Presenting & Selecting TTRPGs for Pride Month

#1

Hello fellow Gauntleteers! June is coming, and in honor of Pride Month, at our local Houston tables I’m looking to run games that highlight and celebrate LGBTA+ creators, and I’m hoping for some help from y’all.

  1. What one-shot style games would you recommend under the above criteria, especially any that are not as well known but you think deserve some time to sing in the sunlight? Especially if they’re creators based in Houston, or Texas, I’d appreciate the hive-mind helping me search them out and adding to my lists
  2. This is a bit more personal, but I’m a cis/het white male and I want to make sure that in presenting these games, I do so with all forethought and care and respect. Please do let me know if you have suggestions or concerns that’d be on your mind prepping, especially with a large group of white men at the table playing these games.

Thank you to everyone for being part of our amazing and vibrant community, for being committed to Giving Good Gaming, and most of all, for being kind and compassionate.

6 Likes
#2

You can’t go wrong with the Glamour issue of Codex:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/258607

I’m not sure what advice to give in presenting the games, except that, when you do, present them normally. Often a queer game is not different to a queer person since it maps to the same lived experiences — there’s nothing really strange about asking a queer player to inhabit a monster in Monsterhearts because often queer youth (are made to) feel monstrous.
I would be more concerned with the player who balks at inhabiting a queer character. I would emphasize safety tools and a commitment to your community guidelines before playing. There may be openly queer people at your table, but there also are probably not openly queer people and you’ll do better by them by being the facilitator who creates and enforces the table as a safe space.
Be the straight guy willing to tell the other straight guy — in front of all of the other straight guys — that his attitude is shit and he can leave.

10 Likes
#3

The Monsterhearts and Dream Askew would be 2 solid choices. Pack of Strays by @pawper would also rock at this.

As another option, you could provide relationship options (e.g., LGBTQA+ Entanglements in Hearts of Wulin) and scenarios that drive games into a queer space. The first player to introduce their character can also set the tone, as can the first scene framing. As the MC you can leverage that with a little forethought

5 Likes
#4

I’ve run several really fun one-shots with Pack of Strays. There’s several Codex games that would work well as well as several queer-authored frames for Monsterhearts that would work well.

3 Likes
#5

Also, Lucian’s “Grandma’s Drinking Song” would kick ass for in-person play and is one-shot oriented. It’s in Codex Joy.

1 Like
#6

Any explicit recs for Oneshotting Pack of Strays?

2 Likes
#7

I’ll tag @pawper for the best advice, but try to start after most of them have discovered Darcy missing and push the need to regroup against The Thing that Took Darcy. May help to reveal who took Darcy and Darcy’s fate, but let the mystery be why (or flip that) and what they’ll do about it.

3 Likes
#8

Yeah for Pack of Strays, lean into Dogman Radio as a podcast on the characters phones. It’s a narrator of “meanwhile” going-ons that the characters are privy too

4 Likes
#9

Also, Dogman Radio is performative, ask folks to play as the hosts/guests on the show. It’s a lot of fun

3 Likes