Roleplaying a different gender [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

SilverClawShift

2007-09-01, 09:27 PM

I almost always play my gender, but I have had a few characters that were male for one reason or another. Usually because I couldn't picture myself acting the way I planned on the character acting, and found it easier, mentally, to throw in a degree of seperation.

That said, I think it's "easier" for a girl to roleplay as a guy (for social reasons, not because of any inborn thing) than vice versa, especially in a D&D type setting where gender means less than your feat selection.
A girl wearing pants doesn't really draw as much attention as a guy wearing a dress. Now, you don't have to show up at your gaming session in a chainmail bikini, but it seems more likely to raise an eyebrow if a male insists on being called Natasha Venomthorn.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for it, that's the point of roleplaying :smallbiggrin: . I just have a feeling it's more likely to get an elbow jab and a chuckle than the other way around.

dyslexicfaser

2007-09-01, 09:28 PM

I tend to just play male characters in person, because it creeps me out when people hit on my characters in person.

However, with the web as a filter, I'll play male and female characters online. It's just easier for me to disjoin me from my character online. In person, people will act stuff out and physically touch me... that's just a bit over the line.

That sounds about right for me, too. At the moment I'm in only two PbP games, playing one male and one young girl.

I've always wanted to try that. Does that make me a sick person?
<_<
>_>
...
*hides*
Yes, but that's okay. We're all weirdoes here.

Jannex

2007-09-01, 09:29 PM

I've PCed a few characters who happened to be male (most recently in a game that ended this past spring; he was a fun character), and haven't had any problems. If a character's concept or personality requires s/he be one gender or the other, then that's what s/he should be. It may take a couple of tries to play a character of the opposite gender realistically, or some GMing where you've roleplayed cross-gendered NPCs, but as long as the people you're playing with are reasonably mature/not jerks, there's no reason it should "ruin your game." I'd say hammer out the concept, and go for it when you get an opportunity.

CockroachTeaParty

2007-09-01, 09:35 PM

Come to think of it, the only real instance where gender really makes that much a difference in D&D, as far as I can tell, is the favored class of female drow being different than that of male drow.

Rob Knotts

2007-09-01, 09:40 PM

I tend to run games more often than play in them, but when I do play a character it's almost always some sort of male fighter. If the DM told me he wanted me to play a female fighter, I'd have no problem with it, but my general inclination is to avoid making the character more complicated by playing a different gender from my own. My whole point in playing fighters in the first place is to make the gameplay as hassle-free as possible (just about every game system has clearer rules for combat than other character actions).

When I run games I generally do not allow male players to play female characters, unless I know the player well. I don't require this of female players, but then female players are FAR less likely bring the game to screeching halt by running male characters as walking, talking sex-toys who prefer sex with thier own gender but are waiting for just the right member of the opposite sex (AKA, the player), to truly satisfy them.

RandomNPC

2007-09-01, 09:47 PM

my groups got two guys in it thinking about female characters. my younger brother in law, and one of the other guys. lil bor in law already diped out, and the other guy is going for the clasic "hey look at me! im not wearing anything!" type character... this is going to be lots of fun, clothing is kind of an asumed thing in most of my world, people know you're supposed to wear it so they do, but there's no law stopping anyone from not. once the humor wears off i think he's going to actually enjoy it, other that the youngest in the group laughing every time i call him madam while RPing.

all in all i think its best in tabletop RP style games, and i'd jump at the chance if i wasn't DMing everything.

i tried a female on Ultima Online, soon as i got going some guy gave me a bunch of spell components, like 500 each kinda thing. then he found out i was a dude roleplaying a lady and flipped out.

horseboy

2007-09-01, 09:48 PM

As a player, no, never had a female character. As a DM I have had several well developed (not that way, perv) female NPCs. I don't get to play as much as I'd like.

Xuincherguixe

2007-09-01, 09:50 PM

I've played some female characters before, but I think the most disturbing character was Hauc Feng. He took changing genders far, far too well.

The DM so picked the wrong target ^_^. Or the right one depending on your perspective.

Hauc Feng was one of those bubbly psychopaths.

Hawriel

2007-09-01, 09:51 PM

some times I wonder why peaple think its such a big deal to do somthing so simple like playing the oposite gender in an RPG, then I think for a second, remember who my friends are and others ive met. Now I understand the worry.

All of my main characters are mail. I guess its because I get self consciense like every one els. you all know, am I acting like a stariotype, to butch? to girly? Cant even hint at a romantic relation. then the big fear, slut. That is the number one issue with me. Am I playing my character like a slut and if im not in the least, guess what the rest of the group will start the jokes.

My friend has a female bard named Jynx, played her for years. The character is a conartist so she does not sing. I guess that makes her a story teller. well one day she got a big favor from an NPC wile away from the party. Of corse she only could have gotten the favor one way. and the jokes still fly.

I was not in the group that started the skank montra. Another player who also played a bard named Jack the Dashing started it. now the double standard. Jack is cool when he gets layed, Jynx on the other hand suffers from being not a good girl. I have a swashbuckler, Quintin. Afew years ago my friend and I started playing Quintin and Jynx in the same party. Now these to characters are a perfect match. In any novel or cheesy action movie you know they would hook up, but because of weardness it will never happen. Besides Quintin is going to marry a red head princes. from total scoundrel to king of the bloodstone lands. ok tangent.

I have had female characters and I think they had more depth in personality because I was conserned about falling into some imatchure stareotype. My advice think about your oposite gender character like you would any other, but also think about how you might turn it into a stareotype. I think this will not only make you create a better character but also you might learn a little somthing about life itself. If you play a girl with a group of imature teen age boys it might be very hard or not worth it. Then again sticking with that character will be better for you as a player in the long run.

Rachel Lorelei

2007-09-01, 09:51 PM

I play roughly equal amounts of both, perhaps more female. Frankly--especially in a lot of campaign settings, which are as egalitarian as the real world or even more--gender just isn't nearly as big a deal as people seem to think.
I also try to sprinkle in characters of different ethnicities (it sure seems like everyone in D&D is generically white, except Those People On That Other Continent who are generically asian, sometimes). While we're at it, I mostly tend to run characters* who are attracted to women, since that's easier for me, but I do throw in a queer-to-some-degree male in regularly enough.

I used to play almost exclusively male characters, but that was because I was using a male identity (I don't see much of that here, but some places, girls get treated quite differently) online and to avoid in-character flirtation from the guys in my RL group.

I keep meaning to run a flaming drag-queen "sorceress". Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil would be perfect--rainbow power!

*No, not Lesbian Stripper Ninjas, thank you very much. It often doesn't even come up, beyond coloring the character's reactions to things.

CockroachTeaParty

2007-09-01, 09:58 PM

All of my main characters are mail. I guess its because I get self consciense like every one els. you all know, am I acting like a stariotype, to butch? to girly? Cant even hint at a romantic relation. then the big fear, slut. That is the number one issue with me. Am I playing my character like a slut and if im not in the least, guess what the rest of the group will start the jokes.

I've never played a mail character before. Is that like that one thing about the floating, sentient, psionic sandwhich? I suppose you'd have a nice hide modifier, but I fail to see the attraction. Maybe if you homebrewed a Fedex first class PrC...

Rachel Lorelei

2007-09-01, 10:02 PM

When I run games I generally do not allow male players to play female characters, unless I know the player well. I don't require this of female players, but then female players are FAR less likely bring the game to screeching halt by running male characters as walking, talking sex-toys who prefer sex with thier own gender but are waiting for just the right member of the opposite sex (AKA, the player), to truly satisfy them.
That's pretty much what I mean by Lesbian Stripper Ninjas. I loathe that kind of character with every fiber of my being, and don't think too highly of the folks that run them.

my groups got two guys in it thinking about female characters. my younger brother in law, and one of the other guys. lil bor in law already diped out, and the other guy is going for the clasic "hey look at me! im not wearing anything!" type character... this is going to be lots of fun, clothing is kind of an asumed thing in most of my world, people know you're supposed to wear it so they do, but there's no law stopping anyone from not. once the humor wears off i think he's going to actually enjoy it, other that the youngest in the group laughing every time i call him madam while RPing.
Ugh. Aside from the "hurr hurr, my character's a hot naked chick, durr" factor, there are lots of reasons why folks don't run around naked entirely separate from societal acceptance. For example, if you had breasts, you'd know that running unsupported hurts.

i tried a female on Ultima Online, soon as i got going some guy gave me a bunch of spell components, like 500 each kinda thing. then he found out i was a dude roleplaying a lady and flipped out.
I've gotten that reaction in online games. I've even gotten "omg r u rly a girl?"
I don't really get that sort of reaction. Women aren't aliens, folks.

IonizedChicken

2007-09-01, 10:03 PM

I plan on doing it at some point, but somehow the concept seems kind of... alien to me. I'm unsure if I can properly roleplay a female, though in some cases that point is moot (Khar, the generic half-orc barbarian, is probably little different from his cousin Khara, the generic half-orc barbarian).

Dhavaer

2007-09-01, 10:05 PM

*No, not Lesbian Stripper Ninjas, thank you very much. It often doesn't even come up, beyond coloring the character's reactions to things.

Poor stripper ninjas, so maligned. :smallwink:
Most of them probably deserve it, though.

Quietus

2007-09-01, 10:15 PM

I'd say about one in six characters of mine are female. I frequently come up with character ideas that could go either way, and generally I'll tip them to the Male side of things, just because it's easier for me - but sometimes I'll run female characters, just because the character idea really fits them. For example :

Sienna "Red" Reed, from her character document :

For as long as she can remember, Sienna was an orphan – she can’t remember anything of her parents, and by this point, doesn’t care to. A beautiful young girl, she grew up being passed from one home to another, never quite fitting in, as she never really grasped the idea of “family bonding”. She learned to get along with people, and tell them what they wanted to hear, but when each family in turn discovered that she wasn’t bonding with them, and merely using them as a place to stay, she would be sent back to the orphanage. Eventually, she would spend many years there, being too well-known around the city to be brought into anyone’s home.
Come her sixteenth birthday, however, someone new had come into town, and despite all warnings given, adopted her, treating her not as a daughter, but as a student. Little did the nobles of the city realize that this newcomer was taking advantage of the young woman’s natural charms, teaching her to become an excellent spy-diplomat and thief, knowing full well that having lived in several of the more noble homes, she was more than capable of getting into places that she wasn’t supposed to be. He also fostered a taste for expensive things in her, rewarding her after she’d pulled off a successful “job”, and tying her closer to him.
All things come to an end, however, and eventually, Sienna came to realize that during all of this training, and through all of these jobs, she had earned a small portion of this new man’s trust – and he was the one who had taught her how to best betray that trust. No longer content to work as his trained monkey, she took as much of the wardrobe she’d collected, plus a single, expensive goblet that he’d given her as a reward for her first major job, as well as a small collection of jewelry, and took off, leaving the city and looking for better fortunes elsewhere. She’s since had to sell off most of the jewelry to make ends meet, but is working on rectifying that problem, in her own way.

