Opinions on Romances.

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I do not think Sarevok would romance a female Charname. Doesn't he still hold feelings towards Tomoko (sp?) even though she is dead? I guess that could be part of the romance mod. However ToB isn't exactly a long game compared to SoA so the romance would have a hard time avoiding the 'rushed' feel much like Tashia did.

 

Tashia was a SoA romance. And certainly wasn't a rushed one.

But I agree on that making a romance strictly limited to ToB would be hard. As it would certainly feel rushed compared to the romances that start in the beginning of SoA. However, done right, I do believe it possible.

 

What I don't understand is that the women on this site seem not to like playing a male PC and romancing female NPCs. Similarly, the guys on this site seem be opposed to playing a female PC and romancing a male NPC. Quite frankly, I find this really strange, since after all, it IS roleplaying. Why do a lot of people seem so focused on the gender of a completely fictional character? To me, I don't see playing a female human as any more strange than playing, for example, a male half-orc, even though outside of the sex organs, I'm probably closer anatomically to a female human than a male half-orc. I wonder - do the people who don't roleplay characters of the opposite sex of their own also only choose humans as the race for their character?

 

Well have you ever done LARP (Live-Action Role Playing)? Consider playing that, pretending to be a female, romancing a male.

Roleplaying is roleplaying of course, but something of the player will always follow through to his character. That's the fun of it afterall, to play a character the way *you* see them, not just picking a character, a load of text describing that character, and then following that text and description to the letter without adding anything of yourself. Incidentally, that also means your own preferences must make it in too. Let's just say that for a straight male to romance another male, no matter which gender they themselves were playing, would mean that the male was either extremely free of prejudice and traditional homophobia, or not straight.

Or more simply put. Why the heck would I want to romance a male? What is fun there except for the very bizarre, disturbing experience?

 

@Aldeth: I do play humans because I like DC... I tried a half orc female assassin once, she was great and besides she couldn't romance Anomen which was even better!!!

 

@Aldeth: I have played male Charnames who have romanced female characters before. My last time through the game I hooked up with Viconia, I also romanced Jaheira. I wanted to experience everything the game had to offer, for one thing, but also I liked those characters and genuinely wanted to romance them because they were interesting. I agree with you that most people (not just on this site, from my experience) tend not to roleplay the opposite gender, but I don't think it's very strange or remarkable. I'm not sure you can really compare it to roleplaying different races, although there are people who love sticking to humans (I almost exclusively play elves, myself).

I think Foradasthar made a telling comment about player preferences coming into play. Particularly in America, we carry a hell of a lot of cultural baggage around about gender and sexuality, and for hetero males in particular, this can be a hard thing to overcome for roleplaying reasons. My boyfriend has played the Sola romance twice, once male and once female, and has played female characters on other occasions in different games. In our current tabletop 2E campaign he is playing a male elven bladesinger who eventually will get involved with my female drow ranger/sword dancer/mage (I'm a bit free with classes in my games ). In this same campaign my best friend and her husband are playing a male elven ranger and a female mage/thief, respectively, and the male ranger is a bit of a...slut. He'll hit on anything with two legs, male or female, and it is quite comical. I think it's worth noting that all four of us are bisexual, maybe that's the reason we are much more willing to cross gender boundaries when roleplaying. In my campaign world, elves are innately bisexual. It makes things interesting. ^^

It has everything to do with a person's comfort zone, really. I think going outside your comfort zone is a good thing, and a good example of how roleplaying can broaden your horizons. YMMV.

 

Aye that's true. Afterall the only time I ever got drunk was to experience what it was like too. I learned the answer as well. Still, taking neural toxins isn't exactly my idea of fun (although it's your liver producing the toxins from alcohol that screw up your your brain, but let's not get into that).

As I said, I have tried male romances. Anomen in BG2, Carth in KoTOR. I actually finished the Carth romance. But the fact is that while I accept homosexuality (one such is a long-time friend of mine) for others, I find it repulsive for myself.

As I'm the sort of person to ponder about the meaning and logic of everything, believe me I've tried to get aroused from men, but I just can't do that. Romancing males, to me, is just wrong. And instead of trying to view it with the ever-tolerant way and think of myself as a narrowsighted conservative idiot, I accept myself for what I am. And I see no reason to try and change that anymore. A certain amount of homophobia is only healthy afterall, when worn right.

 

I think that a Sarevok mod should include Tamoko in some way - either for the Temple sequence or as a fully-fledged side quest. The main issue would be time (since you only have ToB to do it in). Sarevok did turn against Tamoko, though, but she isn't necessarily dead - you don't have to kill her in BG1.

As for the sexualities debate in this thread, I feel an Alley topic coming on!

 

I will play an opposite gender for a computer game but I just find it difficult to be 'in character' while PnPing as a female. Not to mention I usually play dwarves and next to nothing is known about female dwarves.

 

Well, the real difficulty with playing a member of the opposite gender in LARP or PnP is that people either tend to play as the same gender but in name the other gender or as some extreme version of the opposite gender.

