Posts talking about drug use

[WarKitty]

Quick question - what's the policy on talking about illegal drug use in a game context? Like, say, if I wanted to talk about the possibilities of cannabis or opium as a cash crop in a fantasy world?

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Quick question - what's the policy on talking about illegal drug use in a game context? Like, say, if I wanted to talk about the possibilities of cannabis or opium as a cash crop in a fantasy world?

Unallowed, as per forum rules (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/announcement.php?a=1):


Inappropriate Topics
The following topics are always off-limits on these forums, no matter what (hence, Inappropriate Topics). Any posts including these topics will be edited, and any threads started to discuss these topics will be locked. Please note that, as specifically stated below, these topics remain off-limits even where they intersect with gaming or other activities discussed on these forums, and that putting an alert for "Adult" or "Mature" content on the thread does not allow circumvention of this rule. Likewise, if you can't post something under the Forum Rules, please don't link to that content.

Real-world religions (including religious reactions to gaming)
Real-world politics (including political reactions to gaming)
Graphic violence
Illegal drugs
Illegal/Criminal activity
Explicit sexuality



Grey Wolf

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff: What your characters do in-game is entirely fictional and not, generally, a problem. The main thing is to keep such discussions out of the Out-Of-Character threads. The other thing to stay on the right side of the line is to borrow a concept from games and other media involving graphic sexuality - fade to black. There's no reason that a character, even IC, needs to spell out exactly how to make a drug or exactly where (in a RL city) to buy a drug. Use some abstraction, generalization, and other narrative tools to avoid spelling out criminal activity too explicitly. And, as with all IC games, be sure that all the participants are on the same page about the content.

Now when it comes to discussing, say in the Roleplaying Games section, growing, producing, or selling drugs as a cash crop, that's probably not allowed. It's theoretically possible to discuss such a thing without discussing the real world, but practically speaking, a thread like that is going to cross the line so soon and so much, it'd probably be closed on sight. If the OP does a great job, that person might avoid violating the Forum Rules, but it's hard to imagine many responses that don't rely on the real world drug trade to answer.

[Rawhide]

If I might offer a suggestion, it might be easier and better if in your fictional world you invent a new drug with a different name. In your world, it can operate in a similar way, but then it is not bound by people's expectations of real world knowledge, and further distances it from the real world.