Membership Romantic alignment on character profiles - yay or nay?

[Deep Sea 326]

So, when I started roleplaying at the tender age of 15, I started on Gaia Online. Now, I don't know about you guys, but over there, almost every GM put romantic alignment on the character sheets - even in stories that aren't necessarily romantic.

 

So my question to y'all today is: is it important? Is it important to you as a player? As a game master? How critical is it that we know whether a character is single or taken, gay or straight, transgendered or not? Are there genres in which it's important to denote whether a character is aromantic or asexual? Does having this information add or detract from your roleplay experience? Be honest! I'm not gonna judge you for needing this info for trashy romance RPs! That shit can be fun!

 

Me, personally, I don't typically enjoy romance stories, so I don't join them, so I never really consider the romantic or sexual alignment of my characters.... Except for the one arranged marriage RP I ran because that was fucking hilarious.

[CovertSphinx 710]

To me, as a player and a GM, in the grand scheme of things Romantic/Sexual alignment is completely unimportant (unless for specific plottings, but I can always ask that later). BUT, if I happen to know my character's taste or its something I think is important to mention for that specific character, I'll usually include it as a voluntary "fun fact" or extra snippet. 

[Sparky Muse 16]

I'm actually strongly against putting Romantic Affiliation in a character creation thread.

1. It's just another thing they have to fill out
2. It encourages the people who try to get into relationship or who want their character to be a pimp to try and thread with as many "interested" characters as they can, which can annoy the frack out of the others
3. For people who aren't planning to get their character involved in a relationship, it's a turn-off of the site

4. Some character plots actually work better if their romantic affiliation isn't listed
5. Some people haven't decided yet
6. The discussion in voicechat earlier suggests it might create unnecessary drama
7. Most people, if they want a relationship, will set one up regardless if it's listed or not.

Characters like Deadpool don't have a defined romantic interest that I know of, and they're funnier for it. I don't see any real need to put it in, and if I change my mind later, well, it's set in the character profile, too late now, right? I dunno..... I don't have anything against the sites that do include it, and I think it's a personal choice, but, I honestly consider it as something with negative value on a site (negative value means it hurts the thing instead of helping it)

[Meushell 18]

I enjoyed having it listed myself, but it should be an optional listing. It’s not really that important, but of a “fun fact” as @CovertSphinx suggested. If we removed all fun facts from a bio, it’d make less of an interesting bio.

[Sage 289]

I don't think it's necessary, but I know it's been a trend for a long time to include it. Especially for young people who are trying to identify their romantic or sexual orientation, having defining terms and seeing/writing characters that they can openly identify with is sort of like an affirmation for them. I see it more on sites geared toward a younger audience. People like to put their characters in boxes, and explicitly defining their sexuality/romantic preferences is just another way to do that. I don't  think there's anything wrong it it. It's not necessarily a turn off for me, either, probably because it's just a part of the culture of rp I've come to accept over the years. It's another easy way to see, at a glance, how characters might possibly interact.

 

Recently, I've been seeing this field in character apps not being included! Which I think is great - if it's something you think is important, you can talk about it elsewhere in the app or shipper or whatever. But it's not a defining characteristic for me. Just like with people. Who you love/screw/find attractive doesn't define you as a person. Especially if you're rping in a world that doesn't have the same lgbtq+ political/religious/social/etc. issues as the real world.

[Elena 546]

I think all the important details regarding a character should be somewhere in the bio and/ or plotter. But where exactly, it is up to you. I would approach a gay character with different plots than romance, if I have heterosexual characters. A man and a woman can do different things (unless the woman is disguised as a man or defying social norms, which come with a high price) in a historical RPG, so plots would differ again on genders. If one writes that his character is aromantic or asexual, there will be no romance plots or maybe the isolated one-sided crush from somebody else who doesn't expect anything.

[Uaithne 543]

I don't mind either way enough that this will influence whether I join or not join a site, but I like having the information available somewhere to see in case I'm curious.

[Sage 289]

@Elena brings up a good point - different rp settings can mean you'll need different kinds of information about a character. In historic rps, that information is very important due to the political climate around sexuality and gender. In modern rps, it's not nearly as essential to identity.

[Shades 676]

Personally, I believe it's one of those things that can go into a catch-all 'other', 'miscellaneous facts', etc. This way, if people want to add it, they can, and if they don't - because they don't know yet, because they don't do this kind of plot, or what have you, they don't have to think of something to add or just put in N/A or something like that.

And I say that as a massive romance trash whore. I believe if people want to plot romance, they can figure out romantic alignments within the plotting process.

[Beanie 27]

8 minutes ago, Shades said:

Personally, I believe it's one of those things that can go into a catch-all 'other', 'miscellaneous facts', etc. This way, if people want to add it, they can, and if they don't - because they don't know yet, because they don't do this kind of plot, or what have you, they don't have to think of something to add or just put in N/A or something like that.

