Queer heroes

[Karmakaze]

Re: Queer heroes

 

So' date=' you can really just create normal characters and make their romantic-intrest DNPCs the same gender as they are.[/quote']

 

This reminds me of one of my bad convention GMing experiences...

 

For my university of Hellenback games, all of the pre-gen characters are gender-neutral (and, incidentally race- and religion-neutral). I have a baby name book on hand and allow players to assign names and genders as they please.

 

This was not always the case. I'd given the characters names and genders. I'd gender-swapped one to have my numbers come out even, but forgot to change the "DNPC: girlfriend". I noticed when I printed them out, but didn't think it mattered...

 

...until I was subjected to the fifteen minute tirade from the player who was apoplectic that he was expected to play a lesbian. I did suggest that he could swap out either the gender of the PC or the DNPC, but the mere existence of the character as printed out was just too much for him.

 

Now all the DNPC entries read "Significant Other" (or "Spouse").

[Amused]

Re: Queer heroes

 

Rage & JT?

 

if you don't know what QAF is you won't get that one

 

How about:

 

Super Name: Sidhe

Super Type: Shape shifter/Alien

 

Backstory/Personality: The people don't really know which gender Sidhe is, though it has been generally decided to be a she because it's normal form has glands that would carry milk[or a similar substance]. S/he protects Millenium City to the best of her ability. Has a girlfriend who teaches math at a nearby Highschool and routine is kidnapped by evil bad guys and extremist gay haters.

Sidhe hates the fact that the media plays up her(his) "alternative lifestyle" and refuses to answer questions about it. She answers only with, Cassie (girlfriend) is female, yes...

 

The Truth: Sidhe is both female and male due to her shape shifting abilities which is natural to her home planet. She is a lover of men and woman, but is very loyal and protective of Cassie.

 

Name chosen because of how the elve's(sidhe) male and females look alike.

 

[Lethosos]

Re: Queer heroes

 

I've only hinted at the possibility that my personal hero, Queen of Spades, is lez... I haven't put down the possibility that she is, due to the fact that it's neither here nor there--I don't purposely put it down in her Psych. disads, so I'm not worried about the actual ramifications in-game. This is one of the times where Seduction rolls shouldn't be done by the GMs.

 

Other than that... I'd browse through the player-made stuff, and decide on who would be a good, balanced team before changing names and origins around to fit.

[jkwleisemann]

Re: Queer heroes

 

This reminds me of one of my bad convention GMing experiences...

 

...until I was subjected to the fifteen minute tirade from the player who was apoplectic that he was expected to play a lesbian. I did suggest that he could swap out either the gender of the PC or the DNPC, but the mere existence of the character as printed out was just too much for him.

 

Now all the DNPC entries read "Significant Other" (or "Spouse").

 

 

That's all it took? For the love of heaven, that's a simple enough goof. If he's that wound up about it... Let's just say that most of my players through the years would have jumped on that typo for an entirely different reason; they'd be champing at the bit for the chance.

 

Me, I average about one 'alternative sexuality' character for every 3-4 regular ones I stat up. Don't get the chance to *use* most of them, but I've never really played it up *that* much outside of the occasional motivation (SO's nailed by hate crimes, that sort of thing). Heck, most of the time it's a simple facet of them that most of the other players don't notice unless they look at the character sheet for my notes or the GM has it come up as a plot element (which I have no problems with, honestly - this is what happens when you're a borderline Tragedian....)

[Karmakaze]

Re: Queer heroes

 

That's all it took? For the love of heaven' date=' that's a simple enough goof. If he's that wound up about it... Let's just say that most of my players through the years would have jumped on that typo for an entirely different reason; they'd be champing at the bit for the chance.[/quote']

 

I really hadn't expected a problem. I figured, well, out of that many pre-gens, the odds of one of them being alternate was pretty high anyway. The lesson was -- you can't predict what will set off some people.

 

Personally, I'd like to run a game like the one spawning this thread at a regular (non-gay themed) con, except for the random chance of idiot players.

[SteveBerman]

Re: Queer heroes

 

I'm glad that discussion has been cool and heavy on this thread.

 

Here is a character I worked on yesterday. I really wish I could play him myself, as he looks fun.

 

Your thoughts are welcome on ECHO.

 

Steve

[AdamLeisemann]

Re: Queer heroes

 

Personally' date=' I'd like to run a game like the one spawning this thread at a regular (non-gay themed) con, except for the random chance of idiot players.[/quote']

 

That's a problem GMs should expect at any convention game really.

[Karmakaze]

Re: Queer heroes

 

That's a problem GMs should expect at any convention game really.

 

True, but I would assume the population of mouth-foaming homophobes would be somewhat smaller at Gaylaxicon...

 

I do have one pre-gen who is ostensibly female, but also a shapeshifter who's cut ties with her past. Technically, we don't *know* what gender she was born, and the personality described could easily shade from flamboyant to flaming, if a player wanted to interpret it that way. That suggestion is, not, however, in the printed text. I wait until I've seen the group dynamic.

[AdamLeisemann]

Re: Queer heroes

 

True, but I would assume the population of mouth-foaming homophobes would be somewhat smaller at Gaylaxicon...

