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CyberThread
2013-08-03, 05:51 PM
Do you ever find it difficult or hard to roleplay the opposite gender?

Galvin
2013-08-03, 05:55 PM
Indeed. That's part of the reason I play males. It just happens when I'm making a character I naturally write down "M" as gender. In fact, as far as I can remember, I have never played a female character that I can remember.

intothenight
2013-08-03, 05:56 PM
The trick is wearing the correct underwear. It really helps you get in character.

I don't have much problem roleplaying either gender on the battlefield. I avoid romantic situations like the plague when playing the opposite gender, though.

HalfQuart
2013-08-03, 06:05 PM
Not particularly. I figure I end up with opposite-gender characters around 20% of the time. I tend to play personalities that aren't like my own anyway, so I don't really see how the gender much matters difficulty-wise.

kreenlover
2013-08-03, 06:11 PM
It gets hard when you want to get romantic. Being DM for a bunch of single, lusty teenage males can get really weird when they expect me to roleplay the barmaid/tavern wench while they flirt with them, and then even AFTER that when they *ahem*...yah. You get the idea. Not fun.

I do find it hard to convincingly roleplay a female PC. It is difficult, if only because you seem to want to make them act differently than your average male PC. Once you get past that bit, it is relatively easy to play a character of the opposite gender. (Until of course the all male party played by those same lusty single teenage males realizes that they are always within arms reach of a female sorcerer with a charisma of 18 or so and a strength penalty)

That is the main problem though, that people seem to think that female and male PCs need to be radically, fundamentally different in their personalities, and struggle to come up with a suitable opposite gender personality.

nyjastul69
2013-08-03, 06:17 PM
Playing a different sex is easier for me than a different race. As a human male I have a fair amount of experience with female humans. I've never had any experience with any elves, dwarves, halflings, etc. of either sex. I have an especially hard time wrapping my mind around elves so I never play them.

BWR
2013-08-03, 06:23 PM
I treat most of my characters as generic people, with gender and sexuality as secondary characteristics. Sure, most of them are men, but I've played more than a few women as well. Do I play women well? Don't know. For the most part, gender roles don't really come up in the games we play, so gender isn't as big a part of the characters' identities as other aspects.

I do have friends who tend to play women and, according to my girlfriend, play them poorly (I can see why she would think that, seeing some of the things they've done). I've also seen women (and men) played with as little regard to sex and gender as to make them practically neuter.

Hand_of_Vecna
2013-08-03, 06:26 PM
Sure romantic storylines can be awkward, but honestly they can have a hundred layers of awkwardness before gender or sexual orientation enter into the equation.

Is playing the opposite gender a challenge, sure, but so is; playing someone that's been a slave, an alien squid, an ageless wizard that was raised in a tree, someone that kills casually, someone that's Good and on the opposite end of the Law/Chaos spectrum from you, beings from asexual races, various mental disorders (mandatory joke about opposite gender being a form of insanity), as well as victims/perpetrators of various crimes, etc. All/most of these should be more different to most people than a different undercarriage and/or taste in undercarriages if for no other reason that we all grew up around the opposite gender and have hopefully had at least a few conversations about how their experiences differ.

Chronos
2013-08-03, 06:56 PM
I play as whichever gender seems to fit better for the character concept I have in mind. This is usually male, but occasionally female. My current group (all players male) has an all-male party right now (at least, I think so... Hard to be sure with dwarves), but the previous adventure, half of us (including myself) happened to be playing females.

kreenlover
2013-08-03, 07:03 PM
...and have hopefully had at least a few conversations about how their experiences differ.

These are gamers that we are talking about here, so you may want to rethink that last statement.

I know quite a few people who have never ever had a conversation (exchanging pleasantries doesn't count, and I know some who haven't even done that!) with a female.

Hand_of_Vecna
2013-08-03, 07:25 PM
These are gamers that we are talking about here, so you may want to rethink that last statement.

I know quite a few people who have never ever had a conversation (exchanging pleasantries doesn't count, and I know some who haven't even done that!) with a female.

I did say hopefully, hell I know people that haven't had conversations with members of their own gender. Tons of men never have a frank discussion of the nature masculinity, both spineless wimps and douche bags. On the flip side I new a girl that needed to get "that talk" from a teacher after like her third period, because her mother either didn't catch on or ignored it.

So in that sense there are men and women that can be said to not know any better than clueless member of the opposite gender what their own gender is like. However, I "hope" this isn't the case for most individuals on this forum, just as I hope most of them aren't "victims/perpetrators of various crimes".

Probably a bit of a heavy response to a lol gamers are sad nerds joke.

Jeff the Green
2013-08-03, 07:39 PM
It gets hard when you want to get romantic.

See, this is why I always build in a reason for my characters to be uninterested in romance and/or sex. (Right now I have a cloistered cleric who actually is cloistered, a warforged, and a narcissistic Necropolitan.) I really don't want to roleplay a romance with my DMs, and I find characters uninterested in romance to be unrealistic unless they have a good reason.

Oddly, I don't have a similar compunction against it from the other side of the screen, or when I'm writing both characters. In the former case I don't identify with the NPCs the same way I do the PCs (especially since I'm running a Ravenloft campaign and there's a significant chance of every NPC dying a horrible death) and in the latter it's more masturbatory than anything, and I don't have a problem with that so long as my metaphorical palms don't grow hairy. (For example, one character I played in a couple abortive campaigns was a necromancer paladin [long story] who had a dryad cohort/consort. As I roleayed both sides of the relationship and elided the more explicit stuff it was considerably less embarrassing for all involved.)

Irk
2013-08-03, 07:50 PM
I always try to play the opposite gender, as I think it adds to the role playing, provides more of a challenge.

JusticeZero
2013-08-03, 08:25 PM
it's not all that hard, and the research is rewarding.

The research is just to try to see various situations through the different lens, which leads to realizing that some things that are fun when you are bound by ruleset and expectations A is merely annoying when bound by ruleset and expectations B, and having some minor awareness of the differences between A and B. If the situations and consequences were reversed, men would do mostly feminine things and vice versa just because a lot of those behaviors are pragmatic in nature.

The technique for selling the difference is simple enough; do not respond to things which are stereotypically associated with the gender that you are trying to avoid being, and interact with the things associated with the target gender. Just voice an action or statement when they come up, even if that action seems counter to the stereotype. The fact that you have any position related to the stereotype associates your character to what the stereotype is connected to, insofar as your performance goes.

By "interact", I do not mean "do this" per se. If you do all the stereotypical things, then you will often come off as a caricature. A lot of people instinctively understand the principle that "If something is trying very, very hard to convince you it is female , it is very, very likely that it isn't."

