New Patreon-exclusive story! "The Rod of Gender Transformation" Ch. 1

Lucas dumped his backpack next to his desk and logged on to his PC. His mom would probably be mad that he was browsing the internet before finishing his homework, but she was gone–at her friend’s bachelorette party for her second marriage–and all of the homework was so boring. Like, why couldn’t he just take a test showing that he knew how to find a derivative or identify an adverb? These worksheets were mindnumbing.

After looking at Newgrounds but not finding anything new that looked up his alley–he usually played platformers or RPGs or sims–he switched over to the D&D forum that he frequented.

Browsing through the most recent posts on the homebrew subforum, one magic item caught his attention.

“Heh, a rod of gender transformation. That might be funny to put in our game.”

He opened the thread.

The rod of gender transformation can target one creature and change their gender. Males become female, while females become male. The rod has no effect on creatures without a gender, or who are hermaphroditic. Affected creatures are altered in the following ways, as applicable:

• For creatures with genitals: genitals are replaced by the other kind of genitals found in their species
• For creatures whose species’ females with breasts: creatures with breasts lose them, while creatures without breasts gain them
• For creatures with a culture: a creature’s clothing, hair, jewelry, and other accessories frequently associated with a gender will be replaced with those associated with the other gender

“Huh, more thought out than I expected. I didn’t even think about how it would affect stuff like oozes.”

He frowned as he scrolled down through the responses. Some of them were… not great.

How does this affect transvestites?

So what would this do to futa? (Homebrewed into my game with friends set in fantasy Japan)

What’s the point of this? Gender doesn’t affect mechanics at all

Great item for a DM who hates their players. No one wants to be forced to play a girl

“I wouldn’t mind that,” Lucas muttered.

After thinking for a little bit, he realized an ambiguity in the existing description, and decided to ask on the thread.

Does this affect sexual orientation, and if so, how?

After refreshing the thread, he didn’t immediately see a response. He ended up opening YouTube and got absorbed in watching memes.

About an hour later, he remembered the thread and switched back over. His question now had a response.

Good question. As currently written, I suppose it doesn’t. I.e., a straight man would become a lesbian if the rod was used on him. Perhaps I should add a bullet point involving the creature’s mind and mental state, although it will have to be carefully worded. My main goal with this item was to help players who had changed their minds about which gender of character they wished to play but didn’t want to switch to a new character, while being generally applicable to the wide variety of races one could potentially play. I’d rather not force a player to fundamentally alter the personality and preferences of their character, because that would undermine the initial intent of the rod. I’ll have to think more about this.

“That’s a nicer motivation than I expected, honestly. I kinda thought it was a horny thing,” Lucas said to himself. “Maybe I will ask Brian if we can introduce this to the game.”