Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

[nexus]

How many Superhumans do you have in your campaign that are homosexual or bisexual? Is it ever an issue in game?

 

Personally, I've had quite a few lesbians but only three gayi males. One of them in a Dark Champions who had some severe issues with his orientation (He was in heavy denial and consumed with self loathing). The other was in a less gritty game and generally pretty comfortable with himself. The third was aggressively open about his sexuality, really "in your face" about it.

 

I hope I haven't offended anyone with this question.

[OddHat]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

Well, I've had two gay male players who played gay male characters, and one female player who liked to play gay male characters. I've had one female player who liked to play bisexual characters. For some reason I've never had a player who asked to play an exclusively lesbian character.

 

Romance and relationships sometimes play a part in my campaigns, and I try to give chances to play super-soap opera to all my players.

[Guest Worldmaker]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

I've got both Kara and Rachel in my campaign, and they both play lesbian women. I've had in the past a bisexual female character, played by a bisexual female player. To my memory, I've never had a gay male character in any campaign I've ever run.

 

However, one of the PCs I am currently playing (in a Suicide Squad-style villain campaign) is homosexual.

[lemming]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

Haven't really thought about it much sometimes in terms of my characters. Most would be hetro, but it was hardly ever an issue.

Several characters, heroes & villians, were gay, but once again never an issue.

 

I do remember once a con game where the villian was introduced and the villian was gay. And naturally the gay part was to make him more evil. So naturally, my friend & I had our same sex characters be a couple.

[Blue Jogger]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

Captain Power was a shapeshifter and he loved women in his male form and liked men in his female form, I guess he would be bisexual, he was honestly confused.

 

Is it issue? It's not as big of an issue as say being a non-human mutant. In our games, being non-human is the big taboo and we had the Million Monster March for Monster rights where the "monsters" just wanted the right to be considered "different but equal" which was unexpected but not without some merit.

 

My character played a hater of monsters (after being "cured" of being a demonic shapeshifter) and it was only when he was changed into one against his will (via brain transplant) that he slowly understood that we are all equal under the skin.

 

AFter that, sexuality seemed to be a minor issue in comparison.

 

In the current game, I'm playing a very sexy bisexual woman because she's too sexy for just one gender.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

None; and there are none in my campaign. On the other hand, I don't do much with the sexuality of even my ostensibly heterosexual characters. It's just not an aspect of role playing I find of particular interest. Playing straight females has been challenge enough for me.

 

I do have two lesbian supervillains, but the other three members of their all-female team are hetero.

[OddHat]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

None; and there are none in my campaign. On the other hand' date=' I don't do much with the sexuality of even my ostensibly heterosexual characters. It's just not an aspect of role playing I find of particular interest.[/quote']

 

I've run campaigns without DNPC girlfriends, boyfriends, wives, husbands or kids. I've found that the groups I've played with have responded much better to having these types of NPCs around. I expect that it depends on the players.

[Karma]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

In a number of games and systems we've had *professionally* bisexual characters, a lesbian in denial (my character, had to do with needing to reproduce for the honor of her family), a homosexual male in denial (was going to be half of a pair who were 'just friends' until the other player (the first players wife) chickened out), a cross-dressing gay action hero (think Shaq in an evening dress), quiet a few hetero characers of both genders and a number of campaigns where it was never an issue (prince, princess, whatever, how much is the reward?).

Come to think of it not one of these characters was a superhero or villian.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

I never touch on themes of sexuality in my games, so essentially, the entire population is asexual.

[Sketchpad]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

I have a few characters in my campaign that are homosexual ... one of which being one the level of Captain Marvel in both power and reputation. A few of the villains I have are also homosexual, though it's not common knowledge to most of the PCs yet (as they haven't confronted them). I also have two gay men in my group which, atm, are playing straight men ... but have played everything from straight females, straight men, and gay men the whole time I've gamed with them

[philnicau]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

I've played a gender confused character who was a shapechanger but only into human forms, it was created when a mad scientist merged two people (one male, one female) with a ooze like alien, giving the new being impersonation abilities, but no real gender identity.

