Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback NPC genders

But absolutely there are examples where genders are swapped or alternative genders can be picked and it works. As you say, there’s Hawke, and I’d updated my thread above to mention Shepard.

And certainly swapping the gender of a character can shed a new light on it or break tired tropes, but that, I think, is because it has a political resonance. Not in a big party political way, but the same character with a different gender can feel different because just changing their gender changes their relationship to their context, their interpersonal relations and our expectations, when we live in gendered societies like many of ours still are. And if you change the gender of only one character and they have a romantic story arc, then you also potentially change their sexuality and that carries another set of politics with it. And not all differences are socially imposed, either, someone who can get pregnant, for example, might have different feelings about sex than someone who can’t, or the biological and social aspects can get tied up, for example a male character who leaves his children might be viewed in a different way than a female one. And showing that can be a really interesting and good thing, but if done without care could trivialise or ignore the impact that unequal social structures, prejudice and even inherent biology can have on individuals … and that I certainly can’t get into without being (even more) political.

In most of Faerun, this is probably less important than many places here, given that for all its problems it tends to be a less sexist and homophobic society than many of ours, and therefore many of the characters might well work as any gender. But there are notable exceptions, such as the bulk of drow society. And whether any of the above matters will depend on the stories being told as well.

I hope that helps clarify at least a little why I think this might be a more politically fraught suggestion than it might initially seem, and of course this is just my own personal take.

I really am shutting up now!