Gender and sexuality diversity in RPG settings

[quinron]

No callout intended.

I was just talking about how I felt that a setting where trans people are given the same respect as cis people, and can (if they want to) transition flawlessly will still have ways of explicitly portraying trans people.

Cool - and fully agreed. I just felt a little nervous; I'm very conscious that I'm wading into a topic where I care about it, and I've heard a lot of firsthand accounts, but I don't have firsthand experience.

In one case, it was my own father telling me that no girls would ever be interested in playing a game which had "so many pictures of sexy women in it".

Since your concern is about marketing to women, I'm dubious about the reliability of your dad's opinions.

If you're really concerned about it, you could just whip up a focus group. Show the art to a bunch of women who are already interested in these sorts of games (they shouldn't be too hard to find around here) and tell them you're interested in their feedback without telling them that you're specifically wondering about the gender ratio. You could even just show the art to a bunch of people regardless of gender, but take special note of the women's responses. If they're having trouble articulating responses, maybe have a list of questions about their thoughts on it and stick the gender ratio question in the middle.

My only worry would be that if you're posting that on these boards or any other boards you frequent, people who follow your posts might be coming into the focus group already knowing what you're looking for. I'd recommend either going to a board you don't frequent or using an alt account.