A larp story question

[technoir]

I have a large number of Larpers on my friends list.   Quite a few of you are currently or have in the past run games so this question is mainly directed to you lot.  Have you run any openly gay NPC's  or homosexual romantic plot lines at a larp?  I don't know that it has ever been done.  This is not to say that it hasn't merely I did not pick up on it whne it was there. 

If you have not run one, why?  Is it because it never occured to you?  Was it an idea that came up and you put it aside as something that might make some players uncomfortable?  Was it a situation of not having the human resources needed to pull off the plotline? 

This question occured to me last night.  We see all sort of romantic story lines in the larps running.  Secret romances, marriages of politics, Fair Folk who charm characters to take them away, and at least one particularly creepy story at SI of a roman style family who bordered on incest.  Romances are a staple of the fantasy genre.  I myself have only played one character which I would say was probably openly Bi.  Those who met him could guess which one.   Any way, the question occured to me as to what in particular prevented there from gay romance storylines?  I thought this might be a good venue to get some discussion. I am not suggesting everyone should run out and run such a story, just interested to see why it had not been done.

oh I leave open thepossability that it might have been run only in secret.  I would be interested to hear the story if it had.  

Comments

[speaks.livejournal.com]

To my knowledge in SI II the only openly gay characters were in a committed relationship already.

I will say that as a player I have been aware of or involved in homosexual storylines.

[speaks.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I could count on one hand the number of openly gay or bisexual characters in a LARP. ... Well, maybe ONE hand but probably not two.

Now that I think about it, I know some KG characters who were also openly gay and in a committed relationship.

So the issue may just be lack of interest.

[technoir.livejournal.com]

There were openly gay NPC's? I was certain there were some PC's. I hazd not come across any NPC's that it was clear that was the case.

[speaks.livejournal.com]

I have seen openly gay NPCs at FoD. I do not recall any openly gay NPCs in KG/SI unless you count Darius who was A) Bi and B) dead.

But that does not preclude the possibility of many NPCs being gay and it just not coming up. What sexuality was Senna? San? Any of the Orlai? Miraval? Really, except for a few times Darius admitted his crush on other males, it was largely unimportant. He was betrothed to one of the noble houses at the time of his death.

Most NPCs it is not important what their sexuality is. Only if there is the possibility of a romance plotline. For such a plotline to come up, there would have to be a gay PC recipient of said plotline. Open gay/bi characters who are not already involved with a partner are relatively few and far between.

[technoir.livejournal.com]

I did not count Darius cause he started as a PC. YOu have a point there. Specificly I was interested in the ones where it might be part of their romantic life on camera as it were. We have seen many standard straight romances on camera. Married couples and go rescue your love stories are the norm. I dont think there has been a homosexual version of that in any of the stories I have seen. It is not a big important think I guess. I am just curious what most peoples takes on it were.

[touchstone.livejournal.com]

I know there were NPCs in various SI stories lilisonna ran who were gay, either on stage or in backstory visible through textprops and such. They weren't Big Plot, so you'd pretty much have to have been involved in the particular story line to notice, but they were there.

It doesn't have to be a romance storyline between an NPC and a PC. It'll come up most easily if the character's already in a relationship, but it could also be a relationship that's now over. Any 'I'm here to avenge my lost love' story, for instance. But yeah, in general, the orientation of an NPC who's not in a relationship and not looking for one isn't really visible or relevant.

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

Yup. I wrote up several NPCs that were in homosexual relationships. Some of those relationships were actually important to the storyline; others were not.

My evil fairy in SI was in an (admittedly horribly unhealthy) queer relationship.

Nikita and Camelai were lovers.

In general, I don't try to get my NPCs involved in romantic storylines. Sometimes it happens, but I don't go seeking it out.

[technoir.livejournal.com]

I had known about the pc gay relationships. I think this is the first I had heard about the NPC ones. Cool. Go Larp community for being somewhat progressive.

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. And Eleanor has a brother that's gay and in a committed relationship.

[technoir.livejournal.com]

Hmm I did no tknow that there had been any where that was the case. Good to know. I do agree that sexual orientation doesn't really matter if your not going to show some aspect of their relationship.

[shumashi.livejournal.com]

The kind of LARPs I've played in are not the big huge kinds you do. Mine were 1 night, 3 nights, or 10 days, and the character and plots were assigned to you by the GMs based on a preference form you filled out. I've personally played in one homosexual romance plot, and remember one that was set in a time period where that wouldn't have been acceptable so it was sort of a forbidden love kind of thing.

I don't know. There's enough cross-casting and flirting with people I'm not really interested in even for the heterosexual plots that homosexual plots really don't seem like much of a stretch. I'd be more interested in understanding the world well enough to know whether I should be roleplaying that as taboo or not. Could be fun.

[technoir.livejournal.com]

That is pretty cool actually. playing with the forbidden side of it would make a certain kind of story compelling in a different way.

[filamena.livejournal.com]

Since we regularly larp Vampire, the lines mean less, but I know I've used gay NPCs. It just wasn't that big a deal since most people assume the Ann Rice 'all vampires are a little homosexual anyway,' theory. I've never treated it as anything different then a straight romantic story line.

[technoir.livejournal.com]

Yeah Larp vampire has always been a little bit more mature in that fashion than boffer larps. I once did a world of darkness scene about confronting a woman with the sexual abuse of her childhood. World of Darkness has the advantage of being essentially in this world though. Boffer larps which are generally worlds created whole cloth have often left off some of the corner cases. Sometimes for comfort level. I am wondering if homosexual relationships was one of those things left off for comfort or just never occured to anyone or maybe because it not all that common in the genre we are emulating.