 

True. I'll give you that.

[input.jack]

Re: Queer heroes

 

"Well, hopefully since this would be a gay science fiction con, this problem would be solved. I know my local group razzes me when I play a transgendered D&D character."

 

Get into a better group, my friend. (Also, what exactly do you mean by a "transgendered" character? One who is the opposite gender of the Player? Or one who was originally one gender, and is now another?)

 

In the main game group I play with, we have five male Players and one female Player. Usually a game will have one or two NPC's as well as one PC per Player. Often the groups are fairly evenly mixed, gender-wise. And its a toss-up of who is playing whom. All of the Players in my group play either male or female characters, as the game and concepts they have dictate. And everyone is fine with that. Likewise, in one of the Fantasy games currently running, one of the Players has a character who was a male Human Rogue, who was reincarnated as a female Half-Elven Rogue, and while the Player has been having fun Roleplaying the inner conflicts and trauma of the change-over (especially because Ferret begins to think and react a little more like a female Half-elf and a little less like a Human male every day), all of the Players take the game, and the character, quite seriously.

 

I think if your fellow Players are giving you a hard time for playing a character who is cross-gendered from yourself, or has undergone a transformation or proceedure to change genders, that you need more mature Players

 

As for the character described above as "Gargoyle", yes I can see how that name has been done to death. May I suggest "Stoneheart"? (I mean, having your family turn you over to a rabid demonologist and transforming into a monster has GOT to make him rather...shall we say...bitter?)

 

Hope this helps

[steriaca]

Re: Queer heroes

 

Humm...I remember a famboyantly gay supervillian named The Lavender Fog. No, I diden't create him, and he wasen't published anywhere, but I kinda liked the ideal, and did a writeup of him. I guess, if you can file off the serial numbers, he could make for an interesting hero. Especaly one who is more morialy ambigous.

 

(And one of theas day, I am going to have to post the guy also.)

[zornwil]

Re: Queer heroes

 

Did this happen, and if so how did it go?

[rjcurrie]

Re: Queer heroes

 

I missed this thread the first time around and just thought I would chime in now with my thoughts on the subject of gay characters in con games. When I first started my SuperSquad America convention event, I made one of the characters (Dynamo, the cyberkinetic) gay. Now, in fact, Dynamo was still in the closet the first year of the event although his sexual orientation was revealed to the rest of the team in that year's final round. By the third year, Alan Kepperman (Dynamo's secret ID) had a regular boyfriend. In that year's final, the Squad was to choose one of its own to sit on the Template throne and to be used as the template for the tone of life on Earth for the next cycle. Without much consultation with the rest of the team, Dynamo simply strode forward and attempted to take the throne. I believe Silver Bow may have actually entangled him and the team briefly asked him if this was something he really wanted to do. Upon hearing his answer about wanting to make the world a more accepting plaxe, they freed him, and after telling to say good-bye to his boyfriend Kevin, he took the throne. It was a great roleplaying moment (I'm pretty sure the guy who played Dynamo in that final was gay himself) and I loved it. However, I was a little disappointed that I wouldn't get to see that character develop further.

 

Why did I make Dynamo gay? When I created SuperSquad America, I was attempting to create a group of characters with diverse opinions and world views so that any moral questions presented would not have clear cut answers for the team. Also, I wanted each character to present a bit of a roleplaying challenge. As a result, I thought that one of the characters should be gay and for some resason, Dynamo (despite not being gay in his original incarnation as one of my PCs in a friend's campaign) seemed the logiccal choice.

 

In the three years (about 15-20 gaming sessions) I used Dynamo as a PC in SuperSquad America, I don't remember getting a single negative comment from any player or a single stereotypical portrayal (but then the character sheet contained a note that Dynamo was not stereotypically gay). This was actually somewhat surprising to me, espcecially in the first year, when players wouldn't find out Dynamo was gay until they read his background.

 

 

I've considred returning to the idea of including a queer character in one of my convention events, but so far I haven't done so. For the first few years, it was a mainly a matter of avoiding the "okay, we've lost a gay character -- we need to add a new one" vibe and since then, none of the new characters added to SuperSquad America seemed queer as I developed them. I seriously considered the question of character sexuality again when I createtd The Remarkable Wrong-Righters, but once again it didn't feel like it fit any of the characters. But the Wrong-Righters are a new team and their roster is likely to get shaken up over time, so who knows what kind of charcters I may add.

 

I have had players speculate that Silver Bow, SuperSquad's workaholic leader with no social life, may be lesbian or bisexual. Although she currently does have a male romantic interest, who knows where I may decide to take the character in the future.

 

There is also a drag queen NPC hero in the SuperSquad America universe. But so far, Sandra Victorious (named for a common school child misinterpretation of the line "Send her victorious" from God Save the Queen), one of the members of "Her Majesty's Own", the British superteam has not actually appeared in a game.

[Blue]

Re: Queer heroes

 

Did this happen' date=' and if so how did it go?[/quote']

Now that you've bumped the subject, I'm kinda wondering about this too; If it came off and how well it went.