It was played in a Dark Champions campaign many years ago, and while it had some memories of its past lives they where confused, so it had no real idea how each gender was to act.

[Dino]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

The games I've run and played in have had an amazing number of bi-sexual women PCs. I used to put this down to male player fantasies, but all three of the female players in my current game group are bi in real life, so what do I know.

 

Personally, I couldn't stand to play in a game that didn't at least address PC sexuality, moral quandaries, or other real life issues.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

I've run campaigns without DNPC girlfriends' date=' boyfriends, wives, husbands or kids. I've found that the groups I've played with have responded much better to having these types of NPCs around. I expect that it depends on the players.[/quote']Our campaign is very Silver Age in style, so not doing much with the sexuality of the PCs is probably pretty normal. Of the 8 characters on our team, only one is married (Cyberknight, married to supermodel Kathy Ireland) and only one has a girlfriend (Sidestep). Any sexual content is descreetly offstage (With a teenager and now a 10 year old in our gaming group, this was a pretty easy decision.)

 

Most (I think all, in fact) of our teammates do have DNPCs, but these tend to be family or coworkers rather than Significant Others. My character Zl'f has her Norwegian foster family, the Gräfeldrs, as her collective DNPCs. Her elderly father isn't a DNPC (or rather, she doesn't get any points for him).

 

In general I like characters to have DNPCs; it helps make them a bit more human.

[OddHat]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

Our campaign is very Silver Age in style, so not doing much with the sexuality of the PCs is probably pretty normal. Of the 8 characters on our team, only one is married (Cyberknight, married to supermodel Kathy Ireland) and only one has a girlfriend (Sidestep). Any sexual content is descreetly offstage (With a teenager and now a 10 year old in our gaming group, this was a pretty easy decision.)

 

Most (I think all, in fact) of our teammates do have DNPCs, but these tend to be family or coworkers rather than Significant Others. My character Zl'f has her Norwegian foster family, the Gräfeldrs, as her collective DNPCs. Her elderly father isn't a DNPC (or rather, she doesn't get any points for him).

 

In general I like characters to have DNPCs; it helps make them a bit more human.

 

Sounds groovy and in genre, and I don't encourage roleplaying bedroom gymnastics at the gaming table. The romantic relationships we do role play have been pretty tame the last nine years or so, though our games were more graphic in my Iron Age stage.

 

I agree as far as DNPCs go. I like having them around, even at 0 points; they add depth to the character. As to sexuality, when a player brings in a Gay or Lesbian character, the main in-play difference comes down to chances at different romantic sub plots. I'm not currently GMing Mightybec Hero.

[logomancer]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

Since I'm a gay male, and most of the friends I normally game with are gay males, I can safely say that about 90% of all the characters we've collectively made have been gay. But, it hasn't come up in play most of the time and when it does, it's usually just a background thing: who are DNPC's are, etc.

 

And anyone who make a character/villain gay so that they are "more evil," is just being disrespectful and showing their ignorance of what being gay is all about. (and this is not directed at Lemming, just whomever made that character).

 

I've seen a lot of straight guys make gay characters to be "funny," but they're usually just lame expressions of their own ignorance and fear (e.g., the gay super who wore nothing but a jockstrap and fought crime through anal punishment).

[Trebuchet]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

Sounds groovy and in genre' date=' and I don't encourage roleplaying bedroom gymnastics at the gaming table. The romantic relationships we do role play have been pretty tame the last nine years or so, though our games were more graphic in my Iron Age stage.[/quote']Yeah, when I ran my supermodel/ninja character the sexual content was much higher. Spirit Ninja infiltrated the team's base by first sleeping with one of the heroes, Patriot ("Gosh, I've never met an honest to goodness superhero before!"), and then going with him late one night so he could "show her around Sentinel's Headquarters" and memorizing his access codes. Patriot never realized his supermodel girlfriend, Nadja Poulos, was also his stealthy and sword-wielding teammate Spirit Ninja. His player Dan K. did, of course, but we had a lot of fun with it over the years.

