Quote from: Effete on October 19, 2022, 06:59:01 PM

Quote from: Ocule on October 17, 2022, 10:50:51 AM

Quote from: Fheredin on October 16, 2022, 06:01:06 PM
I do not (yet).

I do have a project I hope to publish soon titled Selection: Roleplay Evolved, which is an apocalyptic biohorror strategy game. I don't post much about it here because this is a 90%+ OSR community and Selection is...decidedly not OSR. To give you an idea how very much NOT OSR this game is, let me outline its namesake mechanic.

QuoteYou capture monster DNA by killing them in combat, and then you can choose between archiving the DNA for later use, grafting it onto your character, or you can Select Against it by giving it to a special character called the Arsill, who will burn it to create a jamming signal, thus blocking the antagonist from designing or using monsters with that specific ability for one session.

There are several purposes for this mechanic. It lets you skip the leveling up Skinner box by taking on a difficult encounter in the first session, giving you late-game abilities which you can start using at the beginning of Session 2. But the real thing it's supposed to do is create a dialogue where players internalize how the monsters work and they talk to each other about which monster abilities they want for their characters and which monster abilities they think are too dangerous. Like I said; strategy game.

I'm much more active over on Reddit's RPGDesign. For instance, here's where I first revealed some of the artwork.https://www.reddit.com/r/RPGdesign/comments/gnkjsr/selections_first_batch_of_artworks/

However, around the time of that reveal there was some civil unrest in that sub (I was one of its mods at the time; I think this was a deliberate attack) and I've basically stopped posting new content on Reddit. Commenting questions from other users? Yes. But I think I may have been painting a target on my back by making my own posts because a game this far out of the norm is clearly more dangerous to established games than one of the dozens of heartbreakers which litter the sub.

I've put the project on ice, in part because creating monsters in the system is still a pain, so there are problems to iron out. But mostly, I'm waiting for a moment when whoever attacked the subreddit can't possibly respond. If I'm wrong and no one attacked the sub, then all I'm going to do is waste a little time. But if I'm right (and I'm pretty sure I am), then launching when they can respond will just end in me getting sabotaged and cancelled.

This actually sounds great, reminds me Rippers for savage worlds but with more emphasis on grafting monster parts. Ran a year long campaign using rippers and my main complaint was the "ripping" mechanics didn't quite feel right. More of cyberware than the body horror I was aiming for

I thought Rippers as well while reading that.
The other problem in that game was that Rippertech was so punishing that none of the players I played with even wanted to attempt it.

Ironically, despite being a big Savage Worlds fan, I've never actually played Rippers specifically, and I'm only aware of it by reputation. My experience in Savage Worlds is mostly limited to several of the Weird Wars, The Elder Scrolls fan conversion, and then a significant amount of shenanigans my group got up to later on which included an XCOM and Neon Genesis Evangelion conversion campaigns.

My understanding is that the Ripper mechanic is much more integral to the setting and game mechanics than the gene mod is to Selection. I included it because NOT including it made no worldbuilding sense, and some players will absolutely love the option. That said, I view gene mods as being more akin to equipment you hotswap around to give yourself an advantage than a Lovecraftian insanity check. Less frequently than your underwear, I grant, but I am aiming for the players to all sit down and discuss what gene mods they should equip their characters with for the next chapter of the campaign several times.

Perhaps I should explain. Selection is borne of a thought experiment from Arkham Horror based on a what if an Elder God explicitly sided with the PCs because of a Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan revenge dynamic. (Yes, that's no longer Call of C'thulu, I know). What I ended up with is two survivors of an alien civil war come stumbling to Earth in present day and genetically modify themselves to become human. One is from the Arsill faction, who will approach the PCs with information about what's going on and offer access to alien tech and psychic abilities in exchange for help. The other is the Nexill, the campaign's defacto antagonist who only wants one thing: kill all Arsill on Earth, but especially the Arsill who approached you. The Nexill will eventually attempt to make Earth uninhabitable just to make sure no Arsill can continue to hide here.

In a setting where both the antagonist and an important quest-giver have the biotech in their pockets to make themselves a different species when they are basically refugees with little more than whatever's in their pockets...it makes no sense for PCs to not be able to gene mod their characters. That's just something that they would reasonably have access to. And when the entire campaign is on a doom counter until the Nexill hatches it's world-ending threat, there's really no reason to enforce the Skinner Box design and plenty of reason to encourage players to skip or speedrun as much as possible.

