Homophobic Elves

[Buttercup]

Re: Language Difference

Perhaps this "hero" or "heroine" difference is cultural. A friend of mine from Scotland assured me that the term "heroine" is alive and well in this culture. Being an American product, use of "hero" in the ELH may in fact have a neutral element. However, I am American and when I think of a female on stage I still think of "actress."

In American English, hero has become gender neutral. Heroine usually implies someone in a billowing, white dress who moans and sighs and has to be rescued. Have you ever seen the movie Romancing the Stone? She's a heroine. Ripley in Alien is a hero.

Personally, I think of the term 'actor' as gender neutral when it refers to stage actors. Female film stars are actresses. Of course this could be a personal quirk.

 

[Katerek]

radferth: great idea, I totally plan to steal it.

Serge: I see your points. Very valid. I have noticed a trend of males hinging on the lesbian angle, but that wasn't my original point when I sort of hijacked this thread earlier.

Sexual 'deviations' (I hate that phrase) CAN be an interesting character motivator, but only if the whole group is with it. Like I said earlier, it isn't for everyone.

The guy that plays the gay paladin in my group did it because it just 'fit' the character. It isn't really a driving force or anything.

I usue sexualtiy in my games because it makes things seam more real and personal to my players, because they know it isn't something you can find in an off the shelf module.

The arch nemesis in my game is the female known as the Lich Queen. While alive shee loved, and had a family, all while being evil and nefarious. This was a concept that my players really had a tough time with, to them, being a loving caring mother, and the queen of all evil did not go hand in hand. But it has been fun blurring the lines.

I find that with each group this type of subject matter can be handled in different ways, and ultimately it is for the DM to decide just how to do it.

BTW I would like to thank everyone for keeping this all mature and such an interesting discussion. This is why I keep coming here!

 

[The Blue Wizard]

Sex Change

Does anyone remember the "Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity" that changed the sex of the PC who donned it? What howls we used to have when that was found in the dungeon. I notice it is no longer included on 3E "wondrous item" lists. Is this because it is no longer cool to begroan suddenly finding yourself in the role of the opposite sex? I remember the role playing this little item offered! Back then (late 80s), for a group of teenage boys, that was one of the worst curses we could imagine....becoming a woman!! Its interesting how "the times" affects even RPGs--not that it shouldn't.

One of the PCs in the game I DM is a Rogue who pick-pocketed a Paladin one afternoon at a village fair. This player (a male) went on to develop a crush on this Paladin, the most charismatic figure he had ever met (the Paladin was male too). The Paladin eventually joined the party, and I must say...when he got killed and the Rogue's heartsickness was expressed I felt a bit odd. The Rogue had never "expressed" his feelings towards the Paladin, who was in the dark tha he was fancied so much by a "secret admirerer" in the party. This was the first gay character in any of the adventures I had run, and to be honest, I had a hard time "taking it seriously." I hav asked myself why that was, and perhaps it is because it seems almost "taboo" to me to role play such intimate/human and real life stuff. I must admit it did bring an edge to the PC/NPC interaction though! It seems that perhaps others have role played sexually charged scenerios with success. Any tips?

 

[Incenjucar]

Common Thoughts

Interesting. There's been a few similar threads on the WotC boards recently along these lines, one about Sexuality in Roleplaying, and one on more of a tangent when someone noticed that one of the Forgotten Realms deities is notably bisexual (The author even showed up to confirm it. Bravo). While there are, of course, the occassional less-than-impressive opinions and statements made on some of these topics (Took me quite a while to kill the flame war on my D&D: Swimsuit Edition thread for similar reasons), it's increasingly appearant that gamers are rather accepting of the possibilities. Perhaps the years of playing those who are so unlike ourselves has given us that much-claimed insight into different persons.

Always good to see that something as simple as a game can have so positive of an affect.

Now if we could get -sports- to do the same...

 

[barsoomcore]

Re: Sex Change

It seems that perhaps others have role played sexually charged scenerios with success. Any tips?

Wait! Do I sense a chance to plug my favourite RPG innovation:

Swashbuckling Cards!

The big problem with "charged" game elements like sex is that you will introduce something that your players are uncomfortable with. That's not going to be fun for anybody. And it can be hard to tell if somebody's comfy or not with a given idea -- they may say they're cool just to seem... um... cool, but that doesn't mean they are.

Swashbuckling Cards are the answer. If you don't know, these are cards with little plot/combat/fun points on them. Each player gets one at the start of a given game session and they can play them at any time -- at which point the card takes effect. Some are just things like "+2 to attack" while others are "An NPC falls in love with a PC". It would be very easy to provide a few that had to do with sexual themes (though none exist right now that I'm aware of).

You can get them at Big Freaky Sean's -- just click on the Downloads section and have a boo.

