Gay PCs or NPCs

STARP_JVP · Nov 25, 2005

I totally agree about the "if everyone's an adult" thing.
We tend down downplay sex and romance in our campaigns (by "we" I mean my group), but it is there. Everybody I know is open-minded enough to not freak out at an openly, or even subtly, gay character, or some kind of homosexual dalliance. And Haakon's dead right about gay not meaning a flaming type. If I ever actually did it, that'd be the way I'd do it - a subtle, implied way, not a Julian Clary, Kenneth Williams camp-fest.
Now that I actually come to think about it, in one of the old Shadowrun campaigns I played in, I decided that if it ever came up, my runner would be gay. It never came up, so it never mattered.

haakon1 · Nov 25, 2005

Li Shenron said:
Interesting how many point out that there's no place for sexuality in their game, but what about romance?

In our groups there have been pretty little romance (and zero sex), except on a couple of occasions when it was player's initiative and the whole thing wasn't related to the main story plot. So it's pretty much left unspecified what the characters may prefer.

Nod. In my campaign, there's been player-initiated romance, and one case in my e-mail game it got up to kissing and so forth (female straight player, male straight DM, friends with some chemistry in real life), but actual sex is off-screen. Definitely there for some PC's, but definitely off-screen.

It's always been straight, because everybody I play with is straight, so far as I know. (As Seinfeld says "not that there's anything wrong with that".)

FYI, romance has always been PC and NPC, not two PC's. Two PC's might be a little odd. And about it always being PC initiated, that's not really true -- once an NPC did lead a PC on, as part of a plot -- definitely not about romance from her POV. And the PC in question was hitting on NPC's on a regular basis, so he walked right into it.

haakon1 · Nov 25, 2005

Samnell said:
In the games I've run, I've had a few gay NPCs. Rufus and Burne in my Hommlet are in a long-term, openly-acknowledged, but fairly quiet relationship. They retired as a couple. This only came up a few times when the party was bringing news of dire doings to them and Rufus laid a comforting hand on Burne's thigh. The sexuality of NPCs is generally of about as much import at that of the PCs: not much.

Cool. I never saw Rufus and Burne as being gay, but it certainly works.

Samnell said:
I do see more sexual situations where orientation and other issues are relevant in PC backstories players hand me.

In a Boot Hill campaign, I had 2 out of 2 female players create female characters who were passing as males (AKA, in drag, only the other way around). One of them wasn't deeply developed (apparently doing it just because it was easier to get by on the frontier that way), but the other one ended up having lots and lots of backstory. I've never figured out, though, if that character was a lesbian or not -- I think the player was unsure which way to go, and never decided. Sometimes, it's more interesting to let the character decide who they are for themselves, rather than know the answer before hand as the creator . . .

Herobizkit · Nov 25, 2005

I haven't played any PCs or DMd any PCs as gay or lesbian, though I have run a few NPCs as having a "taboo" encounter or two.

Just for trivia's sake, the Blue Rose campaign setting has openly accepted gay/lesbian relationships in their game world, even having in-game terms to describe the relationships.

the Jester · Nov 25, 2005

STARP_JVP said:
I'm just curious here; this was sparked by a conversation I had just recently. Without editorialising homosexuality itself, has anybody here had a gay or bisexual PC in their game, or a gay or bi NPC? I'm just curious to see how common it is. It's never actually happened in my game - not for any particular reason, I'd like to stress; it just hasn't.

I have had plenty.

Currently in my low-magic game, instead of alignments I'm using a 'character traits' system. One of the (male) pcs (who, ironically, recently married another pc that was female) secretly likes men as one of his traits.

In the past I've had several gay or bisexual pcs in my games. I've also had several gay or bi npcs. Some were sort of caricatures, some were very serious characters, and some were in between. Some of them, it never came up except as a background note.

I've also run several pcs that were bisexual, and one (an epic-level alienist) who was, er, omnisexual- she would do it with anything with tentacles. Er, or other limbs.

Er, or anything else, really, as long as it was corporeal- heck, as long as they could manage it at all.

HeapThaumaturgist · Nov 25, 2005

Well, I have to say that for my own RttToEE game, Rufus and Burne were gay. I don't even know if my players quite "got" it, though I think somebody did ask once: "So they both are retired and live here together in the castle?"

It just seemed to work. It was mostly a conceptual thing ... how would a couple view things as opposed to two straight room-mates?

For my part, I just find that themes dealing alot with sex and sexuality can be done, but are one of those "High Risk" areas that it's just easier, and JUST AS FUN, to not bother with. If I can make an interesting murder mystery this week or an interesting gay romance drama, but there's a chance the gay romance drama might spin out into a discussion about sexual orientations or start my wife in on a political rant ... we'll go with the murder mystery.

The game we're currently playing, my wife's character is a gender-ambiguous elf (Varsuvius-ish). When speaking third-person she says: "She" sometimes or "He" other times, just to keep it confusing. The guy playing the female cleric is playing her up as a promiscuous go-getter, which really concerns me only insomuch as I'm playing a cleric of St. Cuthbert who disapproves when he gets wind of it. That's about it. I guess I could do my cleric as a conflicted homosexual in a strict religion that frowns on his life-choice ...

But I prefer hittin' wrongdoers with a stick.

--fje

Zappo · Nov 25, 2005

An old adventure I ran revolved around a very libertine male character who hired a psion to switch his mind with a woman, to see what it's like from the other side. Then he didn't want to come back. Does that count?

Uder · Nov 25, 2005

My last druid PC had a gay cohort. Never got to do much, my PC died very soon after.

I thought it would be fun to turn the standard cohort/PC relationship on its ear - my druid was very "not gay and not headed that way," especially not at the ripe ol' age of 70. I was looking to have a dedicated defender who my character most assuredly didn't want around at first, but it would turn out they were deep friends and depended on each other for survival. Lots of dichotomies involved too - age (~20 vs. almost 70), sexuality (gay vs. straight), outlook (conservative vs. bacchanalian), etc.

Perhaps it was for the best. The cohort was an incredible flamer, and I don't know how well the other players would've dealt with it... although they got a kick out of him for the 1/2 session he was around, it might've just been for the comedy value.

Professor Phobos · Nov 25, 2005

STARP_JVP said:
I'm just curious here; this was sparked by a conversation I had just recently. Without editorialising homosexuality itself, has anybody here had a gay or bisexual PC in their game, or a gay or bi NPC? I'm just curious to see how common it is. It's never actually happened in my game - not for any particular reason, I'd like to stress; it just hasn't.

Yep; one of my players had a gay PC for a while (then he got turned into a vampire and had to be staked) and there have been a couple gay NPCs. (I should probably throw in another one, come to think of it)

If it matters, the gay PC was played by a (as far as I know) straight guy. There's a gay player, but he's played straight characters thus far.

monboesen · Nov 25, 2005

I once played a bisexual, and quite flamboyantly so, master duelist and swashbuckler. It was fun and everybody was ok with it. He even sometimes used his reputation to annoy and unsettle opponents.

I don't even see why it could or should be a problem. At least none of the people I game with have problems or issues with gay people in or out of the game. And while sex isn't a part of our game, romance certainly is.