This idea really wouldn't suit a male character, in my mind. I tried to squeeze it and make it fit a guy, but it simply didn't work; Sienna's got a powerful personality, and refused to be reshaped. She has several personalities that she uses, and in-game she will own multiple wardrobes, each tailored to a specific identity. A quick glance in her closet will reveal a couple of "common" dresses, for when she needs to blend in (as much as a woman of 16-18 charisma, depending on buy values, can blend in..) with a crowd, alongside several expensive evening gowns. Unfortunately, as mentioned, she doesn't own a great deal of jewelery, so when she is in a situation befitting her evening gowns, she will couple the one piece of jewelry she has remaining, a beautiful rose corsage given to her a long time ago, with whatever else the person she's accompanying can provide.

The main thing that I had in mind when creating her, however, was how easy it would be for a character built along these lines to fall into the trap of "And now I seduce the nobleman/prince/king", and become a caricature. Instead, I've given her a bit of a tweak, and she refuses to seduce anyone unless her life is in danger otherwise. She sees women who have to fall back on their "feminine wiles" to get what they want as being weak, and unable to care for themselves - She's grown up among noble families, and seen far too many "noble" women who are only in the position they're in because of what they were willing to do. She has no objection to harmless social flirting, but she has yet to actually let it develop any further than that.

I think my favorite thing about her, however, is her goblet. She has a goblet that her "mentor" gave her for her very first successful job - it's made from pure silver, with some inexpensive but beautiful gems embedded around the edges. It's only worth about 10 GP, but it's by far her most prized possession - it was, once, stolen from her and sold to a nobleman, and she promptly set out to retrieve it - she ignored many potentially more expensive items in the process, could have turned an enormous profit if she'd been willing to give up this one cup, but it has THAT much meaning to her that it overrides her generally expensive tastes.

Neon Knight

2007-09-01, 10:25 PM

Huge block of text based awesome.

I know I've already chime din, but I have to say this. Quietus, that is one of the best character backgrounds/personalities I've seen.

RAGE KING!

2007-09-01, 10:26 PM

DSCrankshaw

2007-09-01, 10:39 PM

In person, it'd be weird. I've never tried it.

Play by post is a different story. It's no different from writing fiction where the point of view character is a different gender than the writer. Any competent writer should know how to do that.

Rachel Lorelei

2007-09-01, 10:42 PM

I recently made a female character who was pretty much a hot fighter chick. I liked the roleplaying aspects, but the group i play with doesn't do much roleplaying so i went for a different char instead.

Not to pick on you, but... I'm tired of the Hot Fighter Chicks.

Fighting is hard work. Any fighter, male or female, would need to be strong and tough. That involves a lot of muscle mass, more than what is usually considered "hot". Fighting also involves, say, broken noses and scars. On top of that, armor is dirty and smelly, and Charisma is the fighter dump stat too.

I don't the last time I saw a Fighter Chick character described as suitably beefy. Instead, they somehow manage to be the same typical supermodel-skinny large-breasted women you see everywhere in fantasy art.

Glyphic

2007-09-01, 10:45 PM

If someone whats to see a rather disgusting example, go find some of the Soul Caliber 3 concept art.

No, go. I'll wait.

Okay. Now- Look at the Sophia (or whomever. it might be her sister) Character. The one in the white dress. Her breasts are bigger than her skull.

Dhavaer

2007-09-01, 10:52 PM

Not to pick on you, but... I'm tired of the Hot Fighter Chicks.

How do you feel about butch Warblade chicks?

Incidentally, with the amount of healing magic available I don't think broken noses and so on are going to last very long.

Chronos

2007-09-01, 10:53 PM

I've played a few female characters, and I'm not female. Then again, I've also played a few strong characters, and a few stupid characters, and a few lawful characters, and I'm not any of those, either. Really, an NG bookish female wizard is a lot more like myself, and easier to role-play, than an LN dumb brute male fighter, or a CN charming male bard.

Quietus

2007-09-01, 10:53 PM

I know I've already chime din, but I have to say this. Quietus, that is one of the best character backgrounds/personalities I've seen.

Thank you, that means a lot to me - I definitely think that she's among my best characters. Perhaps THE best. Unfortunately, I've never really had the chance to give her an actual test-drive, as the game that she was created for fizzled when the DM actually got a job, the hippy.

She sits, now, in my folder of characters, and as soon as I find a good social-based game for her, she'll get to shine. Preferably online, as I feel I can portray her more appropriately in a text-based medium than through tabletop roleplay.

Ravyn

2007-09-01, 11:08 PM

I've played.... *counts* three running male characters. Probably because I'm almost invariably the only girl in the group, I like seeing a little variation among the characters, and it's only recently that my fellows have started RPing females. Apparently I'm pretty good at it; my last and best was run via IRC, and the last person added to the game didn't realize I was a girl until I showed up to a players' meeting under my usual screenname rather than under my character's name.

It only really ruins the game when it goes into massive stereotype overload. I had a GM like that once. Campaign that lasted most of a school year. Male GM, more female NPCs than male. And every female NPC in the blasted game (with the exception of one, who was just insane) was arrogant, condescending, generally bloodthirsty, usually obsessed with one thing to the exclusion of anything that might possibly have provided character depth, and all in all the kind of person who made us reach for our weapons just by existing. In general, though, as long as I know someone's actively trying to avoid such things, I give them a lot of leeway and advice. No need to scare someone away just because they haven't quite gotten the hang of it, after all.

Hawriel: Bad situations. Good conclusions. Way to stick to it.

Dervag

2007-09-01, 11:10 PM

How do you feel aobut butch Warblade chicks?

Incidentally, with the amount of healing magic available I don't think broken noses and so on are going to last very long.True, but the musculature issue is real.

You might see a female fighter who was slim and extremely agile like a gymnast, but the odds of seeing a large-breasted one would be really low. For an example of the reason why, consider the origin of the term 'amazon.'

Dhavaer

2007-09-01, 11:12 PM

I agree about the musculature as well; it's gymnast or bodybuilder or something in between. At least for humans; other races could work differently.

Stareyes

2007-09-01, 11:16 PM

I've played several male characters (maybe more men than women), and two of my longest running characters were male. It does give a bit of confusion at table -- both when people forget that I'm playing a male character, and when I decide to play a female character for once, and people didn't realize I broke pattern. Most time it's pretty arbitrary -- just something I set at character creation -- except occasionally, it's mandated by part of the character background (one of aforementioned long-running characters was in a male-only profession).

(The first story involved my character's sister tracking him down, because he stole the money that was supposed to pay for his magical education to buy half a ship and become a smuggler. Several other players make comments about a catfight (when my character's sister had just shown up and started a fight), before I pointed out that my character was male. Second story was just noting the gender mix of characters.)

ranger89

2007-09-01, 11:20 PM

I've never understood why character gender is an issue at all. I've played probably an equal number of male and female characters. And in my gaming group, that's pretty much the norm. It's like a male actor playing a female role in a play or vice versa. Anyone can play the role if they know the part.

Fighting is hard work. Any fighter, male or female, would need to be strong and tough. That involves a lot of muscle mass, more than what is usually considered "hot".
I'm glad you said "usually" because I personally find musclar women very attractive. You can file that away under "T" for "Too much information."

RAGE KING!

2007-09-01, 11:24 PM

Not to pick on you, but... I'm tired of the Hot Fighter Chicks.

Fighting is hard work. Any fighter, male or female, would need to be strong and tough. That involves a lot of muscle mass, more than what is usually considered "hot". Fighting also involves, say, broken noses and scars. On top of that, armor is dirty and smelly, and Charisma is the fighter dump stat too.

I don't the last time I saw a Fighter Chick character described as suitably beefy. Instead, they somehow manage to be the same typical supermodel-skinny large-breasted women you see everywhere in fantasy art.

Well, she was dex based, with two weapon fighting etc. but i see ur point.

So in DnD terms, my char wasn't really the "dump charisma for buffness" kind of person.

Also, how is it that night elves in WoW manage to have battle prowess in metal bikinis? Thats one thing I always thought was bad. You could take them out by punching them in the stomach, then stabbing them.

Dhavaer

2007-09-01, 11:28 PM

Also, how is it that night elves in WoW manage to have battle prowess in metal bikinis?

They get 'Sexy Defence' as a bonus feat.

Rachel Lorelei

2007-09-01, 11:29 PM

Bodybuilders are a pretty poor reflection, actually--most of them build for show rather than for efficiency, and it's not the kind of musculature that develops normally.

Take a look at her stomach (http://www.fightergirls.net/gallery/albums/userpics/20156038.jpeg), or her shoulders (http://www.fightergirls.net/gallery/albums/userpics/12805302.jpeg). This one (http://www.bestfemboxers.com/belindateeshirt.jpg) has arms that would burst any dress made for a typical woman of her dress size.
She's very pretty (http://www.mgdevelopment.com/images/prosfranchesca.jpg), but you can see the obvious differences between her build and a typical one.

And these are boxer types, who're much leaner than career armored warriors toting swords would be.
Here's (http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/1404/barboramrazkova8yj0sd.jpg) a couple (http://www.hantelparty.de/xt/female-bodybuilder.gif) of female bodybuilders (http://www.personalpowertraining.net/Shannon%20Mckenzie%20Female%20Bodybuilder.JPG) who also don't have the musculature that a career mercenary or other typically-armored soldier would--like I said before, it's show over efficiency--but it's no further away from it than the slimmer boxers are. Personally, that's not what I find attractive in a woman, and it's not what most other men and women find attractive, either.

Issabella

2007-09-01, 11:30 PM

I am the GM, I play hundreds of males, females, eunuchs, gnomes, what have you. Probably not weird in any way :)

Dhavaer

2007-09-01, 11:32 PM

Bodybuilders are a pretty poor reflection, actually--most of them build for show rather than for efficiency, and it's not the kind of musculature that develops normally.

