LGBTQ+ Themed Tabletop RPGs | Screen Rant
Popular roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons and Chronicles Of Darkness are making good strides towards including more diversity in their character rosters, rules, and settings, but many tabletop RPGs are more integrally focused on aspects of the LGBTQ+ community. LGBTQ+ folks interested in games with themes linked to their identities and experiences should consider checking out the systems below.
Representation matters in media, whether video games, television, movies, or tabletop RPGs. Works portraying authentic non-white, non-straight, non cis-gendered individuals help foster their greater acceptance in society at large, while also giving members of these communities fictional characters they can identify with.
In the indie tabletop roleplaying games below, all of them set in some variety of the science fiction or fantasy genres, take place in worlds with great perils, dark magic, and numerous injustices to fight. At the same time, their rules and premises are designed to support and welcome stories of love and friendship between people of all identities and sexualities - particularly relationships that are surprising, glorious, fumbling, awkward, disastrous and sweet.
Thirsty Sword Lesbians, a Powered By The Apocalypse science fantasy RPG recently published by Evil Hat Productions, is - as the title suggests - about lesbians with swords, whose fights and conflicts happen to be filled with enough romantic tension to shatter a suspension bridge. Each Thirsty Sword Lesbians Playbook contains special abilities themed around certain emotional conflicts, while the cyberpunk, steampunk fantasy, and space opera settings in the core books ensure a campaign's cast of characters will have intriguing, complicated, and constantly evolving relationships with their allies and adversaries.
The Visigoths were a Germanic culture from the Migration Period who fought for the Western Roman Empire as auxiliaries for a time, then sacked the city of Rome in 410 CE. Mall Goths are a sub-culture of Goths stereotyped for hanging out in malls and focusing on fashion over philosophical musings about death. The tabletop RPG Visigoths vs. Mall Goths is about these Goths from different eras colliding thanks to a magic spell gone wrong. The two (predominantly bisexual) groups fight for control over a 1990s Los Angeles shopping mall like the time-displaced characters from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, getting entangled in oddly heartwarming romances along the way.
Glitter Hearts, another Powered By The Apocalypse RPG, is a superhero/magical girl-genre system about magical people of all gender identities who must strike a balance between saving the world from the forces of darkness and managing their more ordinary lives and relationships. The Playbooks and Moves of Glitter Hearts give players the tools and abilities needed to be a warrior, witch, idol, defender, or tactician who wields emotion-based magic, summons beautiful outfits via transformation sequences, and work with friendly animal mascots. Basically, this is a game for roleplayers who love Sailor Moon but want to see the somewhat subtle LGBTQ+ themes of that show made far less subtle.
For The Honor takes place in a fantasy world of magic, mystery, and ruins being invaded by a high-tech alien empire called the Legion. Players in this system, inspired by Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker's Firebrands RPG and the cartoon She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, take on the role of Princesses (here a gender-neutral term for powerful magic-users), warriors, and resistance fighters striking back against the forces invading their home. Rather than focusing on conflicts with winners and losers, For The Honor's diceless, GM-less system uses minigames where players pair up to set up scenes, taking turns describing what their characters do and asking how their collaborators react. Understanding and monitoring consent between both players is a key part of For The Honor's ruleset and gameplay, particularly in the exploration of blossoming romances between characters, whether straight or LGBTQ+.