Sex and gender in 5e and how to use it...

So this year saw the 40^th anniversary of D&D and the launch of the D&D 5^th edition to much praise and a lot of excitement.

I've played a lot a different RPG's, but D&D always remained special to me. One of my co-players at a bi-weekly Cartoon Action Hour game asked me why the other night. «Was it because that's where you started?»

And yes, i think that is part of it. The first cut is the deepest i guess.

Dungeons and Dragon, my first RPG has stayed with me for about twenty years now. However this is not a post where i reminisce about D&D. It is a post about the most beautiful set of words I've come across in a RPG. It's about this:

From the D&D Basic rules freely available here

Seeing this language about gender, sex and sexuality included in an RPG felt really important to me. Because games are about playing right?

The importance of play

Play is how we first learn about world and i think playing is how we can keep learning about the world. Playing lets us escape the bonds of reality, twist and turn it. Examine it like it wasn't world we live in every day.

It follows that playing with sex, gender and sexuality in a role playing game also allows you to twist and turn those concepts. To me this is a lot of fun. (I also happen to believe it is a useful tool for creating awareness and bringing change in a less-than-perfect world. But I'm trying to write a gaming blog here, not a gender studies blog. I have one though: Here (in Norwegian))

So since this is an gaming blog i will take that beautiful language and put it to use. What follows are some character backgrounds that incorporates questions of gender and sexual identity in ways that make them relevant for normal play.

Ragend the Hooded

Ragend is a peasant hero. In his youth he led a revolt against a evil local lord and won the day. He also won the heart of the prettiest girl in the village, Aldea.

Following the revolt some of the evil lord's allies was able to capture Ragend and he was condemned to labour as a slave. Life as a slave was nasty and brutish. Ragend is certain he would have perished were not for the love and friendship of March, another slave.

March and Ragend's relationship grew from friendship to fiery passion in ways Ragend had never belived possible with another man.

After years of living as a slave fate intervened and Ragend regained his freedom. Now, being a free man, memories of the happiness he felt with Aldea have returned. Ragend now face many choices that will affect the lives of the people he loves, but also his own sexual identity.

Gluri of the Axebite clan

Dwarf female by RobAnsenaultJr at deviantart (CC BY-NC-ND)

Gluri of the Axebite clan was raised to become the queen of a dwarf citadel. All her life was about that future marriage to a dwarf lord from one of the great clans.

But Gluri was always bored in the citadel. She longed to see the world. To get away from her overprotective mother and the fate of that dreaded marriage. It wasn't that Gluri never got along with male dwarfs, but they just didn't make her feel anything sexual.

There had only been one person who could do that. She had been an envoy from one of the elven noble houses. A lithe woman with sharp features and delicate skin. How Gluri longed to see an elf again.

So one night she left the citadel on her own. She took some iron rations, one of her father's battle axes, a crossbow and a 10-foot pole. Gluri headed into the world to find adventure and excitement with new friends, exploring both dungeons and her own sexuality in equal measure.