Quote from: Fheredin on October 19, 2022, 10:42:03 PM

Quote from: Effete on October 19, 2022, 06:59:01 PM

Quote from: Ocule on October 17, 2022, 10:50:51 AM

Quote from: Fheredin on October 16, 2022, 06:01:06 PM
I do not (yet).

I do have a project I hope to publish soon titled Selection: Roleplay Evolved, which is an apocalyptic biohorror strategy game. I don't post much about it here because this is a 90%+ OSR community and Selection is...decidedly not OSR. To give you an idea how very much NOT OSR this game is, let me outline its namesake mechanic.

QuoteYou capture monster DNA by killing them in combat, and then you can choose between archiving the DNA for later use, grafting it onto your character, or you can Select Against it by giving it to a special character called the Arsill, who will burn it to create a jamming signal, thus blocking the antagonist from designing or using monsters with that specific ability for one session.

There are several purposes for this mechanic. It lets you skip the leveling up Skinner box by taking on a difficult encounter in the first session, giving you late-game abilities which you can start using at the beginning of Session 2. But the real thing it's supposed to do is create a dialogue where players internalize how the monsters work and they talk to each other about which monster abilities they want for their characters and which monster abilities they think are too dangerous. Like I said; strategy game.

I'm much more active over on Reddit's RPGDesign. For instance, here's where I first revealed some of the artwork.https://www.reddit.com/r/RPGdesign/comments/gnkjsr/selections_first_batch_of_artworks/

However, around the time of that reveal there was some civil unrest in that sub (I was one of its mods at the time; I think this was a deliberate attack) and I've basically stopped posting new content on Reddit. Commenting questions from other users? Yes. But I think I may have been painting a target on my back by making my own posts because a game this far out of the norm is clearly more dangerous to established games than one of the dozens of heartbreakers which litter the sub.

I've put the project on ice, in part because creating monsters in the system is still a pain, so there are problems to iron out. But mostly, I'm waiting for a moment when whoever attacked the subreddit can't possibly respond. If I'm wrong and no one attacked the sub, then all I'm going to do is waste a little time. But if I'm right (and I'm pretty sure I am), then launching when they can respond will just end in me getting sabotaged and cancelled.

This actually sounds great, reminds me Rippers for savage worlds but with more emphasis on grafting monster parts. Ran a year long campaign using rippers and my main complaint was the "ripping" mechanics didn't quite feel right. More of cyberware than the body horror I was aiming for

I thought Rippers as well while reading that.
The other problem in that game was that Rippertech was so punishing that none of the players I played with even wanted to attempt it.

Ironically, despite being a big Savage Worlds fan, I've never actually played Rippers specifically, and I'm only aware of it by reputation. My experience in Savage Worlds is mostly limited to several of the Weird Wars, The Elder Scrolls fan conversion, and then a significant amount of shenanigans my group got up to later on which included an XCOM and Neon Genesis Evangelion conversion campaigns.

My understanding is that the Ripper mechanic is much more integral to the setting and game mechanics than the gene mod is to Selection. I included it because NOT including it made no worldbuilding sense, and some players will absolutely love the option. That said, I view gene mods as being more akin to equipment you hotswap around to give yourself an advantage than a Lovecraftian insanity check. Less frequently than your underwear, I grant, but I am aiming for the players to all sit down and discuss what gene mods they should equip their characters with for the next chapter of the campaign several times.

Perhaps I should explain. Selection is borne of a thought experiment from Arkham Horror based on a what if an Elder God explicitly sided with the PCs because of a Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan revenge dynamic. (Yes, that's no longer Call of C'thulu, I know). What I ended up with is two survivors of an alien civil war come stumbling to Earth in present day and genetically modify themselves to become human. One is from the Arsill faction, who will approach the PCs with information about what's going on and offer access to alien tech and psychic abilities in exchange for help. The other is the Nexill, the campaign's defacto antagonist who only wants one thing: kill all Arsill on Earth, but especially the Arsill who approached you. The Nexill will eventually attempt to make Earth uninhabitable just to make sure no Arsill can continue to hide here.

In a setting where both the antagonist and an important quest-giver have the biotech in their pockets to make themselves a different species when they are basically refugees with little more than whatever's in their pockets...it makes no sense for PCs to not be able to gene mod their characters. That's just something that they would reasonably have access to. And when the entire campaign is on a doom counter until the Nexill hatches it's world-ending threat, there's really no reason to enforce the Skinner Box design and plenty of reason to encourage players to skip or speedrun as much as possible.

