This was originally sparked by the Carcosa discussion going on.
Please see the following blog threads for reference:
http://lotfp.blogspot.com/2008/10/cowardice-of-modern-grognard-or.html   Gamer's opinion.
http://carcosa-geoffrey.blogspot.com/   The original author's blog/ rebuttal.
http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/11/carcosa-responses.html  James has a multi-part review of the product.
http://emperyan.blogspot.com/2008/11/regarding-carcosa.html   My own review.


From Carcosa:
Here are sample rituals from the 1st Edition:
"Chaining of the Empty Maze: Once every 56 years in the night skies of the planet of Carcosa is a certain triple planetary conjunction. During this night this six-hour ritual can be performed. Sixty *Blue Men must be shackled in iron chains and burned alive on a huge pyre. Amidst their screams the sorcerer shouts the final phrases of the chant into the night sky. The Squamous Worm of the Pit will then be imprisoned, doomed to wander ceaselessly through the Empty Maze far to the north."
*there are lots of races of men in varieties of color, white, black, blue, red, etc. This is a racial distinction.

"Summon the Amphibious Ones: This eleven-hour ritual can be completed only on a fog-shrouded night. The sorcerer must obtain the root of potency found only in ruined apothecaries of the Snake-Men. The sacrifice is a virgin White girl eleven years old with long hair. The sorcerer, after partaking of the root, must engage in sexual congress with the sacrifice eleven times, afterwards strangling her with her own hair. As her life leaves her body, 10-100 of the Amphibious Ones will coalesce out of the mists." - Carcosa, page 31

At what point does something become inappropriate for entertainment?
Specifically, in an RPG, at what point does something (graphic violence) become unnecessary to detail out?

Answering my own question, off the top of my head I'd have to say it's a personal preference.

Some folks enjoy watching films that detail graphic violence. Rape, incest, murder of white/black/ orc/kobold children, women, men, elderly, burning people alive, strangling them with their own intestines...etc.

They aren't advocating it, right?
That makes it okay doesn't it?
(Some folks will agree with this line of thought)
[Note: this is the original author's position]

For MY part...I think it's bordering snuff films.

"So what do you think the Melneboneans do in their sorcerous rituals?"
I'm certain it's fair to assume that wicked evil men (or women) in any fantasy setting do horrific things, not limited to the above.

The difference is that the details aren't narrated out. They are alluded to, inferred, assumptions are made, and some mild gore on the periphery is present...but you never see a protagonist (especially) or antagonist ritually kill children, women, elderly, white/ black/ orc, on certain days, after raping them 120 times and strangling them with their own intestines.

Sure...we several instances where the first born children of entire cities are killed. Yes. Horrific. Certainly so. But we don't have the gory details.

Joel Rosenberg in the Guardians of the Flame series had a protagonist raped. It's an important part of the scene. No details beyond screams in the background (and also plenty of slant in perspective to make that an evil act).

Terry Goodkind's Mord Sith are heinous torturers and Richard Rahl (Cypher) is functionally raped as is Kahlan later in the series... It's not glorified, it's a clearly heinous act.

Conan, The Grey Mouser, The Tarnsman of Gor...the boundaries are pushed, but we don't really have the gory details of not just combat (which is questionably okay) but also rape, and downright murder of children, specific races, elderly, women, etc...for ritualized purposes...for a protagonist.

(Note, the Carcosa book that started this discussion has 96 rituals in detail about ritual sorcery (as shown above) for a PC Class called a Sorcerer. An important note on this is while every ritual requires human sacrifice, little more than a handful have rape involved (still heinous in my book). Final note on this, the Carcosa supplement removes Alignment from the game entirely. So there is no moral judgement whatsoever of the "good" or "evil" of The Sorcerer.)

So again, here's the question:

In light of all of this...where is the line where it crosses from being tasteful violence and evil acts done for essential "flavor" to color the antagonist(s) in an evil light...and a literary equivalent of a snuff film?