JemyM

While fantasy games already break traditions in terms of strong female heroines in medieval settings, being openminded to gay/bi relations still seem to rattle in the shadows. Unlike Maxis, our favorite gamedevelopers Bioware/Obsidian havnt taken this step yet.

When I played Baldurs Gate 2 I sucessfully broke the barrier with Sabre's mod, allowing a same-sex romance with one of the normally hetero npc's. In both KOTOR & KOTORII I managed the same by changing my character's gender through a character editor.

Now I have just completed a "hack" for Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark. This was a bit more difficult, but my hack disable all gender-specific limits for the purpose of flirting and even romancing same-sex NPC's. I have also done minor tweaks to dialogue to make them fit regardless of the protagonist gender. At this moment the module simply mirrors the options of which NPC you may romance (male+valen, female+aribeth/nathyra), but I have planned to continue to work on it until it's possible to pursue all 3 NPC romances at the same time. I have previously made a similar mod for "Singles" which was unfortunately never finished.

I have not yet released this mod. Before I bother to do that it needs proper testing. My reason to write about it here is that I seek who are interested to create similar hacks for current and future rpg's.

The main idea is to dig into the mechanics and produce similar "Rainbow" mods for all future Bioware/Obsidian games and maybe also games from other companies. All it takes is some technical skill, some code digging, some betatesting and an open mind that isnt disgusted by the thought of adjusting romantic dialogue for "both roads" regardless of your own "alignment". The next project in that case would ofcourse be NWN2 and then KOTORIII.

-edit- (Toned down a bit to focus on the essentials)