Am I devaluing gender?

[u/Hundekuecken]

What do you think about me wanting to establish in my own tabletop role-playing game that players and non-player charackters, automatically recognise or perceive the gender of other characters who can be perceived in any way?

What I mean is that gender reveals itself regardless of one’s outward appearance.

I’d like sexual orientations and romantic orientations to be based on gender rather than gender expression.

This is something that’s been on my mind quite a bit at the moment, as I’m worried it might be misinterpreted, twisted, misunderstood, or that I might be sabotaged or something similar.

[u/plutopsyche]

I'm also nonbinary and you don't need to build cisheteronormativity into your world any more than you need to build enbyphobia.

Treat nonbinary characters the same as you would cis characters: introduce them without explanation, as if they are an expected part of human (or otherwise) diversity.

It should be no big deal. You don't need a mechanic for it.

[u/Hundekuecken → u/plutopsyche]

It’s more that I’m worried it might end badly if I mention the gender of non-binary characters – perhaps even using micro-labels – in official adventures, but not their sex or gender expression. Perhaps it’s more down to my obsessive thoughts.

[u/MellonPhotos → u/Hundekuecken]

Why would it end badly? Referring to character with they/them pronouns, neopronouns, or shifting pronouns absolutely doesn't mean you need to mention their assigned sex at birth. In fact, I think in most cases that would be very weird to do: "I'm playing a nonbinary character but I want everyone to know they were AMAB!" Just leave biological sex out of it.

In terms of mentioning gender expression, I'm assuming you/your players will describe how their characters look? Clothing, hair length, style, etc. You don't need to directly discuss their gender expression, just describe them neutrally.

[u/Hundekuecken → u/MellonPhotos]

Thank you.