This, by the way, should not be taken as some profound statement of gender relations; it is a pragmatic technique for building a character in the eyes of an audience, in this case the other players at the table.

Darth Stabber
2013-08-03, 08:31 PM
I have played female characters before without much issue, but since I pretty much only GM I have to play everything, so i've gotten pretty good at female characters, since they make up half the population it's a bit of a necessity.

Crasical
2013-08-03, 09:14 PM
This should probably be in the general section instead of the 3.5 section.

And no, not really. One of the two groups I game with is pretty open-minded, and we've played things like Maid RPG in the past, so obviously cross-play doesn't really bother them at all.

ericp65
2013-08-04, 12:25 AM
Most of my characters' gender roles are the same as the character's sex (there's a difference, you know). I was hesitant to play my first female character, because I had some foolish thought that it might compromise me in some way (as a hetero male) *L* The idea of challenging myself as a role-player encouraged me to push the boundaries. I based my first female character's personality on one of my sisters, and it worked fantastically well (pun intended)! I've never felt uncomfortable, or unsure of how to rp, a female character, regardless of her sex, sexual orientation, or gender role.

What gets a bit awkward/uncomfortable is players who act out certain things while in character.

ericp65
2013-08-04, 12:27 AM
It gets hard when you want to get romantic.

Dude...do you realize what you wrote there? ;)

ericp65
2013-08-04, 12:37 AM
I have played female characters before without much issue, but since I pretty much only GM I have to play everything, so i've gotten pretty good at female characters, since they make up half the population it's a bit of a necessity.

If you're talking the population of our world, the ratio is about 1.1 males to every female.

Alefiend
2013-08-04, 12:53 AM
The women in my group play as women. The men in my group also play as women most of the time. I pretty much have to play male to stick up for the Y chromosome.

Axinian
2013-08-04, 01:00 AM
Oddly, I pretty much always play chicks, despite being a guy. I think I started doing that because there aren't usually any women in my playgroups, so I just wanted to diversify a bit. One of my playgroups now, though, has multiple women playing women characters, along with my own female character, leading to the incredibly rare (in my experience) situation where the majority of the party is female. I don't actually find it all that hard to play the opposite sex. There doesn't need to be be any real difference in behavior anyway.

Zanos
2013-08-04, 01:08 AM
Not a can of worms I open, personally. Couldn't sell it with my voice anyway.

Besides, grumpy old wizard works better for males, I find.

Manly Man
2013-08-04, 01:24 AM
I, personally, have very little issues with playing a character of a different gender, sex, or orientation than my own; part of that is my own self-security, and so even if what I make may come across as 'gay' or 'girly' or, on the opposite end of things, 'too macho', or if we want to get into gender-neutral territory, even 'retarded' or 'jerkish', I don't let it bother me. What someone else says of the character I make is of little consequence to me, since it's my idea.

As for my actual ratio of characters' genders, sexes, and orientations, I have developed a tendency to play as a female character, one who does not give a damn about what she identifies as inside, and usually shows just about as much interest in being attracted to another person of any kind as most folks would in staring at a piece of wet toilet paper. This is because, back when I was playing more often at a table in real life, I was one of the few who ever tried to keep it from being a sausage fest. This habit kind of stuck when I started doing online games, and somehow I end up in parties that consist almost entirely of women, which kind of makes things awkward, albeit sometimes hilarious, when facing things like a succubus.

On the other hand, many of my favorite characters happen to be male, and have a lot of hard work and detail poured into them. My favorite example of this is a gestalt Crusader//Knight named Baltazar Rosso. He wields a morning star usually, although he has an intelligent bardiche named Corbin (sue me, it was funny when I thought of it), and the two of them have a tendency to argue an awful lot, even though their alignments are the same. On top of that, he's a bit of an alcoholic, and has a distinct liking for Cement Mixers, while an allergy to drupes. He usually wears...

Well, you get the point. I don't mind what the character is, so much as who they are. Things like gender are just superficial to me, and apart from whether getting kicked in the stones makes you sing three octaves higher or not, they don't contribute very much to the character in question.

chainer1216
2013-08-04, 01:41 AM
I've seen this type of thread a few time, in a few places, but I've always wondered, why would there be any difference between playing a male and female? people are people, whether we have wiggly bits or is strictly superficial.

unless the setting has some weird gender politics going on, male or female shouldn't really effect anything. we all have hopes and fears, motivations and hurdles we need to overcome, its not like you'll need to make a will save Vs. buying shoes...

Eldest
2013-08-04, 01:56 AM
Most of my characters' gender roles are the same as the character's sex (there's a difference, you know).

While pedantic, this made me smile that somebody pointed it out.

Personally, I don't find it hard at all. It's a character. If you're playing a female character, shouldn't differ from how you play a male character, really. Somebody above (too late for me to bother pulling the quote out) pointed out that the difference in races or experience is far more likely to have an influence on personality than your gender, and nobody asks if roleplaying a halfling is difficult.

JusticeZero
2013-08-04, 02:03 AM
the difference in races or experience is far more likely to have an influence on personality than your gender, and nobody asks if roleplaying a halfling is difficult.
But they really should. Race is often reduced to a set of bonuses. "Wait, he's a gnome? I never noticed?"

Adanedhel
2013-08-04, 02:17 AM
Online (pbp) I play all kinds of genders. Male, female, thoroughly confused (I guess being a shapeshifter, with a loathing of it's original body, will do that to you).

Face to face however, I usually keep me restricted to male chars, because I'm a bass, singing in a choir made me very aware of the differences in voice to the extent I don't feel comfortable playing a woman when I have to vocalise her actions, rather then write them down.

PraxisVetli
2013-08-04, 02:52 AM
Nope. I've found female characters to be some of my favorite; they definately tend to be some of the most memorable. Even in Erotic situations, its not hard to deal with. I usually just politely remind them that They hit on ME.
usually gets the point across. I don't care if you're a horny dwarf fighter and I'm a teenage elven monk, you looked into my eyes, not hers.
Then they be all like :smallyuk: and I be all :smallcool:

Silvanoshei
2013-08-04, 03:01 AM
Online (pbp) I play all kinds of genders. Male, female, thoroughly confused (I guess being a shapeshifter, with a loathing of it's original body, will do that to you).

Face to face however, I usually keep me restricted to male chars, because I'm a bass, singing in a choir made me very aware of the differences in voice to the extent I don't feel comfortable playing a woman when I have to vocalise her actions, rather then write them down.

