Gay PCs or NPCs

[jdrakeh]

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 ran a Victorian Age adventure game, wherein the main villain was a wealthy, hashish smoking, London business magnate who had his hand in a number of criminal activities that spanned the globe from Britain to India. He was an affirmed homosexual, as well - but he wasn't a stereotype in that regard, and his sexuality didn't come into play but once that I can remember.

I think stuff like that is perfectly acceptable - what I find to be in poor taste is the PC or NPC deliberately created to turn homosexuality into a running joke (i.e., the flaming gay character that turns every line into some kind of 'in joke' ripped from old episodes of Will & Grace) or some other kind of walking cliche.

In short, sexuality as a definining aspect of a character is fine. Sexuality as the sole defining aspect of a character is balderdash. That said, YMMV.

 

[Lord Rasputin]

I've never seen a gay or bisexual PC. Something tells me I may have seen one or two as an NPC, and the GM was making light of this, but I really can't remember, and were this so, it was long ago, circa 1990 when I was still in high school. We weren't mature then, and in 1990, gay-bashing was much more socially permissible. Since the younger brother of GM in question is now known (for sure, we'd long suspected) to be gay and my younger brother is bisexual, I doubt we'd do the same now. I know there's no way I'd let that happen in my current group. It's too wrong. I'm not sure I'd want to see someone try it either; it could end the game very quickly.

In other adult-themed hijinks, one player in my current group usually plays very horny characters. When using GURPS, he always takes the Lecherousness disadvantage; when playing other systems, he plays his characters as if there were a Lecherousness disadvantage. Mostly, I use this trait as a way to get his characters in trouble. The player is rumored to have the same issue in real life.

There have been two other sexual situations of note recently. One was my own, the chronically masturbating bionic implant surgeon. Revealing this trait was pretty fun for me, since I let it on slowly, the PC (the lecher, as it happens) wondering why there was all these holo-centerfolds on the walls in the guy's office and where this guy was going every few minutes. The other was when another PC tried picking up a date for fun and video (he was an ex-political officer, so he spied on everyone). I had him meet three Angelina Jolie clones, who themselves were harvesting DNA for cloning purposes, and instead of perversion on optidisc, he got three nude Angelina Jolie clones kicking his butt on optidisc, saved only by the lecher PC showing up at the right time.

I guess it's fair to say that trying to have sex in one of my games isn't a good thing, though that may be because my PCs are always using it for less-than-good purposes. Since I'm not a prude myself, I wonder why I'm always trying to teach them a lesson ...

 

[Shadowslayer]

I dunno. I ran a game once where the PCs had to deal with the Herald of a particular noble, and I played the herald as having a very effeminate manner. He actually wasn't gay, he was just a little comic releif. But it made one of my players really uncomfortable. I thought that was strange. (maybe he was in the closet himself and thought I was making fun of him.)

Anyway, PC sexuality has never come up in any games that I played, save for a newer one I just joined into. I play an elf. Unbenownst to me, the DM has this idea that in his world, most elves "swing both ways". I thought it was dumb. But on the other hand, it doesn't come up except when the party's NPC dwarf decides to start throwing verbal jabs at the elf...and that's not very often.

SIde note...in that new game, we had a player that had really only played Vampire LARP. He didn't seem to grasp D&D that well. One day his PC drew a card from a cursed deck that changed his gender. He (the player) got mad...really mad. I mean turning purple with outrage. Asked what kind of sick bastard the DM was and stormed out, leaving us alll gawking at each other and saying "what the hell was THAT all about?" Never saw him again.

Go figure.

 

[Zander]

I'm gay. My PCs, unless I have some particular reason otherwise, are gay too.... I think straight people generally play straight PCs: there's not much motivation to do any differently. The sexual inclinations of PCs are rarely at issue.

I use the same assumption as pogre and Samnell: if the player is gay (or bisexual or whatever) so is his character unless he states otherwise. As I've DMed a gay player, I assume that his character was gay too but sexuality wasn't an issue in that campaign so I don't know what the player's intentions were for his PC.

FWIW I use the same player/PC assumption for handedness.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I never bring sexuality or romance up in my games, because I often play with my siblings, and I'm not comfortable playing that sort of thing with them; also, they're in their early teens.

 

[Sidereal Knight]

Most of the groups I have played with never really explored the sexuality of characters. While there has been a little off-screen romance for PCs, little attention has been payed to this part of their background.

(The one exception that comes to mind is a player who had his character get married for political reasons. The DM ended up having the player roll Constitution checks to see if he could sire offspring. )

I'm currently running an Eberron game, and have recently introduced a bit of backstory that involves a same-sex couple. The NPCs in question were involved in a long-term relationship that occurred while one of them was already married (to a member of the opposite sex). When the story was relayed to the PCs, the teller treated it as a major scandal, which it was... but because of the extramarital affair, not because of the same-sex relationship.

I think my players (including my husband) were a bit suprised by this portrayal, probably thinking that I would always choose to show gay people in a positive light since I am gay. As someone said earlier, sexuality is only part of a character's makeup... it doesn't make them intrisically good or bad, in my opinion.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Yes and yes, but it's never been an issue.

 

[Kenson]

I've played characters who were gay, straight, or largely asexual (simply because the question never arose). It hasn't been an issue in our group, but we're all (ostensibly) mature adults in our 30s.

 

[Kenson]

Oh, and for folks who might be interested, I co-moderate a yahoo mailing list for GLBT gamers. Click over to:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gaymers

If you'd like to check it out.

 

[MonsterMash]

In most of the games I play sexuality is pretty much left out, there is little if any hetrosexual activity and the same goes for gay/lesbian. Most PCs have not really had any preferences expressed so it is assumed that it matches the players.