I found a lot of the sexual politics in Inquisition really took me out of the world because of how anachronistic they were. People will say that it's just fantasy, as though that can be used to explain away any kind of inconsistency, but when you're dealing with a low-fantasy European medieval setting, and add trans characters, or gay characters, you have to make an effort to incorporate those concepts into the setting or else the verisimilitude is questioned. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. For some fantasy is just a way of making allegory for their world, but I like going to a place that operates with different assumptions than my own. I think that might be how I see the Forgotten Realms too, but because it's such a hodge-podge of settings, and genres, to a much lesser degree. Now if we're going extraplanar, that's another matter.
Hmm. I do agree that because many fantasy settings are inspired by real historical societies that when we see them we will naturally make a number of assumptions about their social norms and mores. But that doesn't mean to say we're right to do so, or the creators of those settings should feel constrained in all ways to reflect those historical societies. I'd suggest that, until the creators actually deal with a subject like how that society treats gender, homosexuality, etc, we don't actually know anything about it.
Sure, if we then find out and it doesn't align with our expectations that may be jarring, but that doesn't mean to say that it's
bad. I think we could see these instances of culture shock as much as a reason for us to question our assumptions and prejudices as for writers to change their story. Of course, if it's jarring because it's done badly that's a different thing, but while I'd always prefer stories to be written well than badly, I don't think every badly written story shouldn't be told at all, and slightly dodgy plotting, conversation jumps and oversharing in cRPGs is hardly limited to gay or trans characters.
As to whether a pseudo-mediaeval European fantasy setting like Faerun should ideally stick closer to the social norms of the times and places it was based on, I'm afraid that gets a "hell no" from me! As a woman who enjoys playing female characters in RPGs, my enjoyment would be totally scuppered if my character had to deal with the sorts of limitations and sexist behaviour that would entail. I'm not saying every good RPG needs to enable me to play a woman, or even a man other than one specific character (eg The Witcher), but thank goodness they're not all like that, and specifically that the Forgotten Realms aren't. And given the sexual politics of Faerun are already so different from mediaeval Europe in that sense, I see no reason why they shouldn't either be, or evolve to be, different in their treatment of different gender identities and sexuality too.
I could also try to argue that, as a setting designed specifically in order to allow people to roleplay and tell their own stories, the Forgotten Realms has more obligation to its audience, and allowing them to participate and create the adventures they want, than it does to historical reality, but I think I've gone on long enough!
