NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SehanineMoonbow" data-source="post: 8295335" data-attributes="member: 7025612">Others have responded to this already, but I wanted to add my two cents, even though the thread has moved beyond it a bit. Of course everyone's playing style is going to be different, but many people enjoy relationships in RPGs, whether that is platonic or romantic. They also like fleshing out their characters, and that usually includes the gender of said character. I'm not judging your gaming style, but it does come up for others. I'm asexual, but I still form deep platonic bonds, and my characters often have relationships. I understand that some players don't go in to this kind of thing, but others do, and WotC is finally seeing that those relationships may not be the "default". Or it can even be something as simple as going to an inn that is run by the innkeeper and his husband, rather than the "default" heterosexual relationship. It can be part of the worldbuilding without being central. And, as others have mentioned, while players and DMs have always played how they want, having the acknowledgement that lgbtq+ people can and should exist in fantasy settings, just as they do in the real world, by having NPCs that are diverse in gender and sexual orientation, is a step forward in helping the queer community feel seen. Regardless of what you do in your home game, having representation in gaming material is important. And it's not (or shouldn't be) "Bob is gay, look how gay Bob is. He's a paladin of Torm, and is so gay." It's not about emphasizing the orientation of an NPC. Rather, it's "Bob is a paladin of Torm, and he journeys with his husband/boyfriend Fred, aiding those in need." You're not placing emphasis on his homosexuality, what you're doing is presenting him as a person, the same way you would the "default" heterosexual paladin (to continue using paladin as an example). Because cis het has been the assumed for so long, having characters that are not is important. And it's not about listing their orientation, it's about showing it, such as in the example I gave above. Just as in non gaming fantasy books, whether romance is a big theme in the books or not, there is usually a boy-meets-girl scenario. Thus, the assumed identity is cis-het. But by making it a boy-meets-boy or girl-meets-girl, or a nonbinary character, you are showing readers (the world, really), that they are people, too, and can have adventures and slay dragons the same as the "default" cis-het characters have.</blockquote>

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