(no subject)

There’s this game, The Caligula Effect 2, that has a premise that would easily fit with genderqueer representation. It gives a whole bunch of options for what personal fantasy the main character is living out in virtual reality, but unfortunately, none of them are gender-related. I still thought of the main character as transfem, because fuck it, this is supposed to be a blank-slate self-insert character, and I’m inserting myself.

To my surprise, there turned out to be a canonical nonbinary party member, currently presenting as male, but unsure where he’d ultimately land. I talked to him about it, and he asked me if I would have treated him differently if I’d perceived him as female. I said no, because I figured transfem MC wouldn’t care. He thought I was lying and refused to ever speak to me again. I had to rewrite his memory to remove that conversation, then go back and say yes, I’d treat him differently.

That’s the most I’ve ever felt disconnected from one of these “self-insert” characters. Transfem MC would have found a way to explain what she meant.

(no subject)

While looking up some information about the “Chicken Infested” flaw, I found this article that claims D&D 3rd edition stops simulating what human beings are capable of around 5th level. Einstein would be a 5th-level Expert, and more “grounded” fantasy characters who’re still “the best of the best,” like Aragorn, would also be 5th level. 6th and above get into the realm of “mythic” entities. I don’t know how accurate this really is, but I find it interesting.

(It also notes ways in which the system loosened later on, e.g. 3.5 allowing 1st level characters to jump as far as 5th level characters jumped in 3.0. I’d be curious to see a comparison with what D&D characters can do today.)