I've always wondered, if a male Dragon shapeshifts into a human female and gets pregnant in that form..... would turning back into a male dragon with child cause some serious issues? lol

Jeff the Green
2013-08-04, 03:35 AM
I've always wondered, if a male Dragon shapeshifts into a human female and gets pregnant in that form..... would turning back into a male dragon with child cause some serious issues? lol

Neither anatomy nor herpetology are my particular field, but from what I recall, reptiles' reproductive tracts are fairly similar between the sexes (besides the occasional terrifying penis), so presumably whatever happens if a female dragon shapeshifts into a human female, gets pregnant, and switches back.

I'd say there are two options; which happens depends on whether the embryo/fetus counts as a creature. (Let's please not debate whether it is.) If it does, then it doesn't transform with the dragon and swiftly passes through its mother's/father's cloaca, dying if preterm. If it doesn't and instead counts as an organ in the mother/father, it transforms into an egg and is swiftly laid. Then you have a Helen/Clytemnestra or Castor/Polydeuces thing and a half-dragon human is born from an egg.

Silvanoshei
2013-08-04, 04:30 AM
Neither anatomy nor herpetology are my particular field, but from what I recall, reptiles' reproductive tracts are fairly similar between the sexes (besides the occasional terrifying penis), so presumably whatever happens if a female dragon shapeshifts into a human female, gets pregnant, and switches back.

I'd say there are two options; which happens depends on whether the embryo/fetus counts as a creature. (Let's please not debate whether it is.) If it does, then it doesn't transform with the dragon and swiftly passes through its mother's/father's cloaca, dying if preterm. If it doesn't and instead counts as an organ in the mother/father, it transforms into an egg and is swiftly laid. Then you have a Helen/Clytemnestra or Castor/Polydeuces thing and a half-dragon human is born from an egg.

Errr, aren't Dragons mammals? I would think that they are more similar to birds rather than reptiles. Which would mean it would still cause some serious complications?

Killer Angel
2013-08-04, 04:36 AM
The trick is wearing the correct underwear. It really helps you get in character.

Why are you using the blue character?


See, this is why I always build in a reason for my characters to be uninterested in romance and/or sex.


Well, romance is more difficult, but sex... what's more natural than an adventurer that fights monsters and goes to town, searching for brothels to spend a bunch of those gps? :smallwink:

molten_dragon
2013-08-04, 05:28 AM
Do you ever find it difficult or hard to roleplay the opposite gender?

It must be pretty hard to do, because I've never seen it done well, and I've seen it done poorly quite a few times.

I've never tried it myself though.

crazyhedgewizrd
2013-08-04, 05:40 AM
If you're talking the population of our world, the ratio is about 1.1 males to every female.

The number is much closer to 1.05 men/women, and if you only factor in western countries then the opposite true.

i think it is easier to play the opposite gender than it is to play a different race.

Mithril Leaf
2013-08-04, 06:42 AM
I predominately play male characters because I'm simply not a good enough role-player to do it convincingly. I also tend towards races that I've got a fairly decent grasp of, which usually ends up being dwarves or half-giants. I play a lot of Dwarf Fortress and did some extensive looking into half-giants since they're my default intelligence and charisma race, so they see a lot of play.

Chronos
2013-08-04, 07:33 AM
I think one of the Eberron books talks about shapeshifting and pregnancy, specifically with regards to Changelings. IIRC, a pregnant changeling can still change shape, but if she changes to a male shape, the pregnancy miscarries. It might have ruled out all changes during pregnancy, though.

ericp65
2013-08-04, 08:37 AM
Errr, aren't Dragons mammals? I would think that they are more similar to birds rather than reptiles. Which would mean it would still cause some serious complications?

Dragons are reptiles. Also, birds are not mammals, and they're considered more closely related to reptiles than to mammals.

Jormengand
2013-08-04, 08:39 AM
It's pretty easy to roleplay the opposite gender. C'mon, girls aren't THAT weird!

ericp65
2013-08-04, 08:42 AM
I've seen this type of thread a few time, in a few places, but I've always wondered, why would there be any difference between playing a male and female? people are people, whether we have wiggly bits or is strictly superficial.

unless the setting has some weird gender politics going on, male or female shouldn't really effect anything. we all have hopes and fears, motivations and hurdles we need to overcome, its not like you'll need to make a will save Vs. buying shoes...

Disagree. There are fundamental psychological differences, including emotional wiring, if you will. That said, it all boils down to how detailed a personality and mind-set you want for a character.

ericp65
2013-08-04, 08:48 AM
The number is much closer to 1.05 men/women, and if you only factor in western countries then the opposite true.

i think it is easier to play the opposite gender than it is to play a different race.

88.2% of statistics are made up :smalltongue: 1.05 is close enough...funny, though, I always thought that the ratio favored females (wishful thinking?).

Interesting about race. I find it easy enough to play various races, but then I dig deep, and read everything I can find about races, as it's one of the most fascinating elements of fantasy for me.

Derjuin
2013-08-04, 09:02 AM
Disagree. There are fundamental psychological differences, including emotional wiring, if you will. That said, it all boils down to how detailed a personality and mind-set you want for a character.

Don't forget, though, that some psychological differences are actually a result of the society in which the individuals exist. People are still finding out today that some things that are strictly classified as "male" or "female" have actually been manipulated by past events and mindsets to be that way, rather than having been biologically wired into our brains.

So if you really want to get into roleplaying the opposite gender, you should take into consideration the setting's views on gender within their race and between other races and nations in that world.

<silly>However boys are still totally icky and I would never roleplay one.</silly> :smalltongue:

ericp65
2013-08-04, 09:04 AM
Don't forget, though, that some psychological differences are actually a result of the society in which the individuals exist. People are still finding out today that some things that are strictly classified as "male" or "female" have actually been manipulated by past events and mindsets to be that way, rather than having been biologically wired into our brains.

So if you really want to get into roleplaying the opposite gender, you should take into consideration the setting's views on gender within their race and between other races and nations in that world.

However boys are still totally icky and I would never roleplay one. :smalltongue:

Fascinating :) Now, I'm kinda surprised that no one has commented about a character's sexual orientation. Perhaps that's best saved for another thread...or not discussed at all.

ericp65
2013-08-04, 10:44 AM
While pedantic, this made me smile that somebody pointed it out.

I am King Pedant *LOL*

ellindsey
2013-08-04, 11:05 AM
Never really been a problem for me. The gaming groups I play with these days are mixed-gender to begin with, and we tend to play games more focused on roleplaying and storytelling anyway, and try to maintain good OOC/IC separation. In one game I'm in at the moment I'm playing a shapeshifting alien with no fixed gender, who's in a relationship with the female character of a male member of the gaming group, and we've never had a problem roleplaying it.

