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Thread: Your PC's sexual preference
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2012-07-18, 12:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2012
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- Dallas TX
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Your PC's sexual preference
Hey all,
Just came from a New World of Darkness game and one of the players had a strange focus for her PC. It was that the PC was gay, and its not that I question that view but how much does does the Giant collective include sexual preference in their games. It seemed that the game turned into her players desire for sexual contact which was fine role playing on her part but seemed more like a public reading of erotica than actually a theme to move along a quest.
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2012-07-18, 12:22 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2009
- Location
- Germany
Re: Your PC's sexual preference
I don't think this ever comes up in our games. Sometimes when we're in a slightly silly mood, someone attempts to persuade an NPC with usually hopeless seduction, in which case the gender of the NPC doesn't make the situation any more or less entertaining for everyone.
It's usually making it up as we go.
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2012-07-18, 12:24 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2011
Re: Your PC's sexual preference
Pathfinder has a mechanical aspect to this- the Charming trait gives you a +1 on Diplomacy and Bluff to characters that could find you attractive.
Generally it hasn't come up much in games I've been in other than a brief, "What do you do during the night at the inn?" "I find a barmaid and try to seduce her." Brief flavor, acknowledged as part of the character's personality, played for laughs in the event of a horrible diplomacy roll, but otherwise just moved past.
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2012-07-18, 12:27 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2011
Re: Your PC's sexual preference
Well, part of the appeal of games is that you can act out a fantasy that you can't, for whatever reason, act out in real life. I don't think her behavior was necessarily disruptive, and it only was so because it got in the way of everyone else's fun.
Furthermore, I'm willing to admit that some fantasies you should keep to yourself.
As for your actual question, I think character sexuality should really only be used as a dimension through which that character conflicts with their society. Humans tend to be very cruel, sometimes even violent, toward those who violate their sexual norms (though "sexual norms" obviously deviate significantly from culture to culture). A misfit outcast searching for people who will accept them for what they are is a classic character archetype, especially in roleplaying games, and having an abnormal sexuality is a great way to get there.
If, however, the sexuality is considered "normal" then there's really no good reason to bring it up.
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2012-07-18, 12:27 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2008
- Location
- Sweden
- Gender
Re: Your PC's sexual preference
My PCs are always asexual for all intent and purpose, I find roleplaying romantic and/or sexual stuff distracting at best, and uncomfortable at worst.
Black text is for sarcasm, also sincerity. You'll just have to read between the lines and infer from context like an animal
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2012-07-18, 12:28 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2011
- Location
- Oregon
Re: Your PC's sexual preference
Honestly? It's never come up, in either sense of the phrase. Sexytimes are for sexytimes, games are for games. Cross-contamination leads to weirdness, and not the lovecraftian kind that D&D is ok with.
Guess who's good at avatars? Thormag. That's who.
A Campaign Setting more than a year in the making, Patria!
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2012-07-18, 12:28 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
Re: Your PC's sexual preference
I have a 7'2 Thai boxer who happens to be a Silver Fang Werewolf in a WoD game I'm playing in who I decided was gay. It's not for any particular reason, other than to attempt to play a gay-positive character. It hasn't come up yet, but then why should it?
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2012-07-18, 12:29 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2012
- Gender
Re: Your PC's sexual preference
It does matter, at least to me, but only in certain cases. I once had a character who blatantly told a succubus that he really wasn't into ladies, and when she tried to turn into a guy, he just waved her off, saying that it wasn't the same. The succubus felt very incompetent after that, and didn't bug our party again.
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2012-07-18, 12:35 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2009
- Location
- Germany
Re: Your PC's sexual preference
Ha!
Sexytimes are for sexytimes, games are for games. Cross-contamination leads to weirdness, and not the lovecraftian kind that D&D is ok with.
The other configuration is equally bad. "Wait, isn't that from the cartoon my small cousins watch? Now I feel unclean."
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2012-07-18, 12:36 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2005
- Location
- Somerville, MA
- Gender
Re: Your PC's sexual preference
Depends on the player. Most of the players I know choose to be asexual (in and out of game in several cases). A few players will play characters with a defined sexuality here or there. I can think of a couple for whom the character's sexuality is a defining trait.
When it does come up in the game, we state what happens without actually going there. Usually saying PC spends the night with NPC is as far as it goes.If you like what I have to say, please check out my GMing Blog where I discuss writing and roleplaying in greater depth.
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2012-07-18, 12:40 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2011
- Location
- Oregon
Re: Your PC's sexual preference
Wait, no, now that I think about it, I did say that one character of mine was homosexual. She was a sorceress on a pirate ship, and she blew a guy's non-peg leg off for being something other than utterly chivalrous. It wasn't a big deal, though, mostly for effect and to make the awesome one-liner that I can't remember work better. Never came up again.
Guess who's good at avatars? Thormag. That's who.
A Campaign Setting more than a year in the making, Patria!
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2012-07-18, 12:41 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2007
- Location
- Central Kentucky
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Re: Your PC's sexual preference
I played a Galliard in a Werewolf Wild West game set in that Appalachian mountains who was gaaaayyyyyyyyyy. And also a total bohemian, a complete shoutout to Oscar Wilde. That was fun!
