Me and TG, Part 1: The TG Journey

Yup. There's going to be more of these. I plan on writing a series of journals like this, each exploring some aspect of my favorite subject of RP (TG, in case your computer monitor cut off the title somehow). In this part, I define TG and what I've seen as the traditional steps of the TG RP formula. Some people might immediately say that one should not force a method of storytelling into a rigid formula, that it makes the overall process rigid and uninteresting...but I say there's nothing wrong with analyzing something descriptively, that is, describing how it generally is. In fact, I encourage people to make this journal silly and unnecessary by mixing things up. But at the same time, The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, written in 1949, did essentially what I am trying to do (albeit a lot more elegantly and intelligently and with a lot more research and...y'know what? He just did it way better than I'm doing it) by defining "the heroes journey," something I will mention a few times. I suggest anyone interested in any sort of adventure story with a broad, epic plot at least read up on the heroes journey. In fact, if you want a brief primer and a fantastic example of the heroes journey, check out the excellent web series Extra Credits' take on it as they compare it to the game Journey (which literally follows the heroes journey step by step). Links to those two episodes will be in the comments.

So, to start, as many of you know, transgender, or TG, means several different things, so I will define it as it is concerned with my RPing personally. What I am primarily concerned with is the broad idea of one character becoming the opposite gender (generally forced) and having to deal with all the factors that come with it including, but not limited to, physicality, sexuality, and social/societal gender norms (more on this next time). Now, as I mentioned before, this can mean different things to different people. I'm not comfortable describing the actual, real definition of transgender as I am not a part of that community (I am neither a crossdresser or transexual, and am, for the most part, straight), but things it includes in fiction are crossdressing, sex-change surgery, gender confusion, possession (by a spirit or person of the opposite gender), body-swapping, and futanari (dickgirls). I am not interested in any of these things. I have nothing against people who are (or may identify with any of these ideas in real life), they are just not things that appeal to me in an RP setting. For me, I am interested only in the purest idea of TG: one character becoming a member of the opposite sex, generally a female/male version of themselves (though it could be an idealized version of themselves, a "hot" version, if you will). Sometimes I'm alright with them looking different, becoming a completely different person, changing their basic appearance (becoming a female/male but not looking anything like themselves), but I am generally not interested in them becoming a copy of another character. This is essentially body-swapping (the idea of two characters exchanging bodies), even if the other person still exists somewhere in the world. Body-swapping, possession, and body...copying I guess I'll call it, are all perfectly valid forms of TG, but they aren't really that interesting to me personally.

There are several parts of a typical TG RP, just as there are to all RPs (the heroes journey is a good way to look at most adventure RP, for example) and all stories in general. I'll go over what I consider to be the "curve" of your typical TG RP here: establishing context (not unique to TG RP); the transformation; the shock; the adjustment; the awkwardness; the romance (semi optional); the smut (totally optional); and the acceptance.

Establishing context is, as I mention above, not unique to TG RP but it is perhaps even more important in TG RP because the whole nature of this sort of schtick is change of the status quo. The main character's world is turned quite dramatically on its head. Up becomes down, left becomes right, X becomes Y. The reason establishing the context is so important, then, is because the status quo, the "norm," must be established and it must be established firmly. This is where I see many TG RPs fail, including my own. In many settings, you want to get to the meat, the mote at the core of the RP. In an action RP you wouldn't want to spend time establishing context before you get to the action. If adventure is the core idea, you would try and jump into it as soon as you could. But with TG, this is an unfortunate trap because jumping right into the transformation removes the one thing that makes TG RPs interesting: comparison. I've lived this error many times. The most successful TG RPs I've done are ones in which I've spent sometimes multiple sessions establishing the baseline male character. This may seem like a no-brainer but, as I said before, it is natural instinct to want to jump right into the next step, the transformation, and skip this one altogether. But believe me when I say: this is folly. Don't get me wrong. Sometimes this works. Sometimes just having the character wake up strapped to a mad scientist's lab table works. Sometimes it even works to skip the next step (having the transformation already occurred at the start of the RP), but it is rarely worth trying and can more often remove any gravity the concept of gender swapping a character has before the RP even starts. You might as well be playing a character of that gender who's just very confused. Because you have no idea what the character was like before.

Next comes the transformation. This is generally a very short step, though sometimes it can be intermixed with the "adjustment" stages in particularly slow transformations (over a couple days, usually). This is the point in which someone, usually the GM, describe the transformation as it happens. Generally this task is left to the GM because it leaves the character more free to react to the changes (half the fun of RP is interaction, even with stimulus and not characters). If the player being transformed describes the transformation, it generally cuts the other player out of the equation altogether, creating a solo experience, which is counterproductive to RPing in general. Two players should always be involved, otherwise it's just interactive reading.