Clearly, it's a lot easier for people to roleplay based on their own gender and sexuality.

 

Since most of the people I play PnP with are guys. They don't particularly want me to be a male character. Probably why I've never explored the possibility.

 

I agree that in PnP I have always played a male character. My point was strictly in a BG sense. I have no problem playing a female character, and exploring a relationship with a male character. Sure, I'm not female, and I have no interest in pursuing a personal relationship with a male (even if I wasn't married), but I see a clear distinction between my character and myself, which afterall, is the thought behind roleplaying.

That having been said, I think that I WOULD NOT enjoy playing a male character and romancing Solaufein. That's kind of strange, because I also downloaded the Chloe mod, did a romance with her, and that was quite fun. (Which I suppose opens the door on a whole new sub-set of homophobia concerning guys. For some reason, we have no problem with lesbians, but think male-male relationships are a no-go.)

 

Well, I think the reason a lot of heterosexual guys think lesbian relationships are acceptable and male-male relationships are not is pretty simple. Heterosexual guys can understand a woman being attracted to another woman because that is similar to their own sexuality. On the other hand, the idea of a guy not being attracted to a girl is difficult for a lot of them.

I don't really have a problem with trying to play a female character in either PnP or a cRPG (although I can't really judge how well I am at it). It is a way of playing a character that acts differently than I do in "real life".

 

Yeah, too bad that of all my female acquaintances only one sees two guys having sex the same as two females having sex. All others think of lesbians as far more acceptable than gays. And of course all of my male friends think lesbians are ok and gays are not. My work partner (female) said this was because media had made us that way.

I say, it's because females are considered more sensual and beautiful from both gender's viewpoint. So setting sexuality aside, two beautiful females simply look better together than two crude hairy muscled males. Also, females are typically far more close with each other physically than males, so for them the step to lesbianism(sp?) isn't all that big. It's a different story with males altogether.

Both views have merit, I think.

 

...I think it's more in lines of:

"Hmm... sexy; if I pick the other, maybe the second follows... 2 females + me = OHYEAH."

 

I don't know how accurate this is but I heard that apparently on a hormonal level all females are naturally attracted to each other, that's why you often see really drunk chicks hooking up for fun, but when sober they wouldn't do it, but on the flip side you woudln't really hear that often that two guys got pissed and hooked up to see what it was like (i hope lol). The alcohol lowers their inhibitions and the chemistry, however alcohol can do wonders in any situation so this isnt really that much of a telling argument.

I'm 100% straight and have been goig out with my gf for 10 months however u have no problem with homosexuals, as long as i'm not involved. Whatever floats your boat i say.

And i know this is a really badly delayed reaction but Paine wouldn't you say that Sparhawk sways towards Chaotic Good in some of is actions?? The only reason he seems neutral good is you have to go thru this to get from lawful good to chaotic. Do you agree?

 

@ Foradasthar : [ Snip ]

Anyway, I have RP'd male PCs in the past and have no problem doing so, but I find it easier to RP women for obvious reasons. Also I think it's worth saying that a gay male PC is not going to relate to a male love interest the same way a straight female would. There are much different dynamics at work. I know my relationships with women have been very different than the ones I've had with men. This is the only complaint I have about the Sola mod, as wonderful as it is...it's refreshing to see Sola so egalitarian in his relationships but I would have liked to see a little more difference between the way he relates to a male Charname and a female Charname. Especially considering Sola was raised in what is essentially a fascist matriarchy that treats males as virtual slaves. That sort of thing is bound to color his relationships.

@Thyorna: The reason I think Sparhawk is more neutral good is because there are actions he takes throughout both series that don't neatly fit either categorization (though I agree he does lean more towards CG). He upholds good by any means necessary, sometimes that means going by the rules and other times it means busting them over his knee. I'd give specific examples but we're already veering dangerously off-topic. ;_; PM me if you want, I always love to chat Eddings.

[ Reference to innappropriate subject matter removed. ] - Beren

[ August 27, 2004, 11:31: Message edited by: Beren ]

 

Somewhat old thread perhaps, but I feel like I should say something. I've never technically finished even vanilla BG2, but I restarted a few weeks ago and I finished SOA and I'm nearly done with ToB.

I imported my bg1 protagonist, a Lawful Good (for the reputation) fighter/mage. I romanced aerie. I think that all 3 original possibilities do tap into male desires. Aerie being the wide-eyed innocent girl who needs the knight in shining armor; Viccy being the exotic choice, and Jaheira being the challenge; if those make sense.(For the record, I've not played a female npc in either BG1 or 2, and even if I did, I don't think I could stomach Amonen) I think Aerie fits best the romantic interest for Lawful Good character, someone who would want to, in a sense, protect her.

At some point, I'd like to try the Jaheira romance, but with all the warnings about bugs, I'm kinda turned off.

 

The bugs can be fixed easily and the romance guide (provided on this site) gives you step-by-step instructions of how to fix the romance bug.