The community I play with is fairly small, so I can't really speak for the community as a whole, but I believe most people are welcoming to LBTQ+ players. In the game itself, there are sections that tell you can play your character however you want. Gender fluid elves are a large part of elven lore, and the elf god is gender fluid.
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A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
I am an openly bi man who has been playing D&D since the early 1990s. I came out as bi in the late 1990s. I have experienced discrimination in my life, both as an LGBT individual, and as a D&D player. I can honestly say that I have never noticed any discrimination against for me for my sexual identity by the D&D comunity.
In my experience, the D&D community is very LGBTQ+ friendly. I've played with a number of people at my local game store, and never have I seen any homophobic behavior there. And half of us in the group I got together when I started college were queer. Unfortunately, I'm not queer myself, so I can't speak to my personal experience, but my friends and I who play D&D are definitely LGBTQ+ friendly!
I'm a straight white male, and among my groups I run for are a gay man, two bisexual women, and my best friend who is a demisexual female. So personally, we're very inclusive. I think most of the D&D community is.
Two of the cast of Critical Role are also bisexual.
To be honest, there is one person I know who is very homophobic. They are also one of the people who introduced me to D&D. I hope this is not often the case, but I think it still happens. Luckily they are the only anti-LGBTQ+ person I have met through D&D.
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A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
I want to believe that we are more accepting on the whole because many of us have suffered harassment so are more accepting. At the worst, we're not different than any other diverse group of people.
But I will surely bet cash money we're better than the XBOX online community. It makes me cringe to hear the stuff kids spew from their mouths at other players.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
We're talking about nerds. People who often don't have the luxury of turning down friends. Obviously people exist who are awful, but I've never seen anyone descriminate against people at a table for any reason. Ever. I've never even heard about it from a first hand account (re: D&D table). Not saying it doesn't happen ever, but really the issue isn't D&D. The issue is whether you are sitting around with jerks.
And if you are LGBTQ+ yourself, have you had experiences with not being aloud in games, being called slurs or being harassed?
In my experience, D&D tends to ignore gays and trans, and omit them from products. However, on those rare occasions when such characters and themes do come up, it tends to be positive and respectful.
The trend in D&D products seems to be toward more recognition and presence of gays and trans and others.
In my experience, D&D tends to ignore gays and trans, and omit them from products.
How do we know though? For all we really know, half of the NPCs in every story might have been LGBT, but their sexuality was completely irrelevant to the story, so they just didn’t mention it.
My experiences have been that it varies considerably between groups. I've known a lot of D&D players who were big fans of sites like 4chan and displayed all the toxic attitudes that implies.
On the other hand, I'm currently playing or GMing in four games and there's only one individual in any of them who's a cisgender hetero person in real life. Which is not surprising since most of us were friends before we started playing D&D together.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
My experiences have been that it varies considerably between groups. I've known a lot of D&D players who were big fans of sites like 4chan and displayed all the toxic attitudes that implies.
On the other hand, I'm currently playing or GMing in four games and there's only one individual in any of them who's a cisgender hetero person in real life. Which is not surprising since most of us were friends before we started playing D&D together.
You can be on 4Chan and not neccesarly agree with all of whats on it.
i sometimes go on 4Chan cause their 40k "Parodies" are freaking Hilarious, when i read the "stories" about how Kharn the Betrayer is a "swell guy" i'm pissing myself.
I avoid the /Politics sections like the plague and i'm good.
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"Normality is but an Illusion, Whats normal to the Spider, is only madness for the Fly"
Now that I’ve thought about it more, I realize that I have received way more discriminating from members of the LGBT comunity for being a “nerd” because I play D&D and other games than I have from the so called “nerd comunity” for being bisexual.
My experiences have been that it varies considerably between groups. I've known a lot of D&D players who were big fans of sites like 4chan and displayed all the toxic attitudes that implies.
On the other hand, I'm currently playing or GMing in four games and there's only one individual in any of them who's a cisgender hetero person in real life. Which is not surprising since most of us were friends before we started playing D&D together.
You can be on 4Chan and not neccesarly agree with all of whats on it.
i sometimes go on 4Chan cause their 40k "Parodies" are freaking Hilarious, when i read the "stories" about how Kharn the Betrayer is a "swell guy" i'm pissing myself.
