aimless-sapient asked:
I know from Twitter that you play Ars Magica. Do you have any advice for making tabletop RPG campaigns feel inclusive to all races/genders/sexualities when playing in a real(ish)-world historical setting?
I think it depends heavily on what the setting
actually is and how the group wants to play with the historical context.
It’s a common assumption that older era = more conservative than now. That’s not
always the case, and it depends heavily on the exact time, place, and cultural circumstances.
The scholar John Boswell, author of
Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe, makes a convincing case that homosexuality, which arguably wasn’t even considered “a thing” (at least for men) among pre-Christian Romans, was slowly reified and increasingly criminalized throughout Europe over time. If you want to play a historical setting in a way that is consonant with what we largely understand it to be, the Holy Roman Empire ca. the 17th century is generally not a safe place to be openly homosexual, especially in the midst of violent purges against people for behavior considered “deviant” by those in power.
But your group can decide that’s not an aspect of history you want to explore or play with, like 50% infant mortality or other grim realities of any given time period. I really think that the important thing is to talk about what people are comfortable with – which is true of any aspect of play in a group. Maybe the group
does want to explore themes of persecution. But that’s not something that should be assumed or forced on people who are coming to the table for other reasons.
In Ars Magica, it’s honestly not that hard to justify an extremely diverse group of magi, in particular, for the following reasons:
* 1 in 10,000 humans are born with the Gift. No matter how insanely prejudiced you are, it’s difficult to justify a maga or magus turning down an apprentice because of their gender, skin color, cultural background, or potential sexuality.
* Hermetic magi organize themselves into covenants that typically live apart from “mundane” society. This is in part because the Gift makes mundanes instinctively distrust/hate you at first glance. Secondary characteristics like what you look like or whom you like sleeping with rank far below gut responses to the Gift.
* As it was for Medieval monastic communities and universities, Latin is the
lingua franca of the Order of Hermes. No one gives a shit if your mother tongue is Hungarian or Russian or Italian because all of your sodales speak, write, and read Latin.
* Even young magi are incredibly powerful. Oh wow the miller doesn’t like that a gay, swarthy magus is performing a Mercurian ritual in the tower on the hill? Fascinating. Does he want to be turned to ash/a frog/stone? Magi typically don’t push their luck due to the potential involvement of the church, but as long as they aren’t making huge public scenes (which is mechanically discouraged due to how Auras work), individual peasants/merchants/etc. really can’t do a damned thing to magi.
In my time playing Ars Magica, I played the following characters:
* Leofric, an ex-crusader who openly hated the church and got into quarrels with Hospitallers. Due to his position as a companion in the covenant, it was difficult for the Hospitallers to really do anything to him.
* Venzi, a Tremere
disputant from Lombardia who performed Mercurian rituals on the reg, almost never went to church despite being commanded to by a local bishop, never learned more than basic French despite living in Burgundy for literally 80 years. Also almost never left the covenant and usually did so under heavy protection of magic.
* Ciragua, a widowed Cathar heretic and trobairitz from Nîmes who spent most of her life in Burgundy following her husband’s death in the Albigensian Crusades. Never fully converted to Catholicism, traveled on her own and got in trouble for it, but never suffered real consequences due to her position as a teacher in the covenant.
* Bertranz, an old Cathar perfect who escaped the Albigensian Crusades and lived out the rest of his life in Burgundy, where, among other things, he was known to teach people Greek through heretical doctrinal passages. Also often went around naked because he kept taking off his robe to give to people suffering from the cold or rain. Avoided detection by hiding in the covenant and generally kept a low profile. Died at age 79 immediately after writing
Apologia pro duabus vitis, a defense of Catharism.
* Ariam, an Ethiopian scribe who only knew Ge’ez, Latin, and one other Ethiopian language. When Italians saw him they went, “Wow! Holy shit!” and otherwise were amazed, not weighed down by the baggage of post-19th century racial theory.
* Orsu Paganacci, a lecherous learned magician from Corsica who was wanted (dead) by many angry husbands across Italy. His libertine sensibilities and actions got him beaten up and exiled from some communities, but he was able to avoid serious reprisal by hiding out in the covenant.
The covenants also had gay characters, transgender characters, and a variety of other folks who got disapproving comments but otherwise were able to ignore the prevailing social opinions because they lived in a magic wizard house.