It’s oddly something I deal with better as a player than as a DM. I have been in an IC relationship with a recurring NPC, I have flirted with other PCs once or twice, but I can’t ever remember any romantic attempts as a DM.
Very much a fade to black. The only time I ever asked for a roll was a fortitude save vs. disease...
I tend to keep it low-key, but ubiquitous. Gay and bi PCs seem a little uncommon, but welcome.
As a DM, I am not sure I bother calling out much of the LGBTQ+ stuff; I prefer when it just exists and is normal. If my notes say ‘NPC and husband’ then I am just as likely to make the NPC male as female. Asexual and aromantic characters exist when I need people who can focus on the plot and ignore flirting bards, character sexuality and gender are often fluid unless it really matters to the plot or someone just started flirting, etc.
Cross-playing genders is just a thing that happens in our games. We even had a genderqueer swashbuckler who loved to say ‘not a girl’ and ‘not a boy’ when someone used gendered pronouns - when one player suggested they had to be one or the other, they disagreed and then grinned. Ethnicity is touchy and so I almost consider myself to be lucky I never had to deal with it. Our group is 83% caucasian, but has a 50/50 gender split, so I think gender was always the one we felt safe playing with.
I confess that I don’t really think in terms of real-world cultures or ethnicities, but I do 100% support the recent WotC rethink on orcs and drow. One of my players is a half-orc with the acolyte background and his ‘culture’ is more shy altar-boy than human or orc.
With care. I have worked in a psychiatric hospital and I have dealt with the after-effects of in-game triggers as a player. I think it is not something I would ever try to pin down with mechanics. It is part of their identity, not their stats.
As with psychiatric issues, physical disabilities are probably best handled as part of an identity. Being deafened is a status effect for example, while being Deaf is an identity which implies certain differences in life-experience. Able-bodied players trying to be edgy are not encouraged, but respectful exploration (if they could justify it) might be okay...
It’s rare. Disabilities get tropey or exploitative very fast. A blind monk whose vision was replaced by 30ft blind-sense (and that was the only reference to her blindness) did turn up in a pre-written adventure, but it’s often a little cringe-inducing. For my part, you are much more likely to see disabilities on non-evil non-combat NPCs in my games; politicians who use sign-language or rulers who walk with a cane.
Violence against children and any kind of sexual violence are the two main things I don’t tolerate or depict; you might have a dark past, but we’re not playing it out on-screen. Racism is out too; it’s more offensive than interesting.
jacobvanloon
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