I also, for a short lived D&D 3.5e game, had a Lesser Fey'ri Wizard who was a complete horndog/seducer type, and would flirt with almost anything that moves with at least a 14 cha and some youth and elegance who was remotely compatible... the Alter Self at will came in handy!
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2012-07-18, 12:41 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2008
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2012-07-18, 12:44 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2011
Re: Your PC's sexual preference
Has almost never come up in any of my games. We've got a bard who essentially worships freedom and beauty, and as such is quite promiscuous (male, female, outsiders, whatever), but most characters don't seem to be in a ton of situations where their sexuality is even relevant.
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2012-07-18, 12:46 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2011
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2012-07-18, 12:51 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2012
- Location
- Dallas TX
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Re: Your PC's sexual preference
Yes, that is what I am used to as well. When someone aces a seduction roll it is always a palm over.
I guess I just found one of those unexpected moments in a game where I just didn't quiet know how to react. And I mean that as many PC choices lead to something you can work with "oh you owe this guy money and he is trying to hurt you, I got your back" and you go from there with a plan as a team.
I try to do everything I can to help a character in their individual quests but this one had me stumped... I guess I could have played wing man...?
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2012-07-18, 12:53 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2004
Re: Your PC's sexual preference
This situation looks like it was much more about "character's sole interest is sex" than "character is gay."
Last edited by Kish; 2012-07-18 at 01:56 PM.
Orth Plays: Currently Baldur's Gate II
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2012-07-18, 12:56 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2009
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- Germany
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2012-07-18, 12:56 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2011
- Location
- Minnesota
- Gender
Re: Your PC's sexual preference
Straight.
Unless I find a way for my characters to swap genders. Which I have been desperately trying to do without resorting to Twin-Faced Hero. Making a Heretical Charm that combines Malfeas' raw shapeshifting abilities with the Ebon Dragon's Subtlety could probably do it.Last edited by Hiro Protagonest; 2012-07-18 at 01:43 PM.
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2012-07-18, 01:00 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2008
- Gender
Re: Your PC's sexual preference
My computer, unlike my friends' computers, doesn't even have a gender or name, let alone a sexual preference. ....oh, you meant... I'll just go away now.
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2012-07-18, 01:01 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2012
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- Dallas TX
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2012-07-18, 01:03 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2010
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- The depths of my insanity
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2012-07-18, 01:03 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2012
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- Dallas TX
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2012-07-18, 01:05 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2009
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- Ohio, USA
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Re: Your PC's sexual preference
With my group it varies. In some campaigns we have intra-party romance, in others it never quite comes up. Generally we include at least a little something, even if it only amounts to token sexual tension of the kind you'll find in practically every movie or TV show between the male and female leads.
One of our group tends to be asexual or does a little bit of watered-down romance, another plays straight, two tend towards bioware-like bisexuality, and I usually play straight despite being gay in real life (a lot of people don't believe me when I tell them; I look like a young trucker, not a stereotype). I only had one gay character, and he was the burly, Gears of War style commando squad leader for the team in a post-apocalyptic military horror. It never happened to come up except as a subtle hint in a RP scene with him and the psychic.
We don't go into too much detail, though, there's not a whole lot of value in blow-by-blow sex roleplay. Just a brief description of the general mood or any notable, character-revealing bits.
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2012-07-18, 01:13 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2008
Re: Your PC's sexual preference
Don't ask, don't tell.
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2012-07-18, 01:15 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2012
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- Dallas TX
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Re: Your PC's sexual preference
But in this interaction does it move the plot or is it rather flavor. Because I would like to assume that most players have had a game where one PC is flavored as promiscuous, but just like a good diplomat and a good tactician can there be a good panty hound who can drive a campaign by there focus on such.
I guess I just find myself wondering if this was one of the most original ideas that I have witnessed that could have been turned into a utility or if it was just as it seemed, and awkward moment in my gaming history.
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2012-07-18, 01:31 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2012
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- Finland
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Re: Your PC's sexual preference
I don't usually consider the sexuality of my PCs unless the situation demands it, and it rarely does. I might jokingly say stuff like "I seduce the barmaid" or something, but I don't really "count" that.
Only once I've decided in advance that a sorcerer I played was bisexual, but I'm not sure if her sexuality ever even came up.
As a GM I obviously take the NPCs' and even the PCs' possible families and such into account a lot more.Last edited by DeIdeal; 2012-07-18 at 01:36 PM.
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2012-07-18, 01:40 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2008
- Location
- USA
- Gender
Re: Your PC's sexual preference
I've always found romantic love to be a classic motivation for a character, so even with my less developed peeps, I assume straight unless otherwise specified. Only real exception so far is deciding that my sorcerer is pretty much asexual.
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2012-07-18, 01:42 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
Re: Your PC's sexual preference
I've occasionally made an npc that was way-over-the-top stereotypically homosexual for a laugh, but character sexuality just never comes up in any serious way. A PC or NPC simply cannot be defined only by their sexuality without being painfully one-dimensional in any but the shortest interactions.
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2012-07-18, 01:42 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2011
- Location
- Minnesota
- Gender
Re: Your PC's sexual preference
Avatar of George the Dragon Slayer, from the upcoming Indivisible!
My Steam profile
Warriors and Wuxia, Callos_DeTerran's ToB setting