"All halflings are heterosexual."

[Ambrus]

This reminds me of an amusing anecdote: I was playing in a D&D style LARP and speaking to another PC (that I didn't know very well) when along comes my friend and fellow PC (a male playing an elf). He interrupts our conversation to ask me whether some NPC had done something or other (I forget what exactly) and I answered affirmatively that he had. My friend (I kid you not) clasps his hands together, smiles broadly, declares loudly "Joy!" and prances away (I can't describe his skipping run any other way) down the path. The other PC watches the elf PC leave and then turns to me and asks me quite seriously "Your friend is quite... FEY isn't he?" and raises his eyebrows suggestively.

Eventually my friend (the elf PC) did come out of the closet. Years later we're still laughing about this incident.

 

[LordVyreth]

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

Ugh, I can't believe I didn't think of that. Seriously, I think that is the best explanation given the halflings-only nature of the ruling. It might have even been a rule made in jest, kind of like how DMs tell their players how they'll hurt any player who makes a dual scimitar-weilding drow ranger or insist on making their elf surf down stairs.

 

[Samothdm]

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.

My wife's character (in her first RPG game, ever) is a female half-elf rogue who dresses up as a man. She does it every session, and the other players, in fact, think that her character is a man. She has a huge bonus to her disguise score and I have actually made random spot checks for the group, but I give her the benefit of the doubt, actually, because she made it up as part of her character background that her father forced her to dress as a man in order to hide her from her mother, who had turned evil. He was afraid that the mother would try to convert the daughter to evil (kind of a rip-off of Star Wars, but, hey, it was her first character).

I'm glad that I am not close-minded or have some kind of weird phobia about people cross-dressing. It would have ruined her character concept and frankly turned her off to gaming in general. I have a hard enough time as it is keeping her interested.

In general, I don't think it's unreasonable to allow people to pick their character's sexual orientation.

[snip]

 

[JesterPoet]

Seriously, if a GM states that for this game world, then why argue? It is is game world, and we are talking about fantasy races, after all...

I dunno... if all halflings are heterosexual, it doesn't sound like much of a "fantasy" to me.

But, then again, all my fantasies involve gnomes.

 

[Driddle]

I'm not all that surprised by the weird mix of responses to this topic. People continue to confuse concepts of sexual preference (attraction) and sexual activity as though they were one in the same. Just because you say you're attracted to a person does NOT mean you wanna 'do it' on the table just to prove a point.

And as far as "throwing the issue in someone's face," well, all it takes is a single, seemingly innocuous social scenario in the game to draw out a reference to sexual preference. i.e. "Is the barmaid cute?" Disallowing even a simple flirt scene puts binders on a player.

 

[Brennin Magalus]

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...

If I did not know better I would think you were talking about a Pinheiros nightclub.

 

[fusangite]

I'm not all that surprised by the weird mix of responses to this topic. People continue to confuse concepts of sexual preference (attraction) and sexual activity as though they were one in the same. Just because you say you're attracted to a person does NOT mean you wanna 'do it' on the table just to prove a point.

And as far as "throwing the issue in someone's face," well, all it takes is a single, seemingly innocuous social scenario in the game to draw out a reference to sexual preference. i.e. "Is the barmaid cute?" Disallowing even a simple flirt scene puts binders on a player.

Driddle, I'm on the opposite side of the argument than you but I have to wholly endorse your post here. In our capitalist society, we have much difficulty distinguishing between impulse and act -- this is why the term "pederast" has fallen out of use. We use the term "pedophile" in its place because we automatically assume that there is no difference between someone who is attracted to children and someone who rapes them. In the modern West, we are losing the capacity to distinguish between inclination and conduct.

As I see it, there are three main categories to which "homosexuality" maps in our present-day society:
(a) activity
(b) relationship
(c) identity

Generally, most fantasy worlds are inspired by societies that did not have category (c); they could understand people having sexual relations with someone of the same sex; they could understand people having relationships with someone of the same sex. But the idea of sexual orientation as a way of mapping identity, not so much.

If I were in a situation where a player wanted their character to function as a homosexual as per category (c), I would have real trouble with this and probably advise them that this was not compatible with how my society was organized.

If I were in a situation where a player wanted their character to function as a homosexual as per category (b), I would probably say "great -- let's see if you meet someone appropriate."

If I were in a situation where a player wanted their character to function as a homosexual as per category (a), I would say "ewwww... Not in my campaign." But then that's what I would say to someone who wanted their character to function as a heterosexual in that respect too.

From out woefully insufficient information, my suspicion is that the character wanted to be a category (c) homosexual. While some campaign worlds are built for such characters, most are not.

 

[Voadam]

The player uncomfortable? :??:

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.

Clearly the group didn't want?

All we heard was that a DM declared there are no homosexual halflings and a women looked seriously miffed but calmly leaving.

She could have been projecting unwanted sexual acting out to roleplay before the group to get attention or work out issues or whatever and she would make everyone uncomfortable.

But it could just as easily have been her saying as one point of description about her halfling character that she was a lesbian like herself and then only the DM being upset by that detail and reacting by forbidding it.

 

[Samothdm]

Clearly the group didn't want?

Yeah, I have no idea where that came from, either. It was clearly never part of the original post.

All we heard was that a DM declared there are no homosexual halflings and a women looked seriously miffed but calmly leaving.

Exactly. That's not a lot of information upon which to base all of these suppositions.

And, everyone has just assumed that the woman who left wanted to play a homosexual halfling character. She just as easily could have been miffed because she didn't like the DM and thought he was bringing his own political viewpoints to the gaming table.

Most people read the original post and just leapt to the conclusion that the woman in question had asked to play a homosexual character. We don't know if that's what happened.

For all we know (given that it was stated that the quote in question occurred after hours) the woman was miffed because she just realized how late it was and she needed to go home because she had to work the next day.

 

[Desdichado]

Fair enough. Clearly the DM didn't want it then, and was uncomfortable with it.

It seems easy to pick on the poor DM without any better knowledge -- "The homophobe! What's his problem?"

But that's another issue with our society that I have, although it's related to the first I mentioned; it seems the only social sin anyone recognizes as valid anymore is the inability to accept whatever anyone else wants to do, as long as its not illegal, and even then, our society is wearing away at many of those facets as well.

As I've said, I tend to side with the DM on this one. It's certainly possible that his behavior is indicative of other problems, although we have no way of knowing that, but I tend to think that the fact that the player just got up and walked away from that game just because her first character concept wasn't acceptable in light of what the DM was hoping to present as a setting is probably indicative of problems as well.