The Maiden Saga: Role Playing Game (14 page)

Having calculated both Seduction and Resistance Points, the conflict is then played out in the normal fashion, with sixes built if the appropriate Additional Attribute is in use. The Seducer always throws first. Both the seducer and the seduced can lose their cool, on throwing a quadruple, which breaks the seduction attempt.

If the seducer wins the conflict they gain 1 Glory Point and steal another from the seduced, unless the seduced chooses to initate a new conflict at the cost of 2 Glory Points. If the seduced wins they have succesfully resisted seduction and gain 1 Glory Point but do not steal. The Seducer must wait until the next round before making another attempt.

Persuading somebody to dalliance is all very well, but there may be certain obstacles to overcome. These should be approached according to the normal rules governing conflict with an inanimate object.

Any conflict in wealth is effectively an attempt by the Seducer to have the seduced prostitute themselves. Different peoples have different attitudes to prostitution and Resistance should be adjusted as follows –

Having overcome both the resistance of the seduced and any material barriers, the Seducer may now indulge themselves, but using only the more conventional techniques.

 

 

Orgy Rules

 

As with negotiation and combat, groups can indulge in seduction. The difference between Allure and Greed is calculated as the average to determine which group acts as Seducers. The figures in the table of intrigue and repulsion should be multiplied by the number of
seducers
when calculating the Resistance Points, unless the seducers choose power or craft.

A further adjustment should then be made, according to how each people react to group sex. The Mund, for example, are usually monogamous, while the Aprinians regard group sex as normal social experience and less intimate than sex between just two people.

A group is always less effective than the sum of its parts, so the usual levies apply to both Seduction and Resistance Points, 80% of the total for two people, 70% for three and so on. As with Combat, the maximum ratio of Seducers to Seduced is 5:1, although there is no opportunity to refresh before a second attempt is made by any spare Seducers. Should the group resistance points fall below zero then the seduction is an automatic success. The seduced can continue to struggle at a cost of 2 Glory Points.

Following a succesful orgy, each PC involved as a seducer gains 1 Glory Point and is able to steal further 1 Glory Point. If a group has also been seduced, then Glory Points are stolen from NPCs first, then PCs starting with whoever has the greatest gap between Allure and Greed. (See Example 5.)

 

 

Depravity

 

When attempting a seduction you can chose to go for straightforward sex or something a little more spicy, which increases the risks but also the rewards. Different peoples have different penchants and taboos to differing degress, but each has one preferred penchant and one exceptionally strong taboo.

The Aeg, who enjoy their sex but set a great deal of store by virginity and rank, regard sodomy as a sensible to enjoy themselves without awkward consequences, while the fastidious Aprinians regard it as thoroughly unhygienic. In turn, the Aprinians horror of slavery is reflected in a taste for bondage during sex but the Makeans, who practise slavery all the time, see bondage as quite unsuited to free citizens. Meanwhile, Makean men make no great distinction between pleasuring themselves with each other and with their women folk, whereas to suggest a homosexual encounter to a male Aeg is to invite the insertion of not his penis but his axe.

In Mund, where premarital sex is out of the question for highborn women, lesbianism is common practise, while spanking represents an unendurable humiliation. Oreteans, on the other hand, regard a good spanking as an essential part of foreplay but are horrified by lesbianism. The Hai like nothing better than a touch of the grotesque, even to the extent of wealthy ladies keeping goblin pits as an act of conspicuous consumption, but they hate to spoil their own beauty in any way and will go to the pit immaculately groomed. In Ythan, by contrast, an invitation to wallow together in warm mud is every bit as enticing and suggestive as a present of confectionary or flowers, yet the suggestion that whipping might add to an erotic encounter would be deeply shocking. Then again Vendjomois use whipping both for stimulation and to display sexual dominace but are constant in their search for beautiful partners and deplore the grotesque.

 

 

Table of penchants and taboos -

 

An NPC seducer will always choose their people's preferred penchant, plus others as the GM sees fit, but will avoid their taboo. PCs can make their own choice, but cannot select their own people's taboo unless their Greed exceeds their Wisdom by 10 Points and even then it is not really to their liking. Indulging a penchant increases any seducer's enthusiasm and they should add a bonus to their Seduction Points from the following tables -

 

 

 

The seduced, on finding themselves faced with the prospect of having to indulge the seducer's depravity may be horrified or delighted, but their reaction is certain to be strong. Depravities can also be alarming when on the receiving end, even when enjoyable, as is the case with the Aeg and sodomy, while taboos can be simultaneously appalling and compelling, as with the Mund and flagellation. Also, some peoples, particularly the Makeans and Oreteans, prefer to dish it out, while the Vendjomois and the Aprinians prefer to take it. For these reasons the figures are not an exact reflection of those for the seducer. Resistance Points should be adjusted as follows –