Sex and Sexuality in D&D. . .

[krissbeth]

I usually reserve my characters' sexualities for journals rather than in-game. I have one who's unsure of herself, one who's poly and one total virgin with a romantic hero complex. The sexuality is a pretty tertiary characteristic for the first two, so I just keep that in writing, mostly. For the third, well, it's just funny for her to say, "I don't get it," whenever there's an off-color joke.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Okay, I stand corrected. They are slightly more available. But at the typical gp costs of casting a spell, I think that they are at best an option for upper class and the occasional middle class types. (Adventurers are not on the charts since they have access to money nobody else does.)

 

[Zurai]

PATHFINDER SPOILERS!

Spoiler

The first Pathfinder adventure contains quite a few sexual situations. A young woman tries to seduce one of the "heroes of Sandpoint", one of the villains has a book full of erotic drawings of another of the villains, and there's several mentions of possible romantic interests among the NPCs.

It's really quite refreshing to have a pre-generated module that isn't forced to shy away from stuff like that.

 

[STARP_Social_Officer]

I don't go out of my way to point out and introduce sexual elements into my games, but I certainly don't gloss over them. Of course it depends on the setting, and you can go a little too far sometimes. One example would be a friend of mine who ran a game in which all the PCs were elves. At some point during his campaign a licensed work (either an article or a book) was published about elves which made much of their 'sexual freedoms' and no-hang-ups attitude to sex. The rest of the campaign, the attitude of "if it moves, shag it" applied nicely and it started to get weird (think animals...I'm not kidding). That kind of ended the fun for my friend. But not for his players.
As for my campaigns, it varies depending on setting and culture. In modern games and the like, it has the normal status as it does in Western society today. In more archaic settings, it tends to be "there but hidden" unless PCs go looking for it. It's much the same in other settings I've played in. I could tell you a story involving my halfling bard and a bondage parlour but...well, there might be kids reading this.

 

[Dread October]

Here is just a simple thought from the mind of an econ major:
What happens to the drawbacks of an unsafe and unprotected sexual lifestyle in a world where clerics can just cast cure disease? Theoretically, anyone well-to-do enough needn't worry.

hmmmmmm. Funny how magic screws with incentives.

This may have been addressed already but I think that from an econ perspective nothing changes.

Remove Disease is a 3rd level spell and if you follow 100 GP per spell level, then you're gonna need to convince a cleric powerful enough to cast Dispel Magic, Searing Light or Speak with Dead, to save you from a night or 12 with an unclean woman.

Not likely gonna happen. I can't see a cleric bothering to do this for a guy who woud just go back out and catch the next bug of the month.

Anti itch unguent is cheaper.

 

[Dread October]

I've played in campaigns where the GMs had an element of sexuality to the game and in almost every case, it became a distraction AND a bit or a personal soap box fpr that DMs "issues".

In other games, I have played gay characters and IMO done a good job. Part of my inspiration for how to play the characters has to do with having gay or bi players on our games for a long time. This helps play real characters and avoid caricatures and stereotypes.

Currently I go no further than setting of family trees etc. Most players who bother to write up close personal contacts, tend to forget all about them LOOOONG before there is ever a chance to take advantage of the sexual aspects of having those contacts.

My rule is get laid in real life so we can not have to help you get it done during the game.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'm a straight male gamer with 30 years in the hobby who has played a few gay PCs and several female PCs in a variety of RPGs.

Oddly enough, its my play of female PCs that has gotten more negative reaction from other players than the gay PCs. Why, I don't know.

Its not as if I'm hitting on other PCs all of the time. I only did that once- a female alien gladiatrix in a superhero game thought the supergroup's leader was cute, even though he was rather tiny and delicate (she was nearly 7' tall before she started using her Growth power).

A female mecha-pilot/engineer I played was a "closeted" bisexual who kept her affairs off-base.

A female Ley-Line Walker I played in a RIFTS campaign was a virgin- she believed that her power derived from her status as a maiden. Her belief in that concept was so strong, that had she slept with anyone, she would have a mental block about her powers and would have lost them utterly.

A GURPS PC I played was a "situational slut"- she used her sexuality to gain power & influence with NPCs, sometimes even access to forbidden areas of bases.

Meanwhile, none of my gay PCs has ever been a stereotype- though if I thought a PC required such a personality, I'd play him or her that way.

OTOH, I've encountered very few people who actually play gay PCs without playing up a stereotype.

