"Alternative lifestyles" in your campaign world

[Celebrim]

I'd be very hesitant to introduce a sexual topic explicitly unless I knew none of my players would be uncomfortable.

I've never felt the need for a gay character in my campaign, but if you want one go right ahead. My suggestion would be hint at it as subtly as possible, and watch how your players react when it eventually dawns on them. If you can live with thier reaction, and no one seems offended, then you can advance the plot in whatever way you are planning to advance it.

One thing I have to ask is what do you think you are accomplishing by introducing a gay character? On a pretty basic level, a characters sexual oreintation is pretty boring and irrelevant. One of the reasons I've never felt the need for a gay character is I've never seen a need to introduce a character whose sexual oreintation primarily defined who they were. For all I know, some of the characters were gay and it just never came up. If you are going to make a person's sexuality front and center of a plotline, then I think you are going to need a pretty good reason. Sexual orientation itself itsn't a plot element. But acts of, jealousy, hatred, repression, opression, self-pity, self-repression, fear, ostracism, confusion, and so forth are. You can do that with or without adding a gay character, but if you think a gay character is going to add to the tension and provide a bit of an unexpected twist then go with it.

"OMG, I just figured it out.... Sir Franton wasn't having an affair with Lady Cornalish, he was having an affair with _Lord_ Cornalish..."

Or whatever.

As a side note, I've never actually explicitly investigated it, but I once played a CN PC who was probably bi-sexual, it just never came up. Given his philosophy on life, he probably would have seen no difference in male or female sexual relations, and I latter in a write up of the character hinted that he had been homosexually abused as a child. But, I certainly never worried about that aspect of his character, and I'm sure I would have wierded out everyone else in the group had I pushed it, and would have myself been wierded out if my DM or anyone else in the group suddenly started pushing it on me. It was merely another logical consequence that arose from his personality and history, among the many consequences that helped me decided how the character would react to any given situation.

 

[Skullfyre]

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


...


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

FRA?
I mean Fighter Ranger Action..

Could be interesting.
And the issue should be handled by the dm in a way that makes it so that no one feels awkward or to the point of not wanting to play because of the topics in question.

*needs more sleep has had 20 hours in last 2 weeks*

 

[Ciaran]

As a side note, I've never actually explicitly investigated it, but I once played a CN PC who was probably bi-sexual, it just never came up. Given his philosophy on life, he probably would have seen no difference in male or female sexual relations, and I latter in a write up of the character hinted that he had been homosexually abused as a child.

You know, I've never known anyone who decided that they'd get romantically and/or sexually involved with a specific gender because of their philosophy on life. I mean, wouldn't that pretty much rule out gay conservatives? Also, there's no evidence of any sort that sexual abuse has any effect on one's sexual orientation.

Is this a troll?

- Eric

 

[Ciaran]

"OMG, I just figured it out.... Sir Franton wasn't having an affair with Lady Cornalish, he was having an affair with _Lord_ Cornalish..."

"So Duke Berris has been blackmailing Franton and Cornalish? So that's how he's secured his hold over the Council! We need to -"

"Actually, my friends, I believe that we're obligated to inform the authorities. Homosexual liaisons are against the law in Gaunt. We have an obligation."

"But it's not like they're doing anything dangerous. Do you want to keep Berris from dragging Gaunt into war, or not?"

You can do a lot with this sort of stuff in a RP-heavy game.

- Eric

 

[Mark Chance]

Also, there's no evidence of any sort that sexual abuse has any effect on one's sexual orientation.

Don't know about the poster's original intention, but the statement above is not true. It is not that sexual abuse is a universal cause for any particular sexual orientation, but it has been amply demonstrated that sexual abuse, in some specific cases, is a factor in the abused person's sexual orientation. This is not to say that all people of any particular sexual orientation were all abused as children, but only that sexual abuse can and does exert powerful, lasting effects in some cases.

As to how I'd handle it in game: That depends.

As a player, I wouldn't. I have no desire to play a homosexual character. I don't even care much to play a heterosexual character. I, as a player, do not game in order to sit around a table and roleplay anything dealing with sex.

