Gender and sexuality diversity in RPG settings

[Destro2119]

I am trying to make my game / campaign setting more inclusive for various gender and sexual identities, but I don't really know how to go about it.

My setting is roughly equivalent to nineteenth century Earth, but far more egalitarian, without rigidly defined gender roles. In addition, alchemy makes seamlessly changing one's biological sex something which is, while not easy or commonplace, something that is achievable for most people.

I can't personally really see how many of the modern gender identities would fit into such a setting outside of very specific circumstances.


Likewise, when it comes to writing up specific setting NPCs, I don't generally mention family unless it is important for the setting (for example, a dynastic family) because I want to leave it open for other people to develop as they see fit, and because it would also feel forced / tokenist to simply insert a context less line about someone's sexuality or AGAB into their biography. Likewise, I prefer to leave NPCs sexuality ambiguous in my games in case a player wants to romance them.

So, while I have had trans, gender fluid, intersex, and homo/bi/pan sexual NPCs in games that I have run, very little of it comes across in the official NPC write-ups or setting design.



On a related note, what is the proper ratio of male to female characters in artwork? A common sense answer would obviously be 50/50, I have had several people comment about how there are already too many drawings of women despite them only making up about 40% of the artwork.
To go further down that rabbit hole, do you think male gamers are more or less likely to be interested in a game with lots of female representation in the artwork? And vice versa?
And, a little deeper, does it matter how sexualized the art is? I try and avoid out and out cheesecake (its tough, I have found that a lot of artists want to draw it even if not requested), but most of the illustrations are of conventionally attractive people regardless of gender. Likewise, while I am trying to display a wide array of clothing styles and body types, a large portion of the illustrations do depict people who are scantily clad or with unrealistic physiques.

Thanks!

On a side note, a interesting thing that relates to this is how Fallen London (set in pseudo gothic 1870s London that was stolen by immensely powerful beings called the Masters of the Bazaar and resides now undergrounds in massive massive cave... long story) deals with sexuality and gender. On the latter, the eldritch ***ery of the place makes it so that while there are guys and gals, there are now people with squids for heads and semi sentient golem workers, to the point where someone identifying as agender or nonbinary wouldn't even be given a passing glance. On the former, one of the Maters portfolios deals with love of all kinds, so lgbt relationships aren't stigmatized as they were in IRL 1870s London because he deals in ALL kinds of love.

Spiel aside, try to make sure everything makes sense according to the lore of your world. I look forwards to seeing the finished product!