The downsides to rippertech which is conceptually awesome, are the sanity loss which is you actually becoming more monstrous, plus the social downsides and the risk of becoming a ripper. Your upside is well a small buff in toughness, an attribute or supernatural ability. The only thing is as written the bad guys are very beatable without ever touching rippertech. IMO to do the setting justice you need to amp up the bad guys to make rippertech essential to their survival.

Quote from: Fheredin on October 16, 2022, 06:01:06 PM
I do not (yet).

I do have a project I hope to publish soon titled Selection: Roleplay Evolved, which is an apocalyptic biohorror strategy game. I don't post much about it here because this is a 90%+ OSR community and Selection is...decidedly not OSR. To give you an idea how very much NOT OSR this game is, let me outline its namesake mechanic.

QuoteYou capture monster DNA by killing them in combat, and then you can choose between archiving the DNA for later use, grafting it onto your character, or you can Select Against it by giving it to a special character called the Arsill, who will burn it to create a jamming signal, thus blocking the antagonist from designing or using monsters with that specific ability for one session.

There are several purposes for this mechanic. It lets you skip the leveling up Skinner box by taking on a difficult encounter in the first session, giving you late-game abilities which you can start using at the beginning of Session 2. But the real thing it's supposed to do is create a dialogue where players internalize how the monsters work and they talk to each other about which monster abilities they want for their characters and which monster abilities they think are too dangerous. Like I said; strategy game.

I'm much more active over on Reddit's RPGDesign. For instance, here's where I first revealed some of the artwork.https://www.reddit.com/r/RPGdesign/comments/gnkjsr/selections_first_batch_of_artworks/

However, around the time of that reveal there was some civil unrest in that sub (I was one of its mods at the time; I think this was a deliberate attack) and I've basically stopped posting new content on Reddit. Commenting questions from other users? Yes. But I think I may have been painting a target on my back by making my own posts because a game this far out of the norm is clearly more dangerous to established games than one of the dozens of heartbreakers which litter the sub.

I've put the project on ice, in part because creating monsters in the system is still a pain, so there are problems to iron out. But mostly, I'm waiting for a moment when whoever attacked the subreddit can't possibly respond. If I'm wrong and no one attacked the sub, then all I'm going to do is waste a little time. But if I'm right (and I'm pretty sure I am), then launching when they can respond will just end in me getting sabotaged and cancelled.

To be honest, I've been looking for non-osr alternatives. I grow a bit wiery of D&D in general, plus I want to see conventions shattered where needed. I'm not a big fan of my alternative being to go to people who hate me. Don't get me wrong, they make good products from time to time, but I would like to see some competition for them. I personally am wanting to see something with Mage/Ars Magica style magical flexibility. Also, curious, what Puts Steve Jackson in red rather than yellow? From what I understand, they may hold some woke opinions, but they were never outright aggressive to their clients/customers. Greedy as all heck, sure, but I haven't known them to be preachy in their works. I am aware of the Roe V. Wade statement, so my misunderstanding is probably more with the list's structure. As far as I understood, red entities have expressed a pattern of preachy behavior in their books, with a loathing for anyone who opposes their viewpoint. Bonus points if they fund politically violent organizations.

Quote from: jaseoffire on October 20, 2022, 11:38:58 PM

Quote from: Fheredin on October 16, 2022, 06:01:06 PM
I do not (yet).

I do have a project I hope to publish soon titled Selection: Roleplay Evolved, which is an apocalyptic biohorror strategy game. I don't post much about it here because this is a 90%+ OSR community and Selection is...decidedly not OSR. To give you an idea how very much NOT OSR this game is, let me outline its namesake mechanic.

QuoteYou capture monster DNA by killing them in combat, and then you can choose between archiving the DNA for later use, grafting it onto your character, or you can Select Against it by giving it to a special character called the Arsill, who will burn it to create a jamming signal, thus blocking the antagonist from designing or using monsters with that specific ability for one session.

There are several purposes for this mechanic. It lets you skip the leveling up Skinner box by taking on a difficult encounter in the first session, giving you late-game abilities which you can start using at the beginning of Session 2. But the real thing it's supposed to do is create a dialogue where players internalize how the monsters work and they talk to each other about which monster abilities they want for their characters and which monster abilities they think are too dangerous. Like I said; strategy game.

