PCs dealing with sexuality

[Mark Hope]

Oh dear. XD

Really though? So few people have seen romance in the game? My previous group, I'll admit, didn't do it much because we new somebody would be giggling all the way through someone else's confessions of love, but normally it seems to me like a pretty obvious thing to come up. The characters are human after all (or humanoid... Demi-human... Whatever).

And again. Sexuality and romance does not automatically equal sex. Seriously.

Indeed. When it comes to sex, as opposed to sexuality or romance, I'm struggling to remember anyone ever rping out a full sex-scene in my games, beyond the point at which you'd rather fade to black. Oh, wait, no. Now I remember a couple. So yeah, does happen. Not the same as sexuality, though.

Romance tends to come up a lot, with attendant implied sex where applicable, be that PC/NPC or PC/PC, from unrequited longing to one-night stands to tempestuous flings to marriage with kids. The dramatic tension that comes from that makes for awesome games.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

So few people have seen romance in the game?

I wouldn't say THAT. I would say that few people have played PCs in which they were tormented by their romantic desires. As in like a PC who has only recently come to terms with not being straight.

For each PC I so chose to have romantic entanglements- gay, straight or bi- I got to play them. (Not every GM was happy with that, though, I'll admit.)

 

[Cor Azer]

I have played and DMed for several gay, lesbian, crossdressing, and even one transgendered (hunting for a girdle) characters, but they've always gone for the open and accepting of their life route... At least, as far as I know. If anyone was doing an internal character struggle, it was too subtle for me to pick up.

That said, they certainly haven't all been flamboyantly open (although some have - particularly in a swashbuckling game), and I don't recall any joke/mockery portrayals (we've had a few homo- and bisexual players in our group, so we've got some sensitivity on the issue; plus we're not usually jerks).

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Well, I've done things for jokes a few times. In one case it was for lack of a better term, an asexual aristocratic (as in, he took a level in the class) male bard, both he and his "dear friend" (another aristocrat played by my friend) extremely androgynous and wearing only the finest garments and perfumes. In this case, they had no particular interest in anyone and were just complete narciscists, but their appearance and extremely cordial relations with one another could easily lead one to think otherwise...

Another time, I had an ambiguous gender bisexual Changeling rogue warshaper in a party with a complete and utter boor of a character, that proudly roleplayed his abysmal charisma score appropriately, being a jerk to everyone. He also liked to hit on women and made it pretty clear he wasn't above taking advantage of one that was drunk or otherwise not in her normal senses. My character took it upon itself to make sure the cretin could never breed / pass on his bastardy genes, and spent its spare time in the guise of women for him to "charm" only to later in private squick the hell out of him by sprouting a tentacle out of the mouth or some other body horror, the ultimate goal being to forever mentally scar the character from attempting to sleep with anyone. Played for laughs, of course.

On a more serious note, one of the characters I'm currently playing is techincally a hetero male, but both he and his NPC significant other have kinky imaginations and the ability to polymorph into various genders and creature types, and I've made it pretty clear that, within the confines of their monogamous relationship, he's open to pretty much anything. It's mostly left offscreen, aside from occasionally squicking out the other PCs with his bondage-themed spell selection, including Evan's Spiked Tentacles of Forced Intrusion (thank you for the inspiration, OotS!).
Another character I'm currently playing is another Changeling (I like 'em). Definitively a male, but his whole thing is that racial and gender lines are meaningless and not worth all the fuss people make of them, all that matters is distinguishing yourself in this life. To this end, he changes his gender and race as often as he wishes to match what he is currently "feeling like," but doesn't use it for subterfuge, just a visual manifestation of his self. In accordance with his outlook, he is "bisexual," you could say. It's again, pretty much left in the background, though, not a major source of internal conflict.

In general I'm very open to playing different genders and sexualities, but I don't really define my character by it that much, and I mostly game for light haerted enjoyment, not drama. When there is drama and it's not the "super villain has your family member hostage" variety, I prefer it to be on philosophical / metaphysical grounds, not romantic.

EDIT: I did once have a female druid become romantically involved with another player's male monk PC, as they were long lost friends, but the courtship mostly involved heavy flirting on her part and didn't get too in depth on screen.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I remember the pregenerated characters for the 1E module Isle of the Ape.

The female druid was described as having an attraction to the female ranger in the party. The portraits for these characters showed them both as fairly attractive. It was pretty hot for a D&D module.

 

[Pentius]

In my experience, the sexuality of bi- and homosexually oriented characters have always been either played as a joke, swept under the rug, or simply not addressed at all. This makes it, again in my experience, exactly equal to heterosexuality.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

In my experience, the sexuality of bi- and homosexually oriented characters have always been either played as a joke, swept under the rug, or simply not addressed at all. This makes it, again in my experience, exactly equal to heterosexuality.

Yeah, pretty much this.

 

[MoxieFu]

Everyone I have ever played with has been either hetero or "in the closet" at the time. So no, it has never come up. Most of those I played with would not consider it playing D&D if it did. I have learned in the years since gaming with some of them that two players have come out as gay. It was not known at the time.

 

[Shemeska]

I had a player whose PC was a half-fey drow who was pretty conflicted about his own bisexuality. Came to terms with it by the end of the game though.

On my end I've had a decent number of non-hetero NPCs, handled in the same way as a hetero NPC. Usually there just so in the background, neither flaunted or hidden, except for one NPC who hit on one of the PCs just because she knew it would disturb the PC (on account of it being a fiend hitting on a celestial on top of different preferences).

 

[khantroll]

Most of the D&D playing groups I've been with haven't really tackled it, mainly because of the real life makeup of the tables and the fact that D&D is usually not a platform that supports it.

We have, myself included, taken the joke angle with homosexual characters before. One of my player's even does it regularly as part of a perform check for his rogue.

I have played in a Vampire game one time that was populated by gay, straight, lesbian, and bi characters, typically matching the orientation of the players. There wasn't any angst, though; and the only self-realization came when one of the characters decided she was a lesbian instead of bi.

Generally, though, in a game like that (sexually charged, acting heavy game played by a bunch of artists), you aren't going to treat it like group therapy. You're only going to show the part of you that has it together, or the way you wish your crap was together. One of the gay players in that group, for instance, was an aspiring interior designer (yeah, I know cliche; I made jokes at the time). In game, he was that; a gay vampire interior designer that specialized in designing spaces for vampires. In real life, in the small town he lived in, I doubt more then 10 people knew he was gay, and he just faded into the background all the time.

If we expand the category to sexuality in general, my currant character may be a viable example. He was capture by drow, and because my DM is a sadistic jerk, he is raped by the female clerics. My response (thanks to my college psychology classes) was have the character transform into a physcial self-improvement nut with a love-hate relationship with drow elves and drow culture. He hates that they made him a victim, and wants to prove that he's better then them, and he hates that he loves them. I've actually had some good RP segments with that, and the DM's love of drow gives me ample opportunity to act that on facet of the character.