In the game I'm currently playing in sex, sexuality, gender, and romance have played great key rolls in the storylines and character development. On top of that we've had a great variety of genders/sexualities/romances too.
Presently I'm playing a character who started off male, got involved with a woman, was polymorphed into a female, married the woman, had a child with the woman, and later found that she was half demon.
While the Demon thing I wanted, I never asked for the sex change. Being transsexual myself, the GM (who is my boyfriend) and I joked about it one time, because there was a plot point that required the characters to be female, but the intention was to get changed back afterwards. It came down to a will save, and Santel, now Melissa, failed it miserably. However, even having failed the save, she asked her love her preference, saying that if she needed a man, she'd be a man for her without hesitation. Her lover had been a whore and abused by men through her childhood, and found being with a woman strangely comforting, so Melissa remained female, and is now carrying their second child.
While Melissa is open in her love for her wife and is repulsed by the idea of being with a man, she is half succubus, and there was this one time... But she doesn't like to talk about that. That guy's lucky she hasn't killed him.
My latest character, Alar Matahari, is a heterosexual male who is involved in a grand scheme of romance and betrayal. This thread should be a fun one to unravel.
I have another character who is asexual, and 'she' is interesting to play. Lana, as 'she's called, is an amorphous shapeshifting creature (think Odo from Deep Space 9) who has spent the last 125 years growing up in a sort of mental childhood. She usually takes a pretty female human shape because, in her words, "Everyone likes a pretty girl." She gets treated better that way, and she knows it.
While Lana is in many ways immature, she is 'in love'* with the son of a local baron, and will soon marry him. This is causing all sorts of complications, such as the fact that she can't give him an heir, having no reproductive organs.
While Lana engages in sex, she doesn't do it for the traditional human reasons. She has no experience of sexual pleasure, but given the protein rich secretions people make during the process she enjoys it afterwards. While she doesn't 'want' sex in the same way a human does, she understands the human need for it and finds it a convienient way of bonding with someone- though now she's agreed to only have sex with her betroved, at least until he's dead.
It's so strange to play such a naive alien creature. Looking at the world through a whole new perspective is fun.
* When I say 'in love' I don't really mean it the same as with a human. Lana, fortunately for the rest of the world, was 'raised' by caring folks who taught her to care for everyone. She has a very hard time understanding why people would hurt other people, and why everyone doesn't get just along. She's been fortunate enough to have avoided most violent situations, and has only killed one sentient being, by accident. (She thought by looking at her that the dark elf's head wouldn't be so soft.. Squish!)
Great thread. Very mature and insightful. We need to see more of this in the world.
- Kemrain the Pleased.