AmberVael
2013-08-04, 12:00 PM
I think people make too big a deal over this, and if there are problems, my guess is that it really stems from that. While I typically play female characters nowadays, I've played plenty of male characters- and I've heard zero complaints about how I play them. In fact, some of them have been favorites for me and the people I play with.

My advice on the subject is to relax and don't worry so much... and don't play with anyone immature. :smalltongue:

Yuki Akuma
2013-08-04, 12:05 PM
I don't have any problem playing characters of either, both or neither genders.

Because I play people, not stereotypes. :smalltongue:

Jeff the Green
2013-08-04, 12:36 PM
Dragons are reptiles. Also, birds are not mammals, and they're considered more closely related to reptiles than to mammals.

Strictly speaking, birds are reptiles. Since crocodiles are more closely related to them than to snakes/lizards or turtles, if you want to call all the scaly ones reptiles you have to call birds reptiles too.


Because I play people, not stereotypes. :smalltongue:

I'm not saying you're necessarily wrong, but I think this oversimplifies it. Until like my sophomore year in college my female characters (in creative writing; I wasn't into roleplaying then) were subtly unbelievable. It was frustrating because I knew something was off but couldn't figure out how to fix it.

About that time I started learning about and getting interested in feminism and social justice and learned about the concept of privilege blindness. There are some aspects of of being female/gay/transsexual/poor/non-neurotypical/a racial minority that I simply cannot grok without deep talks with someone who is, while on the other hand people who aren't live in a world where being male/straight/cis/middle class or wealthy/neurotypical/white is normative and so they typically have a much easier time imagining being like me. (For most people in 'Western' countries add Christian and able-bodied to the list; I'm neither, though.)

For example, I knew that in America people of African descent are suspected of crimes more often than is justified by statistics. I didn't realize how that actually plays out until I heard Barack Obama's speech on how he was regularly followed basically right up until he became a household name... and we're talking about a law professor who looks the part.

It takes significant thought and research to break out of privilege blindness simply because in our culture male/straight/cis/middle class or wealthy/neurotypical/white people don't have to deal with it.

ericp65
2013-08-04, 01:48 PM
Strictly speaking, birds are reptiles. Since crocodiles are more closely related to them than to snakes/lizards or turtles, if you want to call all the scaly ones reptiles you have to call birds reptiles too.

And yet, scientifically, birds are of the class aves, while reptiles are of the class reptilia. The two types of animal are sufficiently different to be considered separate.

ericp65
2013-08-04, 01:52 PM
About that time I started learning about and getting interested in feminism and social justice and learned about the concept of privilege blindness. There are some aspects of of being female/gay/transsexual/poor/non-neurotypical/a racial minority that I simply cannot grok without deep talks with someone who is, while on the other hand people who aren't live in a world where being male/straight/cis/middle class or wealthy/neurotypical/white is normative and so they typically have a much easier time imagining being like me. (For most people in 'Western' countries add Christian and able-bodied to the list; I'm neither, though.)

What is cis?

AmberVael
2013-08-04, 02:00 PM
What is cis?

Having a gender identity and sex assignment that align. That is, someone who is not trans (I feel compelled to mention that while this may be one of the easier explanations for someone unfamiliar with the term, the nuances of it are a bit more questionable and maybe it should be avoided).

The full word is cisgender. Or cissexual.

Manly Man
2013-08-04, 02:02 PM
Fascinating :) Now, I'm kinda surprised that no one has commented about a character's sexual orientation. Perhaps that's best saved for another thread...or not discussed at all.

I think I'd mentioned how the orientation doesn't matter much to me. There are times when it's realyl quite funny, though; in one of the groups I'd mantioned that was pretty much all women, they had encountered a succubus, and the party's Sorcerer and Rogue (who was male) were the only ones to fall for it. The Sorcerer's player's immediate respones?

"Oh my. I did not know that about myself."

Jeff the Green
2013-08-04, 03:28 PM
And yet, scientifically, birds are of the class aves, while reptiles are of the class reptilia. The two types of animal are sufficiently different to be considered separate.

Most biologists reject that classification now except as a relic from pre-evolution biology. Crocs and snakes, for example, are only superficially more similar than crocs and birds. Genetically, biochemically, and anatomically birds and crocs are archosaurs and it's more useful to compare them than either to snakes/lizards or turtles.

Eldest
2013-08-04, 03:41 PM
Having a gender identity and sex assignment that align. That is, someone who is not trans (I feel compelled to mention that while this may be one of the easier explanations for someone unfamiliar with the term, the nuances of it are a bit more questionable and maybe it should be avoided).

The full word is cisgender. Or cissexual.

To simplify it further, and make it even more technically wrong, a person with a male mind and male body or female mind and female body is cisgendered. Transgenderism/transsexualism (I've heard the former more than the latter) is where the mind (gender) does not match up with the body (sex).


Fascinating :) Now, I'm kinda surprised that no one has commented about a character's sexual orientation. Perhaps that's best saved for another thread...or not discussed at all.

Why would playing a gay guy be difficult for a straight guy? (as an example) :smallconfused:

Lord Raziere
2013-08-04, 03:42 PM
I don't have any problem playing characters of either, both or neither genders.

Because I play people, not stereotypes. :smalltongue:

this, I've played multiple female characters, and I always make sure to make them people first.

as for romance….eh, I'd just include a houserule that any and all romantic roleplaying would have to done with a character the player created themselves, and the player roleplaying for both characters. if the person wants romance in their game, they can roleplay the entire thing out themselves, with no help needed from me.

JusticeZero
2013-08-04, 04:24 PM
Disagree. There are fundamental psychological differences, including emotional wiring, if you will. That said, it all boils down to how detailed a personality and mind-set you want for a character.
The very few differences that are "hard wired" are irrelevant to almost every situation you can encounter in game, and are variable enough that not having them is deep inside the "normal" range. Almost all the differences people note are based in pragmatism due to having different expectations and generally not having the world treat them the same way. The difference is not even hard to find out. And as a bonus, knowing the differences helps to make one a better and more desirable boyfriend /girlfriend.

Silvanoshei
2013-08-04, 04:28 PM
Most biologists reject that classification now except as a relic from pre-evolution biology. Crocs and snakes, for example, are only superficially more similar than crocs and birds. Genetically, biochemically, and anatomically birds and crocs are archosaurs and it's more useful to compare them than either to snakes/lizards or turtles.