I knew someone was going to bring that up as soon as I used that word. I couldn't think of anything else that would immediately bring to mind 'large and buff'.

de-trick

2007-09-01, 11:43 PM

CockroachTeaParty

2007-09-01, 11:49 PM

In one of the games I've been playing in here on these fine boards, somebody plays a female human ranger, and she's dirty, comely, and rude. Most everyone in town hates her drunk father, and shuns her as a consequence, so she spends her days in the woods hunting things. She's a cool character, in a cool party. She gets along well with my character, a smelly, uncharismatic orc with a heart of gold.

In the game I'm currently DMing, Octavia: Eight Rivers, Nine Swords (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52561), there's three women in the party, and they kick considerable ass. To me, it's refreshing, considering most of my RL games are usually all male parties.

Come to think of it, I've never had to deal with the chainmail bikini nonsense in any of my games. I seem to have a problem with people wanting to play ten-year-old little girl dread necromancers, though... *shudder*

Dhavaer

2007-09-01, 11:50 PM

EndgamerAzari

2007-09-01, 11:50 PM

I'm a guy, and the last three characters I've played have been female. The first two were at home, with my all-guy gamer group. Roleplaying is scarce there, usually, though I did choke a sob story out of my bard/fighter about not being taken seriously that got her into a nobleman's mansion (and made the DM say "Holy s**t"). There's her, and my whisper gnome wizard/artificer, who happened to be a lesbian, though not the normal guy-gamer kind of lesbian. I only played her a couple times, though.

In a campaign I'm going to start in a couple days, I'm playing a female human fighter. Her highest stat is strength, at 15, and the rest of them are all at a +1 mod. And unlike most characters, she's going to be very insecure about her appearance: she's 5'7" and 147 pounds, so she's kind of a big girl. I would've made her fat, even, but then someone pointed out with 15 strength it'd be all muscle. It doesn't have to be statuesque muscle, though.... I'll let you know how it goes.

One of the girls in my group here is playing a male drow, and although he's kinda bishonen-esque, I've seen her roleplay enough to know she can do it well.

And, come to think of it, awhile ago I played a dwarven battle-oriented cleric, who was constantly encased in full plate, with a mask to boot. In the one session I used it, it never came out that it was actually female.

Xuincherguixe

2007-09-01, 11:52 PM

Come to think of it, I've never had to deal with the chainmail bikini nonsense in any of my games. I seem to have a problem with people wanting to play ten-year-old little girl dread necromancers, though... *shudder*

*adds this to his character concept list*

TheOOB

2007-09-01, 11:52 PM

Playing a different gender is like using an accent for your character, if you are good at it, by all means do so if you like, but if you are not good at it, don't try. For example, I personally am fairly poor at roleplaying a female, so I very rarely do, I know any female I play will seem silly and unrealistic, so I stick to male player characters. I have players however who pull off female PCs quite well, so I encourage them to play what they want, my group is mature enough to handle someone playing a different gender.

CockroachTeaParty

2007-09-01, 11:54 PM

This makes me wonder:

Is it easier to roleplay a non-human race of the opposite gender? Considering nobody actually knows what it's like to be a dwarf, or an elf, or a thri-kreen, I imagine there wouldn't be as much concern over whether or not your character made a very convincing female.

Rachel Lorelei

2007-09-01, 11:55 PM

Its awkward playing a girl, cause it's weird and creepy before when it was only guys in are group if someone thought they play a female shed either be a lesbian or a slut, one guy in my group wore leather armors of it could be skin tight and then he was roleplaying what she was doing with a suspect to interrogate, he started taking of her cloths one piece at a time till she was buck naked and she approached the guy and he sang like Little bird and then he gave him a kiss and got dressed

I don't think it's playing a girl that's weird and creepy. It's the guys who play their female characters like that who are creepy (but, sadly, too common to be "weird").
People also seem to overestimate reactions to sluttiness and nudity. My sex drive may be a local legend (okay, so I exaggerate; you get the point), but that doesn't mean I'd give up information I'm not supposed to just because a pretty woman is stripping.
Plus, with nudity, context makes a difference, and if you're a prisoner who's withholding information, it's pretty ridiculous that a woman could get it out of you just by being naked.

As to "dex fighters"--those are still going to be more built than the boxers above. If they've been doing it a long time, pretty significantly. They might not be as beefy, but even wearing a chain shirt or studded leather armor (check the weights on those) and swinging swords around, not to mention the kind of regular exercise and combat practice fighters have going on. People who live by the sword would spend a substantial amount of time practicing, with their lives depending on it and all.

There's her, and my whisper gnome wizard/artificer, who happened to be a lesbian, though not the normal guy-gamer kind of lesbian. I only played her a couple times, though.
I'm sure the character was fine, but play a gay male to balance her out anyway. I'm just skeptical about guys playing lesbian characters. :tongue:

In a campaign I'm going to start in a couple days, I'm playing a female human fighter. Her highest stat is strength, at 15, and the rest of them are all at a +1 mod. And unlike most characters, she's going to be very insecure about her appearance: she's 5'7" and 147 pounds, so she's kind of a big girl. I would've made her fat, even, but then someone pointed out with 15 strength it'd be all muscle. It doesn't have to be statuesque muscle, though.... I'll let you know how it goes.
Commendable. I've had a few characters like that--naturally stocky, with muscle on top--and I know other people who've done the same thing. It's a good counterpoint to, well, the far more common Hot Fighter Chick archetype.

And sorry to go off on a tangent, but since we're on this realistic-female-character feminist kick, m'ize well: god, how I hate those movies where the ugly-dorky girl is a pretty actress with a ponytail and unflattering glasses and clothing, and at the end she lets her hair down and takes the glasses off and gets made up and voila.
On the bright side of things, I saw Hairspray recently and loved it. The "fat girl" is actually plump, and gets the guy to boot.

Zincorium

2007-09-02, 12:02 AM

I play exclusively male/genderless characters, not only for the social awkwardness factor that's been mentioned above several times, but because I'm a bit weird about the accuracy of it.

To explain further, there are no elves in the real world, or dwarves in the D&D sense. So no matter how I play them, there is no standard by which I can be doing it wrong.

Women, on the other hand, are obviously present in the real world, and of course most people know quite a few. So there is a sort of standard going as to what people expect your character to act as. I'm kind of paranoid about messing around in that area due to the possibility that I'll screw it up somehow and unintentionally offend the female gamers I've played with.

de-trick

2007-09-02, 12:04 AM

All I have to say is thank god we got a female character in are group, know it's not a sausage fest in the party, but no awkwardness either roleplaying

Dhavaer

2007-09-02, 12:06 AM

Women, on the other hand, are obviously present in the real world, and of course most people know quite a few. So there is a sort of standard going as to what people expect your character to act as. I'm kind of paranoid about messing around in that area due to the possibility that I'll screw it up somehow and unintentionally offend the female gamers I've played with.

With approx. 3.25 billion women in the world, there's likely going to be enough variation that you can get away with anything not completely stupid. Also, note that males and females in D&D have complete parity, ability-wise. That's probably going to make a big difference.

ranger89

2007-09-02, 12:09 AM

I knew someone was going to bring that up as soon as I used that word. I couldn't think of anything else that would immediately bring to mind 'large and buff'.

Perhaps "athletic" is the word we're looking for here. Bodybuilders (like hardcore Ahh-nold in his heyday) are not what happens when you train to become a master sword fighter. Heck, it's not even what happens when you train to use an oversized great axe.

I don't think it's playing a girl that's weird and creepy. It's the guys who play their female characters like that who are creepy (but, sadly, too common to be "weird").

Hear! Hear! Well said.

Is it easier to roleplay a non-human race of the opposite gender? Considering nobody actually knows what it's like to be a dwarf, or an elf, or a thri-kreen, I imagine there wouldn't be as much concern over whether or not your character made a very convincing female.

I've played female characters of every race except for half-orc and didn't find it any different than playing a female human or a male whatever for that matter. The hardest part is finding the character's motivations, voice, etc. and that can be challenging regardless of gender or race.

Rachel Lorelei

2007-09-02, 12:09 AM

To explain further, there are no elves in the real world, or dwarves in the D&D sense. So no matter how I play them, there is no standard by which I can be doing it wrong.
Sure there is. If you play your elf like one of Santa's elves, chances are people will think you're doing it wrong.
As for women, there's no real standard beyond "more than a stereotype" and "not a ridiculous bimbo who is just the player's sexual fantasy".

Women, on the other hand, are obviously present in the real world, and of course most people know quite a few. So there is a sort of standard going as to what people expect your character to act as. I'm kind of paranoid about messing around in that area due to the possibility that I'll screw it up somehow and unintentionally offend the female gamers I've played with.
There are all kinds of women, just like there are all kinds of men. Women do not all think the same, act the same, or have the same mannerisms. You can play a gruff and agressive woman or a reserved and timid woman, just like you can with men. I don't think you need to worry about offending people, except for what I mentioned above; as long as you keep an eye out for stereotypes, you should be fine. If in doubt, heck, ask one of the women in your group.

Dhavaer

2007-09-02, 12:14 AM

Sure there is. If you play your elf like one of Santa's elves, chances are people will think you're doing it wrong.
As for women, there's no real standard beyond "more than a stereotype" and "not a ridiculous bimbo who is just the player's sexual fantasy".

What about ridiculous bimbos who aren't sexual fantasies? Or sexual fantasies who aren't ridiculous bimbos?

horseboy

2007-09-02, 12:16 AM

Dhavaer

2007-09-02, 12:30 AM

Here you go! (http://www.interrobangstudios.com/comics-display.php?strip_id=244)

Saurkraut isn't quite as frightening as those bodybuilders from before but... damn. I certainly don't agree with her assessment of her clothing.

horseboy

2007-09-02, 12:33 AM

Saurkraut isn't quite as frightening as those bodybuilders from before but... damn. I certainly don't agree with her assessment of her clothing.

Yeah, they're lampooning the whole concept of the "chainmail hottie fighter chick". Going to have to kick Sara and her beau into making more of them soon.

Drider

2007-09-02, 12:38 AM

i tried a female on Ultima Online, soon as i got going some guy gave me a bunch of spell components, like 500 each kinda thing. then he found out i was a dude roleplaying a lady and flipped out.
On online games i like to really **** with people by telling them I'm a differant age by 10 years, I'm female, teacher, tutor, I'm my alternate account's parent/other, I have 5+cats and/or dogs, "change" where I live and use a translater for a differant language, or any combination of the above +what i can think of.
anywhoo, what im trying to say is, if OUT OF NOWHERE some guy thinks he can get lucky online by giving 500, 5,000, or 50,000 of any item to a female CHARACTER and gets mad at you for your gender, remember, it's not like you specifically said you were female, and he was asking to be scammed.

