Playing Characters With Different Genders

[Bartmanhomer]

In a roleplaying game, do you play character with different genders? And if so, how does it feel to play character with different genders?

[goto124]

Not much different.

*watches subsequent posts suspiciously*

[Ravian]

I've played characters of both genders, and it honestly doesn't feel too weird. Then again I haven't actually played a ton of characters (I'm mainly a GM).

Honestly sometimes I actually seem more drawn towards playing female characters sometimes. I don't think I've actually played more women than men, but I feel that most of my female characters have more depth to them.

Don't know why, maybe I just need some more experience.

[Occidental]

All the time. I've never found it weird in the slightest.

Some people don't ever seem to play the other gender, and I think that's a greater symptom of people generally not playing something that isn't themselves. They'll be an Elven Rogue one time and a Human Ranger the next, but when you actually eyeball the concept its something like "slim, quick, skilled girl". Or "Canny and cynical smart guy who deep down wants to be the hero", or even "Zany little gremlin that gets into all kinds of trouble". I've found that the people that don't do this are either DMs previously, used to portraying anything and everything, or thespians of some description, who can more easily step outside themselves and be someone else.

In the RPG worlds that most people play in, an Elf is simply a Human with a few different attributes and a different look, and men/women have even less to differentiate them. There's basically no reason to play one over the other unless you want one of a few very specific character options in some RPGs.

[Lacco]

I may get a lot of flak for this but... I don't usually allow my players to play opposite genders. Why? I have had bad experience - most of the players that took this chance were (quite immature) men trying to roleplay women and it felt weird, mostly because they either didn't roleplay women (they played males and just had "female" on their charsheets) or they fell into the traditional trope...I think everyone knows which one.

Once it worked quite well and it was the opposite situation - a young lady playing a musketeer. She told me she wanted to test it and - it was fun and not weird at all, because she really did her homework and got in character. I must say she made a better musketeer than my other players, because...she read the Dumas books at least 20 times, was more familiar with the setting than me and really got into the head of the character.

However, this was a one-shot, and the only occurence when it worked.

On the opposite side, I as the GM usually have to play also women. It feels weird for me a bit, because I can't really get into the head of female characters, but I try. It is quite weird when my wife teases me for doing so .

[Malifice]

Im usually playing male characters. Very rarely do I play women. Less than 1/10 (unless a specific character concept comes to mind that plays better as a woman).

I guess I see my characters as a personal avatar of sorts.

[Lacco]

...and another thought: I avoid roleplaying women because I know that I don't roleplay them well (mostly because I react as a male would). The same goes for elves - I rarely play them, because I don't know how I would roleplay them well. Is it too bad/cruel that I require my players to roleplay the race/gender they select...?

[Malifice]

...and another thought: I avoid roleplaying women because I know that I don't roleplay them well (mostly because I react as a male would). The same goes for elves - I rarely play them, because I don't know how I would roleplay them well. Is it too bad/cruel that I require my players to roleplay the race/gender they select...?

Mate I dont ban any race/ class/ gender/ alignment - as long as it's played maturely.

[hymer]

(mostly because I react as a male would)

How about reacting as a soldier/fighting wizard/combat medic/whatever you're playing? Are men and women really that different in their reactions? Is gender all there is to a person? Is every woman stereotypically feminine and every male stereotypically masculine?

I usually default to my own sex and gender, except when I play a druid. They're usually the opposite from me.

[goto124]

I've always wondered about that as well. Not that I've received feedback on my male characters being 'not manly enough' or 'unrealistic' or... I'm not sure, really.

(As you may have guessed, I'm female IRL.)

[veti]

If you can play an elf or a dwarf or a five-legged reptilian from a binary blue star, then another gender should be a piece of cake. After all, chances are you've actually met people of that gender, so you've got something concrete to base it off, which makes it already a zillion times easier than any of those other choices.

Honestly, if you want a real challenge? Try playing someone double your own age, or with a different skin colour, or mother tongue, or religious background. There are so many things that separate us even from other humans of our own time - I think it's entirely possible that gender may not even be in the top ten.

[goto124]

or with a different skin colour

You mean, a different cultural background? Remember that races in fantasy means 'elves, dwarves, halflings, lizardfolk'.

[Lacco]

Mate I dont ban any race/ class/ gender/ alignment - as long as it's played maturely.

I agree with the mature part of the statement. My statement would be: I don't ban any race/class/gender/character (I don't play with alignments), which does not break the setting and as long as it is played maturely, and as long as the player attempts and is at least partially successful (I'm no thespian either) in roleplaying it.