Regardless on the specific classification of birds (which is indeed aves, not a reptile), the point and question is if a shapeshifted male dragon that's a human female gets pregnant (and lets say Dragons are Aves "warm-blooded" "eggs"), wouldn't that cause issues being pregnant in a male dragon? Reptile anatomy and aves anatomy are different enough to be complicated enough as if a male human were to receive a child in his anatomy.

erikun
2013-08-04, 04:37 PM
I am fine roleplaying characters from either gender. Part of it has to being a frequent GM (and thus, roleplaying all different characters believably) and part of it has to do with frequently playing online (where your sex tells aren't as obvious with just text and specifically chosen images).

However, I generally only play characters of the opposite gender when I have some reason for specifically choosing to do so. I defaulting towards the same gender. If I'm not thinking about it, it's probably more believable for most people to just assume that my character's gender and my sex match.

Arkhosia
2013-08-04, 05:01 PM
I always play female characters, but I have never gotten a chance to roleplay one, as my friends are only ever interested in the hack/slash playing method.

Jeff the Green
2013-08-04, 05:12 PM
Regardless on the specific classification of birds (which is indeed aves, not a reptile), the point and question is if a shapeshifted male dragon that's a human female gets pregnant (and lets say Dragons are Aves "warm-blooded" "eggs"), wouldn't that cause issues being pregnant in a male dragon? Reptile anatomy and aves anatomy are different enough to be complicated enough as if a male human were to receive a child in his anatomy.

Most birds (the major notable exception is ducks) have essentially the same gross reproductive anatomy. They have a single orifice (the cloaca) that carries urine, feces, sperm, and eggs. They lack, I believe, the ability to put a shell on their egg, but that occurs fairly early and so isn't likely relevant. The fetus, if it transforms, will be a complete egg if the pregnancy was at all far along. If not the dragon probably wouldn't notice the pregnancy. Most birds

(Also, what I was talking about with aves vs. reptiles is that 'reptiles' is a term that is archaic, unscientific, and useless unless it includes birds. Aves is roughly equal to crocodilian, not to all 'reptiles'.

Manly Man
2013-08-04, 05:31 PM
I always play female characters, but I have never gotten a chance to roleplay one, as my friends are only ever interested in the hack/slash playing method.

And yet you continue to play 4e because...?

Keneth
2013-08-04, 06:25 PM
I roleplay both genders, but it does get somewhat awkward when done in person because everything about me practically screams "male". Plus, every time I play a female character, I get virtually bombarded with sexual innuendo and general harassment, like every single male in the universe suddenly turned from normal a normal person to a walking sack of hormones. But we tend to accentuate any unusual trait for comic/dramatic effect, and at a table of nothing but grown-up men, female characters tend to be just that — an oddity.

Do I find it hard though? Not really. I mean, obviously there are issues, men have a harder time imitating women because of the way our brains are "wired", but I feel comfortable in pretty much any gender role (not necessarily just male or female).

Raineh Daze
2013-08-04, 06:27 PM
Roleplaying as the opposite gender in a game? Pretty trivial, really. Not a big fan of doing it, but the difficulty is beyond easy. :smallamused:

crazyhedgewizrd
2013-08-04, 06:35 PM
88.2% of statistics are made up :smalltongue: 1.05 is close enough...funny, though, I always thought that the ratio favored females (wishful thinking?).

I read one statistical report where they spent more time in writing the paper than fact checking the data.

Some of the thing that are labeled masculine and feminine are more to do with social and environmental factors. If we go before WW2 the colours for boys and girl was reversed, as in having pink for boys and blue for girls.

Arkhosia
2013-08-04, 06:36 PM
And yet you continue to play 4e because...?

So true.
We're starting a new campaign this week or next week, and we might start role playing then, as me and another player (he's new) are big fans of it, and the only person who really disliked the idea is DMing. :smallbiggrin:

JusticeZero
2013-08-04, 06:42 PM
Nosale the idiocy until the novelty wears off? If it's clearly just trolling, just don't respond to it and act like it was silence instead.

Farastu
2013-08-04, 07:07 PM
As a DM I play both genders regularly. As a player I've stuck with females, but probably after DMing if I were a player again I'd consider playing the opposite gender.

I don't find playing the opposite gender difficult, and no one seems to find it awkward when I do (certainly I've gotten no complaints or negative comments about my handling of it). This may be due to the fact that I don't as strongly identify with gender as most of my peers, and have been told I "act like a man" a lot anyways. This probably surprises people a lot when they first meet me because I really don't look like someone whom would.

The primary NPC I'm playing right now is male, and one of my players (whom is male) is playing a female character, and so far people playing opposite genders really hasn't been problematic at all.

The key is to do things tastefully, especially if you have romance get involved in the game at all, and sometimes you do need to just have the good old "the screen blacks out and we move to the next scene" occur.

All my players are pretty mature fortunately, so there's really been no inappropriate handling of situations so far, and I really don't expect there to be any.

An important thing with playing the opposite gender is to not worry about adhering to some male or female stereotype, and that if you are in fact playing a very gender specific archetype still keep in mind that you're playing a person whom should have some dimension beyond that. It really should be more challenging to play a different race IMO, especially the further from being human that they are, because their psychology really ought to be much more dramatically different from your own, certainly more so than someone of a different gender whom at least is of the same (or very closely related) species.

Fyermind
2013-08-04, 11:34 PM
I tend to play male characters to make fellow players more comfortable. When I have the opportunity I play a mix of male and female characters.

Response to Keneth:


I roleplay both genders, but it does get somewhat awkward when done in person because everything about me practically screams "male". Plus, every time I play a female character, I get virtually bombarded with sexual innuendo and general harassment, like every single male in the universe suddenly turned from normal a normal person to a walking sack of hormones. But we tend to accentuate any unusual trait for comic/dramatic effect, and at a table of nothing but grown-up men, female characters tend to be just that — an oddity.

Do I find it hard though? Not really. I mean, obviously there are issues, men have a harder time imitating women because of the way our brains are "wired", but I feel comfortable in pretty much any gender role (not necessarily just male or female).
Welcome to what life is like for a lot of women. It is stunning how many men turn into walking sacks of hormones with no discretion.

Keneth
2013-08-05, 04:21 AM
Welcome to what life is like for a lot of women. It is stunning how many men turn into walking sacks of hormones with no discretion.

They don't turn into caricature stereotypes at the drop of a shoe. In spite of what women would like to believe about our primitive development, the vast majority of men are not cavemen. :smallbiggrin:

Hyena
2013-08-05, 05:33 AM
They don't turn into caricature stereotypes at the drop of a shoe. In spite of what women would like to believe about our primitive development, the vast majority of men are not cavemen.
Except, of course, when we are.