Toric

2007-09-02, 12:41 AM

What about ridiculous bimbos who aren't sexual fantasies? Or sexual fantasies who aren't ridiculous bimbos?
Funny you should say that, I'm in a game that has a character of the first category. Red-haired nymph healer with, according to the DM when my character joined in, "the most ridiculously-endowed figure you have ever seen."
But the character in action is the opposite of the hot bimbo stereotype. Sour initial personality, possesses keen common sense, and doesn't try to profit from her looks unless it's for the good of the party. She's still an incredibly high-charisma diplomancer though. From what I've seen, you have to be careful about a ridiculous bimbo who's not a sexual fantasy, the player in question still laments the inability to drop his character's cold superficial personality because any time he does, the other party members except my dwarf ruin the moment with "Hey, let's poke her chest and joke about it some more."

MrNexx

2007-09-02, 12:47 AM

Saving Throw For Half Cooties (http://www.tasteslikephoenix.com/articles/women.html)

For what it's worth, I've played my share of female characters over the years. One of the most memorable was probably Morgan, the psi-stalker in the Rifts game who had something of an affair with another PC. The guy who was playing him would sit on the couch and we'd cuddle, just to mess with the rest of the group (we're both straight, but I'm shameless, and he's in theater). He was a grimy little Mexican mercenary power armor pilot, I was a 6' bald albino psychic vampire gymnast... and Lieutenant in the Coalition Army.

Damage Control

2007-09-02, 12:48 AM

On the bright side of things, I saw Hairspray recently and loved it. The "fat girl" is actually plump, and gets the guy to boot.Hairspray was amazing. Nothing relevant, just want to express my eternal love for it.

And I've never played a girl character in D&D before, but in other roleplaying contexts, I have. Not once have I played the slutty bisexual girl who looks incredibly attractive to whoever happens to look at her, but I guess that's a bit easier for me. *cough*

In my defense, I've never played the slutty bisexual guy who looks incredibly attractive to whoever happens to look at him either. :smallyuk:

I have played girls on MMORPGs before though. Guild Wars, female monk, one of the tattoo armor sets. It's fun to mentally scar teenage boys who drool over my pixels. :smallbiggrin:

de-trick

2007-09-02, 12:54 AM

wait, I forgot I had 2 female characters

1. elven sorceress who gave a shop owner a heart attack(18 chr only the one time I did that)
2nd. a 50 chr half-nymph sorceress I never did any slutty thing but when you see a 50 chr chick anything you do make guys drool

horseboy

2007-09-02, 01:07 AM

Saving Throw For Half Cooties (http://www.tasteslikephoenix.com/articles/women.html)

That part about Striper and the BF's, that is so frustrating. Back when it first started, it was kinda cool, but quickly became so stereotypical I'm getting so sick of every woman in Hollywood knowing kung-fu. What happened to normal people?!?!?!

The Extinguisher

2007-09-02, 01:16 AM

I do both. I have a stockpile of female and male characters of different jobs, status, sexual orientation, appearance, lifestyles, etc.

I find it easy to pick up a charactes personality and run with it. Maybe it's because I'm an actor, I don't know. I hate role playing characters that are very similar to me. It's too boring.

Rachel Lorelei

2007-09-02, 01:34 AM

Saving Throw For Half Cooties (http://www.tasteslikephoenix.com/articles/women.html)

That's a great article. Point #7 fills me with rage and despair.
Their article on fighting styles (http://www.tasteslikephoenix.com/articles/fwithstyle.html) is also good, showing knowledge that's often sadly deficient in marital-arts-as-portrayed-in-gaming. Anyone who is playing or will play a character who fights humanoid opponents in melee, especially unarmed, should give it a read.

Lord_Kimboat

2007-09-02, 02:01 AM

For me anyway, the point of roleplaying is to tell the story of your character (granted, in the situations that the GM creates). It's a bit like writing a book. Thus, I don't see playing a different gender as being much different than Agatha Christie writing Hercule Poirot as her main character.

I've played several female characters and have as much care, respect, etc, for them as I do my male characters.

Raroy

2007-09-02, 02:08 AM

I've never played a pnp role playing game but, i'm sure I could role play as a woman quite easily. Ok, not role play one but write one.

Fhaolan

2007-09-02, 02:08 AM

Good article. #7 is horribly common, unfortunately.

#6 is the one I've seen a lot and the stupid thing is; the guys aren't even doing it consciously. It's completely automatic. Being confronted with it after the session, it usually takes a good 10-15 minutes before a player actually realizes what he did.

I've been gaming in 'mixed' groups for a long time. Both the groups I game with now are about even between men and women. In some of the games (we usually have about four or five games going simultaneously, to allow for people not being able to show up for specific sessions) players of both genders are genderbending. It's not a big deal, unless you *make* it a big deal. Then you have a problem.

Starsinger

2007-09-02, 02:47 AM

captain_decadence

2007-09-02, 02:47 AM

As a guy, I have been playing for about 8 years or so and I've played both men and women but with a definite leaning towards women. Since starting roleplaying, I have played:

male tech character (homebrew free-form)
female sorceror
male dex based fighter
female assasin
female sorceress
male cleric/wizard
female cleric
And every character in NWN that I have made except one has been a woman

Along with that, one of my male characters was gay and each character had traits much more important than their gender (dwarf that was insane after being driven from his clan, fighter that was from a different continent and understood nothing of the area's customs and language, female drow that was trying to take over her house, ex-revolutionary that was till wanted by the government).

Also, I find it easier to role-play as a woman because it is easier/more believable to show them having doubts, feeling strong emotions, and protecting things the other party members would rather kill (orc children). While males have pretty much the same emotions as females, it is more socially accepted for females to express them so I find it a deeper roleplaying experience.

captain_decadence

2007-09-02, 02:50 AM

I play alot of female characters, more so than males. My female characters are usually believable however. The reason I play females instead of males? It's easier for the people I group with than me playing gay characters. And that's fine enough, I suppose. Atleast I get to play.

I agree with this. The one or two times I have thrown in the possibility of a gay character, my friends weren't against it but I sensed it was just easier to change it and avoid problems. I wonder sometimes why they can be friends with me but still not be okay with a gay character in a game.

BabbageCliolog

2007-09-02, 02:52 AM

.....which I'm pretty sure is listed somewhere in the Things I'm Not Allowed to Do while Gaming thread.

That said, I'm a little curious about it. Has anyone ever tried it? Did it completely ruin your game? Was it fun?

I ask all of this because I think it might be interesting to try roleplaying a girl (so long as it doesn't ruin the game for the other players). Might not get a chance to do it in my current game, so this idea is still just an idle fancy, really. I'm just curious.

I'm not a half-orc, or a space marine, or a superhero either, but I can play one in a game.

I recent played a 15 year old girl with powers granted by Odin in a supers game. The setting was 2012, Denver, Colorado.

I looked like Eowyn (http://us.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0167261/lotr2_gtr_4_12468.0004-F.jpg.html?path=pgallery&path_key=Otto%2C%20Miranda&seq=13) from Lord of the Rings. I had Odin's spear and magic helmet, and a pocket dimension with Viking followers. I even had a magical force field from my magic helmet and an 8 legged horse. It worked pretty good. No complaints of weirdness from the other players, especially since the spear could do lots and lots of damage (I had the habit of impaling bad guys by pinning them through walls and to floors with the spear). I was the brick of the group. A 15 year old girl, who wasn't really that strong but with a powerful magic weapon that dealt death quite readily and some pretty good magical protection.

Since we used my pocket dimension as base camp, and I was fairly straight forward about proper behavior there with my people (very protective towards them) and I had a spear that could pierce tank armor, the other PCs treated me with kindness and respect, which I reciprocated.

So, yes. It was fun. And not weird at all.

/BC

Behold_the_Void

2007-09-02, 04:11 AM

I'm just not really all that comfortable playing female characters for extended periods of time. I'm usually fine when I DM (which is most of the time), but in general I stick with male characters when I get to be a player.

I think I just feel I'd have trouble portraying female characters. For example, in that article they mentioned how girls are especially close to their mothers and their few best friends. The article noted that many women find it incomprehensible that men are not like this, but for me it is much the same - I find such a worldview entirely incomprehensible.

I know many women and have a good idea of how I might play a female character, but I don't think I'd get it "right" enough to satisfy myself. So I just stick with male characters, since I KNOW I can do them.

Culwch

2007-09-02, 04:18 AM

As a GM I've often played female NPCs, but no bimbos in chainmail (usually) even when I was still a teenager.

Almost all of my player characters were male. In a recent D&D game my male drow warlock got reincarnated into a female drow body (due to my own dice rolls) - I would have played her, but I felt really uncomfortable around a second player who never got out of the 'It has breasts = I bed it!' mentality.

But that was a problem with a player, not with a character concept.

Apart from that, my group is OK and they don't usually play strange stereotypes. The only slightly disturbing trend I observe is when another player is game mastering: if an NPC is a teenage boy, he is also a wielder of world-shattering power.

Rachel Lorelei

2007-09-02, 04:24 AM

Almost all of my player characters were male. In a recent D&D game my male drow warlock got reincarnated into a female drow body (due to my own dice rolls)

Wow, that's pretty much the best luck a drow male can have. It's like being a janitor in a rich neighborhood and then winning a massive lottery.

Culwch

2007-09-02, 05:08 AM

Except that by that time our drow party was renegade anyway. We were playing City of the Spider Queen. Altough everyone started CN, by that time the entire party was xG. Drizzt clones we were not, but on the whole we prefer to play good characters regardless of the setting.

Truth to be told (and to be back on topic) there was a fair amount of promiscuous NPCs, but I feel that had a lot to do with the background - most of the female NPCs were drow priestessess who are not really said to be nice girls, as well as one demon-dealing female tiefling that was a plot hook and a cohort to our party male tiefling.

Sexuality in general is not a very prominent aspect of our games, apart from the trouble with that one player.

Lord_Kimboat

2007-09-02, 05:19 AM

I know many women and have a good idea of how I might play a female character, but I don't think I'd get it "right" enough to satisfy myself. So I just stick with male characters, since I KNOW I can do them.

