Will you make transsexual Elves canon in your games ?

[Maxperson]

There's two ways to handle this.

The simple way is to have pregnancy more or less force the Elf to remain female until birth (or until weaning?). As a side effect this gives then-female Elves the most accurate pregnancy test of all: the morning after an "encounter", try to flip to male. If you can, you're not pregnant.

The less-simple way is to allow a pregnant Elf to switch to male in all respects other than the internal child-supporting bits - in effect, resulting in a pregnant male - and only force the Elf to female when labour and birth are imminent. It's up to the individual Elf to decide whether to remain female in order to nurse; a flip to male would end lactation.

False Dichotomy!!

The third way is to just have the pregnancy only progress while female. This could result in a pregnancy that lasts hundreds of years potentially, and result in the male version of the elf impregnating other elves after becoming pregnant, and those children being born and achieving adulthood before the pregnancy goes full term.

 

[Sunseeker]

Ehh... in the standard analysis, the gender identity is the "man" or "woman" part. It does have that property. But the "trans" or "cis" part is a description of how they came by that identity, and so has a basis in certain biological and/or biographical facts. It can itself be an identity on top of the gender identity, obviously, but it's not quite so... open.

The thing is, the sort of person who is going to say a thing like that is probably aware of the standard analysis, and so is presumably bucking it deliberately. It's an interesting question as to why, and what they're trying to communicate about themselves. (They're more than likely failing to communicate it, because everybody else is misunderstanding them as saying something crazy. I wouldn't recommend bucking the standard analysis, if anyone were to ask me. But for some reason, people usually don't. )

Bolded for emphais. Ah, ya found me out.

The "standard analysis" as you call is it fine for producing a narrow range of alternatives based on definitions set forth from the binaries. The problem therein lies of course with the definition of the binaries which, as most binaries go, are highly polarized. Being male means Y and being female means X. Identifying as cis means A and identifying as trans means B. Typically framing it in a "Identifying as cis means you are..." while the opposite is identified with a negative, being trans means "you are not..." That's generally what happens when you have two binary elements. Being one means you are not the other.

People don't buck the system for a number of reasons.

For example, the homosexual community relies heavily on sex and orientation binaries. This is why there are often tiffs between homosexuals and more gender and sex fluid elements of the LGBT+ community. The first part is important because it has allowed themselves to define themselves as a distinct group, based on how they are not heterosexual. The second part is an expected result of hard binary positions: everyone who isn't gets tossed under the same bus, much in the same way heterosexuals see homosexuals as "other".

For some transgendered individuals, the binary is equally useful to identify what they are not and what they are. For others, it's not because they're A: not sure. B: somewhere in the middle. C: generally disinterested in the binary dynamic.

The binary can also be used as a political tool, to once again: define who is what and who isn't what.

That's kinda the problem, and kinda my rejection of the standard analysis, it just relies too heavily on that binary and produces incomplete analysis of what I see as a rather ridiculously multi-faceted subject.

I don't mind people misunderstanding and thinking I'm crazy. I probably am. But the general level of understanding of gender and sex identity issues is so poor, if I worried about people understanding what I was talking about, I'd go crazy!

 

[epithet]

...
Gender doesn't affect stats but Elvish sub-race does, at least in my game, which would immediately make this a bookkeeping nightmare. Not gonna happen.
...

Well, that's what makes it interesting. You can get more distance on your darkvision, or gills, or different cantrips, or a misty step. You could just leave the stat bonuses alone.

 

[Mouseferatu]

False Dichotomy!!

The third way is to just have the pregnancy only progress while female.

The fourth--which I find the most interesting, for character purposes--is simply that changing to male during pregnancy kills the fetus.

Which means the elf now has genuine consequences and decisions to deal with. What if the character feels more comfortable as a man, or with the ability to constantly change? Given the rarity of elven childbirth, that's pitting the personal against the societal. What's the elven cultural view on abortion? And why would their god grant a blessing with such a significant (if rare) cost?

I find the need for the character to address such questions far more interesting than finding them a loophole in the process.

 

[Sunseeker]

The fourth--which I find the most interesting, for character purposes--is simply that changing to male during pregnancy kills the fetus.

Which means the elf now has genuine consequences and decisions to deal with. What if the character feels more comfortable as a man, or with the ability to constantly change? Given the rarity of elven childbirth, that's pitting the personal against the societal. What's the elven cultural view on abortion? And why would their god grant a blessing with such a significant (if rare) cost?

I find the need for the character to address such questions far more interesting than finding them a loophole in the process.

Sure, if you're going for a 'consequences' game, though I suspect anyone who's actually running sexytimes with a pregnancy risk probably is.

EDIT: that would be an interesting extra level of rules to apply to the various polymorph spells and wildshape as well.

 

[Eltab]

Haven’t read the whole thread, but has anyone decided to make a Transgender Elf Cannon for their game? (Asking for a friend.)

No, but a giant slingshot or a catapult has come to mind.

 

[Eltab]

(They're more than likely failing to communicate it, because everybody else is misunderstanding them as saying something crazy. I wouldn't recommend bucking the standard analysis, if anyone were to ask me. But for some reason, people usually don't. )

In one of the two current threads on this general topic, somebody (name redacted to protect the innocent) told me I should not expect them to use words according to the dictionary definitions.

 

[Maxperson]

The fourth--which I find the most interesting, for character purposes--is simply that changing to male during pregnancy kills the fetus.

Which means the elf now has genuine consequences and decisions to deal with. What if the character feels more comfortable as a man, or with the ability to constantly change? Given the rarity of elven childbirth, that's pitting the personal against the societal. What's the elven cultural view on abortion? And why would their god grant a blessing with such a significant (if rare) cost?

I find the need for the character to address such questions far more interesting than finding them a loophole in the process.

Personally, I think all 4 have consequences and are interesting for character purposes.

#1 requires the PC to stop changing sex, which is a definite consequence that will impact how the character is played.

#2 sets the elf up as a pregnant male, which could and would bring all kinds of questions from people encountered. I doubt many would know about the blessing outside of elf communities. That, too has character impact and consequences. Hard to switch as a potential disguise when the pregnancy follows you.

#3 Gives the pregnant character potential pregnancy issues for years, decades or even centuries, depending on how often the switch happens. I find that to be interesting for character purposes as well.

#4 is similar to #1, except you have the option to kill the baby and switch anyway. That is as you noted, interesting and as different consequences that could result from a switch back to male.

I'd be okay with any of those four from both a DM and player standpoint.

 

[Jester David]

The one thing I'd need to figure out if a player wanted to have this trait would be what would happen if the character were pregnant and decided to wake up male the next day. That would be complicated.

I think the Races of Eberron book that described changelings touched on that. I believe they were locked into one sex for the duration.

But I also haven't ever seen a PC get pregnant. So I wouldn't worry too much until that happened.

 

[Sunseeker]

I think the Races of Eberron book that described changelings touched on that. I believe they were locked into one sex for the duration.

But I also haven't ever seen a PC get pregnant. So I wouldn't worry too much until that happened.

You are correct. They can take on other female forms, but not male ones. Though they can use their abilities to disguise their pregnancy to some extent.

But yeah, I haven't had a game where anyone actually slept around enough to risk PC pregnancy or wanted to.