And I say that as a massive romance trash whore. I believe if people want to plot romance, they can figure out romantic alignments within the plotting process.

 

This is exactly my feeling! I often don't include sexuality in the profile explicitly; usually because I don't know! When I do include it I tend to throw it in under the 'other' section, like when I had a lot of feelings about my bi lady character who has a lot of internalized biphobia.

 

Tbh though I don't mind if there's an explicit sexuality section of the profile. To each their own! My only pet peeve is when it's expected to be in the personality section, (or thrown in there anyways;) sexuality isn't a personality trait. 

[Arceus 1,082]

There's one site I have these on, and one I don't. Why? Well, one has a very polyamorous character on it that WILL scoop you up if he can. Hahahaha. The other... is... actually more openly accepting of these kinds of things, so I'm really not sure why it doesn't have those fields. Probably because its overall setting doesn't really readily lend to that. Most put orientation somewhere in the plotters, though. The first site that has them has a school in its setting, so like a cluster of its character base are around 15-16, prime "wtf even am I" age. We even have a transgender character on it. The other is more adult-y in overall feel, but you know, it's set in a nation where like half the populace are bi, and most are poly, or at least know what it is, so it's not really something we have to explicitly spell out. It's just, kind of a part of the world setting.

 

Mostly they're there for plotting purposes. It can be changed at will, though, so nothing's set in stone by filling it out. As a general rule of thumb, if it's real-life-y enough, I'll usually put orientation and poly-status somewhere, even if it's not an actual predesignated field. I usually have at least one character that's poly as heck all, and I honestly feel the need to warn people about this. Yeah, if you get into a ship with this character, they MAY still trip into a relationship with someone else. That is a thing to know. Don't chase this ship if you can't handle it turning into a mini-fleet, basically, in not so many words.

 

TL;DR, I use them sometimes, they're useful, and I don't mind seeing them on apps and stuff.

[StormWolfe 557]

We do have a field for relationship status of the characters. It's more there for those that might be looking for a romantic 'ship who might want a quick reference. As far as the character's sexuality goes, put it somewhere in the bio if it is important to the writer. Otherwise, it will be revealed as we all write together.

 

I know we're pariahs, but we also don't ask for triggers, pronouns, etc. 😉

[Rune 1,099]

I'm indifferent. It can be nice if your after romance, but it doesn't serve any purpose beyond that. 

Though, I also have characters who have their sexuality listed as their names cause they're either so arrogant no one else is good enough or they're so aesexual the might be a Ken doll. 

[Huskerdust 625]

It doesn't turn me off from a site to see it but I don't have it as a field on my sites. I don't think it's that important tbh. I love romance oriented plots too but it can be just as fun to have a character crush on somebody that would never look at them that way. I guess if PLAYERS don't want that unwanted attention, that's a way to keep it at bay...? I'm not sure. I guess people have their reasons.

[Kit the Human 758]

4 hours ago, Sage said:

@Elena brings up a good point - different rp settings can mean you'll need different kinds of information about a character. In historic rps, that information is very important due to the political climate around sexuality and gender. In modern rps, it's not nearly as essential to identity.

 

I run a historic site (with eldritch shennanigans) and it's important to me that the time is fairly represented. I had to write up a thing once reminding people that 'sodomy' (non-reproductive sex) was a hanging offence and therefore, same sex attracted characters should be behaving accordingly. 

 

So believe you me, I know how important it is to consider how that aspect of who you are interacts with whatever setting you live in.

 

That does not make it necessary to list your character's orientation. In fact in a historical setting, I would argue that it is less important because the framework of sexuality* was reproductive and non reproductive sex. I argue that by asking after a character's sexuality, you're asking the writer to judge their character based on a modern framework that your character does not share and using a language that doesn't exist, both of which are borne from events that have not yet happened. These things are meaningless to your character.

 

Now, as always, if you find using modern framework a useful jumping point to understanding, that is of course fine. But let's not argue that it's very important in any genre. It's a admin and player preference, nothing more.

 

Now! 😛

 

You might have noticed that I'm probably against listing sexual orientation. It's not a deal breaker for me, but I don't find it helpful. Other people have mentioned things like giving the writer time to discover their characters sexuality. I agree with that sentiment. (Though you can just let players edit that field post application acceptance and that concern becomes null.)

 

But also, meta gaming. I want people to plot with me based on what my character has done and what they want from life. Not who they want to have sex with. I want my characters to be mistaken for something else, their intentions misunderstood and wrong assumptions made. Being upfront about things like sexuality rids me of those organic interactions, because people are weird about mis-sexualising characters (because they want to be respectful.)

 

*I'm talking about English history here. It varies from culture to culture.