How do you usually handle the subject in your games? My campaign is coming up on a point where it could be very appropriate (a band of angry mercenaries might be taking over a town)  and im thinking i will just ommit it. My players arent mature enough to handle it properly so i wont bother.

There,s gritty and there,s grotty. Just don't.

There's the idea of veils and walls. 

A wall - keep it out.  Some things just not belong at some tables.  Roleplaying  is entertainment and "escapism".  Some people don't go to see certain sorts of movies because it's not escapism for them personally given their history, it may even be very difficult due to what they have experienced or what loved ones have experienced.  There is also the "age appropriate" concept.

Veil - it exists but we don't dwell on it or describe it.  The camera lingers long enough to see that is "going to happen", fade to black, and we come back after the fact and deal with consequences.

This sort of stuff likely belongs behind one of those two.

interesting topic. game of thrones is quite popular and has rape, incest, prostitution  and a warhammer level of violence. i have noticed that players are often quite comfortable with graphic violence and if given the chance to narrate their crits or kills shots will gleefully maim, decapitate, disembowel, have arrows go into eye sockets, split skulls, splatter and spray blood and engage in all manner of barbarism. on the other hand these same players and myself handle anythign sexual off camera. maybe someday we will be enlightened enough to make the creation of life and taking off life equal in our games but i dont think it will happen in my life time especially in the US where i live. 

Disgruntled Owl said:

I think that's the key point. You're much better placed to judge how your players are going to react than anyone else here.  If you can get a powerful  sequence out of it that'd be great but the truth is that's really hard to do and a smutty response is far more likely from male gamers and an argument about suitability from female ones. I'd trust your instincts and give it a miss. You could have women being carried off and kidnapped (perhaps with a view to being sold into slavery) which would serve as an effective euphemism without needing to be too graphic and thus avoid bringing the worst out of your players.

Disgruntled Owl said:

Rape as drama is almost always a bad move. Ask yourself if it will enhance the game if the mercenaries rape the townspeople - chances are the answer is 'no', and if you feel your players aren't mature enough to handle the subject matter than that goes doubly.

Disgruntled Owl said:

I use things like rape, torture, and other kinds of power abuses when appropreate to make some NPC (or group of NPCs) more easy to hate, or to really point "this guys are really bad", or to highlight a really dramatic situation.

I wouldn't for sure go into details of the scene. If a group of angry mercenaries have razed a village, killed the people…well, it is preaty obvious what has happened to women, children and men. I would descrive things like "surviving women are crying and covering themselves with whatever rags they have" that should be enough.

Finally, if your players are not mature enough, you can just skip this part, although I am not sure if it really matters since these can of things are on the news daily.

Cheers,

Yepes

I like the "veils and walls" distinction.  The reason I think WFRP is awesome, and sold all my D&D 4e to get it, is because of the high-resolution grittiness of it.  I mention this here because I think that Disgruntled Owl's scenario of invading mercenaries is clear without having to mention [rape].  Invading mercenaries are BAD and [rape] is one of the many, unspoken reasons WHY.  It doesn't need to be overtly mentioned or portrayed, but its unspoken presence adds substance to the role-playing.  As a GM I can role-play townspeople who have a stake in outcomes all the better because I, too am a husband and a father.  Greenskins and invading mercenaries are bad.  Chaos in the world is BAD because it leads to loved ones being killed and enslaved and [raped] and tortured and eaten.

I was always a make-up-the-whole-campaign-world guy, but now, aside from having too little time to do that, I"m sold on this setting that is so much easier to envision, and taste and SMELL than any D&D campaign ever was.

Thank you all. Very helpful responses. The idea of Veils and Walls is really good and something i will think on.

As a general rule of thumb, it is recommended that you gauge your players' feeling toward such themes.

Same way that you'd inform your players that your campaign includes a high risk of character death. Tactfulness.

Rape is a awkward concept to bring to a game, especially if you have women gamers at your table.

Some may argue that all the gratuitous physical violence is okay, so why isn't rape? Mostly because in our daily lives, we don't come across random decapitations and eviscerations. However rape is more common than we'd like to think, so it's best left out of entertainment venues.

You can still imply that bad stuff happened in order to keep the "grittyness" level high, though- that whole "walls and veils" thingy.