I’ve got a bit of a weird situation going on here, and I want to hear what the fellow transes and the fellow RPG players have to say about it. So I’m crossposting it to both communities.

So I started a new Beam Saber campaign, and one of My players came up with the idea of playing as “Egg James Bond”. A womanising super spy who still thinks she’s a cis guy, and is externalising all her gender dysphoria into being a terrible person to those around her. It sounded like a fun story to tell, especially the moment where she comes to accept herself and transes her gender. So we’ve played three sessions so far, and Egg James Bond has been exactly the kind of misogynistic A-hole we were promised.

Except, a complication: The person playing as Egg James Bond is the host of a plural system, and Egg James Bond accidentally becomes her headmate. Her brain adapts to playing as this fictional character, and suddenly he’s another person inside her head. Believe it or not, this is a pretty common experience for plural roleplayers.

One of the other players is really bothered by Egg James Bond out of game, because Egg James Bond is a complete A-hole. She’s mean, petty, doesn’t respect women, etc. Personally, I’m not bothered by this behaviour, because we all discussed the character at session 0 and agreed to make it part of our game. And for Me, the behaviour is staying inside the game. But this other player is deliberately antagonising Egg James Bond out-of-character, receiving exactly the kind of replies I’d expect, and seems bothered by them.

So this other player goes to Egg James Bond and their player/host between sessions, and forcibly cracks her egg. Confronts her and makes her realise that she’s a woman inside. Guides her through choosing a name for herself. And this other player seems really proud of Themself, and says they’ve “fixed” Egg Trans James Bond. And that we can still play through the egg cracking moment in the game, Egg James Bond is still an egg in the game.

But I’m unhappy. I feel like our story has been spoiled. What’s the point of playing the story if we already know the ending? So I want Trans James Bond’s host to make a new character to play in the game. I don’t want to put up with the eggy bigoted version of the character to get to a story moment that’s already happened out of game. I feel like the character’s story in the game I’m running has been ruined. I wanted to play to find out. But now we’ve found out, and most of us didn’t get to play. And I’m bitter that we put up with the misogyny and pouting without getting the payoff. I was fine with it when it was in service to a story we all wanted to tell, but I don’t want to tell that story now that it’s already been told.

  • MouseKeyboard@ttrpg.network
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    11 hours ago

    One of the other players is really bothered by Egg James Bond out of game, because Egg James Bond is a complete A-hole. She’s mean, petty, doesn’t respect women, etc.

    Was Egg Bond’s player acting like this out of game?

  • Susaga@sh.itjust.works
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    24 hours ago

    First, you need to have STERN words with the player who forcibly cracked EJB’s egg out-of-game, if you haven’t already. Dick move.

    Second, what happens outside the game is just fanfiction of the game. A spec-fic or an AU fic doesn’t ruin the season finale, whether it’s accurate or not.

    Third, nothing has actually changed. You knew how EJB’s story would end before you began playing. You put up with the misogyny BECAUSE you knew the ending. There is value in simply telling a story, even (or especially) if you know how it’s going to end. Ever seen Hadestown?