Systems of more genders

[Ezra]

So all pairs only get children in the genders they themselves are?

That's my current design, yes. (As the usual condition; trans, intersex, and other surprises may not respect that rule.) I'm not strongly attached to it but I like more of its consequences I've thought of than I dislike.

Edit: discounting elf/elf, which requires a third elf before you get your elf baby.

[MaggieoftheOwls]

How magic is elf hair? If an elf encounters someone from another universe can they still do the thing?

[Ezra]

My intuition says yes for otherworldly humans and approximately-humans, no for the fully general case of, like, aranea or Thilanushinyel dragons or Devices or what have you.

[Adelene]

Kobold fur, as an edge case?

[Ezra]

Hmm.

Hmmmm.

... You get a baby-plant that only gives kobolds and not elves. I wasn't expecting that.


(By the way, a baby-plant often gives fraternal-twins or triplets, but only ever one harvest.)

[MaggieoftheOwls]

Why only kobolds and not elves?

[Ezra]

The baby plant can't handle children of two unrelated species at once, it has to be for one or the other; and the elf hair in the seed isn't chiefly for the making the babies part, it's for the growing a plant part, so it loses out.

[Ezra]

I'm a little worried that the elf reproduction might be distractingly complex.

[Kappa]

Elf reproduction is awesome, but it does seem like it is markedly of a different kind than the other three.

[DanielH]

Agreed; they hardly seem like just another gender this way.