Dude, it's not that hard really. Just like us guys, women don't all come with a standard personality or anything. You're at very little risk of 'getting it wrong' so long as you have a fairly realistic background and stay true to it.

For example, my mother a 60-something (sadly I can't remember her actual age) still role plays and has just joined a new campaign that a few guys and I have set up. Would all 60 year old women get into this - heck no! My mother also doesn't have a knitting circle although I know plenty of women around here who do. Women are individuals, just like men. Not all of them have a best friend or sibling, spouse, etc that they talk to every day. I once worked with a woman who never wanted to have kids and other women I knew at the time were horrified.

Me, I'm a 40 year old guy who lives in a house with his mother. The article might call me a 'mama's boy' but I don't really think I am. Sure, I don't have the desire for independence and freedom of many of my friends. I don't have the sex drive of many of the young guys I know. But am I less of a man? No, I'm just one of the many, many variants of humanity and gender is just a small part.

Roderick_BR

2007-09-02, 05:50 AM

Me and my friends do that from time to time. We had female barbarians, druids, sorceress... If you just remember that your character is not you, who cares?
Of course, in my group, we make fun of everything, so a guy playing a female character is not the weirdest thing we'd done... :smallamused:

Hectonkhyres

2007-09-02, 05:53 AM

Whenever anyone in our group plays a dwarf, it is tradition to tell nobody the gender... except the DM (and any other player dwarves if by chance there are any). The gender is a secret of the highest order and shall be taken to the grave.... unless the revelation might be hilariously funny at some odd moment. This has gone the OTHER way too. We had a male whom everyone thought was female. Admittedly for very good reasons, like pink chainmail (a noble color... STAINED WITH THE BLOOD OF HIS ENEMIES) and freaky stuff like that.

The thing is that this spread into so many other groups that it isn't even funny. But I particularly like the castrati (neutered) human rogue I played a while back. The DM allowed him a bonus when disguising himself as a female and a penalty as a non-bard male.

Then his parts got healed and *pop* he goes into puberty 10 years late.

Fuuuuuun.

The Extinguisher

2007-09-02, 05:53 AM

I play alot of female characters, more so than males. My female characters are usually believable however. The reason I play females instead of males? It's easier for the people I group with than me playing gay characters. And that's fine enough, I suppose. Atleast I get to play.

Ugh. I feel for you. I have this one character, male, who's a great character. One of my favourites, simply for the amount of personality I've put into him. But he's gay so things get kind of uncomfortable.

Back on topic, I hate the whole "bimbo's in chainmail" thing. All my characters, while having personality quirks, all dress respectfuly and such. Well, except for my one succubus. And even then, she's not wearing anything skimpy.

Silkenfist

2007-09-02, 06:06 AM

To me, there's a huge difference between PbP and IRL gaming, sadly.

PbP is absolutely no problem with sufficient experience. After all, you are just writing a story and you can proofread anything you have written if you are insecure whether it fits your chosen gender. In PbP, I have about 40-50% female characters and for each new character, I decide pretty much by intuition which gender would fit the concept better. The problem with describing appearance...bah, I'm horrible at that anyway, so I leave it out of the backstories mostly or describe it vague at best (except for facial description) and concentrate only on the features that are highly relevant.
Actually, I have more problems roleplaying Chaotic characters, but that's a different story entirely.

IRL gaming is much harder, though. First of all, you have to act instantly without time to adjust your behaviour. Also, you have to include proper body language and tone of your voice. This can be a problem and it is for me, mainly because my physical body betrays me there. I am nearly 6'4", I don't really have a 'female' stature, I have a rather deep voice and I can't raise it without making it sound ridiculous. Thus, whenever I play a female, my fellow players will have to deal with the conflict of information.
That said, I can still try and I've had some good female characters in various groups, although I will choose - when in doubt - to make the character male.

Edit: Oooh, there's a new point: Playing gay or straight characters. I'd love to hear about that one more. For most of my "gaming career" I had my characters either straight or with undisclosed sexual orientation. Then, I've run a male Orc in Shadowrun who was into male Trolls. Every once in a while, I would use his orientation for comic relief, although that campaign made me consider to use unfamilar sexual orientation more often and more seriously. Maybe in one of the PbP soon.

Talya

2007-09-02, 07:41 AM

the other guy is going for the clasic "hey look at me! im not wearing anything!" type character...

If he wants an actual reason to be nude, you may wish to look at my Nude Sublime Chord (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45529) build.

Talya

2007-09-02, 07:45 AM

Back on topic, I hate the whole "bimbo's in chainmail" thing. All my characters, while having personality quirks, all dress respectfuly and such. Well, except for my one succubus. And even then, she's not wearing anything skimpy.

Meh. This book (http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=2579&it=1) puts a rather "tongue-in-cheek" humor spin on it.

Dhavaer

2007-09-02, 07:50 AM

Edit: Oooh, there's a new point: Playing gay or straight characters. I'd love to hear about that one more.

The only PC I've had whose sexuality ever became an issue was a straight female, but as a DM I've had a couple of gay NPCs. The roster for important NPCs in my current Modern game is 2 straight male, 1 gay male, 1 straight female, 1 gay female. Oh, and one sadistic male demon who doesn't care either way. So far sexuality hasn't really come up.
In a previous game there was a lesbian couple who were an absolute joy to write for. They tended to bicker a lot; one was very cheerful and playful, the other had a dry, sardonic sense of humour distinctive enough that she could be recognised by it before she ever said her name. Their sexuality was never really a major issue, but I don't think I could have gotten quite the same dynamic if one or both of them had been men.

Talya

2007-09-02, 07:50 AM

I primarily play female characters. I have tried playing male characters and just can't get into it.

I do rather resent the whole "Lesbian/bi characters are so cliché" thing, and the whole idea that women who look good and/or are interested in sex is a male-gamer fantasy only thing. Sometimes it really fits the character.

Starsinger

2007-09-02, 08:12 AM

and the whole idea that women who look good and/or are interested in sex is a male-gamer fantasy only thing. Sometimes it really fits the character.

Agreed, some of my female characters with lots of charisma and charisma skills have used their "assets" to their advantage, because lets face it, against your average stereotypical heterosexual male, breasts are a powerful tool to have on your side.

DeathQuaker

2007-09-02, 08:13 AM

Re the OP's dilemma: the main thing to do is just ask your fellow players and your GM if it's okay with them. That's all there is to it. Some people have no problems with it; some do, and their reasons can vary from a sexual identity issue best left alone re: gaming, to simply getting frustrated constantly confusing a player's gender pronoun with his or her PC's gender pronoun.

So don't ask us, ask the people you're playing with.

As for crossgender roleplay in general, I personally have no problem with it. The only problem is when someone plays another gender, acts like an idiot/slut/whatever, and blames the gender of the character on the behavior. But that isn't a "cross-gender roleplay" problem; the problem is discovering that one of your fellow players is a boor. That should likely be dealt with out of gameplay.

And, incidentally, re: the "hot fighter chick" syndrome: I am a woman, and I often play "hot fighter chicks." One I've even described tongue-in-cheek as the "chick in cheesy chainmail." (But incidentally, she's also pretty muscular -- fighting and working in a forge.... and rolling a natural 17 on character creation... will do that to you.) And I will defend vigorously my right to play that character because I love her. She's a source of a lot of fun for me, and I've put a lot of time into developing her background and personality. And I'd call it a pretty nasty double standard if I could play such a character and guys couldn't.

But the issue goes back to the "boorish behavior" issue. If someone, male or female, wants to play a "hot fighter chick" because that's their roleplay wish, fine. We all get to play out our fantasies to some degree in roleplaying. But again, if they play them like a complete idiot or slut or whatever--with no depth or thought behind the character's actions beyond ideas along the lines of "heheheh, well that's all girls are good for" -- THAT is the problem. Players need to be aware of not putting forward offensive stereotypes.

The other problem is if other players treat that player disrespectfully because of playing a "hot" character (of any gender, in fact). I wouldn't play my chainmail fighter girl in a group of people who did nothing but patronize and abuse both me and the character unnecessarily simply because somewhere along the lines I described her as "attractive." (I probably wouldn't play in a group like that, period.)

Bottom line: play your character respectfully, and be respectful in how you treat other players and their characters.

Eldritch_Ent

2007-09-02, 08:23 AM

Quincunx

2007-09-02, 08:49 AM

I. Nekkidness.

It's comfy. People will stop noticing after a year even in the most stubborn cases. . .

II. Ditziness.

. . .but stupidity is forever. Ah well, Goldie Hawn managed to pull it off without being annoying.

III. Ten-year-old dread necromancers.

Neato necro gnomie girls are such fun to play!

IV. Living phylactery.

In a magical universe, you can be, indisputably, trapped in the body of the opposite gender. Those 'fate[s] worse than death' look more inviting when death approaches.

V. Nontransferable agenda.

I don't play cross-gender.

Tengu

2007-09-02, 09:59 AM

Ah, I remember that article about female gamers and characters. It's very good, apart from the part at the end which suggests that girls are superior roleplayers and 99% of guys are hack'n'slashers who play RPGs as if we still were in the early eighties.

The article about fighting styles also is very interesting, though, admittedly, it has nothing to do with the topic.

As for actual "crossdressing" roleplaying, I never played a female character offline (I haven't played offline in years, though) - in online roleplaying, about half of my characters are female, and it seems I can portray them very well, since people are usually surprised when I tell them that I'm male in real life. None of those characters wore skimpy clothing.

My current RPG group (the one in my signature) is all-male - five of the characters, including all three females, are NPCs (though, in the meantime after the picture was made, two of the NPCs died, one player left the group, another appeared and also left lately). According to my players, my NPCs are interesting and memorable.

I think that the trick to making characters of opposite gender is to treat them as people first, fe/male second - don't leave out gender completely, because it'd be boring (unless you aim to create an ambigiously gendered character :vaarsuvius: ), but don't make it the most important element of their personality, only one of the many facets that shape it.

John Campbell

2007-09-02, 11:03 AM

Regarding warrior-woman body types...

I'm an SCA heavy fighter. I've been doing full-contact armored combat for twelve years. I've met, and fought, a fair number of lady fighters in that time, including a few who can hand me my ass without breaking a sweat. The only rule about body type is that there are no rules. Some are skinny, some are fat, most are somewhere in between. Some have big breasts, some have practically none, most are somewhere in between. Some are tall, some are short, most are somewhere in between. Breasts are mostly fat, so it's uncommon for women to have big ones but be skinny elsewhere, but that's a general rule, nothing to do with the fighting, and even still, I know a few like that. I can think of one lady who's seriously stacked but with only just enough fat on the rest of her to smooth the lines, and who is, I'm fairly sure, stronger than I am... her day job involves a lot of toting sacks of concrete. And the really good lady fighters I've met represent all those body types.

