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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Barastrondo" data-source="post: 5704550" data-attributes="member: 3820">Controversial content does not automatically equate crummy execution unless you play with people who just aren't very mature. If a player played out that same scenario, only with Kothara the Female Barbarian getting date-raped by means of charm person, I wouldn't lay the blame on allowing the topic of heterosexuality at the table. I'd lay the blame on Byron's player. Or who are interested in characters and RPGs. It doesn't take preference for acting and psychology over an RPG: this sort of thing can be interesting to a player just from preferring books and films that have a strong element of character to them. There's an entire D&D franchise hinging on people liking to read about a character who realizes he's different and has to come to grips with that emotionally, only parsed in "I think I might be good" instead of "I think I might be gay." But to the original post, I honestly haven't seen this particular conflict played out; like you say, usually characters are more open about their sexuality. One of the things that maybe undercuts this particular issue as something that plays out at the table (as opposed to blue-booking, emails or other smaller-group sessions) is the fact that at least in the groups I tend to play in, the other PCs don't add to the conflict -- they're too supportive! If they're likely to get engaged in another PC's romantic travails, they'd be less "We're not sure we approve of you being attracted to a guy" and more "We're not sure we approve of you being attracted to this guy, seriously, I think he's got an infernal pact or something." Which is not to say I don't think it could happen; there's a couple of people in my swashbuckler who are undergoing some complicated introspection about who they are and what they want. It's mostly due to family issues, but I dunno, either player might decide sexuality is part of it, and it wouldn't be out of character. (Well, the rake would probably have to self-identify as bi, given his history.) If that happened, I think the other players at the table might find it as interesting as they find things like absentee parents, pressure to marry and the other little social things that go hand-in-hand with duels and monsters and all that other good stuff.</blockquote>

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