How about reacting as a soldier/fighting wizard/combat medic/whatever you're playing? Are men and women really that different in their reactions? Is gender all there is to a person? Is every woman stereotypically feminine and every male stereotypically masculine?

I usually default to my own sex and gender, except when I play a druid. They're usually the opposite from me.

If I can't get into it's head, I don't play it (except as a GM I can't get so picky and have to play even combos I don't fully understand/can't realistically portray if my players choose to interact with parts of the environment I don't have fleshed out and have to improvise...). So yes, when I play a soldier, I try to think as a soldier would.

As to your other questions - hard to answer and I choose not to answer - I have far too little knowledge about the subject and I will dodge the three questions. And I give little thought to stereotypes.

However, if it doesn't make any impact on the roleplay - why select the opposite gender? I only ask my players not to break my immersion into the game, as I try not to break theirs. I don't see anything wrong with players playing opposite gender if they like to get into the head of the opposite gender or they like to explore the possibilities - but if the character can be changed from "Aelleen" to "Burke" and I see no discrepancy between player's roleplay and the character (this was actual situation, the guy played a male mercenary called Burke in Shadowrun, then switched to Aelleen the elven female bodyguard and he roleplayed them both the same), it breaks my immersion a lot - the same way it would break if a STR 7 wizard picked up a greatsword and charged the orks. And we are not talking about the suspension of disbelief - I can do that a lot, but some things just...don't work.

[hymer]

I choose not to answer

Rightly so, my questions were rhetorical.

[goto124]

but if the character can be changed from "Aelleen" to "Burke" and I see no discrepancy between player's roleplay and the character it breaks my immersion a lot

What.

I've heard similar complaints before. I never quite understood them, and just kept wondering why.

I'm female. I've never seen female characters that broke my immersion or sense of verisimilitude just because they have "masculine" behaviors or features.

Heck, it increases my immersion because I see the variety of behaviors as far more realistic than 'females act like this, males act like that'.

*scratches her head in confusion*

the same way it would break if a STR 7 wizard picked up a greatsword and charged the orks.... suspension of disbelief

I am even more confused now. Do males and females behave THAT differently where you live, so much that "masculine" behaviors in females (or vice versa) just don't appear? Gender-based behaviors seem to be getting treated as much a fact as "women can get pregnant, men can't", and I find this...

Confusing.

[Mastikator]

I only ever play male characters, I wouldn't be comfortable as a woman, I don't know what it's like to be one so it's hard to empathize. As a GM it's much easier cause then I can just do stereotypes (which in my experience everybody loves, especially when I go over the top).

Though none of my characters have been anything like me, I've played as all kinds of weird characters, just all of them dudes.

[veti]

You mean, a different cultural background? Remember that races in fantasy means 'elves, dwarves, halflings, lizardfolk'.

In the first place, we're not limited to "fantasy". In the second place, even within the fantasy genre, there are plenty of games where "different-coloured humans" are a thing. And third, even if they're not mechanically different, they can still be roleplayed.

[Lacco]

What.

I've heard similar complaints before. I never quite understood them, and just kept wondering why.

I'm female. I've never seen female characters that broke my immersion or sense of verisimilitude just because they have "masculine" behaviors or features.

Heck, it increases my immersion because I see the variety of behaviors as far more realistic than 'females act like this, males act like that'.

*scratches her head in confusion*

I am even more confused now. Do males and females behave THAT differently where you live, so much that "masculine" behaviors in females (or vice versa) just don't appear? Gender-based behaviors seem to be getting treated as much a fact as "women can get pregnant, men can't", and I find this...

Confusing.

...I had to check my replies to see if at some point I wrote anything about "masculine" or "feminine" behaviours or features. Please check them too and let me know where I wrote something like that - because I think that at no point did I use any of these terms or alluded to them.

And I will continue not to - it is not my point.

My point is - and I will try to present it as clearly as possible - that if a player selects a character, he should roleplay the character. If I don't see any roleplay, it breaks my immersion. This is the same whether it is gender, class/profession, or background the player selected.

Further explanation of the example with bodyguard/mercenary - at that time I requested so called "20 questions" to be filled out and I had my own version (which, up to date, includes around 261 questions...from which you selected at least 20 and answered them...but I don't use it anymore). The 20 question questionnaires were completely different for the two characters (I would call them "from murderhobo to believable female character in 8 versions of one document" - but the roleplay was not consistent with it. Not even little.

The example with the wizard was meant just like I wrote it - if a wizard did this just because his player thought it was funny, it would break my immersion a lot. If he ran out of spells and was in a desperate situation, desperate enough to even consider the axe as solution, it wouldn't. But I expect the player to try to keep consistent with the character he built as far as possible.

