Strategies for gendering RO's

Oh boy. Did I talk about this subject.

I used to be so sure about not making the ROs genderflips. Then someone here (can’t remember who sorry) present me with the mindblowing question “Sure, but what about those players that aren’t bi.” And they were totally right. Also, games like TWC and Fallen Hero handled that stuff so well it helped me realize that’s the best way to go (even if I prefer to write a couple of ROs with a set gender, and flip the other 2).

As a bisexual I personally love the way Fallen Hero does the gender thing so much i’m stealing it for sure just haven’t told Malin yet. Randomize those genders. There’s nothing more off putting that finding out my dude’s suddenly trapped with 5 same gender RO’s because he happens to be a dude.

Also, bisexual representation, yes people, thank you, yes.

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Well my solution is to just have so many of them that regardless of your sexuality you’ll probably find someone interesting. Not to mention that for many of the characters their gender is a fundamental part of their identity.

I guess it sucks if you want to romance a male dragon or a female vampire. But it also has the wonderful side effect of reducing my workload considerably! And reducing one’s workload is the spirit of Christmas.

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That too. There’s no such a thing as too many ROs. Ever.

But yeah, I’m good with ROs being genderlocked too because I always find one that’s the one. Then again, bisexual so :stuck_out_tongue:

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Hi,

I’m creating a game with a few possible ROs, three of which are human and two of which are shape-shifting spirits who technically do not have any biological sex. I want to be able to give all players a welcoming experience, so all the ROs will have the potential to be attracted to the Player Character regardless of gender. (I hope this will save me some coding too.) The Player Character is also a spirit, but can be male, female, agender, nonbinary or gender fluid, and choose from a range of pronouns (I’d appreciate any guidance about what pronouns people would like included, as I might find it difficult to introduce an input option for them).

The ROs are not there as just potential ROs, and can have entirely non-romantic relationships pursued with them, be it a friendship or a fierce rivalry. They’re essentially the main supporting cast, and the Player Character can choose where their allegiances lie with each of them (and whether those allegiances shift). The romances will also not really include anything sexual, as the game is kind of PG-13 and I’m not really interested in covering or “reaching” that side of things, as the case may be.

What I’m worried about is the way I have currently planned to handle the ROs’ genders, and the implications I might unintentionally give off. I had planned for the human ROs to be gender-selectable from male, female or agender, as I found I really liked games like Midsummer and Tally Ho! where you could select ROs’ genders (this is also where I got the inspiration for the “player-romantic”-oriented ROs approach, as I really liked the way the game asks you how you feel about specific characters as opposed to giving you a definite question about your sexual/romantic orientation, which I found kind of jarring in other games). Please note this is their gender identity, and I’m not really planning to touch on anyone’s biological sex, so it’s kind of up to player interpretation. They’re also all kind of androgynous in the way they present regardless of gender/pronouns, at least how I imagine them, although each is androgynous in a different way, if that makes any sense.

However, for the spirit characters, I was planning for one to be nonbinary/agender and the other to be genderfluid, but I’m worried that by only including non-human characters as explicitly and canonically nonbinary/genderfluid, I might create an implication of those identities being “other”. Especially in a game where - potentially - all the human characters could be of binary genders. There will also be other spirit characters who identify as binary genders, but they will be more side characters, and I’m aware it doesn’t really help nonbinary representation.

I do imagine the spirit characters’ identity as spirits to be bound up with how they experience gender, but I don’t want to erase or discredit the experiences of real-life people by implying that it’s “the reason” that either of them identifies that way. I’d appreciate any guidance and advice from anyone who identifies as agender, nonbinary, genderfluid, or genderqueer. As far as I’m aware, I know that’s a collection of terms, some of which cover a lot of different things or overlap, but I’d like to get as many opinions as to make an informed decision.

Thank you to anyone who can help.

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Here’s my perspective as a bigender man–from the get-go, you didn’t activate any red flags for me. It wasn’t until you explained where your worries were coming from that I remembered there even was a nonhuman/nonbinary dilemma. I think having the spirits have a wide variety of gender identities (including binary ones) does a lot to sidestep the issue. You could go a step further and include one or two nonbinary humans; even they/them or neopronoun side characters would do a lot to establish a world in which being nonbinary is a norm for anyone: human or spirit.

I think the MC being a spirit also helps. It feels less like othering if the story is told from the perspective of one of the people with a societal view of gender that differs from humans. In fact, I’m pumped because from what you’re saying it doesn’t really seem like you can play as a cisgender MC due to the sexless nature of spirits.

It seems like you’re putting a lot of thought into portraying all of your characters–regardless of their identity–with the respect they deserve. I think you’re fine to continue as are, and if you do run into any hiccups, I’m sure people on here would be willing to point them out/help you with them once you post your beta!

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