The advantage is that players can introduce such themes if they're interested. If they're not, they don't play the card and all's well. I find that putting such things in the player's hands makes it a lot easier for everyone concerned, and even encourages my players to get a little more adventurous in their role-playing.

 

[Xarlen]

Hm. That bit about the Lich Queen being a loving mother and still being evil is getting more into Aligment Definitions. You can do evil things, but still love someone. Let's take for example, a slave master. Sure, he could be cruel and heartless and etc to this person because they are a slave, be it due to being in bondage, be of another race, or gender, but that doesn't mean that he cannot love someone, simply because he is cruel to another. But, that's straying from the topic.

On a more broad venue, Sexuality in gaming can be approached (AGAIN if your party is comfy or can approach it maturely), depending on the group.

Sexuality that is regarded between races, classes, and cultures can have an impact, or atleast offer quirks for characters and NPCs.

An example I could offer would be, once my group was hired by a transmuter who runs a Pets/Guardians/Mounts business, by breeding/morphing various creatures (Inspired by a Kit in 2e about mages who tampered with critters, creating things like Gryphons and Owlbears, and such, by magical crossbreeding). Well, he hired them to fetch him some young winterwolves of breeding age. As it turned out when the rogue snuck into his bedroom to see if he was serious, his bodyguard was a bipedial-formed humanoid winterwolf (Like the hybrid form of a werwolf), was femalel, and was sharing his bed. She was rather... dominant, and it's certainly a distraction when they're out hiring folks to fetch him test subjects.

Another example I could offer is, the cleric in our party is in love with the party's NPC tank, a natural werewolf. We have done RP (And logged it) for downtime, about their relationship (But we faded to black before the graphic things started in). And, little bits of their relationship are hinted at in common RP; last session, she had a barrel of oil dumped on top of her during an ambush, and the cleric's knee-jerk reaction was to Create Water. Saved her butt, it did.

On another thread, which talked about PC love interests, I think that Sex, and more importantly Romance, is a great way to introduce plots, and sow the seeds (pardon the pun) for further adventures. For example, I'd like one of the other PCs to fall in love with someone OUTside of the party, so that it could have some effect (Something Current and Present, offering for plot hooks).

And, not done from the approach of 'Let's Hit On The Barmaid' we all did when we were 13.

 

[tburdett]

Re: Sex Change

Does anyone remember the "Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity" that changed the sex of the PC who donned it? What howls we used to have when that was found in the dungeon. I notice it is no longer included on 3E "wondrous item" lists. Is this because it is no longer cool to begroan suddenly finding yourself in the role of the opposite sex? I remember the role playing this little item offered! Back then (late 80s), for a group of teenage boys, that was one of the worst curses we could imagine....becoming a woman!! Its interesting how "the times" affects even RPGs--not that it shouldn't.

Becoming a woman is still the worst thing that could happen to a man. The monthly cycle, childbirth, menopause, breast cancer, gynocological examinations and the rest of it is a pretty bad deal, in my opinion.

The big problem with "charged" game elements like sex is that you will introduce something that your players are uncomfortable with. That's not going to be fun for anybody. And it can be hard to tell if somebody's comfy or not with a given idea -- they may say they're cool just to seem... um... cool, but that doesn't mean they are.

Exactly!

I won't introduce or allow anything into the game that makes any of the players feel uncomfortable.

If you want to examine or explore your own personal perversions, do it on your own time. I'm not interested.

Introducing these aspects do NOT automatically make your game adult or mature. Many people equate sex and alcohol with mature or adult behavior, and as we all know, this couldn't be farther from the truth.

 

[Xarlen]

Men can get breast cancer, too.

 

[Deedlit]

(Speaking Ic, and to the original topic, not the one about homosexuality in DnD campaigns in general.)

Of course it's because the elf is in love with a human man. I mean, Arwen had to be turned into a human, and I wasn't allowed in the forest of no return for about eight years or so when I married parn. Bisexuality is more common then heterosexuality among elves(Unless your on Krynn, and a Silvanesti elf.), but falling in love with a short-lived human is frowned upon.

 

[Dextra]

sexuality and sexual orientation

The ironic thing is, I don't know too many straight women who fantasize or have a fascination with gay men.

Ah, then you have not met any fruit flies, aka fag hags! Quite the common occurrence in my old scene.

Just thought I'd also interject that maybe it would be better to change the usage of the term sexuality when referring to homosexuality/bisexuality to sexual orientation.

Neat thoughts, BTW.

We don't include sexuality of any kind in our recent games, but that's because we play with our kids. In our grownup games of VtM or CP2020, we've had gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transexuals, transvestites, two-spirited... all the colours of the rainbow!

In my game design, I try to avoid two things:
-stereotypical depictions of anyone- women, men, sexual orientations, racial traits, and...
-heterosexism