[DF] Faun Barbarian - Bessarion

[Tymathee]

Originally Posted by Farmer

I don't think we're arguing :-)

Homosexuality in Rome, as an example, was certainly interesting. A very male dominated culture, and one in which prostitution (of any kind) was quite open. So, yes, it's far from black and white (which I alluded to when I qualified that homosexual dominance primate behaviour was but one example of various behaviours).

And, yes, orientations etc. should be zero-point at default, then further defined by the specific culture in which you play.

Oh, I figured, there's only so much you can effectively communicate through a faceless online forum.

I guess my point was that we're debating what amounts to how 0-point Features and/or +0% changes to Lecherousness. Lecherousness obviously incorporates your character's personal sexuality, but it's simply sometimes convoluted given how complex individual sexualities can be, it really depends on the inclinations of the player and how they see their character. I think players ought to read into the text of Lecherousness as they see fit and according to how their character is characterized sexually.

It's not something terribly pertinent to Bessarion's concept, his (hetero)sexuality, but I've certainly liked discussing the topic. Lecherousness might suggest bicuriosity if you're inclined to read it that way (I know grammar matters, but to a certain degree young America doesn't care about grammar so much as the intent behind the words. That's a Pandora's Box...), but if your character is sexually characterized to be explicitly attracted to one and one sex only then it's non-negotiable. I certainly do believe their are people in life who just don't ever swing the other way, and so there's characters within fiction who are the same way.

Of course, a lot of my perspective may be biased as I've got no meaningful strict preference for gender expression or biological sex. You could be a effeminate man, a hypermasculine man, just a man... a masculine woman, a hyperfeminine woman, or just a woman. Or somewhere in between, I don't care. Whether I'm up for being (bi)romantic or (bi)sexual is purely up to my mood.

So I might be inclined to ask questions like "Are the Straights really Straight?", as well as even "Are the Gays really Gay?". I've had a lot of anecdotal experience of witnessing people blur the lines all too often, so naturally my perspective is shaped by this. I'm not trying to argue against the RAW of Lecherousness or trying to twist the grammar into something it doesn't mean, but I am trying to infer reality to make the trait fit what I know to be realistic. I think this is a GM call to say whether or not the trait includes inducing bicuriosity in strictly heterosexual/homosexual characters, and also for the player to decide if that suits how they conceptualize their character.