D&D 5E 5e's new gender policy - is it attracting new players?

[Wik]

One of my favourite things in 5e is the section on PC gender. I won't repeat the entire quote, because I don't have a PHB on me, but it amounts to "you can be male, female, transgender... and your sexuality doesn't matter. It's good. Be who you want to be". This is an awesome thing, and I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised.

I'm not wanting to get into an argument on "women in gaming". It's been had before, and I don't think it's worth having. D&D has made efforts to be more inclusive towards women, but it's still a work in progress. But that's not the point of this post.

I DO think, however, that D&D as a brand has not said much on gender diversity/sexuality in gaming in the past. As in, there's precious few LGBTQ characters in official D&D products, or even much mention of it. Pathfinder is much better at this sort of thing, absolutely, but even they admit that they often don't do enough in regards to transgender characters (though this has been changing). But pathfinder is not D&D...

Anyways. I think the PHB was a step in the right direction, though I don't think much more has been done about it since. Are there any LGBTQ characters in the adventures? None spring to mind, which makes me think the PHB was just giving lip service. Is that enough? I'm not at all sure.

The question has come to mind recently due to a player's guide I wrote for new players in my weekly friday night game. It's for mostly new players (there's a huge amount of interest! When did this happen!?), and I had a list of table rules for play. After all, I would have a lot of people sitting at my table that I had never met. Anyways, One of ten points was this:

. Be Respectful. This means being respectful of differences in gender, sexuality, race, religion (or lack thereof), opinions, and whatever else. You can have your differences in opinion, and that's okay... but a D&D table is not the place to voice them.

I put this in there because, in the past when playing with strangers, I've had male players decide it was the place to hit on female players... or get into argument about "Men's rights", or other crap like that. I just wanted to nip it in the bud, because sometimes when playing with strangers, you wind up playing with jerks. It's just life.

But a strange thing happened.

When we were dreaming up the campaign, I put out feelers. Many turned it down - some of whom I've never met, but were invited by other people who are attending. One is gay, and another is transgender. Anyways, after I posted my little PDF, I guess it got passed around. They caught wind of it (I live in a small town), and suddenly have changed their minds. Both are attending tomorrow.

So, I'm curious - did my table rules have an effect? Did my "open table" change their minds, make them less nervous of attending a table populated by people they don't know?

And this curiousity has got me wondering - is the game's official stance on LGBTQ issues going to help attract new players in those (and other) communities? Does more need to be done, or is the current pace the correct one?

 

[discosoc]

I feel like transgender identity is a modern thing, and not really a good fit for the kind of fantasy games that people tend to associate with D&D. It's not incompatible or anything, just not really something that should be focused on any more than a characters sexuality in general.

That said, WotC has done a pretty good job of using a writing style that's not male-oriented since they took over the brand. Go read the 3e books and you'll see a very healthy (probably half) number of chapters written using female pronouns, so it's obvious they were trying to broaden the audience even going back that far.

Beyond that, I just don't see the point in trying to force every real-world current event issue into an RPG game like D&D.

 

[Wik]

Beyond that, I just don't see the point in trying to force every real-world current event issue into an RPG game like D&D.

Sure. But by acknowledging that the issue exists, does that suggest that the game table (which IS a real world location, after all) is more open to LGBTQ characters? Because, from my limited sample size, it seems that by simply staying "hey, be respectful of people's sexuality" can entice players to come who might otherwise not.

If they stick around, I might broach the question a few months down the road, once we're more comfortable with one another. I'm curious.

 

[discosoc]

Sure. But by acknowledging that the issue exists, does that suggest that the game table (which IS a real world location, after all) is more open to LGBTQ characters? Because, from my limited sample size, it seems that by simply staying "hey, be respectful of people's sexuality" can entice players to come who might otherwise not.

If they stick around, I might broach the question a few months down the road, once we're more comfortable with one another. I'm curious.

WotC can't force ideologies onto game tables. It's a rules system, not a social or moral compass. All I'm saying is they've done a pretty good job at making the system friendly and approachable to all kinds of people without having to get involved with social justice issues.