GungHo
2013-08-05, 09:33 AM
I don't care. Whatever concept seems fun at the time.

Nerd-o-rama
2013-08-05, 09:36 AM
Playing women is several dozen times easier in online games wherein I can pause and think about the different perspective, and I don't feel like my hideous neckbeard is distracting from my attempts to play a particular role. I always play men (well, males) in face-to-face games because I can react more naturally that way, and almost always play women in online games to balance that out, I guess.

Knaight
2013-08-05, 12:24 PM
Regarding difficulty: I've played robots, I've played animals, I've played people deeply invested in philosophies I find abhorrent, so on and so forth. Meanwhile, I don't interact with intelligent robots at all in real life, live in a city and as such rarely interact with truly wild animals, and generally try to avoid people deeply invested in philosophies I find abhorrent. Most of my friends are women (probably 60-70%). As such, there is no difficulty whatsoever with playing a female character.

As for the characters I play: Of the ones that even have a gender (see my previous point regarding having played robots) it probably works out close to 50-50. I generally GM though, where 50-50 or so is also the usual breakdown.

DigoDragon
2013-08-05, 12:44 PM
I avoid romantic situations like the plague when playing the opposite gender, though.

I haven't ever been successful in starting a romantic relationship with any of my characters. :smallbiggrin:

Since I'm the primary GM of my group, I've learned to play either gender pretty well (a little research and acting skill practice go a long way). Only one other member in my group plays the opposite gender on occasion, but rarely gets into the role.

Either way its usually not a big issue in my group if one isn't proficient in RPing the other side.

elliott20
2013-08-05, 03:09 PM
I have discovered that barring any core archetypal concepts that REQUIRE a certain gender (i.e. a princess, for example), generally, playing the opposite gender is but another "flag", if you will, in a character's profile.

So, for example, I once played a paladin that had incredibly average stats. I decided on a lark to roll for the gender, and came up female.

Now, for the most part, I had already decided that this character was through and through a paladin first with a strong affinity towards protecting those weaker than him/herself, and everything else simply an accent on how this turned out.

So in the beginning, my character would spend an inordinate amount of time shielding people from danger. The gender simply means that I take a bit more steps to segregate myself from the male characters when we go to an inn, and maybe speak a little bit softer.

So in the beginning, it was treated like it was a trait.

And then, at some point, I protected a child from an orc raiding party. The kid ended up following me around for a short time while I played up the whole Ripley-esque aspects of the character. It was then that the gender identity started to come out stronger and stronger as my character started to become more and more maternal. (Not so much that go all soccer mom on her or something, but simply that I prioritize the child's protection over everything else at times.)

At one point, the question of why my character never had children came up, and then someone suggested that maybe I lost mine to something, either to disease or to miscarriage. I thought, "why not?" and ran with it. It also helped explain where my character's protective instincts come from. It led to a whole storyline where my paladin eventually becomes the child's legal guardian, and her eventual retirement as a result. It was a good end for that character, I thought. (She was replaced with a Forrest Gump-like male half-orc barbarian... this was before Thog came about, mind you)

So in this sense, it dovetail with my original concept anyways and it worked out.

But I also have female characters that were unmitigated disasters. I once played in a game where I was a high school groupy to one of the main heroes of the setting, and the way I played her started out with just minor accents like how she spoke, and eventually morphed into her being a full blown teenage drama queen, which was fun during the game but in hindsight is actually an incredibly disturbing look at how I see teenage girls. The fact that we basically treated the game and the character as almost an off-putting Bella Swan knock off didn't help at all.

TuggyNE
2013-08-05, 11:46 PM
I haven't ever been successful in starting a romantic relationship with any of my characters. :smallbiggrin:

That's … somehow disturbing the way you put it. :smalleek:

Esprit15
2013-08-06, 09:56 PM
Though male, I have a slight tendency to play female over male characters. Generally it tends to be that the concept for the character I have is better done through a female character than a male one. I don't have too much issue with it. I forget who said it or even the context, but "I just think of women as people" comes to mind. If your in life or death situations, you're not going to react too differently based on which bathroom you normally head into. In normal situations, I just do what feels like would come naturally. I think of the character's personality beforehand. If I don't do this, whether they are male or female, the character feels flat and boring to me.

As for romantic involvement with other PCs, I've actually had that on both sides. Again: What would the character do? This isn't a gender issue as far as I see it, it's a personality issue. Guys and girls can both be awkward, easy, asexual, or anything between those. Also important is if it is natural feeling.

As for harassment, I haven't played a girl who wasn't also very combat capable, and most people I've played with are mature enough to not be that silly. Together, those keep the harassment to a minimum.

I will say that it is far easier to do so online, when you have time to think about responses, possibly discuss things OOC as they happen. I'd be totally open to trying it in an IRL game, though.

Lorsa
2013-08-07, 05:31 AM
These threads seem to pop up now and then, and every time I am astounded by how many different ideas and experiences people have. Not that it should be surprising, people are different after all. I want to add though, that I have a feeling that many people really haven't given much thought as to their own "real-world" gender. Not to mention that these threads seem to forget that there are gender identities that doesn't have an "opposite".

Much of these discussions also depend on what experience people have had with the opposite gender in real life. I know all kinds of women, so I have no problems with expecting them to behave a certain way (or not behave a certain way as seem to be an issue for some people). Any personality trait a man can exhibit a woman can have too (and vice versa).

I enjoy playing the opposite gender, but then again even though I identify as male most tests I've done (including the S.A.G.E. test) seem to indicate that I am more female so I suppose what actually is opposite gender can be debated.


(For most people in 'Western' countries add Christian and able-bodied to the list; I'm neither, though.)

In Sweden, being christian would put you in a minority position and work against you in most groups (apart from the christian-specific groups of course). I don't know how it is in the rest of Europe, but I think being christian is only good for your social acceptance in a minority of "western" countries rather than most.

Ashtagon
2013-08-07, 05:59 AM
It gets hard when you want to get romantic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7HycFnH26U

Craft (Cheese)
2013-08-07, 06:01 AM
They don't turn into caricature stereotypes at the drop of a shoe. In spite of what women would like to believe about our primitive development, the vast majority of men are not cavemen. :smallbiggrin:

I have one player who likes to act like that around fictional females in-game, but he has no such issues in real life. Not toward me, anyway. I honestly think some players do this for the same reason some players suddenly become kleptomaniac murderhobos when the dice come out.

(Undeniably, though, the jackasses who harass women all the time in real life are all too common.)

