Gay PCs or NPCs

[Kahuna Burger]

Thanks for recognizing this. As I suggested in my post above, homosexuality of course existed in that period but did not function as an identity category.

the problem with that theory is that the vast majority of campaigns don't take place in "that period". As far as I'm concerned, if there is a female character with the right of self determination to be something other than an arranged wife, and characters marrying for love instead of family interest, there is no reason not to have "gay" characters. If folks don't want them, thats fine, but I find anachronism a deeply dissatisfying excuse (not reason) to avoid it.

 

[fusangite]

the problem with that theory is that the vast majority of campaigns don't take place in "that period".

Fair enough. As you can see in my post that preceded that one, I made note of that. In Eberron-type worlds where D&D is just the modern world with different tech, gay characters make perfect sense.

As far as I'm concerned, if there is a female character with the right of self determination to be something other than an arranged wife, and characters marrying for love instead of family interest, there is no reason not to have "gay" characters.

I can't let this go by unchallenged. All but the highest ranks of medieval and early modern society typically married much as we do: in our twenties and motivated by individual love and personal choice. And even at the aristocratic level, as can be seen from medieval romance literature, the ideal of marrying for love remained a serious propositon.

If folks don't want them, thats fine, but I find anachronism a deeply dissatisfying excuse (not reason) to avoid it.

Again, if you look at my previous posts on this thread, you can see that I actually talk about a highly successful instance of a gay character in my campaigns.

 

[Morrow]

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.

The game I DM and the game I play in each have a gay male PC.

Morrow

 

[Tetsubo]

I've had a lesbian Cleric PC being played by a lesbian. I've had a bi-sexual Mage/Fighter being played by a bi-sexual, transgender player. I've played a lesbian Rogue (I'm a male heterosexual). The Elves in an old 2E campaign of mine were pretty much universally bi-sexual. It hasn't ever really been an issue.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I've had a few gay NPCs in my various campaigns, but as others have said, the topic rarely came up, so I don't think my players were particularly aware of most of them.

In the game I'm running now, however, one of my players is playing a gay character, and he actually worked the orientation thing into his backstory.

In brief, he began the campaign as a fallen paladin, though the rest of the party thought him just a fighter/barbarian. He had been excommunicated from his Church when his orientation was exposed, and had lost his powers because he felt his god had abandoned him. In a recent game, when he actually came face to face with an angel who told him, in so many words, that it was only the mortals of the Church who had turned their backs on him, and his god never had, he found his faith and his powers restored.

I'm not sure the brief summary is doing it justice, but it was really a great scene to play through, especially since none of the other characters (or players) had any idea all this had happened until they witnessed the conversation with the angel.

 

[Xath]

I wanted a PC of mine to be gay once because of in-game reasons, but it didn't really come up until a private conversation with the DM. Then he said that homosexuality didn't exist in his world and that it wasn't allowed. Since my character's sexuality hadn't been an issue in the game as of yet, it didn't change the story much, but I always thought it was wierd that the GM would prohibit it.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I always thought it was wierd that the GM would prohibit it.

Well, were there any younger peoples in the game? That'd account for it. Also, he might just want to ignore the whole issue, or he might not feel comfortable discussing that kind of thing. Doesn't seem strange to me at all, really.

 

[Gahnomen]

I was a fellow player in a game where this "interesting" character turned up. He was a gay dwarf, and his name was Necrotic. That really should set the tone right there, I don't think I've seen or even heard of a worse name than that

Beyond that, the dwarf was extremely ugly (4 or 5 CHA I think) and extremely stupid (6 int). He was also a complete racist, hating any and all half-races. So whenever we encountered half-orcs, half-elves or what have you, he lashed out, spat at them and wanted to kill them

He also hated halflings, because he had misunderstood their name and thought they were a half-race as well.

This character was eventually forcefully made to better his ways (about his racism, not sexuality of course ). He never got 'lucky' with anyone or anything, but not for a lack of trying. If nothing else, it was a character not soon forgotten.

 

[arscott]

I tend not to play in campaigns long enough that the sexual orientation of characters comes up.

In the RPGA games I get sucked into, the plot is merely an excuse to drag the characters from one combat to the next, and I'm pretty sure that player and character orientations match.

I recently ran a one-shot modern game revolving around a 'haunted' production of MacBeth. The director was played as one of those stereotypical, flamingly gay theatre types (though he was actually straight). An Elven actor/information resource was loosely based on Ian McKellen, including inclination towards men.

Both characters prompted 5 minutes of jokes. That would have concerned me more if every single plot element I introduced hadn't elicited the same response.

I'm somewhat intrigued by the number of bisexual elves posts. What is everybody's reason for giving elves that tendency?

 

[Ogre Mage]

Gay PCs

I played a gay male semi-closeted spiked chain fighter. His sexuality never really came up in the game so I doubt any of the other players noticed. But I knew, and the DM knew.