What you did, is exactly the right kind of thing to do. You established some social guidelines and made your table welcome to all kinds of people. That has nothing to do with D&D as a brand, and everything to do with you as a person.

 

[Wik]

WotC can't force ideologies onto game tables. It's a rules system, not a social or moral compass. All I'm saying is they've done a pretty good job at making the system friendly and approachable to all kinds of people without having to get involved with social justice issues.

Sure. But I slightly disagree.

Women used to not make up a large portion of D&D players - and we can partly blame the rules text and the art for that. Now, while the game is still male dominated, those numbers are changing. And we can see the same thing in many other industries - by trying to be more inclusive in how you present the product, more people can get interested.

And really, why aren't there more gay npcs? More lesbian npcs? I realize that the sexuality of an npc is often not discussed because it's not important, but why not hint at it more? I mean, pathfinder has been doing this since issue #1.

What you did, is exactly the right kind of thing to do. You established some social guidelines and made your table welcome to all kinds of people. That has nothing to do with D&D as a brand, and everything to do with you as a person.

Sure. But what I'm saying is this - by advising that I was running an open table, I drew in new players. So, is D&D, by being much more open than they have been in the past, beginning to draw in from a more diverse group of players in the LGBTQ community?

I'm not at all sure of the numbers. It'd be interesting to find out, and I'm sure there's a blog somewhere that has some cool data.

 

[Shiroiken]

Sure. But by acknowledging that the issue exists, does that suggest that the game table (which IS a real world location, after all) is more open to LGBTQ characters? Because, from my limited sample size, it seems that by simply staying "hey, be respectful of people's sexuality" can entice players to come who might otherwise not.

If they stick around, I might broach the question a few months down the road, once we're more comfortable with one another. I'm curious.

I doubt it. People will always be who they are, and writing "be respectful" somewhere won't change that. If so, there would never be flame wars on forums...

 

[GameOgre]

Sex of any type has very little to do with our D&D games. Really unless it's pg13 or even G rated I have no desire to have it at our game table. Is your fighter strait? Homosexual? Transgender? Who cares? What we want to know is when bodies start hitting the floor and grinning red death reaches out to grab us can that fighter be counted on to hold the line and grin right back?

 

[Paraxis]

Why would it, it is a roleplaying game you can and always could play whatever you wanted to, that is kinda the point.

The blurb in the PHB was there to cause a small amount of buzz/goodwill when 5e launched and sure it did that, but I don't think any players flocked to the game because of such a thing.

Just like I doubt Piazo having multiple gay and transgender npc's in the adventures they write does anything to boost sales.

If you want to have a game with those elements in them just as always people are free to do so, just as always if you don't want to address issues like these in your games you have been and continue to be free to do so.

 

[discosoc]

And really, why aren't there more gay npcs? More lesbian npcs? I realize that the sexuality of an npc is often not discussed because it's not important, but why not hint at it more? I mean, pathfinder has been doing this since issue #1.

How do you know there aren't more gay NPC's? Does it need to be part of the stat block or something? I honestly can't remember the last time I read about an NPC being specifically straight either. If you assume all the NPC's must be straight because they aren't officially labeled as gay, then perhaps that's an issue with your perception.

 

[Wik]

How do you know there aren't more gay NPC's? Does it need to be part of the stat block or something? I honestly can't remember the last time I read about an NPC being specifically straight either. If you assume all the NPC's must be straight because they aren't officially labeled as gay, then perhaps that's an issue with your perception.

Again, disagree. There are plenty of TV shows, novels, video games, and even other RPGs where it's just casually mentioned that a character is gay, and left at that. It's not like it's in a stat block, but there are plenty of places where it can show up - after all, in out of the abyss, for example, there are a few places where we find out about the romantic habits of drow. So there ARE opportunities to be more diverse in presenting NPCs without turning this into the book of erotic fantasy or anything.

Personally, I'd prefer to see things more like in Doctor Who, which has done wonders for embracing diversity without making it the main point of the series. There's room for it - and right now, D&D is losing out to pathfinder in this regard. (And, in regards to Pathfinder - it does this all the time... without ever taking things "into the bedroom". There's room for a product and a desire for diversity).