"All halflings are heterosexual."

[barsoomcore]

The DM knew Sam would kill him if he tried anything.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I guess, like many here, I can't really imagine any DM I've ever played with (or under ... IYKWIMAITYD ... ) or myself as a DM saying, flat out, "There are no gay halflings. End of story," without:

The player comes up to me and says, "I want to be a totally flaming, unbelievably stereotypical gay character. Who's a halfling."

I can imagine the DM's response to be, "Uh, ok, but why? And need it be so stereotypical?"

This would, of course, be followed by the player responding, "Don't tell me how to play my character. If you won't let me do this, then it's because you're a terrible homophobe. I'm going to sic my LGBT* support group on you, and inform the ACLU. Heck, you're probably gay yourself, and are just repressing ..." Etc.

Here, I can see the DM responding with, "There are no gay halflings. End of story."

In other words, I can't really imagine the comment happening at all without a specific amount of rather over-the-top provocation. Heck, in my current gaming group, my character takes a lot of crap from the other characters / players - he's a pirate, and is therefore gay almost by definition. You know, poofy shirts, sharp dresser, nice shoes ... He isn't, and other than that, however, there's no real sexuality in the campaign (except, perhaps, rumors regarding the Soulknife and her ex-lover-BBEG).

* - I've always heard LGBT defined as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, rather than Transvestite.

 

[Sir Elton]

Sex is a natural part of the human experience. Man must reproduce himself, this is a given. In RPGs, they should be part of the human experience as well. I'm not talking about adopting the Book of Elf Porn or something like that. It's just that some people are more mature about it.

That said, given the circumstances, if I were the DM above, I would think about it for a while. Then, with some insight, I would declare that all "demi-humans" we know and love have human psychologies.

So thus, I would have to allow halfling homosexuality. I may be a General Operations Director of a RPG game, but I want to be a good General Operations Director. So, like in all my games, I am going to have consequences.

Consequences for our actions are mandated by nature. The consequences could include any number of things. In a game that's just for dungeon crawling, these are simply written off and sexuality is a fade to black sort of thing. But when you take it beyond that, it gets complex. Character weaknesses and strengths come into play.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Well, in my campaign:

All humans are transexual (pre-op).
All elves are bisexual.
All dwarves are celibate.
All gnomes are hermaphrodites.
All half-orcs are heterosexual. (Sorry.)
All half-elves are metrosexual.
And all halflings are interqueer.

When my players complain I just accuse them of being homophobes.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Oh! Oh! Oh!

I have another theory why the DM wouldn't allow gay halflings!

"It's rainin' halflings! Hallelujah, it's raining halflings, amen" doesn't work as well as "It's r-r-r-r-r-rainin' men!"

I chalk it up to one of those weird things you just happen to overhear in a game store. I'm sure these weird things would fill volumes.

 

[tarchon]

Then say, "Sexual orientation plays no role in my game." Don't single out gays as being somehow "about sex" and heterosexuals as not.

Well, I think if you say "I'm playing a gay halfling," that's about sex. If someone said "I'm playing a heterosexual halfling," it would be about sex too. Basically, whenever you slap *sexual on someone as a label, you're saying that it's about sex.
The easy way for the player to approach this would be to just play the character without having "Fildo Daggins, the Gay Halfling" written at the top of the character sheet. That being said, "there are no gay halflings in my world" is clearly a pretty goofy way to run a game.

DM: "You all are sitting in the tavern. A doxy, noticing your obvious wealth, comes over and, well, displays her wares."
Fighter: "I slap her on the butt, and say 'not tonight, honey, I've got dragons to slay tomorrow.'"
Paladin: "I lecture her on moral turpitude."
Wizard: "I'm busy rolling my scrolls."
Halfling: "Hot dang - I slip a gold piece down her bodice and lead her up to my room."
DM: "Ok, let me roll to... hey wait, your character's a girl!"
Halfling: "No spit, Sperlock."
DM: "But... but... there are no gay halflings in my world!"
Halfling: "So she turns down a whole gold piece!? I make it two then."
DM: "Hmm... er... well... I suppose she wouldn't. But you wouldn't want to, well, you know..."
Hafling: "So... I have to check with you to see whether my character wants something, eh? Do I want the chicken or the roast beast for dinner?"
DM: "No, no, I'm just saying that you can't be gay!"
Halfling: "I'm not gay - I'm just taking a floozy up to my room."
DM: "Hmm... well, I guess you can do that. But, I mean, what are you taking her up to your room for then? Oh... I see... you're going to rob her... I guess that's OK."
Halfing: "Psh. No - so I can take her clothes off. I wouldn't do it down in the common room, would I?"
DM: "What! If you're not GAY, what FOR?"
Halfling: "I already told you, I'm not gay. Obviously, if there are no gay halflings, I can't be gay. So I can see her naked, duh!"
DM: "And that's it?"
Halfling: "Oh no. Now I have her take my clothes off and have her put her..."
Paladin: "Jeezus"
Fighter: "TMI, man, TMI."
Wizard: "Just roll some dice or something."
DM: "Hm... er... OK, well, you all see the halfling go upstairs with the doxy, and just... nobody knows what happens after that, OK? THERE JUST ARE NO GAY HALFLINGS. Now, doesn't anybody want to start a bar fight or something?"

 

[Virgil Sagecaster]

The only thing I can relate to ya is the fact that my gaming group only allows same sex pc/player (pretty much, a male player cant play a female pc).

Too bad for them if they are playing a " Drow/underdark Campaign" ( HA HA HA, Im a viscious DM)!

 

[Alzrius]

This GM would probably hate the Book of Erotic Fantasy then, what with a gay halfling character and all in there.

 

[reanjr]

An odd declaration from a GM heard in the gaming room of a local shop after hours: "All the halflings in my campaign world are heterosexual. Period. No room for discussion."

Immediately after, one of the female players packed up her dice and papers and left the table. She looked seriously miffed, but seemed very calm about it.

I didn't have an opportunity to follow up. So I don't have any additional background to offer.

Have you ever come across something like this yourself?

Maybe the player took homosexuality as the defining feature of her character and wanted to play up that fact in the campaign. I can see why a GM might dislike having a character whose sexual preference is an issue in the first place. It could be like having a womanizer in the party. It just isn't going to jive with all groups.

Remember the show Ellen? decent show, did pretty well in the ratings. When Ellen Degeneres (?) came "out of the closet" on the show, the entire shows focus became the fact that she was gay. "So this happens then that happens then we bring up the fact that Ellen is gay for the 75th time this episode and then this happens and then 76th time and then..." The show degenerated into ONLY being about the fact that Ellen was gay. And it tanked. On the other hand, there's Will and Grace, where the homosexuals are just homosexuals in normal situations. The show is not about them being homosexual. People like it.

 

[reanjr]

2. As a GM, I have never tried to make sexual orientation map 1:1 to a race. That seems rather silly to me. I have made it map 1:1 to a class in one game by ruling that in order to become a paladin, you must be gay.

Well, certain species of animals have greater or lesser tendencies towards homosexuality or bisexuality, so it actually does make sense to a certain extent. I mean, come on... Did anyone ever really think elven men were heterosexual? And it stands to reason some races would have strong predispositions in the opposite direction. For instance, even if there are gay dwarves, I just can't see them coming out of the closet or even realizing it due to the strong ties they have to the traditional family unit and clan. And homosexuality (as opposed to bisexuality) from what I understand is a distinctly human idea. So it seems reasonable that "No race X ever is gay" could make sense.