Wow, things got active while I was away.
Apologies for not answering timely - my apartment flooded last week and I have been mostly offline since then. Just now catching up with EN World. So, let's tackle these questions...
I find the LGBTQ+ community fascinating. I remember being fascinated by Paris is Burning, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, To Wong Fu, and RuPaul's autobiography, "Letting it all Hang Out" (I love that title . . . ). Anyhow, the one thing I always wonder is:
How do you broach the subject of your true nature with family and loved ones?
I am very lucky in that most of my family is very accepting, open, and, to put it bluntly, liberal.
I lost a few friends, but, as they say, when you are truly honest you find out who your "true" friends are.
My father was the one hiccup in all of that. He is notoriously homophobic so I waited quite a while before finally coming out to him. He handled relatively well but he is one of those who "accepts but doesn't understand."
As for the actual "how" - well, I came out of the closet in a way I honestly wouldn't recommend unless you have a good support network among your friends - I just announced it to the world on Facebook.
My father doesn't use FB so I ended up calling him a couple of months later.
You DM a bunch of games simultaneously. Do you have a hard time focusing, creatively, on all the different games? Do you ever find yourself ignoring one game (or more), because another game is just more interesting to you, and sort of going through the motions with it? Do you have any tricks for overcoming this and making sure that all the games feel fresh for you, and get a fair share of your time?
Have you ever overcommitted and felt the need to close a game that was going well, just because you couldn't give it the energy it deserved anymore?
Do you game in-person regularly? (As well as PbP, which I know you do a lot of just based on this site!)
I follow a strict posting schedule for my PbPs - each game gets one post a week from me except during combat when I try to maintain a faster pace. I also organize them mostly by campaign world or at least game system so that my creative energy is focused more or less in one area. There are times when there's some "going through the motions" but, on those occasions, I throw the ball back in the players' court, letting them lead the narrative a bit more than usual.
I have closed my fair share of PbPs in the past due to over-commitment, though that was before I organized myself into my weekly schedule/routine. My most recent closures have been due to player attrition which is a fairly normal occurrence in PbPs.
I don't currently have an in-person group. Believe it or not, I have social anxiety which is why I spend a lot of my time online - I am much more at ease interacting with people online than I am in person.
What do you think of Bruce Jenner coming out?
Pronoun note - I am using male pronouns to refer to Bruce Jenner as, last time I knew (I am not current with the news due to the apartment flood), he had indicated that he was still using male pronouns.
When Jenner's name popped up in the internet gossip, I honestly had to google him as I'd never heard of him before. As with any celebrity rumor mill, I kept my distance, so to speak, and waited for something more official to come along before believing anything.
I'm still fairly ambivalent about him. I think celebrities coming out the way he did is important to create visibility for transgender issues and I applaud him for that.
Were you a member of the (now-defunct) starwars.com forum or blogs? I recognize that (very appropriate) avatar, so that's why.
This is assuming you DM games "in real life": What's the main difference, in your experience, between PbP en table-top DMing?
Also, allow me to say that you rock, both as a PbP DM and as a person who is open about their transgender status.
To address your last statement first...thanks.
If you are referring to the WotC official Star Wars RPG forums during the Star Wars Saga Edition era, I was a VCL at that time (in my Crazy Monkey persona) so I had a presence there in a moderation capacity but I wouldn't call myself a "member." The avatar I currently use is sort of a subtle indicator of my gender - the character is female, but also a changeling.
Back when I had tabletop groups, the game flowed much more fluidly and was based much more on the ebb and flow of conversation. PbPs are much more like writing an interacting novel - everyone has a lot more time to think about their responses where as with tabletop folks tend to react with their first impulse.
Phew, that's everyone.
Thanks for all the awesome questions.
