"Alternative lifestyles" in your campaign world

[Tsyr]

For my world it depends alot on where and who you are talking about.

High elves have no problem with it... In fact, most high elves are bisexual. They re-incarnate every 300 years or so, and often come back in bodies of a different gender, but with the same memory, so gender doesn't mean much to them.

Wild elves don't reincarnate, but they also don't have much problem with it.

De'shanan are so hedonistic that sex as a whole is basicly anything goes for them. They aren't as approving of lasting relationships between same sex couples, as it accomplishes nothing, as they see it.

Dwarves are strongly biased against it for the same reason... dwarves no no room in their culture for anything that doesn't accomplish a quantifiable goal, and since there are no children from a same-sex relationship, they have no use for them.

For humans it depends on the culture, though in general humans aren't alot better than dwarves "officialy"... That is to say, it's against the law one or two places, some human religions are fairly heavily biased against it, but it still happens, none the less, even in the government and religions. A couple human cultures have no problem with it, but both of them are considered "fringe" culture anyhow. (One is very gypsy-esq, another is inspired by the Hawkbrothers in Mercedes Lackey novels)

 

[Spove]

I'm interested b/c I think the game world is becoming cliche, and this is one way to spice things up and add a little diversity.

To an extent I agree. Several months ago I had to make a 6th level character for a pick up game. On a side note we have several pick up games that we play when we are missing players and can't play our primary campaign. So this character would only be played once in a while.

That being said, the group was in desperate need of a front line fighter. So, a fighter I would make. Now don't get me wrong, I am a fighter fan. But I have done several variants and it was starting to feel cliché. So I decided to make the complete opposite of what most of my fighter characters are. I made a lesbian fighter. A big beefy one to boot. Her looks and personality are similar to that of Rosie Odonnel. Nobody seemed to mind, though at first I did get some odd looks.

At our last session we had a character die. The player designed a new character and brought her in. Low and behold it was a high charisma female. So keeping in my 'man in a woman's body' mindset that I had adopted for this character I started hitting on her. Long story short, too late, this new char was on the feminine side of the lesbian world.

Some players seemed to think it very odd; comments and snide remarks were made. But this doesn't bother me nor the other player. No we don't get into detail about their after hours encounters. We just leave it at they bunk together and are obviously involved with each other.

I have to admit that at first it felt sort of odd. But I think that was just a brief wave of homophobia. Once that passed we had a good time of it. Basically their inter-character relationship and actions are no different than any other entwined characters. Whether they be servant/lord or brothers or whatever. In this case they just happen to be lesbian lovers.

So far it has been a fun game. Once some of the other players can accept that character actions/mindset don't have to reflect player beliefs at all, they will be fine with it. And if they don't, well, they can just deal. Besides my character is now a 9th level powerhouse. If they have a serious problem they can act it out in game.

 

[Tonguez]

IMC Orc Shamans are Tansvestites (acculturated as such), Gnomes are Hermaphrodites (except for the breeding pair in each clan) and other than that homosexuality is accepted as normal within most core socieities in which the only requirement is that a person must at least attempt to have children...

 

[KingCroMag]

In a old home brew, we had dwarves having a strong component of homoseuality (gay). This we viewed as a natural outgrowth of their ratio of men to women, which was quite high in ratio of men to women. I believe in 2E the dwarves as a race had such a high number of men to women, what you do with this nugget is left to you. In some campaigns dwarf males would try to breed with non dwarves other prefer to have them be sublimate their sexual energy into their craf, in order to deal with the lack of available dwarf women.

It comes down to its yours (and your players) world have fun.
_KCM

 

[jasper]

1. Does your game have all adults?
2. Do your gamers care one way or another?
3. If no big deal then is just another flavor element.
If big deal why are you trying to tick off your gamers?

At my 10 year reunion one of my class mates told me he was gay. I replied I was happy for him and what had he been doing since high school.

 

[WizarDru]

Its present ruler, a former adventure named Yanseldarar (NG female human fighter 11/sorc 8 ) led a brilliant rebellion against the previous necromantic regime. Centuries of smuggling and intriuge cannot be undone in a decade, but those seeking dishonest deals now think twice before taking their buisness to Yanseldara's city, particularly since she leaves law enforcement to her consort and adventuring companion, Vaerana Hawklyn (CG female human ranger 20)"

Woo-hoo! Hot Fighter-on-Ranger Action!


...


Umm, that is what you were talking about, right?

 

[Henry]

In my campaigns I have left it as very unobtrusive, mainly because romance as a whole is very low-key in our games - our players have little desire to roleplay romantic relationships, since a bunch of males roleplaying romance with one another can be a difficult thing. I have brought the subject up in various histories (One ancient king had an intimate relationship with his high cleric of war), and the subject has also come up here and there, as consorts and the like.

Only one player has to date tried playing a homosexual character, but kept it low key - His character went "louting" the same way others went "wenching."

 

[WizarDru]

Seriously though, what's the deal, either way? Unless it's an important plot point, your players often don't care either way...unless it's their character specifically. I've had games with characters who were and were not. As often as not, there wasn't a correlation between which players were and were not. And quite frankly, in the thick of battle, it's pretty rare for the characters to worry about such things. More often than not, the fighter is worried that the cleric's out of healing spells as the ogre's sword bites deep...not whether or not he's making a pass with that whole 'lay on hands' thing.

Of course, then there's Aragorn's web log.


Still not king, dammit.

 

[Ace]

Sexual matters haven't come up IMC.

THe players I think are to busy either killing monsters and taking thier stuff or trying to survive one of the apocoli that seem to happen a lot IMC

If they did I would just follow the modern historical model and tell them

Most places it isn't acceptable

Some places it is tolerated as long as it isn't in public

Other don't care at all

a few actaully encourage certain types

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

It's taboo in most societies in my game but it's never an issue, nor will it ever be one. My players surely don't want to "deal with issues" during a game and I agree.