One-Gender Races

[Honest Tiefling]

So I am trying to make a singled gendered race for a homebrew setting. Reading about some examples on TVtropes has made me question if this is a good idea, and if they can be done well. Anyone want to give me advice on how to make an appealing and interesting race?

[Steampunkette]

Option 1: Go as inhuman as possible.

Good examples are Insects, Aberrations, and Oozes.

A nice hive/colony insectoid race in which all members share the same nonbinaristic gender, capable of reproducing with any other member of the species with no gender roles or social assumptions about division of duties... It works pretty well. Aim for an androgyn style on their appearance, give them completely insect-like voices, and have them refer to everyone as "Their" for pronoun use, regardless of what gender the person they're referring to identifies themself as.

Bonus points if they can't understand the idea of gendering individuals.

Alternatively a group of alien beings might defy gender identification by simply being to difficult to quantify. Rather than having no or one gender, there are so many that the aberrations don't even attempt to classify anyone through language or social structure creating an essentially gender-free race.

Oozes are great as a nongendered race, since they lack anatomy or social presumptions of utility! Instead an ooze is an ooze. It appears in whatever form it wishes at any time and may even explore the concept of gender through using a shape-shifting ability to at least arrange themselves in the loose approximation of a gendered individual.

Changelings and Dopplegangers should definitely qualify, as well. *nod nod*


Option 2. Humanlike Creations

Robots. Magical constructs that are shaped in a generally humanoid fashion but either lack the anatomy and social assumptions of gender, or actively reject it.


Option 3: Humanlike Monogender species.

Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings might all be monogender and simply dress like "Men" or "Women" to put the incredibly binaristic humans at ease.

[CharonsHelper]

What? Like Mass Effect's asari?

[Honest Tiefling]

What? Like Mass Effect's asari?

Maybe with less questionable biology.

I admit a bias to more human-like versions, due to thematic reasons and ease of play, but those ideas are good, Steampunkette! The latter makes me think that a race with a strong psychic bond to other members of their own race might not have a strong gender identity, due to the likelihood of being linked to others of varying genders.

[ImNotTrevor]

Warhammer 40k Orks are a singe-gendered race done well because their single-genderedness is background noise to all the other cool stuff about them. The Necrons are in basically the same boat, but they're robots.

If you make a race that's basically "Look, they have only one gender, aren't they cool and rad because of that?" You're gonna have a bad time because they'll have the depth of a puddle.

And as always, give them some underlying reason to have only one gender. (Perhaps they reproduce asexually, parasitically, or by cloning. Perhaps they have no real concept for it, etc.) "Because they do" is weak and unsatisfying.

[Millstone85]

Although it technically isn't a true example of this trope, I like the twist where two seemingly one-gender races are actually related.

Satyrs and dryads, for example.

[Lord Raziere]

So I am trying to make a singled gendered race for a homebrew setting. Reading about some examples on TVtropes has made me question if this is a good idea, and if they can be done well. Anyone want to give me advice on how to make an appealing and interesting race?

I made one, based upon whiptail lizards which are mono-gendered in real life.

The key part of such a race is their lack of genetic diversity and how it affects their entire biology and civilization so that they have to compensate.

Cleanliness IS next to godliness here, even more so than our civilization, to prevent epidemics

Since all beings are pretty genetically similar and children are basically clones of their parent, it is generally assumed that their capabilities are exactly the same and that the child will turn out the same as the mother. this may or not be actually true.

It is probable that the mono-gendered race will reproduce MORE than a two gendered one, so that more people will be around to be alive in case something kills them, quantity reproduction over quality. This leads to rapid reproduction and thus overpopulation, thus leading to the need to send people out to colonize other places, which often intrudes on other people, which leads to such races becoming conquering and constantly expansionist by necessity, with the elites of the society possibly intentionally starting wars to lower their population density so that disease has no conditions to start spreading. This leads to the elites of such a society considering the commoners of such a society expendable combined with their seeming interchangeable-ness.

So anything but Asari. such a mono-gendered race would actually be pretty warlike.

[CharonsHelper]

Warhammer 40k Orks are a singe-gendered race done well because their single-genderedness is background noise to all the other cool stuff about them.

