[Hawke]

I agree with the contemporary argument, I find that words like Bast**d are ok in moderation...another point to consider is that if your fantasy story is set in another world apart from earth, and this can apply to general fantasy settings as well as science fiction, then who's to say how your world has developed to use bad language.

I've read authors such as Feist who've used the language used in the same sort of era e.g. "Jakes" in stead of the crapper or whatever, and that works well, but I've also read fantasy books with more modern swear words in it which also worked...its a matter of choice and whether it works for your particular book I suppose...