Wraeththu questions, all pertinent to this thread.
1. Is it the case that this game/setting, because it's about becoming a sort of androgyne kinky sex hermaphrodite with deep special feelings, is perfect for the SJW crowd? I mean, does it tick their boxes, because its straight white men getting acid jizzed to death? Or is it on their Shudder Spectrum?
2. The original books were by Storm Constantine, who seems to be ticking all the right SJW Danger Hair Weirdy Sex Mania boxes. Is she a doyen of the Pronoun Crowd, or does the rapey bit of Wraeththu put her on the Pitchfork Spectrum?
3. Seems to me that Wraeththu and this Chuck Tingler game are perfect companions for the Monty Cook 'Consent in Gaming' checklist; or is it the case that because both games really concern Gay/Hermaphroditic/Weirdy sex (ie, none of that nasty straight man/woman sex, which is bad), that if you're LGBTQ+WZ$@, then it gets a pass, because reasons?
Asking for a friend.
I'm not 100% sure how to answer these questions, as the game really doesn't get much into the why's and hows of the biology, as it is all presented as a mystery. The game is set during the time period where the Wraeththu (goddamn that is a bitch to type out I'm just gonna call them "Wu" from this point on) don't really know what all is going on. and it has been like 20 years since I read the novels the game is based on.
From what I remember, once upon a time, there was born a mutant hermaphrodite, he was the first Wu. (I use he because in the books he self identifies more as male) He grew up knowing there was something different about him. Initially he just thought he was gay, and when he was a young man he went looking for love, and being taller, and prettier than your average male, he had a lot of luck. Unfortunately for him, he discovered that his bodily secretions were highly toxic, and about 1 in 10 of his partners would dissolve into goo. (personally I'd freak out and either swallow a shotgun or turn myself into the cops, but hey whatever) The lucky person who didn't turn to goo would then enter a chrysalis, and after an undetermined time, would emerge as a Wu.
These Wu, and the ones that followed, were the ones who decided that humanity as it currently existed, had to die. By raping all the men to further reproduction. Occasionally one would try this with a woman, but the women all would just turn to goo.
The first 3 novels in the series tell the story of a young bi-curious man, initially he has a girlfriend, but he sees this Wu in a bar, and goes home with him, and undergoes the transformation. It was written more like a rape than a consensual encounter, with a great deal of fear on the main character's part.
When he woke up he discovered that a lot of time had passed, his family thought he had died, and they wanted nothing to do with their, now mutant, child. The MC goes off, has adventures, becomes king of the Wu, re-encounters his rapist, falls in love and knocks the rapist up, and they live happily ever after.
The game is written in the era where the Wu are a persecuted minority, but they have the advantages of fast healing, being stronger, smarter, tougher, and having magic. As well as being able to turn their enemies into them through violation. If you have seen the game Bellum Maga (a game where feminist witches battle patriarchy and satan) it is basically the same game only with homosexuals instead of feminists.
1. sorta both. I'm not part of that crowd, so I don't really know how they think, back when the review of the game was done on TBP it was seen as a bad game. Now they would probably see it as "the message is good, but the wording is problematic"
2. one of my friends from college said the books read like they were written by a heterosexual woman who didn't understand how gay sex between 2 men worked.
3. probably gets a pass because of reasons. if they toned down, or got rid of the rape, they would probably be more in favor of it. again not part of that crowd, so I don't know how they think.