Yuki Akuma
2013-08-07, 06:12 AM
In Sweden, being christian would put you in a minority position and work against you in most groups (apart from the christian-specific groups of course). I don't know how it is in the rest of Europe, but I think being christian is only good for your social acceptance in a minority of "western" countries rather than most.

It's still likely to be most people in Western countries, though, considering population numbers puts most of those people squarely in the American continents. :smallwink:

(North American population: 528.7 million
South American population: 387.5 million

European population: 739.2 million

Australian population: 22.32 million
New Zealand population: 4.405 million)

Of course, if we include African countries as well, it puts most of the population in the 'old world' but I'm not entirely sure where 'Western countries' starts and ends.

Annoyingly, I couldn't find figures for the population of of the Oceanian continent as a whole, but this is a joke so being rigorous with my figures isn't exactly required.

Lorsa
2013-08-07, 06:15 AM
It's still likely to be most people in Western countries, though, considering population numbers puts most of those people squarely in the American continents. :smallwink:

(North American population: 528.7 million
South American population: 387.5 million

European population: 739.2 million)

Of course, if we include African countries as well, it puts most of the population in the 'old world' but I'm not entirely sure where 'Western countries' starts and ends.

I wasn't aware South America counted as such, as I thought it was mostly USA, Canada + most of Europe (not all). But then again these definitions are very strange and rather vague. But I suppose if we do think about people, yes that'd be more correct.

Yuki Akuma
2013-08-07, 06:17 AM
I wasn't aware South America counted as such, as I thought it was mostly USA, Canada + most of Europe (not all). But then again these definitions are very strange and rather vague. But I suppose if we do think about people, yes that'd be more correct.

I'm mostly joking on the difference between "most people" and "most countries". Most western countries probably aren't as institutionally religious as the US is.

Also this might be veering into real world religions so I should stop now.

Sylian
2013-08-07, 06:52 AM
There are two major issues with roleplaying the opposite gender/sex. The first is the risk of playing a caricature, a stereotype. I bet most of you understand why this might be problematic, so I won't explain why right now.

The second is basically the gender equivalent of playing a "Straight Gay (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StraightGay)" character. Say, for example, that you are male and play a female character, then you might play her as if she were male, thus turning gender and sex into something purely aesthetic. This is potentially problematic if you believe that there are differences between men and women other than the purely physical ones. If you believe that men and women are basically the same and that gender is purely constructed by society, then perhaps this point isn't very problematic, and in an idealized D&D society, men and women are the same except for physiological differences.

As a player, I tend to avoid playing female characters in D&D, mostly because I worry about the second issue, that I'd work too hard on avoiding perceived stereotypes so that I basically play a transgender character. Not that playing a transgender character is problematic if that's what want to play, but in my case, I doubt that was what I was aiming at, partly because I don't know enough about people who are transgender, and I don't want to risk misrepresenting them or belittling their experiences.

As a DM, I have traditionally tended to mainly use male characters for this reason, with a few female characters here and there, but I am going to make a conscious effort to create more female characters in the future, since not having any female characters at all in the world is probably worse than having them slightly stereotyped or played as if they were men. It is a tricky situation, though.

Also, do note that I don't think that just because there are pitfalls doesn't mean that you shouldn't play a character opposite of your own gender. Keep in mind possible pitfalls and try to make the character believable without creating an overtly stereotypical character, and it might be good, perhaps. I'm guessing that this is probably more of an issue for men playing women than women playing men, but I can't know for sure.

DigoDragon
2013-08-07, 06:57 AM
That's … somehow disturbing the way you put it. :smalleek:

Thanks! I try not to take life too seriously. :smallwink:


I was conversing with a former GM the other night and he said that what he thought were the best players who do opposite genders, are the ones who pay attention to little details. Things like hand gestures, which way you swing your foot to look under your shoe, or how your character sits in an uncomfortable chair. Stuff like that.

Knaight
2013-08-07, 03:26 PM
These are gamers that we are talking about here, so you may want to rethink that last statement.

I know quite a few people who have never ever had a conversation (exchanging pleasantries doesn't count, and I know some who haven't even done that!) with a female.

I'm inclined to think that these people are the exception - 1950 was 63 years ago, and gender-segregation in friend groups seems like a bizarre relic of the past in quite a few places - certainly most of those with lots of anglophones who engage in RPG nerdity on online forums.

Sith_Happens
2013-08-07, 05:45 PM
I haven't tried it yet and have no particular inkling to do so, precisely because I don't see it making any real difference in how I play the character anyways. Sort of a weird reverse-logic, but there you go.

Icewraith
2013-08-07, 07:05 PM
I'm in the "too deep-voiced and male to realistically pull it off in person category," and I try to avoid talking AS female characters and instead describe what they tell the players while DMing.

I did a female character in an IM game way back when, and was disturbed at the amount of attention I got from one of the other players. My character was heavily agoraphobic and the campaign (to my chagrin) ended up playing out on a mostly unexplored, savannah-like alien planet, so she was having to deal with psychological trauma while getting unwanted attention- it didn't work out well.

In computer games I favor female characters. I think there's some combination of the character matching the gender I'm attracted to, the generally smaller and slimmer profile lets me see more of my immediate surroundings and takes up less screen space, and the generally male art departments subconciously doing a better job with the female models. By that I mean that they capture what I think a heroic female character should look like but there's usually something off-putting, often in the face, about the heroic male character options.

Also I tend to use the smallest, weakest looking character race/gender/profile available when playing tanks/defensive classes, for the irony. Who should we send in to tank the 40 foot tall giant dinosaur? The female gnome that weighs at most 50 pounds soaking wet, of course! She's going to run in wearing armor that's probably heavier than she is and trade blows with something that probably has individual teeth bigger than her, and come out on top as long as the heals are decent.

Edit: In the USA and most western countries I'm not sure how it's even possible to avoid the opposite gender for your entire education, professional career and hobby development. Once you get assigned a group project in high school (and then even more so college) containing at least one member of the opposite sex you will have to spend multiple hours working with them on the assignment. Not only will you have to interact with them regarding the asignment, since it's impossible to work 100% efficiently at some point you will inevitably stray onto personal topics.

Themrys
2013-08-09, 03:07 AM
I'm in the "too deep-voiced and male to realistically pull it off in person category," and I try to avoid talking AS female characters and instead describe what they tell the players while DMing.

...

Edit: In the USA and most western countries I'm not sure how it's even possible to avoid the opposite gender for your entire education, professional career and hobby development. Once you get assigned a group project in high school (and then even more so college) containing at least one member of the opposite sex you will have to spend multiple hours working with them on the assignment. Not only will you have to interact with them regarding the asignment, since it's impossible to work 100% efficiently at some point you will inevitably stray onto personal topics.