 

[AnonymousOne]

This may have been addressed already but I think that from an econ perspective nothing changes.

Remove Disease is a 3rd level spell and if you follow 100 GP per spell level, then you're gonna need to convince a cleric powerful enough to cast Dispel Magic, Searing Light or Speak with Dead, to save you from a night or 12 with an unclean woman.

Not likely gonna happen. I can't see a cleric bothering to do this for a guy who would just go back out and catch the next bug of the month.

Anti itch unguent is cheaper.

This of course is dependent on the nature of the cleric, his associated church, the relationship with the petitioner, etc.

The way I see it, this is a rather affordable venue. If the 'church' really wanted to minister to the ladies of the night in a campaign setting, then what better way to cure them of their diseases and minister to their spiritual needs.

This idea that it's "just for the rich" is not true, D&D does not equal ancient feudalism (at least not the way I've understood it). So you have to assume that there is a burgeoning, if not flourishing middle-class.

On a similar note, why the hell shouldn't a wealthy playboy be able to purchase a cure disease after a night out? Sure some clerics might balk at it, but others would put the gold from the healing to good use funding a soup kitchen or for alms. Your assumption that nothing changes in a world where certain kinds of actions are low cost is simply incorrect.

 

[Dread October]

This of course is dependent on the nature of the cleric, his associated church, the relationship with the petitioner, etc.

The way I see it, this is a rather affordable venue. If the 'church' really wanted to minister to the ladies of the night in a campaign setting, then what better way to cure them of their diseases and minister to their spiritual needs.

This idea that it's "just for the rich" is not true, D&D does not equal ancient feudalism (at least not the way I've understood it). So you have to assume that there is a burgeoning, if not flourishing middle-class.

On a similar note, why the hell shouldn't a wealthy playboy be able to purchase a cure disease after a night out? Sure some clerics might balk at it, but others would put the gold from the healing to good use funding a soup kitchen or for alms. Your assumption that nothing changes in a world where certain kinds of actions are low cost is simply incorrect.

My point is that we assume that because the power of healing is at hand, right across the street, that this means it would be affordable. In all of our games, folks die all the time from battles fought in bars. The friends of these combatants don't really always whip out potions of cure light wounds, adfter a bar fight just because they can afford to buy a few.

We assume that the characters involved just "heal" naturally and save the potions for stuff that really matters.

Any chuch administering to the sick should probably want to deal with the root cause of why folks are sick. You don't help the hookers by giving the communion and curing the crotxh rot. You help the hookers (if this is really what you want to do) by eliminating that which causes them to think they need to be on the street.

Any chuch thats handing out healing to hookers everytime they come down with something is going to find themselves supporting that which they really want to fight against.

Catching thew creeping whim wham is the result of a choice made by said hooker.

Of course there would also be a middle class in D&D as well THOSE folks aren't out getting stabbed in pubs or having their ginkys sprout legs and crawl away after a wild night at the docks.

The middle class members of your city more than likely are reasonable members of society who are married and avoiding the brothels.

IF NOT and they need to get rid of that moss on their johnson, then the church should charge double. After all, The Middle class and wealthy can absolutly afford it. NOW this is how the soup kitchens get funded.

I never said healing was for the rich. Healing is for the worthy. Mercenary healing can be for the rich. Everyone else gets the Hospitlars.

 

[Rystil Arden]

This of course is dependent on the nature of the cleric, his associated church, the relationship with the petitioner, etc.

The way I see it, this is a rather affordable venue. If the 'church' really wanted to minister to the ladies of the night in a campaign setting, then what better way to cure them of their diseases and minister to their spiritual needs.

This idea that it's "just for the rich" is not true, D&D does not equal ancient feudalism (at least not the way I've understood it). So you have to assume that there is a burgeoning, if not flourishing middle-class.

On a similar note, why the hell shouldn't a wealthy playboy be able to purchase a cure disease after a night out? Sure some clerics might balk at it, but others would put the gold from the healing to good use funding a soup kitchen or for alms. Your assumption that nothing changes in a world where certain kinds of actions are low cost is simply incorrect.

Heck, go one step further--what about disease immunity? Imagine an elite group of courtesans made up of Paladins. The classiest and most expensive to be sure, and if you try to mistreat the girls, they'll break your arm, but since htey are immune to disease, safety from STDs can be assured. And then of course, all the funds are used to help poor and orphaned girls make livelihoods for themselves, the kind who might otherwise be victimised as prostitutes in the worst and most exploitative kinds of brothels.