One of the things that first leaped out at me with Bujold's stories was that they weren't as male-centric as many science fiction stories. I love the way that reproductive technology forms a significant element of the setting.
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Pregnancy and newborns...
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One of the things that first leaped out at me with Bujold's stories was that they weren't as male-centric as many science fiction stories. I love the way that reproductive technology forms a significant element of the setting.
dragoner
KosmicRPG.com
Yes, I have enjoyed the books about Cordelia; McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga is excellent, and highly recommendable. Science fiction has a lot of great women writers: LeGuin, Butler, Lee, Norton, Moore, Vinge, Tiptree (Sheldon), Cherryh, and many others. I blame the old publishers that seemed to be afraid to publicize them in the past, thus we got a lot of shallow stories instead. Then again, maybe the young men's adventure story type books helped support the others.
Son of the Serpent
Pupil
There is 100% no mysogyny happening. There are however some arrogant preachy people seeing elvis on pieces of toast and expressing insecurity about how others dont experience pareidolia like them too any time someone slightly steps out of line though.
BrokenTwin
Biological Disaster
To the best of my memory, pregnancy of a player character has only come up once in my games. We had rescued a PC's husband from slavery, and her player decided to roll to decide whether their "continued relationship" resulted in her getting pregnant, and it did. If I recall correctly, she took a minor penalty to heavy physical activity, which thanks to the style of game we were playing, came up rather infrequently.
It was actually a great source of RP for us, as my character had earlier been established as wanting to protect her due to owing her father a life-debt, and was only with the group in the first place to ensure she survived while she dove head first into spearheading The Rebellion against The Evil Empire. Learning that she was pregnant and wanting to be a good great-uncle for the baby is what ultimately drove him from being the token Evil teammate (Pathfinder: Oracle of Asmodeus) into a lowercase g good person.
There was weeks of in-game downtime between sessions, and lots of sessions with little combat, which helped with the suspension of disbelief in regards to heavily pregnant women in martial combat. Plus, everyone was perfectly fine with the idea that in a world where healing magic was readily available and human sized creatures were durable enough to routinely fight monsters the size of small houses, the odds of complication were a lot lower.
It actually created a hilariously dark moment where we discovered a Slaver's Ring set (a set of rings that once put on, couldn't be removed without powerful magic, and one removable ring that allowed the wearer to know the location and health of the other wearers), and my character immediately went "this is perfect for the baby!" The soon-to-be-mother was not amused.
It was actually a great source of RP for us, as my character had earlier been established as wanting to protect her due to owing her father a life-debt, and was only with the group in the first place to ensure she survived while she dove head first into spearheading The Rebellion against The Evil Empire. Learning that she was pregnant and wanting to be a good great-uncle for the baby is what ultimately drove him from being the token Evil teammate (Pathfinder: Oracle of Asmodeus) into a lowercase g good person.
There was weeks of in-game downtime between sessions, and lots of sessions with little combat, which helped with the suspension of disbelief in regards to heavily pregnant women in martial combat. Plus, everyone was perfectly fine with the idea that in a world where healing magic was readily available and human sized creatures were durable enough to routinely fight monsters the size of small houses, the odds of complication were a lot lower.
It actually created a hilariously dark moment where we discovered a Slaver's Ring set (a set of rings that once put on, couldn't be removed without powerful magic, and one removable ring that allowed the wearer to know the location and health of the other wearers), and my character immediately went "this is perfect for the baby!" The soon-to-be-mother was not amused.
CapnZapp
Legend
I'm running a submerged dungeon run by an Aboleth.
Before reaching the complex, the heroes came across a simple village populated by Skum men and human wives.
This is of course the old Lovecraftian horror of "they came from the sea and took our womenfolk", but with a twist:
The women were in charge; they weren't prisoners or treated like slaves. They just couldn't run away because the the village grew algae for food that - unbeknownst to them - secreted a mucus that acted like a low-power version of Aboleth mucus: basically making you skin flake and crack painfully unless you emerge into water regularly.
Still an insanity-inducing scene for the heroes, sure (the women spent much of their time pregnant; yet only ever gave birth to more fish-men, who lived short disposable lives, but they still were their sons and husbands), but at least not an overly grimdark rapey one.
Yes, they plan to set the women villagers free somehow, if and when they manage to loot the dungeon and escape with their lives, of course.
Before reaching the complex, the heroes came across a simple village populated by Skum men and human wives.
This is of course the old Lovecraftian horror of "they came from the sea and took our womenfolk", but with a twist:
The women were in charge; they weren't prisoners or treated like slaves. They just couldn't run away because the the village grew algae for food that - unbeknownst to them - secreted a mucus that acted like a low-power version of Aboleth mucus: basically making you skin flake and crack painfully unless you emerge into water regularly.
Still an insanity-inducing scene for the heroes, sure (the women spent much of their time pregnant; yet only ever gave birth to more fish-men, who lived short disposable lives, but they still were their sons and husbands), but at least not an overly grimdark rapey one.
Yes, they plan to set the women villagers free somehow, if and when they manage to loot the dungeon and escape with their lives, of course.
This whole thread just strikes me as "things better off left out of a D&D game".
1. The pregnant female sorcerer character is being played by a guy?
2. The guy player is - you mentioned previously - the one single guy in your gaming group?
3. So the one single guy in the group is making the rest of the party sit there while he (as a female character) has extended dice-rolling sex fantasy encounters with an NPC?
4. And the encounter (strikes me as) trivializes sex, pregnancy, and childbirth down to "roll on a Wild Pregnancy table"?
Just... so much nope.
1. The pregnant female sorcerer character is being played by a guy?
2. The guy player is - you mentioned previously - the one single guy in your gaming group?
3. So the one single guy in the group is making the rest of the party sit there while he (as a female character) has extended dice-rolling sex fantasy encounters with an NPC?
4. And the encounter (strikes me as) trivializes sex, pregnancy, and childbirth down to "roll on a Wild Pregnancy table"?
Just... so much nope.
Son of the Serpent
Pupil
If this thread makes you feel uncomfortable you are welcome to not read it shrug
Warpiglet
Adventurer
I gave a thumbs up for this sentiment. I think for me it less that the thread is uncomfortable but more "who would get Involved in that game and think it would be a good game?"
Over the years I have avoided a lot of drama with a quick and decisive sense of when moving on would provide a larger fun to cringe ratio. I also avoid the "easily triggered" player as well. I have rarely wasted more than one session on cringing or walking too carefully.
In the present case I would be moving on to epic battles and leaving the cringe behind.
As it was said, so much nope.
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