I'm much more active over on Reddit's RPGDesign. For instance, here's where I first revealed some of the artwork.https://www.reddit.com/r/RPGdesign/comments/gnkjsr/selections_first_batch_of_artworks/

However, around the time of that reveal there was some civil unrest in that sub (I was one of its mods at the time; I think this was a deliberate attack) and I've basically stopped posting new content on Reddit. Commenting questions from other users? Yes. But I think I may have been painting a target on my back by making my own posts because a game this far out of the norm is clearly more dangerous to established games than one of the dozens of heartbreakers which litter the sub.

I've put the project on ice, in part because creating monsters in the system is still a pain, so there are problems to iron out. But mostly, I'm waiting for a moment when whoever attacked the subreddit can't possibly respond. If I'm wrong and no one attacked the sub, then all I'm going to do is waste a little time. But if I'm right (and I'm pretty sure I am), then launching when they can respond will just end in me getting sabotaged and cancelled.

To be honest, I've been looking for non-osr alternatives. I grow a bit wiery of D&D in general, plus I want to see conventions shattered where needed. I'm not a big fan of my alternative being to go to people who hate me. Don't get me wrong, they make good products from time to time, but I would like to see some competition for them. I personally am wanting to see something with Mage/Ars Magica style magical flexibility. Also, curious, what Puts Steve Jackson in red rather than yellow? From what I understand, they may hold some woke opinions, but they were never outright aggressive to their clients/customers. Greedy as all heck, sure, but I haven't known them to be preachy in their works. I am aware of the Roe V. Wade statement, so my misunderstanding is probably more with the list's structure. As far as I understood, red entities have expressed a pattern of preachy behavior in their books, with a loathing for anyone who opposes their viewpoint. Bonus points if they fund politically violent organizations.

This might help: http://www.sjgames.com/ill/archive/July_08_2022/Roe_v_Wade

It's not just the fact that they are pro-choice--a lot of people who aren't "woke" are PC.  And they're essentially saying if you're not PC you're some kind of very horrible person--a "theofacist".  (I suppose that's supposed to scare me, being a religious minority here.)

Here's a pretty woke quote in that:

QuoteFrom all indications, our other civil rights are in for an equally hard time under the theofascist minority in power. I'm worried. I mean, personally worried. I am white, male, reasonably well off, straight, and old, and I am threatened by this Supreme Court. I can only imagine how others less privileged must feel. What's next? A federal binary gender standard that just incidentally wipes out transgender treatment and gay marriage? Further criminalization of voter aid when the voters in question are minorities? A national tithe? Don't laugh. I've heard all these mooted by people far closer to power than they ought to be.

This indicates that they're both woke and making donations to a group that specifically is to pay for abortions...literally named after a Demon who kills infants:

QuoteWe are also making a donation to the Lilith Fund. And, because we are who we are, we're doing a T-shirt. Like the Ukraine shirt, it will be sold as a POD. All proceeds will go to the Lilith Fund. The shirt will feature Flower – she's our female face! – but it will not have Munchkin branding or a game rule. Details, like "how to buy it," will follow.

Wear it to demand freedom.

Har-har, hilarious, right?

He can have whatever political opinion he wants, give to whatever causes he wants. fund the killing of babies if he wants...but not with my money.  And if he calls me a "theofacist" for differing with him (on purely secular grounds)?  F him and the little Munchkin he came in on.

Fair enough. Alas, I don't think GURPS has much of a competitor. One of the most simulationist heavy games, plus one of the widest support for play styles. Actually, ashame it isn't an open source system.

Quote from: jaseoffire on October 21, 2022, 10:51:59 AM
Fair enough. Alas, I don't think GURPS has much of a competitor. One of the most simulationist heavy games, plus one of the widest support for play styles. Actually, ashame it isn't an open source system.

Yeah, I'm sure someone could file the serial numbers off and publish an ogl. You can't copy write mechanics. I found d100, d6, a few dice pool systems, and of course d20 as open source. There's another idea for a useful list, open source and ogl games

Quote from: jaseoffire on October 21, 2022, 10:51:59 AM
Fair enough. Alas, I don't think GURPS has much of a competitor. One of the most simulationist heavy games, plus one of the widest support for play styles. Actually, ashame it isn't an open source system.