Usually, the transformation of the RP is achieved through magic. It's generally the easiest way to do it. But it isn't even close to the only way. Many ways appear like magic, divine intervention (always a fun one, a male character offends a female goddess or some such nonsense), science, technological malfunction, and a lot of ways that come to me on the spur of the moment. One of the best parts about TG is that the method of the transformation often tells you a lot about the setting. If it's magic, for instance, you already know something about the setting--magic exists. It can sometimes establish a basic context too. If your character is transformed by a mad scientist, then you know a mad scientist is involved. Is your character a failed experiment or was it intentional? Have they escaped? Are they trapped with him? Answering these questions about the initial change before actually starting the RP can help to fill in a lot of the blanks when it comes to defining the RP in general.

Now, as I mentioned before, there is sometimes a temptation to skip the transformation (though less tempting than skipping the establishment of context for obvious reasons). Above, I called this folly and I still maintain that it is. But if the establishment of context is skipped, I would actually suggest skipping the transformation as well. Why? For dramatic effect. If you're going to just cut out everything about the status quo in the context of the RP, presumably to jump to the meat of the concept (the boobs usually), it's generally better to go whole hog and just do that. Narratively, this is a stronger tool as well, as it leaves a great deal of mystery about the characters and even the transformation. You can spend time in the actual interactions retroactively developing the status quo while going straight to the "important stuff" (boobs). I still maintain that skipping any of these first two steps is a mistake, but if done carefully, it can provide an interesting storytelling tool. Experimentation is applauded.

The next three steps are often a bit of a mishmash as they have similar concepts and themes. I could probably have lumped them all into one step (I'll call the three of them together the "adjustment period" since the second step pretty accurately describes the point of the three), but I think there's enough different themes in each one that they merit their own separate sections. We start with the shock. This is generally the shortest of the "adjustment" steps because it is, as the name would suggest, shocking. This is when the character wakes up and sees what the cruel hand of fate (and the GM) have cursed him with (boobs). While this stage in itself is short, usually not lasting longer than the first initial glance, its after effects can often be felt through the other "adjustment" stages up until the final acceptance. Indeed, it is the shock that gives this RP type its teeth, the initial reaction to something so utterly alien (boobs). Generally, however, the shock phase ends with the initial, gut reaction to the transformation, a scream, panic, cursing...though sometimes the shock is actually manifested differently, more positively. A character may actually be euphoric post-change, exploring their new body, perhaps even orgasming. Shock is often very physical and may include a great deal of physical exploration (generally the character is too nervous during the next stage or even stages to do it, and may even actively reject it). 

The adjustment is probably the longest stage of the TG RP and is my personal favorite because, in this stage, we get to see the characters' long-term reaction to their transformation. In this stage, the character is forced to live with the results of the transformation, forced to, as the name suggests, adjust. Naturally, as with all of these steps, the exact nature this step takes will depend on the setting. In an action/adventure RP, the character may be too busy to adjust properly. They may be forced to ignore their changes until things have calmed down, at which point they have already adjusted at least a little on a subconscious level. Meanwhile, in a calmer, more slice-of-life-y RP, the action is somewhat slower and the character is forced to focus more on the changes. This makes the adjustment more drawn out and more awkward (ironically, as the awkwardness is the next step). Whatever the case may be, in this stage, the description is key. Often this is the first real chance the character gets to see themselves. This is differentiated from the shock in that the players may have received a detailed description of the character's new body in the shock step (an unfortunate habit we all fall into is to describe a character once and only once with the exception of a few visual cues here and there). But the shock is often (but not always) too quick and too frantic for the character to get a good look at themselves, so it is the adjustment stage when they finally see what they have become and, ultimately, have a more prolonged reaction to it. This is also the first prolonged stage of the TG formula, the one that lasts more than a few moments--though as I mentioned before, if the transformation is dragged out at length, the character may also be in a recurring state of shock, prolonging adjustment until after the transformation. How the character reacts to the adjustment is, of course, related to the character themselves. While the adjustment period doesn't end in acceptance (usually), it ends at least with more contentment than they had after the transformation, creating a nice barrier between it and the final step of the overall adjustment stage: awkwardness. Finally, the adjustment's relation to shock isn't set in stone and it is uniquely tied to each character. An exceptionally passionate, out-going person may spend the shock fondling themselves and coaxing themselves into orgasm. But the following adjustment stage might be marred with regret and indecision, far removed from their previous reaction (they may have thought the shock phase had only been a dream, for instance).