I'll have to pay attention to it (I usually don't) but I think the DM of my current group has quite a deep voice, and the old witch we encountered in the latest adventure was adorable. It's just ... it doesn't matter. My parents both read books to me when I was a child, and they both also read the direct speech of the opposite sex. You get used to it, and it becomes invisible.

Regarding group projects ... well, it is not easy to avoid the opposite gender in school in Germany, too, but there was a boy in my school who actually switched groups so he wouldn't have to work together with girls. We all were about 18 at the time ... most people thought he was a bit strange.

@Sylian: " If you believe that men and women are basically the same and that gender is purely constructed by society, then perhaps this point isn't very problematic, and in an idealized D&D society, men and women are the same except for physiological differences."

This is what I believe. Actually, I'd play gay characters just the same like straight characters, except for whom they find attractive, too.

I don't play D&D but DSA (The Dark Eye, in English, I think), and society there is explictly gender-equal in most places, so I actually try to have my characters act more "gender-neutral" than I do in real life, to reflect the fact that they weren't influenced by the same society I was.

I do see the problem with "straight gays" - heterosexuality and maleness is often presented as the norm, and if non-heterosexual and non-male characters are only accepted if they act heterosexual and male, that's a bad thing.
That's why I aim for neutrality rather than maleness or straightness.

@Sith_Happens: I tend to play the opposite gender to break cliches - there may be no difference in how I play the characters, but there is a difference in how they are perceived.

The paladin described by eliott20? Would probably have been male if I had played him. Paternal instincts included.

Lorsa
2013-08-09, 04:15 AM
I find it interesting that there are people out there who never had a conversation with their mother. Or any other female. Those people have to be 1 in a billion? The gaming community is full of them after all. Women I mean.

Avilan the Grey
2013-08-09, 04:30 AM
Almost always play female characters if possible.
Not sure why.

I am sure someone could come along and tell me "I'm playing them 'undrealistic'" but my personal experience with women tells me that unless you go down to a very weirdly detailed roleplaying, the differences are almost ignorable.

Seriously, a female paladin will handle things just like a male paladin. A female evil wizard too.
The only real difficulty might come if, for some weird reason, my character would be forced to rely on her... charms (which should be very very rare occasions). I am far better at describing than acting. I think it has happened twice in my history of roleplaying. Once to distract a copper in Victorian London, and once during a prison break-in (!) in a fantasy game (don't remember the ruleset).

Aasimar
2013-08-09, 05:00 AM
I'm not sure my response counts, since I've got this weird gender dysphoria thing going.

Biologically male, but usually play females. Playing male characters just feels...meh.

I suppose I use RP as an escape mechanism.

Themrys
2013-08-09, 05:18 AM
The only real difficulty might come if, for some weird reason, my character would be forced to rely on her... charms (which should be very very rare occasions). I am far better at describing than acting. I think it has happened twice in my history of roleplaying. Once to distract a copper in Victorian London, and once during a prison break-in (!) in a fantasy game (don't remember the ruleset).

For what it's worth, I wouldn't ever do such a thing, as I don't even know in real life how to use ... charms.
Therefore, it's not in the least unrealistic if your female character is bad at that.
Or if your male character is good at it.

Lorsa
2013-08-09, 05:55 AM
I'm not sure my response counts, since I've got this weird gender dysphoria thing going.

Biologically male, but usually play females. Playing male characters just feels...meh.

I suppose I use RP as an escape mechanism.

Well, it is possible to play the opposite gender in real life and the right one during roleplaying even though the people around might not see it as such.

TuggyNE
2013-08-09, 06:21 AM
I find it interesting that there are people out there who never had a conversation with their mother.

Oh, don't you know? Mothers aren't girls.

Avilan the Grey
2013-08-09, 06:23 AM
For what it's worth, I wouldn't ever do such a thing, as I don't even know in real life how to use ... charms.
Therefore, it's not in the least unrealistic if your female character is bad at that.
Or if your male character is good at it.

Oh I agree completely. The distraction of the copper failed, afair, mostly because he actually was an honest cop, but the break-in worked... though barely.

And I have seen a male character do it once, and it was fun to watch. Though it wasn't in the exact same situation (It was basically a deliberate re-enactment from Prince of Thieves).

Komatik
2013-08-09, 08:15 AM
Seriously, a female paladin will handle things just like a male paladin. A female evil wizard too.

Someone once put things this way:

While especially in old-styled societies there is a lot of differences between male and female commoners, how they see things and are expected to act, the gulf between commoner and warrior is much, much bigger than male warrior - female warrior.

In Warhammer it might be different and you might be a dung collector, but in D&D you're playing an exceptional individual, probably so far form the norm already that the norms of the common folk have little to do with how you're expected to act or view the world.

Emandmace
2013-08-09, 09:21 AM
While pedantic, this made me smile that somebody pointed it out.

Personally, I don't find it hard at all. It's a character. If you're playing a female character, shouldn't differ from how you play a male character, really. Somebody above (too late for me to bother pulling the quote out) pointed out that the difference in races or experience is far more likely to have an influence on personality than your gender, and nobody asks if roleplaying a halfling is difficult.

Thank you. This is my feeling exactly. I recently made up a setting for players to use in conjunction with Pathfinder that has twelve very distinct island nations, all with wildly different cultures, and it's the cultures that effect the characters far more than gender, because each culture has different gender roles (among other things).

As the GM, I've had to play a huge range of characters (I'm female, but in a medieval setting, the majority of warriors, politicians and other powerful folks tend to be male) from the sorceress' cold nobleman husband, to the gruffly lovable big brother of a [male] PC's love interest, to the MacGuffin child that the PCs are trying to save.

Honestly, it's much easier to play the opposite gender than it is to play someone of a vastly different age than you, like a kid, or even worse someone with a vastly different lifespan-- a hundred-year-old elf is barely an adult by their standards, but has already lived far longer than most humans ever will, and will continue to live on for a couple centuries if they don't die in battle.

As for romances: the fade-to-black is much classier than making your friends listen to you talk dirty. If they complain it's not enough detail (yes, I know some folks GM for high school or college boys), make them roll a Perform (Horizontal Mambo) check to see how good they were.

Arkhosia
2013-08-09, 05:14 PM
I'm not sure my response counts, since I've got this weird gender dysphoria thing going.

Biologically male, but usually play females. Playing male characters just feels...meh.

I suppose I use RP as an escape mechanism.

That's exactly why I always play females!