To answer your question about male/female stereotypes in my area: don't know. Why? I don't know all the women. I know that some are very different from men in their thinking/reactions and some are quite close...and some are in the middle. And I have met one, to which I had to explain what her best friend, a girl, could have meant (she didn't understand the basic issue of "why is she jealous of me talking to her boyfriend"). So, again - no answer to your question, because I don't have an answer.

But, based on some discussions with my female friends, I got the impression that they think/react quite differently - and when I asked them about it, they thought the same about me/my male friends. But who knows, maybe I am just a stereotype

[goto124]

My point is - and I will try to present it as clearly as possible - that if a player selects a character, he should roleplay the character. If I don't see any roleplay, it breaks my immersion. This is the same whether it is gender, class/profession, or background the player selected.

How does one 'roleplay' gender?

@V: Oh, thank goodness. There must've been a miscommunication somewhere. Good thing we cleared it up.

[Lacco]

How does one 'roleplay' gender?

Thank you for providing me with clear chance to state: "one doesn't". One roleplays a character. If you roleplay your character in such way, that it breaks immersion of everyone at the table, something is wrong.

And that's all I can say to this topic.

[Feddlefew]

I am disappointed by the lack of bizarre alien biology in this thread.

Lacco36 has already covered my view, but I would add that their might be setting and fluff things to take into consideration.

[AMFV]

As a player, when I play characters I use them as essentially extensions of myself. This means that when I play an evil character I use traits which I believe to be my own negative traits, and the reverse for good. When I play a chaotic character I use my own personal subversiveness, and the reverse for law. I can wrap my head around how I would behave were I an alien, or an orc, or a dwarf. Because my race and my origin isn't so fundamental to my identity. I cannot do the same thing for the female gender, since my masculinity is a fundamental part of my identity. For somebody who plays characters unlike themselves I don't suspect this would be an issue


As a DM, I play whatever the story requires.

[Madbox]

I'm male, and have no problem personally with playing female characters. That being said, playing a female character brings up increased opportunities for other players to make dirty jokes, which make me, with my IRL prudish tendencies, feel a touch uncomfortable. Otherwise, I have no issues.

[Frozen_Feet]

How does one 'roleplay' gender?

Depends on the in-universe roles and expectations of gender.

A huge amount of traits and behaviors are non-gendered - they are spread evenly across genders, or just not associated with any. Choosing to wash your teeth in the morning versus washing them In the evening might tell something of your character, but probably tells nill of their gender.

Then there are characteristics which are gendered because of their obvious connection to physical sex. Having a penis and testicles is visibly different from having a vagina. In humans, these traits are typically mutually exclusive, so this is where distinction between sexes and genders begins.

For a player, the question to answer is "which sex and gender do physical traits of my character suggest?"

Next, there are traits which occur unevenly across sexes and genders, hence becoming associated with one over others. For example, while there are tall women, on average men are taller, so height becomes a masculine trait. This applies to mental traits as well - f.ex. we have no shortage of aggressive women, but on average men are more aggressive, so aggression becomes a masculine trait as well.

For a player, the question to answer is "how much does my character's other traits deviate from average member of the sex and gender their physiology suggests?" If a player doesn't think very deeply of this question, one of two things typically happens: a) they end up playing a pop-stereotype of their character's sex and gender, or b) they play according to their own sex and gender, regardless of what their character's physiology and environment suggests. These are not necessarily problems, but can be quite jarring if a) other players reject the stereotype or hold different ones, or b) the player's behaviour is massively out-of-sync with their character (think 11-year-old girl acting like a 40-year-old gruff sailor man).

Last, there are traits and practices which have no immediate connection to physical or even mental sex, but have been given genders by the local culture anyway. So red is a masculine color while blue is a feminine color... except in the neighbouring nation, where it's the other way around, f.ex..

This is where a player actually faces most practical questions regarding how to play the gender of their character: "Wait, do I use the male dressing room or the female one, or do I complain about the lack of unisex ones? Do I become a monk or nun? Do I wear a dress or a suit to a wedding? Would I be a King or Queen or something in between? Etc."

These are the decisions which make or break how the character is seen in-universe, and by extension, in the eyes of other players. If the tall blonde Adonis goes around wearing a nun's habit and insists on being called "Sister Oscar", that will probably tip off people that their gender is not the same as that over-muscled barbarian's who talks non-stop about booze and wenches.

[Felyndiira]

I have no issues playing either gender. In general, my character concepts are gender-neutral, and I tend to follow my concepts and backstory more than any sort of "gender traits" (however they are defined). Thus, I have female characters that go around talking with people about her homespun idea of a Oligopoly + Socialism state, and I have male characters that started off selling flowers on the streets before being pulled into something greater.