I avoid the /Politics sections like the plague and i'm good.
The fact that you don't agree with it doesn't mean that there aren't others who do. I happen to have met many who do.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I know that two of D&D 5e's lead designers, Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins are both LBGTQ+, and I think that's reflected in 5e being more inclusive regarding characters of differing sexualities.
To the question about the D&D community meaning the people who play D&D (and limiting that to players in various parts of the United States). I'd say D&D players _tend_ to be more accepting than the population at large of LGBTQ+ identities than not; but I wouldn't take that to assume every game table or even convention is a safe space. The current designers certainly make gestures to welcome player diversity, but players ultimately make the game and what's at play or excluded in their settings. I will note I've noticed a trend among younger (under 20 years old) players to want to realize their characters as genderfluid. All that said, D&D like a lot of fandoms certainly has its revanchist segment who see such openness welcome in D&D as part of some larger plot to disenfranchise them or something and carry the resultant toxicity with them. I'd like to say that's a minority of the player base, but how uncommon I can't say.
That's the D&D community now. I'm not sure about the past though my experience with players tended toward welcoming, though whether that's the game or the people themselves is a chicken and egg thing. Since exclusion or erasure was brought up in actual D&D products, I'd say gender identity or expression wasn't something explicitly mentioned in D&D game material until recently (aside from that one 3rd party book that was more about erotica than gender expression, but that gets more an eye roll than any sort of credit these days). I'd also say that the earliest fiction put out in support of D&D (Dragonlance and some of the early Forgotten Realms novels) through a modern lens are ridiculous in their assertion/essentializing of heteronormativity.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
In my experience, D&D tends to ignore gays and trans, and omit them from products.
How do we know though? For all we really know, half of the NPCs in every story might have been LGBT, but their sexuality was completely irrelevant to the story, so they just didn’t mention it.
Exactly my point!
If 50% of the NPCs are gay, and that fact is unmentioned, then it is omitting the presence of gay people. Same goes for transgenders and so on.
If the monarchs of a kingdom are a king and queen, rather than two kings, that too is omitting gay people.
If the owners of an inn are two women who are married, and that fact is omitted, that too is erasing the presence of gay people, by simply ignoring the fact of their presence.
It is like saying stupid assumptions like, "she is so beautiful, every man wants her". Obviously, gay men dont. The omission of gay people, is erasing them.
And if you are LGBTQ+ yourself, have you had experiences with not being aloud in games, being called slurs or being harassed?
In my experience, D&D tends to ignore gays and trans, and omit them from products. However, on those rare occasions when such characters and themes do come up, it tends to be positive and respectful.
The trend in D&D products seems to be toward more recognition and presence of gays and trans and others.
Omit implies a conscious decision to exclude. It is far more likely that there was no thought of any particular need to include any such content. The gay players that I have known never seemed to feel any need to express their sexual preferences through their characters. Romance more generally does not show up in most campaigns even amongst straight players, so why would it be expected from or for the LGBTQ+ players? The only 5e module that I have read is Mines and it has no romance elements. For published modules from earlier editions I cannot think of any romance plot lines at all. Many of us originally started playing when we were underage for such things and any such elements would be really inappropriate to promote amongst those starting today at such ages, particularly since they are likely playing with older players, often much older.
Computer based incarnations of D&D are another matter, since they are single player plus normally have age warnings.
As for the OP's topic, never seen any problems with homophobia amongst D&D players but that does not mean it does not exist. Given any large enough population, there will be a wide variety of views and unfortunately, not all of them will be positive or accepting views.
In D&D earlier editions, I suspect there was a drift: from total ignorance about gays and transgenders (such as beautiful female enchanters who only charmed males), toward a conscious decision to omit the existence of gay characters. That said, fortunately, D&D has always been mostly "well meaning", and genuinely intellectually curious. So, for example, Corellon is androgynous, and portrayed in a positive light. There was even a "Girdle of Opposite Sex", conveying concepts of transgender, albeit presented as a curse. However, such examples are few and far between. In 3e, for example, there was more awareness about gays and transgenders, thus more of an intention decision to erase their presence from official D&D products.