The final step of the overall adjustment period is what I call the awkwardness. Now, when I first started writing this, I was going to move from adjustment to the optional steps and then to the final acceptance. But as I thought about it, I felt like adjustment itself came in multiple steps...the frantic panic that came with the initial transformation, the first stumbling steps through the world with their changes (boobs), and the awkwardness as, yes, they're becoming more adjusted, but they're still not 100% comfortable. Even as I write this, I'm not sure if awkwardness deserves its own step so much as simply being another type of adjustment (or at least running along side adjustment) and I have a hard time truly fleshing it out. Certainly the character is awkward during the adjustment phase, but perhaps awkwardness should come before adjustment...but something about this stage rings true to me. I feel like adjustment is all about being uncomfortable and learning while the awkwardness is simply feeling like the character doesn't fit in. Certainly this is also a part of adjusting to the changes as well, but there's a bit of something else there. The character has some familiarity with their body. Perhaps they have "enjoyed" themselves, perhaps they simply have supportive friends who have helped them through the first initial stumbling steps. However, they are still left here with a sort of disconnect between them and society, particularly the half of society they have recently joined. The character obsesses less over their body in this phase, which may result in certain parts of their anatomy (boobs) being mentioned less. But they still don't belong. However, this failure to belong is less a result of the transformation during this stage and more a result of their own discomfort. It's more of a normal human sensation than a human-who's-been-changed-into-the-opposite-sex sensation. Naturally, as poorly fleshed out as this idea is, it stands to reason that it wouldn't exist in all TG arcs. Many characters will, after moving through adjustment, go straight into the optional steps and on to acceptance, the natural end of the character arc. But I feel like there is a potential step here that I would be doing a disservice to ignore. Awkwardness can be likened to the teenage problem of belonging. The character is no longer their original sex physically, so they do not belong in that circle, but they also have not completely come to accept their place in the other circle they've been thrust into. So they exist in the middle of a gender Venn Diagram alone and isolated. Another way to look at it is that adjustment is largely physical (being able to move, function, getting used to having certain anatomical parts [boobs] and not others [notboobs]) while awkwardness is somewhat more mental and societal. The two can be mashed together somewhat and, as I said, may run concurrently, but there may only be some overlap as adjustment often comes before awkwardness.

Depending on what sort of RP both parties are comfortable with, the next step may finally be acceptance. However, TG RPs often lend themselves very well to (boobs)--NO NOT YET--what has been affectionately referred to as smut (boobs)--yeah fine, boobs. There is something very erotic about the idea of someone stumbling from a foreign, unfamiliar sexuality, their first, stumbling steps in exploring their new body, etc. A lot of this is explored in shock and adjustment, but there is more to it than that. Shock and adjustment are deeply personal steps. The next two steps are interpersonal, starting with the romance. 

Most RPs involve romance in some form. They don't have to, of course, but it seems to be almost a universal constant amongst RPers. It's the butter to our bread. Even RPers who are uncomfortable with 18+ "smut" roleplay (boobs) seem to want some kind of romance. And in TG RPs, romance takes an interesting turn. Now, I'm not going to go into the nature of gender pairings in TG RPs here (that's for another day), but whatever the case, the initial romance of the RP is generally going to be very awkward, but it is the meat of TG RPs and helps even more to display the societal aspects and how gender roles switch, both of which are something that TG RPs play with very well. I will go into more detail about this step in another journal entry (I already have a lot of ideas on what to discuss here). In this step, the other character (the one with their gender intact) begins to woo the TG'd character. Naturally, this step can happen sooner, in the adjustment stage usually (though sometimes even before the transformation, which creates an interesting concept of how their chemistry changes), but often the TG'd character is not receptive to these advances before they've undergone at least some adjustment, often not even until the awkwardness stage. In many ways, however, the romance of the TG RP is very similar to that of any RP. The best romance involve some resistance to being wooed on one part or the other (similar to the heroes journey step where the hero resists the call to action). Most romantic comedies are based on two completely incompatible characters, making TG actually an excellent vehicle for this sort of chemistry (which is why it always baffles me that there has not yet been a mainstream romcom with a TG bend to it...). Either way, romance is often at the heart of any TG RP because gender is often intimately tied with love, romance, and ultimately...

