[+] Pride Month- A Brief History of Representation in TTRPGs

[MGibster]

Over time, as we moved from the 80s to the 90s, what was implicit became more explicit. Games, from Vampire: the Masquerade to various cyberpunk games, began to market themselves as edgy or (to use the 90s term) "extreme" compared to the vanilla D&D counterpart. There was also the beginning of fan-published content on the internet; as it was the internet, sex was involved.

Last year, I was reading through some old Cyberpunk 2020 sourcebooks that were published in the late 80s and early 90s. The Rockerboy sourcebook from 1989 features an article about Maz Despair, a lesbian stand-up comic on the run from Texas authorites after being framed for the murder of a corrupt politician. From 1991, in the supplement Forlorn Hope, the owner of the bar's wife is a transgender woman. When asked if it bothered him that his wife was born a male he answers, "She was a woman when I met her, and that's how I always thought of her."

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

This is a well-done video on this topic. One point is that “queer representation” is not necessarily a matter of game design, but has to do with aspects of performance and trying out identity, which applies much more broadly than games that are ‘about’ sex or queer identity

So, if I was going to do something more than just the history, I would say that there are three axes that matter.

Oh no. Did I just do a three-part typology. NOOO! Ahem, anyway...

For RPGs, the three things that matter for queer representation are:

1. The roleplaying aspect. This is sort of the "fluff" I was referring to in the 70s and 80s (and is always a part of the game). The ability to role-play, to perform, as someone not yourself- that's incredibly important when it comes to a lot of things in general, and queer identity specifically.

2. Representation within the game. Seeing others, whether they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, asexual, or queer, within the game materials is important. It's especially important that they are presented as normal, and not as "deviant" or just as villains.

3. Mechanical support. While I personally am not a huge fan of certain aspects of "system matters" it certainly the case that when you start putting in mechanical support in games for romance, etc., you want to see support for inclusivity in the relationships- explicitly by allowing for it, or by making it a gameplay aspect (the difference between mechanics that allows queer romance, and mechanics that are queering).

I would say that all of these are different, and all of them are important in different ways. But that's a good video, and I love all the contributions people are making!

 

[Arilyn]

It always been slightly annoying to me that rules about sex and relationships often get rolled in with representation of sexual orientation. As if gays are more likely to need sex and romance elements than straight folks..

Yep, this continues to be an unfortunate stereotype.

 

[TerraDave]

 

[grankless]

How about very intentionally queer-inclusive/aimed games from the last decade or so? Off the top of my head, i can think of thirsty sword lesbians, dungeon bitches and flying circus. I know there are more as well.

Armour Astir: Advent's "Impostor" playbook is explicitly designed to invoke transgender and disabled identity, being someone who has had their body changed in order to be able to pilot a mech. Also is just about fighting fascists in general.

 

[AnotherGuy]

I've always felt WoD, particularly VtM, was and would be a great game for queer community members - mostly because of the character options available (straight out of the book) & that was my first exposure to a game which had the ability to deal with more mature themes as compared to D&D.
However, I feel you need a Storyteller of some calibre to handle that well - far more so than your average DM for D&D.
The positive about D&D is that the game relatively speaking is predominantely dialed towards heroic storylines, so light and fun, which may be more appropriate for those in the earlier stages of discovering oneself.