I suspect, 5e more likely than previous editions, to mention gay characters (include who they are in relationships with). But even this remains few and far between. Being transgender is usually more obvious, if a person physically appears male but dresses in female attire, for example. Of course, magical shapeshift would make the transgender invisible, and undetectable to players playing the game. Being gay is invisible. The D&D product must explicitly mention if a gay is gay, otherwise it is undetectable, and the product is effectively erasing the existence of gay people.
In my experience, D&D tends to ignore gays and trans, and omit them from products.
How do we know though? For all we really know, half of the NPCs in every story might have been LGBT, but their sexuality was completely irrelevant to the story, so they just didn’t mention it.
Exactly my point!
If 50% of the NPCs are gay, and that fact is unmentioned, then it is omitting the presence of gay people. Same goes for transgenders and so on.
If the monarchs of a kingdom are a king and queen, rather than two kings, that too is omitting gay people.
If the owners of an inn are two women who are married, and that fact is omitted, that too is erasing the presence of gay people, by simply ignoring the fact of their presence.
It is like saying stupid assumptions like, "she is so beautiful, every man wants her". Obviously, gay men dont. The omission of gay people, is erasing them.
Just play the game.
There is no erasure. There is no omission.
D&D is a game where sexuality simply does not come into play, because the awkwardness of forcing ANY kind of romance, between players and/ or NPC's, leads to a mess. That has been consistent throughout the entire history of the game. Once you try to introduce romantic relationships (other than "go rescue the princess taken on her wedding day") into the game, someone is going to be uncomfortable at your table.
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Im just curious on peoples views on this,
And if you are LGBTQ+ yourself, have you had experiences with not being aloud in games, being called slurs or being harassed?
The community I play with is fairly small, so I can't really speak for the community as a whole, but I believe most people are welcoming to LBTQ+ players. In the game itself, there are sections that tell you can play your character however you want. Gender fluid elves are a large part of elven lore, and the elf god is gender fluid.
A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
My Improved Lineage System
Hi there casper_the_friendly_ghost,
I am an openly bi man who has been playing D&D since the early 1990s. I came out as bi in the late 1990s. I have experienced discrimination in my life, both as an LGBT individual, and as a D&D player. I can honestly say that I have never noticed any discrimination against for me for my sexual identity by the D&D comunity.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
In my experience, the D&D community is very LGBTQ+ friendly. I've played with a number of people at my local game store, and never have I seen any homophobic behavior there. And half of us in the group I got together when I started college were queer. Unfortunately, I'm not queer myself, so I can't speak to my personal experience, but my friends and I who play D&D are definitely LGBTQ+ friendly!
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
I'm a straight white male, and among my groups I run for are a gay man, two bisexual women, and my best friend who is a demisexual female. So personally, we're very inclusive. I think most of the D&D community is.
Two of the cast of Critical Role are also bisexual.
To be honest, there is one person I know who is very homophobic. They are also one of the people who introduced me to D&D. I hope this is not often the case, but I think it still happens. Luckily they are the only anti-LGBTQ+ person I have met through D&D.
A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
My Improved Lineage System
I want to believe that we are more accepting on the whole because many of us have suffered harassment so are more accepting. At the worst, we're not different than any other diverse group of people.
But I will surely bet cash money we're better than the XBOX online community. It makes me cringe to hear the stuff kids spew from their mouths at other players.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
When you made me think about it, I realized I've never played at a table that didn't have at least one LGBTQ+ player.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
We're talking about nerds. People who often don't have the luxury of turning down friends. Obviously people exist who are awful, but I've never seen anyone descriminate against people at a table for any reason. Ever. I've never even heard about it from a first hand account (re: D&D table). Not saying it doesn't happen ever, but really the issue isn't D&D. The issue is whether you are sitting around with jerks.
In my experience, D&D tends to ignore gays and trans, and omit them from products. However, on those rare occasions when such characters and themes do come up, it tends to be positive and respectful.
The trend in D&D products seems to be toward more recognition and presence of gays and trans and others.
he / him
How do we know though? For all we really know, half of the NPCs in every story might have been LGBT, but their sexuality was completely irrelevant to the story, so they just didn’t mention it.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
My experiences have been that it varies considerably between groups. I've known a lot of D&D players who were big fans of sites like 4chan and displayed all the toxic attitudes that implies.