The fact is, I love GURPS, and have invested a heck of a lot in the books.  The World books are very detailed and can be used in any system.  They really do their homework.  And I'm not planning to get rid of the books I have.

It's a company that gets preachy that I don't like, and bragging about using their money to support controversial causes that I hate.  In a world where I can choose to spend my money a million different ways, well then, I can say goodbye to them.

Quote from: jhkim on October 18, 2022, 08:54:44 PM

Quote from: wmarshal on October 18, 2022, 08:00:53 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit on October 18, 2022, 07:25:48 PM
But no, they chose to use "PRONOUNS", in a game set in the 1920s. A total anachronism. An intentional assault on the setting and a fuck you to its fans (who are notoriously meticulous about historical accuracy).

Replacing 'sex' with 'gender' may have been more era appropriate. I think many at the time tried to avoid the 's' word. Going to 'pronouns' instead is not just a virtue signal, but an attempt to force players towards being Woke.

A character sheet isn't a period document, though. They also didn't use "hit points" or "magic points" in the 1920s.

In-character, asking someone's "gender" would be just as much an anachronism as asking what someone's preferred pronouns are.  Even "sex" is fairly anachronistic in that it would rarely be used outside of a medical context. For example, there was no space to indicate sex on a period passport. It was always assumed. An in-character document might have title like "Mr.", "Miss", or "Mrs." - but sometimes not.

But the character sheet is for players to read - not characters. People of that time did use gendered pronouns, and there were transgender people at the time who used pronouns different from their sex assigned at birth.

To me, asking for "pronouns" instead of "sex" or "gender", is a problem because the publisher is almost certainly showing off their political colors. Gender would still have been better.

Quote from: Trond on October 21, 2022, 11:21:29 AM

Quote from: jhkim on October 18, 2022, 08:54:44 PM
A character sheet isn't a period document, though. They also didn't use "hit points" or "magic points" in the 1920s.

In-character, asking someone's "gender" would be just as much an anachronism as asking what someone's preferred pronouns are.  Even "sex" is fairly anachronistic in that it would rarely be used outside of a medical context. For example, there was no space to indicate sex on a period passport. It was always assumed. An in-character document might have title like "Mr.", "Miss", or "Mrs." - but sometimes not.

But the character sheet is for players to read - not characters. People of that time did use gendered pronouns, and there were transgender people at the time who used pronouns different from their sex assigned at birth.

To me, asking for "pronouns" instead of "sex" or "gender", is a problem because the publisher is almost certainly showing off their political colors. Gender would still have been better.

I don't disagree with that. Everyone will have their personal preference, and I agree that it implies a political leaning in modern times.

To me, it's a one-word label on a sheet that has no effect on play either way. I buy games based on whether they are fun to play, and for me, this label doesn't affect my fun. As I said, the character sheet is out-of-character, and even in-character 1920s documents wouldn't have any of "sex", "gender", or "pronouns" listed. If I cared, I could edit or just cross out the one offending word with trivial effort.

Quote from: Trond on October 21, 2022, 11:21:29 AM
To me, asking for "pronouns" instead of "sex" or "gender", is a problem because the publisher is almost certainly showing off their political colors. Gender would still have been better.

My RPG uses the term, "gender".   And the rule book lists exactly two. Just like in real life.

(yes, there's a typo; 1st printing you know.)

Quote from: jhkim on October 21, 2022, 01:13:52 PM

I don't disagree with that. Everyone will have their personal preference, and I agree that it implies a political leaning in modern times.

To me, it's a one-word label on a sheet that has no effect on play either way. I buy games based on whether they are fun to play, and for me, this label doesn't affect my fun. As I said, the character sheet is out-of-character, and even in-character 1920s documents wouldn't have any of "sex", "gender", or "pronouns" listed. If I cared, I could edit or just cross out the one offending word with trivial effort.

That's fine of course. For me, if I see a lot of things like this in a game (or novel or whatever) it's fast becoming a dealbreaker. One major reason is that I think it is currently making matters worse, not better. An even better example is actually questions of race; in this I have actually seen how the political left are currently making matters considerably worse. 

Quote from: Ocule on October 21, 2022, 11:02:30 AM

Quote from: jaseoffire on October 21, 2022, 10:51:59 AM
Fair enough. Alas, I don't think GURPS has much of a competitor. One of the most simulationist heavy games, plus one of the widest support for play styles. Actually, ashame it isn't an open source system.