Armored combat is a demanding activity, but the things that it demands aren't necessarily what people think they are. It's a lot more forgiving in some ways than most modern sports, even unarmed martial arts. It doesn't matter so much if you're carrying around an extra twenty or pounds on your hips and belly if you're already wearing an extra fifty pounds of armor. Even an extra hundred pounds can be handy, if you know how to use it... there are times, especially in melees, when you're literally throwing your weight around, and it helps to have the extra weight to throw. On the flip side, you can make up for being a scrawny weakling with speed, agility, and technique... a sword, or, better, a polearm, provides a lot of mechanical advantage, and if you know how to apply it, it doesn't require all that much raw muscle to operate.

Quietus

2007-09-02, 11:13 AM

Bah, all these people complaining about stereotypical scantily-clad big-breasted female warriors, but not a single post aboutstereotypical scantily-clad big-breasted male warriors. It's gender discrimination I tells ya! :smallfurious:

Anyway, so long as you don't, say, Bring the "Tome of erotic Fantasy" to the table, or take levels in Prestige Class: Spellcasting Hooker, I think you'll be fine. Just don't hit on the other PC's (at least the first few times you play a female character- you don't need a bad first impression.) characters, and if your group is well rounded and mature, you'll be okay.

It's the Book of Erotic Fantasy, and for what it's worth, while a lot of what's in it really seems... unnecessary, if I were challenged to create a character using the information in that book, I have no doubt at all that I could create a deep, interesting character, who just happens to need sex to recharge his/her spells. It's when immature people start taking that sort of material to mean "Hur hur, I can be a giant idiot slut/manwhore and get away with it!" that it goes from being a roleplay tool to something that's just further facilitating the Chaotic Stupid alignment.

EndgamerAzari

2007-09-02, 11:30 AM

I'm sure the character was fine, but play a gay male to balance her out anyway. I'm just skeptical about guys playing lesbian characters. :tongue:

Maybe I should be clear on this point: she wasn't the "ooh look boobs" kinda stereotypical fantasy lesbian. She was shy, reserved, self-conscious and socially awkward. The fact that she was gay never actually came up.

Though I think playing a gay dude would be kinda funny.... Zangief from 'Street Fighter' springs to mind.... :smallbiggrin:

Dragor

2007-09-02, 11:38 AM

I play female characters with a quite strange frequency. Every time I have NOT done anything weird or slutty. I play the characters like a person, not some sort of weird imaginary sex tool. I roleplay a woman with a personality, not a stereotype, and when the character is a seductress of some sort, I make it so she isn't the 'I want a beer for free, I take my knickers off' character. I play D&D with a pinch of salt and a dash of realism, so realizing what's a realistic action or thought and whats not comes directly into how I play.

captain_decadence

2007-09-02, 02:00 PM

Talya

2007-09-02, 02:39 PM

Anyway, so long as you don't, say, Bring the "Tome of erotic Fantasy" to the table, or take levels in Prestige Class: Spellcasting Hooker, I think you'll be fine.

Hey, bits and peices of the BoEF are useful! And the PrC is called "Sacred Prostitute." ;)

But then again, I don't "cross-dress" my characters. I play what I am. No problems with those who do otherwise, I just don't get into playing males.

Ashtar

2007-09-02, 02:50 PM

Goodness gracious!

I'd never realized people would have issues playing the opposite sex in RPGs. I think I have around 55% female characters and 40% male characters... leaving about 5% for the indeterminate like golems, nimblewrights, beholders, mind flayers and others.

My rpg group is composed of three men and two women, and everyone has had both sexes as characters. It's strange, I just assumed it was the same elsewhere.

Chronos

2007-09-02, 02:55 PM

I don't the last time I saw a Fighter Chick character described as suitably beefy. Instead, they somehow manage to be the same typical supermodel-skinny large-breasted women you see everywhere in fantasy art.There was another example recently in Nodwick. One of their major recurring villains, Count Repuggsive, was recently revealed to actually be Countess Repuggsive. Apparently, people weren't taking her seriously as a non-hot female warrior, so she started passing for male (not that hard when you always wear heavy fullplate armor and a full-face skull helmet).

Rachel Lorelei

2007-09-02, 03:01 PM

Actually, for females, being naked (especially while doing any kind of physical activity) is usually not comfy. Not comfy at all. There is a reason women wear bras, and it isn't so that teenage boys can steal them.

Please don't steal the bras! It gets really hard finding ones that fit right, are comfortable, and remain that way during physically intensive activity.

ETA: intentional lampooning or subversion of the Hot Fighter Chick stereotype does happen; I'm talking about characters I see people make for gaming.

Dhavaer

2007-09-02, 05:27 PM

Speaking of bras, what are female adventures likely to wear to make their breasts behave? Something like Ember's twisty cloth thing, or would clothing technology be mostly beyond that?

Rachel Lorelei

2007-09-02, 05:31 PM

The discerning lady warrior prefers to add the "Supporting" property to her magical breastplate, while the sorceress or rogue might go with a very minor levitation charm for that gravity-defying look and ease of carrying. :biggrin:

Tengu

2007-09-02, 06:02 PM

And in the department of less magical tricks? Some kind of vest? Corset? Sarashi? (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Sarashi)

DiscipleofBob

2007-09-02, 06:08 PM

This issue came up in our game last night, specifically between me (CN Half-Elf Warmage) and another player (N Changeling Spellthief). Both are played by men, and both of us are heterosexual. In fact the Changeling's player's girlfriend was DMing.

Charisma being my primary stat, and therefore my highest stat (alongside Int of course), it's only natural my character would be somewhat sociable. He would, at the very least, flirt with a cute girl if the opportunity presents itself.

The changeling reveals his true form early on in the game. Said changeling apparently is bisexual and has no problem going between either form to "get some." Now, having at the very least half a brain, I know better than to actually try to get laid on the lightning rail ride to our destination, especially when I know the changeling would try to seduce me for the hell of it. (And yes, he tried). Meanwhile, since he couldn't get in my character's pants, he decided to flirt with other cute boys on the train (in the guise of a busty woman of course). His concept of "seducing" involves "tripping" onto the said victim and glomping them with as much cleavage as possible. His reasoning is "Hey, it works in anime".

It didn't work, not that it should.

Later, when we're infiltrating this magic academy, and I've established a cover as a guest lecturer, I need to get information from a random girl student. So it's suggested by the party that I seduce her. (Disclaimer: I don't claim to have any seductive prowess in real life whatsoever.) My idea was basically leaning in close as the student gathered spell components for me, and that was really how far I got. I figure: "Hey, I'm already telling the student I'll give her extra credit in her classes. Might as well just go with the angle of a perverted-if-handsome-schoolteacher. It's not like I have time to romance her with dinner and flowers anyway." This results in the rest of the party laughing and accusing me of doing a worse job than the changeling on the train (which, despite however bad I was doing, I find unlikely). Eventually I just casually ask her where the dean's office is during our conversation and dismiss her. It's not like my character has time right now for a nookie anyway.

As awkward as flirting and seduction is out of character, I don't think it would make sense to just disregard sexual needs and desires in character. Who handled the task of seduction better? Should I just request Diplomacy rolls instead of going through all this crap again?

DSCrankshaw

2007-09-02, 07:13 PM

Also, I find it easier to role-play as a woman because it is easier/more believable to show them having doubts, feeling strong emotions, and protecting things the other party members would rather kill (orc children). While males have pretty much the same emotions as females, it is more socially accepted for females to express them so I find it a deeper roleplaying experience.
I'll just chime in here and say, like a lot of others, that the standard deviation within type is greater than the difference between type. In other words, while it may be generically true that women would be more likely to save orc children, I think a lot more depends on the character's personality than his/her gender. At least, last time there were any non-player race children to be saved in one of my games (goblin, not orc), it was my male dwarf knight who had to do the saving from the female elf cleric of Corellon who wanted to slaughter them, with both of them acting for reasons that made perfect sense in character.

DeathQuaker

2007-09-02, 07:50 PM

Speaking of bras, what are female adventures likely to wear to make their breasts behave?

In relative seriousness, for a "typical" fantasy world, probably something along the lines of a properly fitted bodice with bone supports along the ribcage, or something similar. Nothing to be worn underneath, probably.

captain_decadence

2007-09-02, 07:59 PM

I'll just chime in here and say, like a lot of others, that the standard deviation within type is greater than the difference between type. In other words, while it may be generically true that women would be more likely to save orc children, I think a lot more depends on the character's personality than his/her gender. At least, last time there were any non-player race children to be saved in one of my games (goblin, not orc), it was my male dwarf knight who had to do the saving from the female elf cleric of Corellon who wanted to slaughter them, with both of them acting for reasons that made perfect sense in character.

No, I completely agree that deviation is much wider than gender differences. I was saying that it is easier to have women doing these things, not that women are more likely to do it. I don't know why, but I (personally, not speaking for others) find it easier to have women express these emotions in a game.

Dark Knight Renee

2007-09-02, 08:02 PM

I usually play male characters, or in cases where I have characters of both genders, the male characters are my main characters and the female characters are not. The reason for this is the hated Mold of Doom.

I've found that my female characters, however they may have begun life or wherever I mean to take them, will usually slip into a specific mold whether I like it or not: bossy, impatient, smart-mouthed and insensitive, and worse by far, quite flat as characters. Only very rarely can I catch the problem and reverse it fast enough to save the character, and even then usually only temporarily. Disgustingly, it doesn’t matter what the character was originally (clueless-and-naïve, shy-and-unassertive, tough-but-silent, perky-and-fun, calm-and-wise, or what-have-you), she will still manage to get sucked into this mold eventually. Over the years I have learned to hate this mold with a passion, having lost many a good, beloved character to it. It also tends to interfere with the creation of new female characters, because the mold devours any character lacking an especially strong initial concept to hold her personality together.

My characters of the male gender entirely lack this problem, and while many are very similar to each other, it is a matter of personal choice on my part to make them that way. They remain complex, unique characters and are capable of normal character development, regardless of how much or little they resemble some other character I’ve played before, until either they die or I stop playing them.

