Forums » Help » Gender, Continuities, and Setting Sensitive Rumors

Hi everyone! I moved these set of questions I had out from my intro thread to this help post since it fits better here.

The questions below are for the character I'm working on.

https://www.rprepository.com/character-site/1459073/403452

1. Character in question is bisexual, but identifies as a woman. Is the correct way to annotate this "Cisgender Woman" and then write the orientation later in the profile (AKA the way I have it for that chara right now)? Asking because I saw a lot of terms I wasn't familiar with in the gender selection.
   
2. Sometimes I keep different continuities of the same character, but I'm not sure how to represent those. When reading the guide for kick-butt character profiles, how would you recommend...
   1. Keeping track of those different continuities of the same character? Thinking that having multiple pages with slightly different information might be more elegant. But at the same time, it might make the hub page a bit confusing unless I outline it like (main continuity -> alt continuities as menu)?
   2. Annotating character secrets that are dependent on information access, and depend on setting? For instance, I was thinking of marking up some character secrets like this?
      
      (Requires truesight, some campaign setting only.) This is information that depends on truesight senses.
      
      (Requires truesight, Alternate Earth only.) This is information that depends on truesight senses.
      
      (Requires truesight, Alphe-Terra only.) This is information that depends on truesight senses.

Orientation isn't gender and gender isn't orientation, so yes they're just a Cisgender Woman! I don't know of any gender terms, especially not any listed in the current set up, that relate to sexuality, just gender.

Also! that's a fun way to format your profile! Do it!

1. RPR doesn't have a dropdown menu for orientation like it does gender, so you would have to write down that she is bisexual somewhere in her profile if it is something you would like to share!

2. As far as different continuities go, I think the best option is to either:

A. Create one character and put details on each continuity on a different page
B. Create a different character for each continuity

Both of which where you specify the continuity in the title or in parenthesis.

1. If the character was assigned female at birth (and, because fiction, still has a body which has developed in a manner typical of females and which most would agree is not something other than female) and identifies as a woman, she's a cisgender woman. If she was assigned male at birth and identifies as a woman, she'd be a transgender woman. Orientation has no bearing on this. If she is intersex (realistically or unrealistically) or a sex specific to a non-human species/that does not fit what's expected of the male/female binary, then you might have consider further what is best to put. In any case, if she identifies as a woman, it is absolutely acceptable to simply describe her, without further detail, as a woman.
2. Separate pages is a valid way of tracking continuity-specific details. So is having a "continuities" page with labeled sections, possibly using collapse tags for ease of navigating the page. You could also keep a separate document, whether it's something you share (whether linked in the profile or only provided as needed) or keep to yourself.
3. Spoiler tags like you used (especially with the note about who should have access to that info) are a valid way of making secrets available without having to constantly ask people if their character has what's required to find out, and collapse tags can be used similarly if the secret takes up a big chunk of the page. There is still the risk of metagaming (though there are cases where this can actually be beneficial to the story), as well as people who should know never actually reading it, but even just labeling something like that should help a great deal in it being treated appropriately. Again, you could also opt to keep a separate document for your own reference, and provide only hints, pay close attention to the other person/people to know when you should reveal something, or outright ask people if they meet the criteria and share specifics from there. Me, I try to have the info somewhere in the profile, but there are a number of things (especially if it's specific to just one game) I just try to keep in mind and watch/ask to figure out if it needs to be shared. It's also possible to create hidden profile pages, but I can't remember if that can be done without editing CSS on character profiles (in groups, you can just have a page not listed in the navigation).

• (Zelphyr 1, Folklore, Lune 1) Definitely gonna stick with just describing her as a woman then! And listing the orientation manually.
  
• (Zelphyr 2, Lune 2B) I think I'll keep the continuities index public. Then the continuities themselves private until I get comfy enough to post it in the continuity's RP sheets as different characters?
  
  Mostly to make menu navigation easier. Though it may lead to a bit of page bloat, but, better than tagging a canon continuity as Pokemon by accident.
  
• (Zelphyr 3) Good point about the metagaming bit about secrets access and hidden pages. Think it might be more elegant to mention which characters have secrets, what senses are needed to keep those secrets, but keep the secrets of said characters on their own pages. I'll keep the extra pages offsite until I get an Epic membership. That way there's still hints of what secrets are available, but no leaking of secrets by accident.

I might be misunderstanding, but I have the feeling what was meant by "tags" might have gotten a bit mixed up. It seems to me like you're thinking in terms of, like, data tags for having things associated with some particular subject?

When I mentioned collapse tags, I was referring to the BBCode for creating collapsible text, as shown here: https://www.rprepository.com/help/bbcode#75

I think you were clear on that, yeah. Just was thinking that spoiler and collapse tags might not be enough for secrets that'd strictly require IC sensing out (but still want to hint at their existence before an RP). Hence was thinking of keeping the secrets stashed in a private doc with public listings of what senses required to request secrets from secrets sheet.

Cool. Sorry, I just got confused by the "better than tagging a canon continuity as Pokemon by accident" comment.