[freakboy6117]

Re: Queer heroes

 

currently i have 3 openly gay super heroes in the UK project.

 

promenade the guardian of Brighton official superhero of the seaside resort shes a lesbian university student with space warping powers (her dad was the 70's Day-tripper hero but she's never met him, her mother never speaks of him and has since disowned promenade after she came out).

 

Mohawk a former punk rocker solid sound powers(I just loved the idea of a gay male punk rocker songbird clone for some reason) he was active for a few years in the late eighties with less power) retired and became a gay rights activist but returned to heroics in the mid nineties creating a team to defend people against a group of super powered football hooligans/nazis called combat X. he died at the millennium dome event along with most of the rest of his team the birmingham brigade (rumours in the tabloid press suggested he had AIDS or that he was involved with his team mate special K but that the tabloids).

 

finally there is Ms lion-heart a wartime heroine and one of the few survivors of the Norwegian incident that killed or disabled many of the uk's wartime heroes.

 

she did marry after the war but her marriage was loveless and mostly just for social reasons it ended when her husband turned out to be a criminal mastermind.

 

she left the UK in 1956 after defying the government when she went to fight in Korea she died in seclusion in Greece in 1987 her memoirs published in 1990( and originally banned by the UK government) revealed her secret past and her love for her long time companion Joyce Mayhew.

[SteveBerman]

Re: Queer heroes

 

Did this happen' date=' and if so how did it go?[/quote']

 

Unfortunately, the Gaylaxicon staff underestimated the popularity of gaming and had no site for play. So the adventure never happened.

 

I am considering creating a queer supplement for Champions - though I would imagine it have to be utterly free and just linked to my website as I do not want to step on any rights issues. I have created villains and hero groups and campaign notes on the subject. Let me know if anyone is interested.

[Amused]

Re: Queer heroes

 

I created a shapeshifter that goes between male and females forms and now that I think about it would probably be bi-sexual in either form. Of course she is a bit anti-social so the chance of coming to light is miniscule (plus being played by a sixteen year old makes most adult uncomfortable in exploring that aspect of characters.)

[zornwil]

Re: Queer heroes

 

Unfortunately, the Gaylaxicon staff underestimated the popularity of gaming and had no site for play. So the adventure never happened.

 

I am considering creating a queer supplement for Champions - though I would imagine it have to be utterly free and just linked to my website as I do not want to step on any rights issues. I have created villains and hero groups and campaign notes on the subject. Let me know if anyone is interested.

I don't tend to use a lot of other settings/material out there, but would certainly check it out.

 

PS - sorry to hear that re the con

[Powerhouse]

Re: Queer heroes

 

Sorry that it didn't happen.

 

My take is to just be careful with the players. While I think that most would be open to the possibility of playing gay heroes on a limited basis, realize that not everyone wants to play one.

 

Personally, I've never played a gay character although I've created a few although that changes based on my mood and continuity:

 

1. Nova: is an alien so being gay or not doesn't mean the same to her. Love is more a thing of spirit and soul on her planet so gender is less important. She's always loved Lady Silver and one of the things that she'd had to deal with is that while Lady Silver loves her back, it's not in a romantic way. She's had other relationships although usually male.

 

2. Starknight: I tend to go back and forth about whether she's bi. That said, she has a preference for men at least in long term relationships. I base that on a number of women I know who go either way yet tend to have boyfriends while sex with another woman is just physical.

 

3. El Aquilla: a Hispanic martial artist with a strong Catholic background. He struggles with his sexuality and faith. For most of his time with the Knights, he was very much in the closet.

[OddHat]

Re: Queer heroes

 

Did this happen' date=' and if so how did it go?[/quote']

 

Why the heck are you going through and ressurecting all of these ancient threads? Enquiring minds want to know.

[zornwil]

Re: Queer heroes

 

Why the heck are you going through and ressurecting all of these ancient threads? Enquiring minds want to know.

Catching up on stuff I've missed.

[OddHat]

Re: Queer heroes

 

Catching up on stuff I've missed.

 

Ah.

[McCoy]

Re: Queer heroes

 

I am considering creating a queer supplement for Champions - though I would imagine it have to be utterly free and just linked to my website as I do not want to step on any rights issues. I have created villains and hero groups and campaign notes on the subject. Let me know if anyone is interested.

*raise hand*

[Rapier]

Re: Queer heroes

 

*raise hand*

 

Eh. It might be an interesting read, but I think that sexuality actually takes away from a game. I've seen too many games devolve as all the male characters spend all their time trying to get with the elven sorceress. I would just as soon leave it out of the game, just like politics.

[Karmakaze]

Re: Queer heroes

 

Eh. It might be an interesting read' date=' but I think that sexuality actually takes away from a game. I've seen too many games devolve as all the male characters spend all their time trying to get with the elven sorceress. I would just as soon leave it out of the game, just like politics.[/quote']

 

By and large, though, queers aren't more 'on the make' than anyone else. A GLBT team game needn't be about sexual activity any more than an all-female team would be only about fighting the patriarchy (or giggling and having slumber parties, depending on your stereotype of preference).