[Feddlefew]

At my table there's been a bit of a problem with people waffling on which gender during character creation.

Then again, everyone played dragon born last time I ran a one shot, and they were stuck deciding between elaborate head frills/horns and being the biggest, scariest characters in the game.

[Red Fel]

In a roleplaying game, do you play character with different genders? And if so, how does it feel to play character with different genders?

I have done so. I will probably do so again. It feels like playing any character.

I have played male humans. And female humans. And genderless robots. And space creatures. And dragon-things. Sometimes I play a character that looks, thinks, and acts like I do. Sometimes I don't.

I think the most, and possibly only, immersion-breaking thing about me playing a character of a different gender is the fact that my voice might not always fit quite right. I do try to adjust, but my voice has only so much range (it tends to be fairly deep unless I get particularly animated), and so my characters tend to be tall and deep-voiced (because vocal range is frequently associated with height, you see). I can do shorter or cuter characters if I'm able to go cartoonishly high, but that's for sillier campaigns.

My characters' genders, or lack thereof, are generally based on the character. What I mean is that, when creating the image of the character - a complete and mystical whole - a gender emerges. It fits. Sometimes, the character is male. Sometimes, it's female. Sometimes, it's a robot with mystical fire-beams. Sometimes it's a stone-skinned creature who sprouts dragon wings. Sometimes it's an accountant. Like I said, the character grows organically. (Except for the robot.)

I admit that I understand the perspective of crossplay breaking immersion, from an academic perspective, but I don't see it myself. I don't see how me playing a different gender disrupts immersion. I don't generally play personality traits that one could point to as "exclusively" belonging to one gender or the other - indeed, it's my understanding that such traits, assuming they exist, are few and far between. My female characters may be "masculine" or "feminine." My male characters may be "masculine" or "feminine." My sexless construct characters may be "masculine" or "feminine." Or, at any point, any of these characters may be neither. Many of my characters have been described as "sexless," at least personality-wise.

You could argue that, if that's the case, I could simply play a character whose gender matches my own. And you'd be right. With the exception of races that explicitly lack gender, almost any character I create could be male or female. I could easily swap one letter on a character sheet and change a name slightly. But that's not the character I see in my head. And I will continue to make reference to the character I see in my head, even if I've been made to change what's on the character sheet. And that is what breaks immersion.

[Comissar]

My character concepts typically have no inherent factor demanding that they be Male or Female, so choosing the gender of the character usually comes down to the kind of art I find for them. I think as a result I have a leaning toward playing Female characters, well drawn fantasy art (not the chainmail bikini's stuff) for females tends to be easier to empathise with for me, making it easier for me to work with the concept in my head.

When I actually play in a game, my character's gender isn't really the determining factor for their behaviour. It might make minor descriptive differences, but a lot of the (for want of a better word, I actually rarely play Humans ) humanising behaviours I play them with would be the same in a female or a male. Things like rubbing the back of the neck when thinking, stretching arms above the head when bored, etc. etc. On the rare occasion that a situation comes up where my characters sex actually is relevant, I feel that I'm competent enough to be able to play the opposite sex well enough without falling into sexist tropes.

All of the above mostly applies to forum roleplay, though. I like to think I'm a half-decent writer, but my improv. sucks when I'm live, so the IRL group I play with tends to just get things like "My character does X, my character does Y". It's a little different when I GM, but that's mostly because I have a book in front of me outright giving me how the NPC thinks and acts. That and the party aren't really diplomatically gifted, so the talky bits tend not to last very long

[Necroticplague]

I've played 2-ton 3 eyeless-headed balls of tar with three minds and nine hands. Playing someone missing a few parts minor pieces is no big deal.
Of course, this probably varies heavily based on how much one feels tied to there character. I've met one who was always 'themselves, with minor change'. I tend to view characters as all entirely separate from me.
Of course, being intersex probably gives me an odd view of what it means to act as a gender. Man, puberty is tough.

[Geddy2112]

I am a male, and I play slightly more male characters and female characters, but I rarely think about gender as a major thing in designing a character.

I base most of my characters off of real or fictitious people, so I just go with whatever gender that happens to be. If I want to be Hannibal Lecter, I am going to be a male. If I was playing Clarice Starling, I would be female.

It rarely matters, unless that person's gender impacted their lives. If I was playing a character based on Joan of Arc, being female would be relevant to her backstory more than say, Katness Everdeen.

I also DM, meaning I have to play tons of males, females, races/species with no genders, single genders, robots, and eldritch beings where gender can't even come close to applying.

It is not really a big deal.