Torture

[Vortex]

A friend of mine has created a interest check which revolves around torture and other dark themed ideas. I was wondering what are the Guilds stance on this? How detailed can we go? And what about your personal opinion?

[Kaga]

I don't think the Guild has any real rules against this. I know there's a general PG-13 guideline but that seems to be mainly in regards to sexual content (in other words, no smut please). I haven't really seen any other sort of explicit content become much of an issue.

As for my personal opinion? Do whatever you like with your characters. I know I've been guilty of torturing my own characters in the past. Though, that was mostly mental/emotional torture (whereas I assume you mean physical), but still.

[Halo]

Though the rules are PG-13 regarding sexual content, I've seen a fair amount of gore go unpunished by the staff in roleplays (although they potentially just didn't see.) My advice is simply not to be tasteless about it. The only way you'd go past the line is by being tasteless - as in, anything extreme enough to cross that line would be lacking in taste. Use your common sense.
My personal view is along the same line. If you're using torture as a genuine device for exploration of a character's psyche under extreme duress, or for any other reason that could be considered legitimate in literary circles, go ahead. If you're using it as a shock tactic, or for the sake of being #OMGSOEDGY, please, don't.

[axleonex]

What the other two said, keep it PG-13. Some advice on this is to avoid cliches, gore, body mutilations, sexual assault, it. can all be very redundant when it comes to writing.

Often times the best way to portray torture without being cliche or overdoing it, is to not exaggerate the situation happening.

"Her head sunk deep into the pot of water. She kicked and gasped for breath after her torturers pulled her out of the shit filled toilet."

See? No exaggeration, no explanation of the pain or feelings, just a simple statement of what is happening.