Roleplaying diversity quota
Apr. 21st, 2017 10:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackI wish I was not so amateur at this. I think it's worth me thinking and talking about it, but I'm sorry when that comes across as unhelpful.
It doesn't especially matter for a single session, but I think rapidly inventing many minor characters is a good time to practice expecting people to come in a wide variety, and not to treat "white straight male" as the default.
Male/female gender balance
NPCs mentioned. Deara Grogbreath, captain, introduced last session. Marla Redbelt, first mate. Savedra (f), creepy minion. Brekak (m), thug. Barl (m), bit part. There were others of the crew around, but I don't think I named them.
My brain *still* keeps defaulting to default-male whenever I don't pay attention. But it seems like my theory of, shoot for 100% female and it will come out about 50/50 is working. I'm not sure if I should try harder or less hard.
If any of my players are reading, do all the NPCs seem fairly natural or like I'm trying too hard?
Genders other than male/female
How about genders other than male and female? Well, Liv played a non-binary character inspired by Bel from vorkosigan series.
With a small number of NPCs I didn't expect any non-binary characters. But I should not let that turn into "doesn't happen". Even if random NPCs don't disclose any other personal medical information, there should be some non-binary characters. Either humans and other standard races who are non-binary of various forms, or races for who think of themselves that way more often than not.
Sexuality
In a 40-minute heated argument about pirates, nobody's sexuality came up in any way whatsoever (except possibly the players) which is probably about right.
Race
There's a fair mix of *fantasy* races (human, dwarf, sea-elf (which I just made up), sea-dwarf (which I just made up), half-orc.
I failed to show a non-thuggish half-orc. Ms 8 asked, "is he a bad guy because he's an orc", and I basically had to admit, yes. But I did *say* that it doesn't work like that, even if Tolkien and the MM might suggest it does.
I like mixing the fantasy races and imagining how they get on with each other. But I also admit, it has many bad aspects as an analogy for the real world. And, mostly everyone was from "generic dnd culture", there wasn't really any cultural diversity which it would have been better if there was.
It doesn't especially matter for a single session, but I think rapidly inventing many minor characters is a good time to practice expecting people to come in a wide variety, and not to treat "white straight male" as the default.
Male/female gender balance
NPCs mentioned. Deara Grogbreath, captain, introduced last session. Marla Redbelt, first mate. Savedra (f), creepy minion. Brekak (m), thug. Barl (m), bit part. There were others of the crew around, but I don't think I named them.
My brain *still* keeps defaulting to default-male whenever I don't pay attention. But it seems like my theory of, shoot for 100% female and it will come out about 50/50 is working. I'm not sure if I should try harder or less hard.
If any of my players are reading, do all the NPCs seem fairly natural or like I'm trying too hard?
Genders other than male/female
How about genders other than male and female? Well, Liv played a non-binary character inspired by Bel from vorkosigan series.
With a small number of NPCs I didn't expect any non-binary characters. But I should not let that turn into "doesn't happen". Even if random NPCs don't disclose any other personal medical information, there should be some non-binary characters. Either humans and other standard races who are non-binary of various forms, or races for who think of themselves that way more often than not.
Sexuality
In a 40-minute heated argument about pirates, nobody's sexuality came up in any way whatsoever (except possibly the players) which is probably about right.
Race
There's a fair mix of *fantasy* races (human, dwarf, sea-elf (which I just made up), sea-dwarf (which I just made up), half-orc.
I failed to show a non-thuggish half-orc. Ms 8 asked, "is he a bad guy because he's an orc", and I basically had to admit, yes. But I did *say* that it doesn't work like that, even if Tolkien and the MM might suggest it does.
I like mixing the fantasy races and imagining how they get on with each other. But I also admit, it has many bad aspects as an analogy for the real world. And, mostly everyone was from "generic dnd culture", there wasn't really any cultural diversity which it would have been better if there was.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-01 08:14 pm (UTC)*nodnodnod* I found it in the middle of a crisis over whether some original writing was cultural appropriation and it's been SO MUCH MORE HELPFUL than anything previously.
I definitely should and will include a mix of people who are just fitting into the general culture wherever the campaign is set. But I think I think I need to try to include different cultures or experiences *too*, if I'm not to erase important things about people.
Yep, absolutely.