Even if I put aside a male character and resume playing him much, much later, I can usually resume where I left off without the character’s character suffering overly much, unless I left off in the middle of a character development plotline, in which case I merely tend to revert to a previous version of the character. If I attempt this with a female character, it becomes a struggle not to fall victim the Mold of Doom, if indeed the character hasn’t already fallen victim to it before I stopped playing her last time. I have to fight tooth and nail to make the character retain even part of her original character.

*snip*
Also, I find it easier to role-play as a woman because it is easier/more believable to show them having doubts, feeling strong emotions, and protecting things the other party members would rather kill (orc children). While males have pretty much the same emotions as females, it is more socially accepted for females to express them so I find it a deeper roleplaying experience.
Curiously, for me it goes the other way. I haven’t a clue why, since logically it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. :smallconfused:

rubakhin

2007-09-02, 08:47 PM

I've only played a few women. Somehow most of them ended up being lesbians. One of my favorite characters was a performer. She was a cyborg, so she'd transfer her consciousness to an artificial male body and go out and do drag king revues. Very Tipping the Velvet.

I have trouble playing straight people. I stay away from women characters, because a lot of times someone else will have his male character attracted to her. I don't think I can write heterosexual relationships convincingly. (Anyone want to give me some pointers?) Though after reading this thread, now I kinda wanna make a straight female character. Guess I'll go poke around in the Play forum.

EndgamerAzari

2007-09-02, 09:05 PM

You know, I've found that many inter-character relationships don't work like real ones. Almost nobody ever gets turned down, at least permanently... :smallamused:

MrNexx

2007-09-02, 09:11 PM

I don't think I can write heterosexual relationships convincingly. (Anyone want to give me some pointers?)

Heterosexual relationships are easy. At their most extreme, men are complete idiots who have no idea how to maintain a relationship, but really don't want to lose their current one. Women, on the other hand, are evil psychopaths who feel free to change the requirements for maintaining a relationship at any given instant.

Mind you, these are the most extreme cases. Most behaviors don't quite reach these levels.

horseboy

2007-09-02, 09:15 PM

Heterosexual relationships are easy. At their most extreme, men are complete idiots who have no idea how to maintain a relationship, but really don't want to lose their current one. Women, on the other hand, are evil psychopaths who feel free to change the requirements for maintaining a relationship at any given instant.

Or so sitcoms would have us believe. :smallwink:

PaladinBoy

2007-09-02, 09:16 PM

I must say, I didn't think that this would be so common/acceptable. I'm glad to be wrong though.

Thanks for the opinions and all the advice. I think I might try playing a female character if I get a chance.

Chronos

2007-09-02, 09:20 PM

Later, when we're infiltrating this magic academy, and I've established a cover as a guest lecturer, I need to get information from a random girl student. So it's suggested by the party that I seduce her... Eventually I just casually ask her where the dean's office is during our conversation and dismiss her.Wait, so the information you needed from her was just where the dean's office was? And the party's first idea for how to get that information was to seduce someone? Myself, my first course of action would be to walk up to the first person I met (of either gender) and say "Pardon me, where might I find the dean's office?". If that didn't work, then I'd wait for that person to pass, and then ask the next person who came along. I'm having a hard time imagining the situation where I'd have to resort to seduction to find the dean. Methinks that maybe your D&D group doesn't get out often enough?

Zincorium

2007-09-02, 09:27 PM

DiscipleofBob

2007-09-02, 10:53 PM

Wait, so the information you needed from her was just where the dean's office was? And the party's first idea for how to get that information was to seduce someone? Myself, my first course of action would be to walk up to the first person I met (of either gender) and say "Pardon me, where might I find the dean's office?". If that didn't work, then I'd wait for that person to pass, and then ask the next person who came along. I'm having a hard time imagining the situation where I'd have to resort to seduction to find the dean. Methinks that maybe your D&D group doesn't get out often enough?

Well, we are gamers... :smalltongue:

SilverClawShift

2007-09-02, 11:03 PM

That's pretty much what I mean by Lesbian Stripper Ninjas. I loathe that kind of character with every fiber of my being, and don't think too highly of the folks that run them.

Erk. I actually PLAYED as a stripper one game :smalleek:

It was a bizarre mish-mosh game that could be summed up as "D20 modern meets Call of Cthulhu". I was a tiefling favoured soul... of Sharess. In a campaign of mobsters, street thugs, and private detectives, it just seemed really fitting.

Of course, I DIED at the very opening of the game, no saving throw, just a damage roll and "You're down".

Stole the plot from tales from the crypt... electrified stripper pole, and I'm toast. The DM swore up and down that he thought my electrical resistance would squeek me through with a knock into the negatives...
He was kind enough to let me spend the first part of the campaign as a ticked off ghost demanding my friends find a way to bring me back to life. Of course, the only places I could manifest were the strip club, or the morgue/church/cemetery/cultists basement/18-wheeler/wherever my dead body was at the time.

Don't hate me? :smalleek: :smalltongue:

Quietus

2007-09-03, 12:21 AM

Hmm. Still not completely comfortable with playing a truly feminine character, but if I get the chance in a PbP game I might try playing a tomboyish female dwarf, a bit matronly in the sense of being overbearing yet comforting.

Man, that sounds like an AWESOME character idea. I don't know if it's just because I'm tired or what, though, but despite WANTING to, I just can't see myself stealing it.

TheOOB

2007-09-03, 12:48 AM

The biggest problem I see with most people who play outside their gender is that they assume that their gender alone is enough to base a character on. If you are a male playing a female swordsman, you don't think "What would a girl do right here", but rather "What would a swordsman with these past experiances do right here". Gender affects quite a few things, beyond the obvious differences in physical biology. It affects your perception of the world, and the world's perception of you, which is pretty important, but even more important are your characters own personal views and experiences. The hardest part about playing outside your gender is realizing that class, race, and background are all just as, if not more import then your gender, and that desicions shouldn't be made on what would a "girl" or "boy" do, but rather what would Rastin, the elven dusblade and archeologist, champion of the battle of the dusk mashes and faithful follower of Zilches do.

Fhaolan

2007-09-03, 01:28 AM

Erk. I actually PLAYED as a stripper one game :smalleek:

Don't worry too much, so have I. Mind you he was a male anthropomorphic cat 'exotic dancer' in a sci-fi campaign.

I modeled him after a friend of mine, who at the time was in fact a gay male stripper. Some of the other players knew this fellow as well, and were... disturbed... at how well I mimiced him. One of the players (who was gay) decided that I *must* be bi, because there's no way a straight could have played that character that well. :smallsmile:

Dhavaer

2007-09-03, 01:44 AM

I have an NPC tiefling stripper; her personality is very, very shallow, partly due to repressing an extremely traumatic childhood (example: having her horns hacksawed off, and being set on fire).

I don't normally do traumatic childhoods, so I might have gone a little overboard on that one.

The Extinguisher

2007-09-03, 02:19 AM

I don't think this counts, but I drew up a quick sketch of one of my characters as a stripper. It was my Mind Flayer, and it was mostly to freak out my freinds. He was kinda hot though.

One of my favourite female characters was actually a male character. My Blackguard had a split personality that was himself if he had never fallen. But the split personallity, depite being in a male body was a girl. I don't know why, but my characters tend to evolve themselves. It was hilarious, because she antagonized our evil party, and the two personalities we're unaware of it all. As was the rest of my group. Needless to say, humour insued.

Quincunx

2007-09-03, 03:45 AM

I. Nekkidness.

It's comfy. People will stop noticing after a year even in the most stubborn cases. . .

Actually, for females, being naked (especially while doing any kind of physical activity) is usually not comfy. Not comfy at all. There is a reason women wear bras, and it isn't so that teenage boys can steal them.

I've been here for more than a year, and you have well proven the second half of my statement.

Go find information on the tribes whose women mill millet. Who cares if the woman's got nipples level with where her waist used to be, if she's got the upper-arm strength to crush the back of your skull in for being uppity?

Anxe

2007-09-03, 10:49 AM

I've done it twice. One time I was roleplaying a succubus. The other time i was a Drow just to get the CHA bonus. Both times it was fun, but not really true to how women act, at all.

OneWinged4ngel

2007-09-03, 01:06 PM

That said, I'm a little curious about it. Has anyone ever tried it? Did it completely ruin your game? Was it fun? Yes. No. Yes. I've actually also been complemented on my convincing roleplaying of the characters in many of the cases (particularly my Thranish Paladin, Lady Aerlyn Lovoth). =\

For all that people get worked up about it, playing a human of the opposite gender is a lot easier than playing an aberration with a completely alien mindset, if you ask me. Heck, most of the issue is just a social stigma.

I've played a few female characters, and I'm not female. Then again, I've also played a few strong characters, and a few stupid characters, and a few lawful characters, and I'm not any of those, either. Really, an NG bookish female wizard is a lot more like myself, and easier to role-play, than an LN dumb brute male fighter, or a CN charming male bard.

I agree with this sentiment for the most part. I often find that the people who have trouble playing other genders also tend to be the people who tend to have trouble playing any character with a personality seperate from their own.

Playing characters of other genders is just something that a good RPer should be able to pull off well, if you ask me.

Yiel

2007-09-03, 07:58 PM

Many of my characters have been female. The most difficult of the female characters to play was the Ultra-feminist as members of my DnD group began to take her attitudes as my attitudes. :smallsigh: The most fun to date is my current bard... a bit of a ditz. Its a lot of fun to act like an airhead. :smallbiggrin:

I have played male characters both in online games and DnD games. I have one which seems to always sit at the back of my character folder waiting for a DM to accept it. He's a lecherous halfling with a penchant for bar wenches. :smallwink: So far all my DMs have been too disturbed by the idea of me playing a womanising male to let me use him.

Laesin

2007-09-03, 10:31 PM

On the bright side of things, I saw Hairspray recently and loved it. The "fat girl" is actually plump, and gets the guy to boot.

Glad to hear you enjoyed it. May I recommend the original with Rikki Lake as Tracy. It's neither better nor worse in its portrayals but in some ways it is more entertaining and has a rather more detailed view of Penny's relationship.

EndgamerAzari

2007-09-04, 11:09 AM

And here's my report on my recent cross-gendered character:

This game's interesting--there are about ten characters in it, but not everyone can make it at the same time. So here's how it went: three girls, four guys. Two of the girls played guys, and two of the guys played girls. Weird, huh? Anyway, there wasn't much problem with that, despite one of the male players/characters kept making horribly-phrased innuendo-laden comments that earned him headsmacks from pretty much everyone within reach, player and PC alike (and once caused me to exclaim, "That metaphor makes no sense!"). The next time should be interesting, though: a gala is being thrown in the party's honor after our upsetting of the thieves' guild, which should prove quite... different for my tough-gal tomboy fighter.