Yeah, I'm sure someone could file the serial numbers off and publish an ogl. You can't copy write mechanics. I found d100, d6, a few dice pool systems, and of course d20 as open source. There's another idea for a useful list, open source and ogl games

Now I would be completely behind this idea as well. What's cool about open source games is that even if they come from a red company, anyone under the sun can use them. One of the reasons, while Evil Hat might be a posterchild for bad behavior, FATE still stands as a great solution to people who prefer that type of game regardless of political leaning.

Quote from: Ocule on October 19, 2022, 11:11:21 PM

--snipped quote blocks for brevity--

The downsides to rippertech which is conceptually awesome, are the sanity loss which is you actually becoming more monstrous, plus the social downsides and the risk of becoming a ripper. Your upside is well a small buff in toughness, an attribute or supernatural ability. The only thing is as written the bad guys are very beatable without ever touching rippertech. IMO to do the setting justice you need to amp up the bad guys to make rippertech essential to their survival.

I can see both sides of that. Part of the problem may be that Savage Worlds simply doesn't handle higher difficulty that gracefully, so increasing the difficulty won't necessarily make Rippertech mandatory so much as make the flaws in the system painfully obvious. But as someone who has dabbled with it for a while, I have a theory as to why PEG flinched on making Rippertech mandatory. Biotranshumanism is a really dangerous worldbuilding trope because it can trigger things like hidden phobias or injury or surgery PTSD in the player in ways that vanilla insanity mechanics rarely do. In fact, I'd say that biotranshumanism is second only to explicit sexual assault at making players crave safety tools. It's really good at causing problems. Far better than its cousin genre, cybertranshumanism (a la Cyberpunk.)

If you're like me and do not want players to want safety tools and you certainly don't want them to hit the table, you have two options:

• Make a very explicit social contract to the game which tries to prevent safety tool situations from forming, and
• Make any Biotranshuman elements optional.

I don't see any RPG publisher of note pushing a setting which makes biotranshumanism mandatory. It isn't that experienced players can't make it work (in fact, they can probably do it with ease) but that even experienced players will likely assume its just a different flavor of cyberpunk. It's not and that attitude can get you in trouble very fast.

Quote from: Ocule on October 21, 2022, 11:02:30 AM
Yeah, I'm sure someone could file the serial numbers off and publish an ogl. You can't copy write mechanics. I found d100, d6, a few dice pool systems, and of course d20 as open source. There's another idea for a useful list, open source and ogl games

The problem with a GURPS OGL wouldn't be mechanics. It would be the logistical challenge of rewriting all the fiddly bits to avoid copyright issues on the actual text.

I think people underestimate the value of the various SRDs in making a lot of text transportable. That text is copyrightable and reproducing it in alternative statements would be hard for D&D which has a lot less than GURPS.

Quote from: jhkim on October 21, 2022, 01:13:52 PM
I don't disagree with that. Everyone will have their personal preference, and I agree that it implies a political leaning in modern times.

I think that choice, as opposed to one less modern for a very non-modern setting (at least in the relevant sense), addresses your second point.

Quote
To me, it's a one-word label on a sheet that has no effect on play either way. I buy games based on whether they are fun to play, and for me, this label doesn't affect my fun. As I said, the character sheet is out-of-character, and even in-character 1920s documents wouldn't have any of "sex", "gender", or "pronouns" listed. If I cared, I could edit or just cross out the one offending word with trivial effort.

Despite a long history of liking Chaosium products as much as SJG products (since the late 70s for the former and arguably the latter although the company at the time did not exist and the games were published by MetaGaming) I find the Chaosium sheet change a bigger warning sign that the games might start having their fun impacted in a way SJ's pronouncement about abortion a few months ago or his game designers for Hillary thing because while he put stuff on the company website it still isn't in the game materials.

Once it hits the game materials I worry the game will be lost for the message.

There are exceptions, but even then it lowers the game's appeal.  Underground by Mayfair back in the 90s is my go-to example of that. At a certain point, the anti-conservative parody overtook the fun of the setting.

Also, I'm not sure in character documents in the 1920s would always be sans sex. Wouldn't a passport have had it, for example?

Edited to add: Cursory search found no 20s passports with sex. I won't claim none had it, but I looked at multiple examples from multiple countries so I will state it was far from universal.