The smut. Yup, I'm going there. Boobs, boobs, boobs. I would be hypocritical to say I didn't do TG RPs at least in some small part for this step. In fact, I would be flat out lying. It's one of the best parts. It's not the only part, but it is one of the most fascinating parts. Up until now, the main character probably has not spent a great deal of time intimately exploring themselves. There may be some awkward fumbling, maybe a few dark nights alone, but for the most part, there hasn't been a lot of mind-blowing orgasms. Well, it's time for that all to change. In many instances, this is the ultimate climax (huehuehue) of any TG RP, the final delicious bite of the meal, that thing we've all been working for. Often it's simple catharsis, the meat is often in how the character finally comes to grips with what they've become (see the final step) and the good aspects of being that gender (no, sex isn't the only good thing about either gender, but this is fiction, things are often oversimplified, and the rest often comes either at the end of the awkwardness step or into acceptance). Pure, uncontrolled physical release and acceptance by at least one very important individual are often emotionally fulfilling in ways that simply falling in love fail to convey (though that first, epic kiss two individuals share can sometimes be as, if not more, dramatic...and family friendly).

Now, this is an awkward step to nail down (not just because not everyone is into smut in their RPs--AWKWARD PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: do not force your RP partner to do anything they are not comfortable with. This is not cool). Sometimes sex can appear before this step officially is reached, particularly if the main character is forced upon, or if they have sex before they are ready. Sometimes this can help the adjustment stage of the arc, sometimes it can set it back (or make the awkwardness stage even more...awkward). Either way, this is an interesting stage to work into the RP because it can be a blessing or a curse no matter where it occurs. Generally, however, in a typical arc, it is the penultimate step right before the end.

Not all RPs reach the acceptance. I'm not ashamed to admit (ok, maybe I am a little ashamed to admit) that I have ended RPs after the previous step. I have even rushed the previous step. But in a typical arc, the final push for the character's growth is acceptance of the change (assuming the character doesn't change back...and honestly, where's the fun in that?), the realization that they are trapped (or perhaps even choose to stay in their new gender) and the feeling that...yeah, maybe that's not that bad. The story doesn't need to end here, of course, but anything that follows this is essentially just RPing a female (or male in the case of a female changed into a male) character. There may be a few quirks remaining, but all characters have quirks. At this point, the character essentially stops noticing their body as unusual (though they may still revel in it for the power/pleasure it affords them) and simply becomes a character of that gender, ready for more adventures...or for you to move on to the next thing.

Now, these are the steps I typically take, but they are also frequently used steps I have noticed other authors follow as well. They are not the bible of TG by any means, but may be a helpful step if someone is curious about my own RPing habits or even wants to GM for me (and is interested in following my normal procedures). It is also largely descriptive, nor prescriptive (that is, describing how the steps are, not telling you how they should be). I encourage you to mix things up. Think of clever ways to usurp the formula and throw everything into disarray. Also, almost every example was a male being turned into a female. This is my favorite manifestation of this formula for probably-obvious reasons (boobs), but the steps would work the other way around as well, though they may manifest differently due to the overly-masculine nature of the transformation, rather than it being feminine.

Of course, not all of these steps are going to exist in all TG RPs, just as some adventure stories skillfully skip steps in the heroes journey. The establishing context and transformation can be "carefully" skipped, as I mentioned before, and some of the adjustment steps (generally awkwardness) may be shorter, longer, or even nonexistent depending on the character and their ability to cope with what was given them (boobs). A gay man, for instance, may find being a girl isn't such a bad thing as he is able to woo the love of his life much easier so one of these steps, probably awkwardness, would be somewhat shorter than it would be for a straight man (yes, I know, a gay man would naturally be as shocked to be in the body of a girl as a straight man as they identify with their biological sex, but you know what I mean). So the curve is mutable. But as a general rule of thumb, all of these steps are present in some way shape or form. Also, many of the reactions and stage descriptors I listed above are negative, but they will always vary by character (negative is just the typical response one has to their life being completely upheaved). Just as some characters will go through the adjustment stages more quickly than others, some may react more positively than others. As I mentioned briefly in the shock section, some characters might actually explore their new transformation...to orgasmic effect. The shock, then, would be a positive one. Even if the adjustment that follows remains somewhat negative (again, though, nothing says that it has to be...they might enjoy the change). This all might change as well if, for instance, the main character has chosen to change their genders. Most of the results would thereby be positive. I've never done an RP where the character has chosen (though it might be interesting), so I've not explored this idea much...if someone wants to try it, I've heard of worse excuses to RP

Whew! So that's the TG RP in a nutshell. A very, very large nutshell. That is way larger than it needs to be. I'm actually thinking of writing a few of these. Next time, I'll try and cover the reactionary aspect of the TG roleplay and how it plays around with gender norms a bit as well as how it might manifest in a couple different RP types. But Not not until I ice my hand. Man, this was a lot of writing.