Also it should constantly be pollen season in lust dimension, to the point of outdoor visibility being impeded by a constant yellow haze.

Also, insects should lay their eggs in people's skin.

The water should be discolored by an excess of broadcast spawners in the streams and lakes

Segev
2017-10-11, 01:27 PM
Also it should constantly be pollen season in lust dimension, to the point of outdoor visibility being impeded by a constant yellow haze.

Also, insects should lay their eggs in people's skin.

The water should be discolored by an excess of broadcast spawners in the streams and lakes

Unless we're getting into the aforementioned extreme fetishes, that's more "fertility" than "lust."

Lust, as others have noted, is best demonstrated as "sinful" by being about excessive indulgence to the point of negligence of other things. Treating it like drug addiction is probably a good way to go; the degradations to oneself and others can have parallels.

Bohandas
2017-10-11, 05:52 PM
Unless we're getting into the aforementioned extreme fetishes, that's more "fertility" than "lust."

Ultimately pollen season is also bukkakae. What if we added treants into the mix to make this explicit?

Honest Tiefling
2017-10-11, 06:44 PM
Ultimately pollen season is also bukkakae. What if we added treants into the mix to make this explicit?

I think the idea is to not creep out the newer players, not convince them that the OP has a plant fetish.

NorthernPhoenix
2017-10-12, 04:02 AM
I feel like making lust not lust as everyone understands it is missing the point. My favourite depiction of a horrific "lust" based monster is when Guts "fights" Slann in Berserk. As a dude, male power fantasy Guys getting put in the situation he is is, given the context of the wider story, plenty unnerving!

Bohandas
2017-10-14, 09:19 AM
Seven Deadly Sins are like Ten Commandments. They've moved from their original religious base to being a cultural touchstone, and deciding to alter or remove a core element will feel out of place.

Don't forget the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; they're in that category too

Perch
2017-10-14, 03:37 PM
Don't forget the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; they're in that category too

It's Conquest, god dammit! Not plague. '='

Vinyadan
2017-10-14, 06:29 PM
Just add the Furry Force, and it's done!

Honest Tiefling
2017-10-14, 06:42 PM
Just add the Furry Force, and it's done!

...Or learn something new about your players...Which is why I never attempt this sort of thing anymore.

Vinyadan
2017-10-15, 04:24 AM
Lol... That must be an interesting story :biggrin:

A more serious option is showing a world ordered like ours, but in which people do nothing to overcome the temptation of lust.

This means that bonds of friendship, trust and marriage would not be allowed to hold. People would expect others to act like we expect them to, but they would instead be constantly betrayed. At the same time, they would be aware of their own hypocrisy, making them hate themselves (and others because of broken trust).

This on a personal level. In a pseudo medieval setting, with marriage having a political value, this could lead to executions or succession cryses with related wars.

Bohandas
2017-11-09, 02:20 AM
Has anybody posted this comic yet?

http://gunshowcomic.com/471

Quiver
2017-11-09, 02:02 PM
This thread is kinda running a gamut of ideas, from medieval style political factions and squabbles, to modern-era saloons and 'cult of beauty' type things. So...

Figure it's worth asking the GM: you've said this is a 'fantasy horror' game. What do you mean by that? What system are you using, and what kind of era is it supposed to represent?

Do you mind sharing information on the previous realms you've been to? Each of these are supposed to be slightly-different versions of Earth (not sure if you mean Earth as in 'our world', or just as the name for this possibly-fantastical setting in general) but it might be useful to know how each of the other realms played out, to see how you could reflect those ideas in the current setting.

Nifft
2017-11-09, 02:40 PM
...Or learn something new about your players...Which is why I never attempt this sort of thing anymore.

SIGNED, NOTARIZED, APPROVED IN TRIPLICATE.

Be very careful with sexual content -- it's tough to close the door, so don't open it unless you're happy to discover a new magical realm.

There are times when I'd be quite happy to do exactly that -- but those times are generally within the bounds of a relationship that's already sexual, which is not at all how my tabletop games are organized.