On the other hand, I'm currently playing or GMing in four games and there's only one individual in any of them who's a cisgender hetero person in real life. Which is not surprising since most of us were friends before we started playing D&D together.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
You can be on 4Chan and not neccesarly agree with all of whats on it.
i sometimes go on 4Chan cause their 40k "Parodies" are freaking Hilarious, when i read the "stories" about how Kharn the Betrayer is a "swell guy" i'm pissing myself.
I avoid the /Politics sections like the plague and i'm good.
"Normality is but an Illusion, Whats normal to the Spider, is only madness for the Fly"
Kain de Frostberg- Dark Knight - (Vengeance Pal3/ Hexblade 9), Port Mourn
Kain de Draakberg-Dark Knight lvl8-Avergreen(DitA)
Now that I’ve thought about it more, I realize that I have received way more discriminating from members of the LGBT comunity for being a “nerd” because I play D&D and other games than I have from the so called “nerd comunity” for being bisexual.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
The fact that you don't agree with it doesn't mean that there aren't others who do. I happen to have met many who do.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I know that two of D&D 5e's lead designers, Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins are both LBGTQ+, and I think that's reflected in 5e being more inclusive regarding characters of differing sexualities.
To the question about the D&D community meaning the people who play D&D (and limiting that to players in various parts of the United States). I'd say D&D players _tend_ to be more accepting than the population at large of LGBTQ+ identities than not; but I wouldn't take that to assume every game table or even convention is a safe space. The current designers certainly make gestures to welcome player diversity, but players ultimately make the game and what's at play or excluded in their settings. I will note I've noticed a trend among younger (under 20 years old) players to want to realize their characters as genderfluid. All that said, D&D like a lot of fandoms certainly has its revanchist segment who see such openness welcome in D&D as part of some larger plot to disenfranchise them or something and carry the resultant toxicity with them. I'd like to say that's a minority of the player base, but how uncommon I can't say.
That's the D&D community now. I'm not sure about the past though my experience with players tended toward welcoming, though whether that's the game or the people themselves is a chicken and egg thing. Since exclusion or erasure was brought up in actual D&D products, I'd say gender identity or expression wasn't something explicitly mentioned in D&D game material until recently (aside from that one 3rd party book that was more about erotica than gender expression, but that gets more an eye roll than any sort of credit these days). I'd also say that the earliest fiction put out in support of D&D (Dragonlance and some of the early Forgotten Realms novels) through a modern lens are ridiculous in their assertion/essentializing of heteronormativity.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Exactly my point!
If 50% of the NPCs are gay, and that fact is unmentioned, then it is omitting the presence of gay people. Same goes for transgenders and so on.
If the monarchs of a kingdom are a king and queen, rather than two kings, that too is omitting gay people.
If the owners of an inn are two women who are married, and that fact is omitted, that too is erasing the presence of gay people, by simply ignoring the fact of their presence.
It is like saying stupid assumptions like, "she is so beautiful, every man wants her". Obviously, gay men dont. The omission of gay people, is erasing them.
he / him
In D&D earlier editions, I suspect there was a drift: from total ignorance about gays and transgenders (such as beautiful female enchanters who only charmed males), toward a conscious decision to omit the existence of gay characters. That said, fortunately, D&D has always been mostly "well meaning", and genuinely intellectually curious. So, for example, Corellon is androgynous, and portrayed in a positive light. There was even a "Girdle of Opposite Sex", conveying concepts of transgender, albeit presented as a curse. However, such examples are few and far between. In 3e, for example, there was more awareness about gays and transgenders, thus more of an intention decision to erase their presence from official D&D products.
I suspect, 5e more likely than previous editions, to mention gay characters (include who they are in relationships with). But even this remains few and far between. Being transgender is usually more obvious, if a person physically appears male but dresses in female attire, for example. Of course, magical shapeshift would make the transgender invisible, and undetectable to players playing the game. Being gay is invisible. The D&D product must explicitly mention if a gay is gay, otherwise it is undetectable, and the product is effectively erasing the existence of gay people.
he / him
Just play the game.
There is no erasure. There is no omission.
D&D is a game where sexuality simply does not come into play, because the awkwardness of forcing ANY kind of romance, between players and/ or NPC's, leads to a mess. That has been consistent throughout the entire history of the game. Once you try to introduce romantic relationships (other than "go rescue the princess taken on her wedding day") into the game, someone is going to be uncomfortable at your table.