I’m running Waterdeep: Dragon Heist at the moment, and one of my players is a Drow. This draws the attention of Jarlaxle, but in the game there is a Drow Gunslinger called Fel’Rekt Lafeen - this character is explicitly described as a male drow who was born female. That’s a fascinating idea with some great repercussions I’d love to explore - but - does anyone have good advice on how to surface that in-game? How do you rollplay that, and make it known, in a responsible and good way? “dude looks like a lady” is not going to cut it in my game. Conversely, if I treat it how I might in real life - it’d just never get mentioned at all and the character would be no different to if he’d been described as “an ordinary drow male”.
I expect it’s something that has been thought about by Wizards, and elsewhere, but no advice on how to approach this is given. Ideas?
The best I’ve come up with is possily the characters over-hearing one of the other drow mistreating him and referring to him as her, and being disparraging. But... I don’t want to colour this issue in that way pre-emtively if I can help it.
I just picked up W:DH yesterday, so I'm working my way through the various characters now, and coming across the same questions.
Possibly the answer you seek is in the fact that there is a minimum of information that allows you to play it however you want. As it stands, I see at least three different interpretations of the line "Fel'rekt is a male drow who was born female".
D&D5e is a high-magic world, where people can legitimately change their biological sex (Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity from Baldur's Gate, anyone?). Perhaps a young Fel'rekt, so moved by the plight of the males among her fellow Drow, that she fled the Underdark, and sought out the magic required to actually become one.
This leads to some fun visual clues for your players. Is Fel'rekt wearing the Girdle or some other charm? Will the players notice over time that he never takes it off for any reason? Is he wearing a charmed item as a stop gap until he can find a more permanent magic to use? Has Fel already found such a magic, and is indebted to some moneylender or mad mage for services rendered? Plot Hooks abound!
In order to fully be ingratiated with the Bregan Daerthe, Fel'rekt posed as a male and, after wearing the mask for so long, has merged with it on a deeply personal and psychological level.
This could be fun for developing relationships with your players. At no point has Fel "decided" on being a male, but rather forgot about being female over time from wearing the mask of "fellow male drow runaway" for so long. Does Jarlaxle know? Even if the answer is yes, he obviously doesn't care and sees Fel as a brother anyway. Does Fel develop any feelings for any of the players? Does this create internal conflict in any way? It would take too long to explore all the options that could pan out, but they'd dissect the many forms of defining relationships in a deep and meaningful way no matter which way you cut it. Player interactions abound!
Fel'rekt is Transgender, biologically a female, but psychologically identifying as male. This is the interpretation that I took from your post although, naturally, I could be wrong.
Generally speaking, my understanding is that the dream of inclusivity is one where someone being trans is no longer a talking point, but just another means of someone living their life. In which case, it's best not to even mention it unless there is some meaningful reason to go there. If you attempt to shoehorn it in, it could come across as tokenism, and backfire spectacularly (I speak as a disabled person who frequently gets frustrated when others get on the warpath on my behalf about "ableism", or act as though I won't feel welcome in an environment unless that environment is depicted as having a cripple or someone in a wheelchair).
Alternatively, if you do want to portray the struggle that some trans people have with modern society, you could certainly have a few neanderthals try to cause trouble on that front, although I suspect that this could still put some players on the spot, where they'd rather just enjoy the adventure in its entirety rather than focus on real world social issues.
The TL:DR version? You have room to breathe on this front, and you can decide for yourself how you want to play it. My advice would be to decide on a way to play it and then focus your attention on making it a seamless part of the narrative, rather than a conscious delineation of the main story.
If one of your players is playing a drow, there is an opportunity to join the Bregan D'Areth faction. There, they could get to know him since he seems easier to get along with than the other lieutenants, and he could potentially confide his background. Otherwise, there are really only two ways I could see it being revealed. One, some of the other drow know and think Jarlaxle made a mistake letting Fel'Rekt join and make some snide comments behind his back about "that "Lafeen chick" or "I wonder what HER actual name is". The other way, and I as a DM would not be comfortable with this option myself, would be if Fel'Rekt were incapacitated in a fight (during the Maestro's Fall events, for example) and the players were either looting the body or frisking him while tying him up and found that he was wearing a binder. I suppose Fel'Rekt could also just be openly trans, but given the vicious gender roles of drow society, I can't exactly see his culture as being accepting, and I don't know how accepting the surface cultures would be. As accepting as you, the DM, want them to be, I suppose.
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I’m running Waterdeep: Dragon Heist at the moment, and one of my players is a Drow. This draws the attention of Jarlaxle, but in the game there is a Drow Gunslinger called Fel’Rekt Lafeen - this character is explicitly described as a male drow who was born female. That’s a fascinating idea with some great repercussions I’d love to explore - but - does anyone have good advice on how to surface that in-game? How do you rollplay that, and make it known, in a responsible and good way? “dude looks like a lady” is not going to cut it in my game. Conversely, if I treat it how I might in real life - it’d just never get mentioned at all and the character would be no different to if he’d been described as “an ordinary drow male”.
I expect it’s something that has been thought about by Wizards, and elsewhere, but no advice on how to approach this is given. Ideas?
The best I’ve come up with is possily the characters over-hearing one of the other drow mistreating him and referring to him as her, and being disparraging. But... I don’t want to colour this issue in that way pre-emtively if I can help it.
Hi Matt,
I just picked up W:DH yesterday, so I'm working my way through the various characters now, and coming across the same questions.
Possibly the answer you seek is in the fact that there is a minimum of information that allows you to play it however you want. As it stands, I see at least three different interpretations of the line "Fel'rekt is a male drow who was born female".
The TL:DR version? You have room to breathe on this front, and you can decide for yourself how you want to play it. My advice would be to decide on a way to play it and then focus your attention on making it a seamless part of the narrative, rather than a conscious delineation of the main story.
And, of course, Have Fun!
Philosopher. DM. Chronic Pain Adventurer.
If one of your players is playing a drow, there is an opportunity to join the Bregan D'Areth faction. There, they could get to know him since he seems easier to get along with than the other lieutenants, and he could potentially confide his background. Otherwise, there are really only two ways I could see it being revealed. One, some of the other drow know and think Jarlaxle made a mistake letting Fel'Rekt join and make some snide comments behind his back about "that "Lafeen chick" or "I wonder what HER actual name is". The other way, and I as a DM would not be comfortable with this option myself, would be if Fel'Rekt were incapacitated in a fight (during the Maestro's Fall events, for example) and the players were either looting the body or frisking him while tying him up and found that he was wearing a binder. I suppose Fel'Rekt could also just be openly trans, but given the vicious gender roles of drow society, I can't exactly see his culture as being accepting, and I don't know how accepting the surface cultures would be. As accepting as you, the DM, want them to be, I suppose.