[(Anonymous)]

When I wrote for SI it was generally assumed that bisexuality and homosexuality were fairly accepted in Voldinar, with the possible exception that people of a certain station were expected to marry the opposite sex at least as a political marriage to produce heirs. Such marriages were often accompanied by side-arrangements, as long as one was discreet.

Julius Adamidis (Aemelia's rival for leadership of the Voca) had a son who was openly gay. I don't believe it was ever made clear whether he was single, but he often flirted with people and his reputation as a decadent hedonist caused a lot of people to underestimate him (he was actually pretty smart and had a decent amount of political influence for someone so young). Toward the end of the campaign, traumatic events caused him to become a lot more serious, but they certainly didn't change his sexual orientation.

In the Forest of Doors game, there is a race called the Apsara who (if I understand it correctly) are fairly indifferent to sexual preference. Some of them have a strong preference for one gender over the other, but the attitude is similar to saying I strongly prefer pie over cake. It's a non-issue.

I also know there's a plot running at FOD where at least one NPC from a culture that condemns homosexuality is questioning that rule from a philosophical perspective, but I don't think it's something many people have heard about.

Romance plots in general are not for everyone. Some people just want to play an intellectual story. Others just want to hit things. :)

That was me!

[twelveoaks.livejournal.com]

Not anonymous.

Re: That was me!

[technoir.livejournal.com]

Voldinar seemed like an obvious choice for that to be okay. It makes me wonder if perhaps in some of our fictional countries it is not okay. Would Dechaine or Andrynn frown on it? Would Gondal?

Re: That was me!

[twelveoaks.livejournal.com]

I always assumed it was frowned on in Baranor, since a common Baranoran insult for the Voldari was "boylover."

[suibhne.livejournal.com]

That was one of my favorite NPCs ever. Bart was brilliant as him. He'd let the campy side lead until you got him talking off to the side.

[technoir.livejournal.com]

I remember playing a member of his essentially boy band gladiator group. Funny that I did not pick up he was supposed to be gay at the time. Just slipped by. Or if I did realize it I had apparently since forgotten.

[twelveoaks.livejournal.com]

To be fair, his sexuality didn't really matter other than the fact that he played the "campy" card when it served his purposes (and enjoyed doing so).

[twelveoaks.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked him! I liked him too.
There was a method to his madness.

[(Anonymous)]

How many people are interested in such things?

[wulfmadchen.livejournal.com]

I've played at least one openly gay PC and a number of NPCs who were strongly hinted to be in lesbian relationships at NERO. They don't get nearly as much time as het relationships in play, but they do occur.

[technoir.livejournal.com]

Nero in particular I knew of at least one gay PC. It is good to know there were some NPC's as well. When you were playing them, did you decide that as back story to give them some depth or was it a story element related to what was going on?

[solfox.livejournal.com]

I've both run plots with and seen gay NPCs at games, as well as having seen many gay PCs, but never had the opportunity to run one--although I had a couple character concepts I really wanted to play.

One of my fav scenes included a pair of flamingly gay and "on the prowl" mortals who were told there would be a fantastic party at the gathering by a devilishly handsome man named Sabbadi. With as many people who were so heavily invested in dominate and presence at the game, it still didn't occur to them just to tell them to "go away". It was completely cliche and over-the-top, but was great fun to play, and the players didn't know how to deal with it--

player > "Auspex challenge: what are you thinking right now?"
Me/npc > "You... covered in oil"
player > *huge blush/fluster*

[technoir.livejournal.com]

Cool. Yeah when I made this post I wasn't thinking of world of darkness which has a more modern set of rules to it than being steeped in medieval tropes.

[puzzleoflight.livejournal.com]

We are currently running two romantic storylines at Forest of Doors that involve gay NPCs. One of the NPCs is openly gay, while the other is much more quiet about it. Also, there is at least one openly bi NPC who is also in-play frequently, though there is no romantic storyline attached to that one (we considered creating a love triangle between him, one of the gay NPCs and a PC, but decided not to do so).

As Tara previously mentioned, one of our PC races is sexually ambiguous and open to both same-sex and opposite sex relationships.

[technoir.livejournal.com]

Interesting to know. Like I said, till today I was unaware of that being a thing at forest of doors. Kudos for the progressive outlook there.

Portals

[rltrlarper.livejournal.com]

At Portals, I don't think we have any bi or gay NPC story lines. Why? Never thought of it. Hmmm food for thought.

However Robert is as gay as they come. No pun. Also Beacon had a very "gay experience" Experimening with the enrapture brew, an NPC (oog very straight) practially gave Beacon a lap dance.

[roguebaby.livejournal.com]

At SGA I started an NPC on the boards called Trader Jane. "She" was asking who needed what and started flirting with on of our PC's. They even sort of made a plan for a 'date'
When we got to the event, I was just planning on taking her out. But then a fella who was NPCing for us asked if he could play something really fun, so I made Trader Jane a dwarf. S/he had a beard and was very flirty.

The PC's spent months trying to figure out if it was a guy or a chick. And the PC s/he had a thing for was highly amused.
Ended up being on of the most memorable characters for PCs and staff alike... I didn't plan it that way, but it ended up being awesome. :D

[firekast.livejournal.com]

There was a couple down in Nero Florida who played dark elf brothers. Not just gay, but incestuous as well. Were quite open about it. Most of the playerbase seemed quite accepting of it, at least OOG.