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Are there many gay characters in the Champions Universe?
purplerainman
Posts: 15 Arc User
Just curious, but are there many gay characters in Champions? I mean heroes and villains mainly. All I can think of are Justiciar and his husband Circ. Surely there are more gay characters though. Thanks.
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bulgarex
Posts: 2,310 Arc User
Besides those two, the only other official character I can think of who's definitively gay is Hydro, an amphibious powered-armor hero based out of MC (actually, under Lake St. Clair). But that was only revealed in an offhanded reference to him being in a committed relationship with his boyfriend. (Hydro's PnP write-up is in Champions Universe: News Of The World.) Canada's Ravenspeaker is a notorious flirt with both women and men, but as an avatar of the Haida trickster-god Raven that could just be part of his general tendency to stir up trouble.
(Look for Ravenspeaker in Champions Of The North.)
Steve Long, Hero Games's former Line Developer, was once asked about gay Champions characters during a chat with fans. He wrote that he never went out of his way to define a published character's sexuality, because it was unlikely to affect their motivation or conduct as a hero or villain, and nowadays it usually isn't a major social complication in most of the Western world. In the case of any character for whom sexuality isn't specified, we should feel free to assume whatever would suit our own game group.0
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It makes it clear that he is one of the only notable crime fighting figures who is open about their sexuality.
Look to your fellow player-made peers, because it is very bad. Most of them are Canadian. . . (seriously, Cryptic. . . Smarten up. It's 2021.)
@Bulgarex, in general, are any of the Sidekicks official, Z-Store ones, at least in Lore? Durotak mostly comes to my mind. Doubt the Lockbox ones or Event ones are offical.
I understand the desire for inclusivity and representation, and in the past it certainly was worth emphasizing non-majority sexuality in fiction to counteract stereotyping and stigmatization. But for the most part, the societies most of us live in have moved past that. There's definitely a place for it in role playing, but honestly, how often do any of us discuss our sexual preferences when we aren't actively trying to do something with them? And this game is heavily weighted toward action, at which times the subject really isn't relevant.
Personally I still prefer Steve Long's answer. If a character's orientation isn't specified, and you want it to be a certain way for a certain story, go for it.
I mean Cryptic's handling of characters with alternative sexualities. They put in a few to say they did it, but it's just a coincidence, I guess, that they are basically all from Canada. -.-' Real 90s sense of humor.
Link to purchase PDFs?
Well, here is the link to the Hero Games website store, publishers of Champions. Other online retailers also carry Champions PDFs (and hard copies), but I personally prefer to purchase from Hero Games so they get all my money.
Note that due to the change to 6E, all the books for 5E are now half their former cover price. If you're just looking for setting info the system difference won't matter. Quite a few books concentrate much more on information than on game stats. However, in the case of two books with the same title published for both editions, e.g. Champions Universe, the Sixth Edition version is the more recent, has more up-to-date info, and incorporates modifications to the setting mandated by Cryptic Studios.
If there's any particular subject you're interested in, I can direct you to the specific book(s) that covers it.