Rachel Lorelei

2007-09-04, 11:36 AM

I'm about to start playing a gay (or possibly bisexual; definitely queer somehow) character who is a woman reincarnated into a male body, and slowly regaining more and more of his past memories/experiences. A little gender-bending, a little morphic sexual identity, what's not to love, right?

Centuries ago, a dark god was bound in glass and sealed with blood by the Jade Phoenix mages--thirteen men and women, Kali the foremost among them, beautiful and radiant with power. How they blazed, then, viridian and scarlet! How they fought! And when they had slain the god and sealed his husk beyond the world, one by one they passed into death.
But all was not quiet. A slain god is more than a memory; can act, from beyond death and beyond the world, if subtly, and influence mortal men.
It was mortal men--ambitious men, hungry for power--who freed the god and forged an empire with his power, and there was was no one to blaze against them.

But it was said that the Jade Phoenixes would return, souls entering new bodies, and so they have been. One by one they have entered the world, coming into their power, working against the Empire in secret; the woman Kali, their leader, is now Kalidan Shivaan. His birth was predicted by the Society of Jade, the Phoenixes' organization; the newborn was spirited away from his parents.

Kalidan was raised in the mountains, isolated from the Empire at large; he grew up surrounded mostly by scholars, mages, and warrior-monks. Taught his identity and duties from a young age, he learned dutifully, eventually leaving the monastic school that had been his home and becoming part of the Society of Jade's operations in the empire at large. There, he has served well, although he has not yet come into the height of his power; still, the distant memories of Kali murmur within him, growing louder and louder by the day. He has come to share her style, her spells--even her tastes, from foods to men. It is not easy to keep two identities, both of them the "true" one, within oneself; nor is it simple to keep them from merging or overthrowing each other. It is in that balance, perhaps, that the power of the Jade Phoenix is contained. May he find it swiftly.

Kalidan is a tall, lean man, whipcord over bone--a wiry, highly efficient musculature as finely honed as his mind. With high cheekbones, long lashes, brown skin, and an extraordinary prettiness, he is pretty, but too androgynous to be attractive to most; his prominent, aquiline nose (much like Kali had) interferes, too. He prefers, quite naturally, the colors green and red, although he has not always.

Tormsskull

2007-09-04, 12:24 PM

I don't think it is terribly odd that a male might play a female character, and furthermore, I don't think it is being sophmoric to play a lesbian stripper ninja either.

I mean, when males RP male characters they are always awesome or special or tough or whatever, right? That's because when people (male or female) make a character they make one that they think would be cool. The 5'6 280 pound guy in real life makes his fighter out to be 6'4 180 pounds. Why? Because he can. Because it is fun, or a million other reasons.

Now, if the DM made nearly all women in the world lesbians or sex-craved wanderers, then I could see it being a problem of immersion, but otherwise it is not a big deal to me. Especially since sex is usually something that is treated the same as using the bathroom in game, it happens off-screen.

Now, I usually play male characters, but I have developed a few female characters that were interesting. One of them was a lithe ninja that was fond of seducing men into vulnerable situations and then utilizing them to whatever end (usually killing them as she was an assassin).

The other I can think of off the top of my head was a woman in her late 30's. She was a military general full of sorrow. She never really cared about growing close to a man and sex wasn't anything important to her. She eventually did grow close to another PC, but that was do to the fact that he was a Good person (both in alignment sense and otherwise) who had flaws that she readily understood and felt connected to.

So, anyhow, PCs can RP any type of character they want, big tough fighters, Calvin Klein male-model type adventurers, Jessica Simpson-look-a-like travelers, etc. Whatever.

Rex Blunder

2007-09-04, 12:53 PM

I generally agree. Every character doesn't have to be breaking new ground in character development; sometimes you want to play a simple wish-fulfillment character.

But there is something weird about how it's so often true that a larger-than-life male character is often someone who excels at tasks, and a larger-than-life female character is someone who excels at sexiness.

I don't mean to get all male gaze here. It's not always bad, just sometimes makes one a little uncomfortable.

Zoraciel Ivtel

2007-09-04, 02:09 PM

I've had two experiences with this, one as a player and one as a DM.

Unfortunately for me, as a player, it was surrounded by giggly young girls who all decided they wanted to play gay male elves. Not surprisingly, I switched into a more serious campaign soon afterwards. However, in that same campaign, there was one girl (yes, most of the people I play with are female) who had a wonderful time playing a stereotypical playboy rogue, that was working pretty well.

As a DM, oddly enough the most horrid curse I've ever come up with is I've gender-changed some characters, usually through wild magic, or extreme DM wrath. Usually it doesn't change their playing styles at all, but just allows other people to crack bad jokes.

In other words, in my knowledge, if you want to play the opposite gender, do it seriously so as not to ruin things for the rest of the group.

ALOR

2007-09-04, 02:18 PM

I used to play female characters quite a bit. Infact 1 of my favorite characters of all time was female.
The way i figure it when I DM i RP all of the female roles so i might as well see how i can do roleplaying a female from a PC standpoint.

Elanorea

2007-09-04, 02:26 PM

I've never played male characters, but some of my friends have, and I don't think it's weird. It makes the game more interesting (and realistic, too) to have a couple male characters in the group.

Dhavaer

2007-09-04, 08:05 PM

Going back to the mention of chainmail bikinis before; does anyone else think that shadowsilk padded armour (from the Tome of Magic) probably looks kind of like a really badass evening dress?

Ekeralos

2007-09-04, 08:15 PM

In a campaign I'm running, a male player is playing a femal dark elf assassin in a homebrewed worl of mine. Actually, I find his character's backstory and motivation to be the most developed and interesting, To sum it up, his character assassinates for neccesity (providing shelter and food for her children), because dark elve merchants and farmers aren't looked upon kindly.

NerfTW

2007-09-04, 08:33 PM

I've been here for more than a year, and you have well proven the second half of my statement.

Go find information on the tribes whose women mill millet. Who cares if the woman's got nipples level with where her waist used to be, if she's got the upper-arm strength to crush the back of your skull in for being uppity?

Clearly you are not a large breasted woman, or you wouldn't make such a statement. It isn't image. It's the fact that those are 5 pound sacks of flesh flopping around on your chest that hurts. Small or firm breasted women have it easy, but anything over a C-cup and sports bras become mandatory if you don't want to be knocked off balance by your weight shifitng wildly.

-note, I am a guy, so I'm not talking from personal experience, just my friends.

Enzario

2007-09-04, 09:03 PM

Yes, yes I have.
It was an interesting experience. Most of my gaming group thinks I'm bi (I'm straight, just a little effeminite), so I had to put up with their characters (including the paladin) coming on to my female human sorceress the entire session. I regret to say that she has since retired from the adventuring scene.
Related note: I once played against gender as Nurse Ratched in a play adaption of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and no one doubted the character for a moment. Do a thourough character study, and anyone can play a femal character. If you've got a good personality, chances are the gender of the character will fade into a mire of more prominent characteristics.

RedClyde

2007-09-04, 09:32 PM

Yep, I've actually played more female characters than male characters. I really don't know why they appeal to me so much. It never hurt the games I played in, and IMO actually made some more interesting. My friends sometimes took advantage with OOC jokes, but it was all in good fun. :smallamused:

I think the most important thing to remember is, as has been mentioned in this topic, personality is more defining than gender. Gender may and probably will affect personality, but gender doesn't equal personality.

Later: Ohh, how I hate the chainmail bikini... It really irks me when a game or show (or anything) has a female warrior wearing completely impractical armor simply for fan-service purposes.

Damage Control

2007-09-04, 10:04 PM

I'm playing a female character soon! Kind of a stereotype, but I think it fits the setting. I'm sure she'll be confused by RL's character. :D

Lord_Kimboat

2007-09-04, 10:25 PM

There are also advantages for playing female characters. Most campaigns assume that the characters will be male and thus, sometimes design traps that only apply to male characters.

One Living Greyhawk adventure I know had a succubus as one of the encounters. She poses as a prostitute and tries to lure the (male) characters upstairs one at a time to drain them.

Female characters are largely immune to this kind of thing. There are a few other examples where this is also true.

horseboy

2007-09-04, 10:42 PM

Starsinger

2007-09-04, 10:42 PM

Damage Control

2007-09-04, 10:54 PM

Jack_Simth

2007-09-05, 06:18 AM

None of my male characters would want demon boobies. My synad would be confused by the thought, my warlock is incredibly wary of demons, and my favored soul has a thing for dragons. I think I'm doing something wrong.Do note:
In the context of a trap, the players don't specifically know that it's demonic. It's just a really beautiful girl that's getting party members upstairs one at a time...

John Campbell

2007-09-05, 01:55 PM

But there is something weird about how it's so often true that a larger-than-life male character is often someone who excels at tasks, and a larger-than-life female character is someone who excels at sexiness.

I dunno; personally, I think that competent women are sexy.

As for my own playing experience... I GM; I write fiction. I run female characters constantly. It's easier as a player, because then I only have one foreign head to get into (and all the good characters' heads are foreign, not just the female ones). Most of my PCs do default to male, but every now and then, one of the characters that turns up looking for me to play her happens to be female. I usually keep the ladies in reserve unless I'm sure the group I'm playing with can handle it like grown-ups... some people do get weird about cross-gender play, or, hell, just females, be they player or character, cross-gender or no.

I've had in my groups everything from the lesbian stripper ninjas run by male virgins to the rare couple of characters that I think of as actually female despite their having been run by men. The majority of the male-played female characters have been shallow, neither the ridiculous parody of the stripper ninjas nor believably characterized women. They're female because that's what it said on the character sheet, but otherwise no different than any male character played by the same guy.

Women, in my experience, are a lot more likely to play cross-gender. Some of this, I'm sure (because I've an ex-girlfriend who's told me as much), is because they're trying to avoid some of the idiocy that happens when you put a female character - with an actual female player! - in front of a bunch of the sort of boys that play lesbian stripper ninjas, but I think there are probably other reasons, too. I've never seen whatever the female player/male PC equivalent of the lesbian stripper ninja is, but, on the flip side, I've never seen any of those characters portrayed as believable men, either. They've always been rather effeminate; if they were real people, I'd guess that they were probably gay.