"All halflings are heterosexual."

[ShadowDenizen]

Sexuality can an integral part of a Role-Playing campaign. As a "gaymer" myself, I enjoy throwing things into the campaign to challenge people. Fortunately, I'm part of a pretty liberal group: if I want to play a gay halfling, or a female, then that's what I play. I've never encountered a backlash in any of the games I've played in. (Of course, as a reasonably well-adjusted gay-man, I also don't use my D+D group as an "Act Up!" forum.)

That said, none of the games I've been a part of have devolved down into XXX or PWP: just because a game uses sexuality, doesn''t mean sex needs to be the central theme of the game. It could be something as simple as my female character wanting to flirt with a guard so the party can sneak past. Or, in a few instances, there have been instances of unrequited love in all shapes and forms, since my group thrives on NPC interaction of all kinds.

I'm not going to speculate on the specific DM/event in question, but I do know several people who view their sexuality as an integral part of their personality, (I also feel taht way to a degree, but I'm not JUST gay: I'm a writer, a gamer, an uncle, a filmologist, etc.: IMO, everything contributes to the whole me.), so I can see why a "gaymer" might feel rebuffed by being told that.

 

[Shallown]

the only thing I have ever had close to that is one character went hoem to visit her family and was talking with her brother. Now I had just introduced her family that session and theonly info i had set in stone was she had a older brother and her family ran the mill and was the rich family (so to speak) in the town/village. Everyone picked up on the fact her brother was gay. I didn't make a big deal out of it he wasn't persucuted but also wasn't accepted and her parents alienated him but more from the we don't get itthan the we hate him stand point.
the only reason it even became important was one player said they thought it was neat that her characracter's brother was gay. The player refused to believe that her character's brother was gay. Despite numerous hints and his slightly efiminate (not flaming) demeanor. The player wasn't a homophobe she just sort of refused to believe her character's brother was gay. I just told her to ask him but she refused since she just knew he was straight. It was actually sort of funny and I did make it just a subtle subcontext of the family reunion.


later

 

[Arnwyn]

Have you ever come across something like this yourself?

In a public setting? No, never.

In a private home game? Of course.

 

[Desdichado]

However, I certainly wouldn't do something like that if I felt a player might be uncomfortable or walk out on me.

The player uncomfortable? :??:

There's a very strange undercurrent in modern society in which people think it's OK to just throw out their personal issues and if anyone else is uncomfortable with them, it's their fault.

I don't get it. I'm more inclined to place speculative blame on the player for trying to force an issue that clearly the group didn't want in their game.

 

[Brennin Magalus]

The only thing I find curious is that the DM would single out halflings. In any event, I believe he is well within his rights to exclude "LGBT" characters from his game.

 

[drnuncheon]

Frankly, IMHO unless for some reason you want to run a "Adult/XXX" focused campaign, the sexuality of characters is almost irrelevant.

I guess maybe for a dungeon crawl. For my Freeport game, one character is abandoning a lover to make an alliance by marriage, and the other is expected to marry and produce an heir at some point. Both of those things are major plot points, and would have very different implications if the characters were gay.

J

 

[Trickstergod]

The player uncomfortable? :??:

There's a very strange undercurrent in modern society in which people think it's OK to just throw out their personal issues and if anyone else is uncomfortable with them, it's their fault.

I don't get it. I'm more inclined to place speculative blame on the player for trying to force an issue that clearly the group didn't want in their game.

To clarify, I certainly wouldn't allow anything that made me feel uncomfortable, either. For example, if the player I mentioned before was hell-bent on playing yet another pseudo-lesbian fresh from a late night Cinemax flick, I'd tell him to stuff it and either come up with a new character or bugger off.

Or, for example, if I said that there were no gay dwarves, or that there were gay dwarves, but they were persecuted, and a player piped up and said that made them feel uncomfortable, well, heck, eliminating something like that wouldn't be too big of a deal to me. However, if the player then went on to play the most flaming dwarf to be found and aggressively, openly and continually played up the characters sexuality and was essentially preaching through their character, I'd swat the player down right quick for that.

And I'm also not beyond still telling a player to deal with something that makes them uncomfortable but I find trivial.

Essentially, I'm willing to not bother with certain things so long as everyone's still having fun. If getting rid of something from my game makes someone comfortable while still keeping it fun for everyone else then, well, it shouldn't be an issue to eliminate it. If, however, getting rid of something to make someone comfortable makes the game less fun for another player or myself, then it's about time the uncomfortable player either learned to deal with it or found a new game.

Better?

 

[Klaus]

The only thing I find curious is that the DM would single out halflings. In any event, I believe he is well within his rights to exclude "LGBT" characters from his game.

I have a suspicion that this banning may have been provoked by hours of LotR jokes featuring Mr. Frodo and His Sam...

The most sexuality I ever had in a game went thusly:

The PCs (female half-elf, male human and female human) saved an elf town and as a reward were received at the elven capital by the queen. On the following evening there was a big celebration, and the PCs were the guests of honor. There was much dancing and rejoicing and elven wine, and I told the players "if any of you want your characters to get laid, they got laid".

Turns out they all got laid...

Of course, none of the elves called again in the morning...

 

[Barastrondo]

Frankly, IMHO unless for some reason you want to run a "Adult/XXX" focused campaign, the sexuality of characters is almost irrelevant.

Dude, c'mon. Sepulchrave's Story Hour (which I know you read). The entire Story Hour and all its events have snowballed out from a single turning point that had a whole lot to do with a paladin's sexuality. Would things have gotten to where they have if Eadric were gay? Or if his player and Sepulchrave had felt that romantic subplots had no place at the gaming table?

The sexuality of characters is pretty relevant to the games I tend to run and be involved in, because romantic subplots are frequently as important (or even more so) than subplots about wealth, revenge, piety, patriotism or the other various reasons characters have to go on adventures. This is not true of all characters, mind — they tend to be as varied as people, and some characters are basically uninterested in the whole romantic/sexual thing. Most often the romantic subplots tend to play out over email or away from the gaming table proper, but that's more for practical considerations like maximizing group gaming time than anything else. I certainly agree that I wouldn't want to play out a romantic subplot with some of the gamers out there, the ones that thrive on shock value or immaturity — but I don't want to game with those guys no matter the subject matter.

 

[WayneLigon]

- The GM was sick of Nypho Lesbian Halfling(TM) PCs who only disrupt his adventures.

Given that this one particular person got up and walked out, I'd be more than willing to bet that said particular person does that exact thing. From what I've seen or participated in, GM's that make statements such as 'there are no cat people in my world' or 'there are no ninjas in this world' are almost always aiming that statement at a particular player who insists that every single character he plays is a cat person ninja, even when such a thing is grossly inappropriate to the game/world/genre/whatever.

If the GM had said 'There are no gay people in this world whatsoever' (without some kind of explanation) then I could see someone getting up and walking out because of having a conflict with that. That he made it specific to a particular race, to me, says that he's had some kind of problem with that player in the past.