Gay PCs or NPCs

[tetsujin28]

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?

All the time. It is officially Not An Issue.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

My only overtly gay character was an amazon warrior (going for a traditional legend of the amazons feel - one breast, no men) who was very much lesbian by default (her tribe thought of heterosexuality with all the range of tolerance levels commonly assigned to homosexuality). She was an ale and whores kinda warrior who happened to be a woman. Another character was a semi-redeemed succubus, who technicly had no gender and was willing to be whatever anyone wanted.

I also played a male soldier in a modern game who was "don't ask don't tell" even to himself - he wasn't particularly interested in women and had severely compartmentlized his thinking to avoid ever really considering if he might be interested in men.

There have been a lot of characters where sexuality never came up, and a couple who were straight but with defining relationship preferences. (the female gladiator who had no interest in other warriors and is currently mooning over a halfling wizard, or a proto assassin who was pathologically afraid of childbirth and born into a society with arranged marriages.)

 

[Dragonbait]

It all depends on what group of people I am gaming with. My current group (all straight guys) has no sexuality in the game, so it never comes up. A previous group of mine (2 straight females, 1 gay male, 1 to 2 straight males) was very different. I do not put sexual tones in my game. I am not romantic, and I don't think I am mature enough to handle such subjects without a smirk or blush, so I don't write it into adventures. If such things happened, they were done "off-camera". Yet, that group had a lot of character on character hanky-panky going on.. This was usually instigated by the gay male player, or one of the female players, but not exclusive to either. The group was very role-play heavy, so any romances/sex was normally handled in an adult manner. On several occasions, things got carried away: there was some strange lesbian orgy that they just *had* to plot out... Oh yeah, and a hot tub scene that went into so much detail that I learned details about characters that I never needed to know.. ... Of course, I had to destroy the "hawtness" of the hot-tub scene by having the uber-villain show up and off one of the characters... Was that immature of me? I don't know.

To get back on subject: I have seen gay characters, played by gay players. I have seen lesbian characters (I don't know if I've had a lesbian in my group). One was a guy playing a "Huh-huh-huh, I'm a lesbo. Huh-huh-huh." I've seen bisexual characters. I have seen female players play their characters romantically interested in another character, also played by a female. I've seen male players play their characters romantically interested in another character, also played by a male. I don't discourage any of it, but in most of my games it just does not come up unless the players themselves push the subject.

 

[S'mon]

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.

I played a female PC Fighter in a Midnight game. Her strong emotional feelings - "love" - was for a female PC. For her to say "I am a lesbian", though, would have seemed utterly silly and incongruous. The concepts of homosexual & heterosexual do not exist in all societies, indeed the form we're familiar with is a particular modern north-European/western one. Put it this way - would it make sense in the context of LOTR to say "Frodo is gay (or bi)"? I don't think so.

 

[Immak Antunel]

A couple campaigns ago, one of my female players had her also-female character try to flirt with the barmaid. I confess I was caught off guard, but fortunately the easiest solution (polite refusal) was perfectly in line with the situation (world-weary 40something barmaid being hit on by female dwarf adventurer). The campaign collapsed before things got much further (persistance and fancy gifts would've paid off), but I did mark the player's weakness for women.

The first adventure of my next campaign featured a clever feytouched female freedom-fighter who seduced about half the party... that was fun. By the time the characters (all drow, mostly female) figured out what she was up to, she'd freed all they slaves they'd caught but she herself was captured and sold to a brothel, earning just enough for the drow to break even. Of course, even in slavery she might have a trick or two remaining...

The moral of the story is that sexual interest of any kind is a weakness just begging to be exploited by a DM .

 

[Arrgh! Mark!]

Only one. There's two players in my current group that see themselves on a macho scale, though when the gay PC came up it wasn't an issue.

Player was my fiancee, and she was playing a spartan-like culture where homosexuality was deemed normal. The issue never really cropped up; the one time it did (NPC of an extremist monotheistic suicide cult) the PC made sure the entire cult met it's wanted end somewhat ahead of time. Not because he felt bothered by it; mainly because they had the goods to steal and the temerity to insult him.

Leaving burned snake-temples whilst covered in soon-to-be-pissed-away loot..


I was using the Conan system, though my own weirdo homebrew world.

the players did have fun. I should ressurect it one day.


Romance and such however is merely alluded to unless it's a key part of the plot (Princess in love with stable-boy, whatever).

 

[runtime]

My last character (RIP) was Chud, a lesbian half-orc barbarian. She wore silver thong armor.

 

[Dinkeldog]

My PCs are generally gay, although typically the other players and frequently the DM don't catch on. Sort of like real life.

 

[Rafael Ceurdepyr]

I played a gay guy (I'm female) in a Call of Cthulhu game set in the 30s, but he was firmly in the closet and pretty much in denial. I had a whole backstory with his affair with his mentor, a male professor who died tragically. His sexuality never came up in the game, but I kinda suspect it would've made the males in the group (including my husband, who was GMing the game) uncomfortable.

 

[fusangite]

My PCs are generally gay, although typically the other players and frequently the DM don't catch on. Sort of like real life.

I hope I remember to quote this the next time there's one of these threads. Beautifully put!