Baldur's Gate

[olivermoss]

Since we are on Baldur's Gate III eve, with people counting down the hours until the official release, let's take a look at the game's history. I don't know if the new game has trans characters, I am not looking at spoilers even thought I am undecided* as to whether I am going to play it.

Mizhena is a trans character from the Quest of the Dragonspear DLC for the first game that was meant to be a lead-in to the sequel. She had very few lines, but if you asked about her unusual name she'd explain that she chose it and why. Her inclusion was met with a lot of backlash and it's possible that plans for her to play a role with an expanding storyline in Baldur's Gate II were scrapped.

For those unfamiliar with the series, Baldur's Gate takes place in the Forgotten Realms D&D world setting. D&D, and various games based on it, have long had items that change a character's biological sex, but it's often played for humor / emasculation jokes.

I may do a longer post on D&D and queer history because of my Stranger Things fixation but it's a complicated topic. It's especially complicated due to the details of the OG satanic panic case causing a lot of queer geek history and TTRPG to be very underground for a long period of time. The TTRPG scene has long been the realm of Schrödinger's rep, with people quick to claim things are jokes rather than sincere. Also people seeing things included as joke and seeing a scrap of rep.

Also, speaking of things being slippery, I am seeing posts and articles that Baldur's Gate III has the option to make non-binary character, but it's not on the character creation screen* as far as I can see and apparently only he and she are available as pronouns. Also, due to the backlash to Mizhena I had to double check a lot of things to make this post.

(* I am weak versus RPG hype, I bought the game while writing the post even though looking into the gamergate era backlash to the DLC left me feeling bruised.)

Comments

[green_idylls]

Ooo, I would love to see a post about DnD queer history..! I'm not much for video games, but I hope the new one turns out well :)

[olivermoss]

It's a big topic! I might try to take swings at smaller bits of it. Also it's terribly documented at times. .

[alias_sqbr]

I've never played any Baldur's Gate games but would be very curious to hear about Baldur's Gate 3 when you do play it!

[olivermoss]

This will be my first Forgotten Realms game so I may be very lost. We'll see how it goes

[alias_sqbr]

Same, but I've been playing and enjoying it!

[mistressofmuses]

"Schrödinger's rep" is too real.

I hope that if you do play the game it's good! I've heard mostly good things pre-release, but I also know we're at peak hype, lol.

[olivermoss]

TTRPG queer history is just such a slippery topic!

Hopefully it's good! It'll be my first Forgotten Realms game so I might be very lost