As a GM, I've had a few players make homosexual or bisexual characters. On the whole, I've found it offensive every time because the players, without exception, did so only so that they'd have an excuse to be crude and shocking.

So, I guess on the whole, I'd have to say I wouldn't handle the subject of "alternative lifestyles" in any sort of way other than vague background noise for the campaign. My games are not about things sexual. They are about destroying evil and taking its stuff.

And now I bow out of this thread entirely.

 

[Celebrim]

Ciaran: I hardly know how to respond to that.

Are you the sorta person that just finds cause to get offended over something whenever they can?

No, it is most certainly not a troll. It is a very honest post, and one that I hope is found thoughtful enough that one could avoid pigeon holing me with a sterotype.

I've never known anyone who decided that they'd get romantically and/or sexually involved with a specific gender because of their philosophy on life.

You haven't? That sounds kinda odd to me. Let's reverse that. Do you think you've ever known people who decided NOT to get romantically or sexually involved with a specific gender because of thier philosophy on life, moral or spiritual beliefs, or other aspect of thier character? Hmmm?

I mean, wouldn't that pretty much rule out gay conservatives?

What the hell are you talking about? Where in the blue blazes did that come from? Are we still having the same conversation?

Also, there's no evidence of any sort that sexual abuse has any effect on one's sexual orientation.

Did I say there was? Why the heck should it matter? What do you know about my character other than what I just told you? What do you know about me? I'm not going to get drawn into any debate about what or why someone becomes homosexual. That is not the point of this thread or my post, and I'm not even going to voice an opinion on that subject even if I did think I had a definitive answer (and I don't).

The story of this character is not so simple as you seem to imagine that it is (sorta like life). He was an elf. He was brought up in a strict aristocratic household. His naturally rebelious nature led him into conflict with his parents. He was prone to running away. He was taken in, Oliver Twist like, by a Fagan who taught him various thiefly crafts. The energy and passion and the brief lives of humans fascinated him, especially when contrasted with the patient, passionless existance (or at least so he supposed) of his family. He spent his youth in a variaty of immoral pastimes. Part of his youth was spent in a brothel, as a 'fancy boy', and it is persumed by me that such a comely, effeminate appearing, lad would have attracted the attention of certain clientel in the rough port city he grew up in. Make of that what you will. I never explored what had happened or what he might have felt about the situation. Latter in the campaign he owned a brothel. Make of that what you will. In any event, the philosophy I developed for the character was one of extreme intellectual individualism - a sort of radically honest libertarianism. As such, childhood experiences or not, it would have been a complete betrayal of his character to assert that one 'ought not to do something if one wanted to' and I naturally upon reflection assumed that would most certainly include anything considered immoral. I tried to play the character as caught in a tension between believing that everyone had the right to do what they please, and that he had a right to do what he pleased regardless of what other people felt. And I think I succeeded.

Edit: Just took out your creative spelling to avoid the profanity filter.

 

[Geoff Watson]

Does it really matter?

So and so asks the PCs to rescue his 'friend'. Their actual relationship seems to be of little importance to the adventure.

Geoff.

 

[Celebrim]

"You can do a lot with this sort of stuff in a RP-heavy game."

Well, I'm glad I get at least a little credit. That was kinda my point.

Otherwise, as Geoff mentioned, I don't think there is much of a point in introducing the characters gayness if it isn't critical to the plot.

 

[Dinkeldog]

"So Duke Berris has been blackmailing Franton and Cornalish? So that's how he's secured his hold over the Council! We need to -"

"Actually, my friends, I believe that we're obligated to inform the authorities. Homosexual liaisons are against the law in Gaunt. We have an obligation."

"But it's not like they're doing anything dangerous. Do you want to keep Berris from dragging Gaunt into war, or not?"

You can do a lot with this sort of stuff in a RP-heavy game.

- Eric

Things we're not going to discuss:
What makes someone gay.
Homosexuality and real life politics.

Now, back to the thread.

Even if homosexual liaisons are not against the law, this could be an interesting adventure.

Be careful with your group and what they're capable of handling in a social context.

 

[John Smallberries]

I made homosexuality a Feat, but everyone took Spellcasting Prodigy instead.

Munchkins.