 

One of the more interesting situations was when they ended up fighting each other in hero IDs (long story) and Patriot was seriously trying to pound the crap out of Spirit Ninja (He was a 45 STR martial demi-brick with vastly higher STR and defenses than she had) but she wouldn't use her nastiest weapons against him because she didn't want to hurt her boyfriend since they had a hot date that evening. IIRC she finally got away by throwing a smoke bomb.

[OddHat]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

I've seen a lot of straight guys make gay characters to be "funny," but they're usually just lame expressions of their own ignorance and fear (e.g., the gay super who wore nothing but a jockstrap and fought crime through anal punishment).

 

I had a gay male player who asked to play pretty much exactly that character. He also asked to play a character named "Barbie", a straight male trapped in the body of an exageratedly female nymphomaniac brick.

 

Humans are strange.

[nexus]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

I had a gay male player who asked to play pretty much exactly that character. He also asked to play a character named "Barbie", a straight male trapped in the body of an exageratedly female nymphomaniac brick.

 

Humans are strange.

 

Tell me about it. I had a gay player that played a gay speedster that wore....nothing at all but running shoes.

[nexus]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

Yeah' date=' when I ran my supermodel/ninja character the sexual content was much higher. Spirit Ninja infiltrated the team's base by first sleeping with one of the heroes, Patriot ("Gosh, I've never met an honest to goodness [i']superhero[/i] before!"), and then going with him late one night so he could "show her around Sentinel's Headquarters" and memorizing his access codes. Patriot never realized his supermodel girlfriend, Nadja Poulos, was also his stealthy and sword-wielding teammate Spirit Ninja. His player Dan K. did, of course, but we had a lot of fun with it over the years.

 

Cool! Its great that you got the player to go along with it. I've found stuff like that can be like pulling teeth.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

Cool! Its great that you got the player to go along with it. I've found stuff like that can be like pulling teeth.

I think Dan got a kick out of the fact his character was sleeping with a supermodel. Nadja Poulos was deliberately modeled after the real supermodel Paulina Porizkova. When her long forgotten movie "Her Alibi" with Tom Selleck came out and she did some Spirit Ninja-like circus acrobatics on the big screen' date=' our GM Ben P. turned to me in the theater and said "My God, Paulina Porizkova really [i']is[/i] Spirit Ninja!"

[OddHat]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

I think Dan got a kick out of the fact his character was sleeping with a supermodel. Nadja Poulos was deliberately modeled after the real supermodel Paulina Porizkova. When her long forgotten movie "Her Alibi" with Tom Selleck came out and she did some Spirit Ninja-like circus acrobatics on the big screen' date=' our GM Ben P. turned to me in the theater and said "My God, Paulina Porizkova really [i']is[/i] Spirit Ninja!"

 

[Publius]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

Tell me about it. I had a gay player that played a gay speedster that wore....nothing at all but running shoes.

Don't look Margret!

[nexus]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

Don't look Margret!

 

To be fair. it was supposed to be fairly "realistic" so there wasn't any miracle unstable molecule lack material so almost anything he did wear was shredded, burst into flame, etc at full speed. But he went nude pretty much all the time.

[Stormraven]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

I've played every combination at one point or another. I think I do have a tendency to play either straight men or bi women, but I've been able to play anything - it all depends on the concept that comes to me as to what I play.

[MitchellS]

Re: Gay and Bisexual Superheroes

 

My character Midknight from the Legacy Universe is gay, though only a few people know it. But he is from 30 year in the future where homosexuality is less stigmatized than it currently is now in some areas. I just thought it would be interesting to play the son of Batman and Wonder Woman as gay. Sort of a kickback to the Seduction of the Innocent days.