Aren't they part fungus or something? That's why it's so hard to permanently get rid of an ork invasion because they drop spores everywhere. The planet will be fighting off sporatic feral ork invasions for generations. (though 40k changes their mind periodically on exactly how stuff works :P)

Largely I think it's because 40k didn't want to have to worry about non-combatant orks.

[Segev]

Any oozes are going to be mono-gendered. Aboleths are mono-gendered, and reproduce by laying a self-fertilized egg.

Carbosillicate amorphs, of which Schlock of Schlock Mercenary is the prime example, are monogendered and yet engage in two (or more) party reproduction.

Plants are usually mono-gendered (hermaphroditic) creatures.

Generally, the reproduction of mono-genered species will be somewhat alien to that of gendered species. It will either involve asexual reproduction (e.g. mitosis) or some sort of merged mitosis (parents go in, and parents+offspring come out; parents go in, and multiple offspring come out; something like that). Or it will involve pollenization-like behaviors where all participants release genetic material to the others, and the others take it in from other participants, and they all wind up with fertilized seeds/eggs/pregnancies/whatever.

A big thing to AVOID in designing a mono-gendered species is re-inventing the sexual roles or making them a thing but "interchangeable." You can, but it's the most risky because it can become the most distracting. (I mean, you don't need mono-gendered species to achieve that, either. A species where mating occurs, and the gender of the offspring is determined by which parent carries it to term is theoretically possible. Think of it as if they didn't have men and women, but As and Bs, and which is the "(fe)male equivalent" is highly cultural-dependent.)

[Jormengand]

Gender will probably confuse them quite a lot if they're part of a species which doesn't have it. Take these two characters from MARDEK, for example:

Spoiler: Sslen'ck

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Sslen'ck: I find this concept of 'gender' the most droll of all. It ssseemsss to colour almossst all of your interactionsss, based on whether the 'gender' of each conversing party differsss or isss the sssame... I notice you persssonally have difficulty talking to the... what wasss it, 'fee nail' onesss?

Mardek: Uh... do I?!

Sslen'ck: Indeed. It perplexesss me. You sssee, we reptoidsss have no concept of gender, asss each of usss can breed with any other of our ssspeciesss. I imagine it mussst be horribly limiting, to form a bond with an individual, only to be unable to mate with them asss they are the sssame *gender* as you? Your choicess would be limited to thossse who necessssssarily are different by their very nature.

Spoiler: Solaar

Show

Mardek: Well... I was wondering, are you a boy dog or a girl dog?

Solaar: ...Woof? I don't acquire your meaning there, buddy man. What is a boy dog and/or a girl dog? Those words are strange to me. Can you explainerise the difference to me?

Mardek: Well, I'm not really sure myself! But I think that girl dogs like flowers and wear bows in their hair, but boy dogs like woofing and barking and chasing things! But so do some girl dogs, so I don't know.

Solaar: I like flowers and fighting! Even fighting flowers! But not flowers fighting. That's wrong. I can't wear or wield a bow, though, because I lack arms, look? See? I make up for it by havifying many-a-leg. Double pairs!

Mardek: So you're a girl and a boy? I don't get it!

Rohoph: Sigh... This ridiculous ignorance is-... Look, I mean, what is your *gender*?

Solaar: Oh, you should know full well, Mr Spirit-Shifted Annunaki, that we have no gender! You don't either! You're not even a Mr! Or a mrrr! Mrrrrr. I adorate that noise. But no! Stop! Wait! This 'gender' is a quaint and bizarre anomaly common to silly simple species sometimes! Asking me my sexy gender is like... Like... Wellies, I am of the Bright caste, so what, Mrrr Human Knight-time, is your caste? What caste are you?

Mardek: Huh? Caste?

Solaar: EXACTLY!! It's a non-concept to you! You don't know. You don't have one. I don't have a sex-caste either. A gender. Again-there. I am One. We are all One. We can all be One together, me and my kind! You know!!

But for both of these characters, the gender thing is only mentioned in one conversation, it's one that you can only have if they've been travelling with you long enough to level up a lot, and they only even have the conversation if you press the "Have interesting but ultimately unnecessary conversations with your party members" button enough times. It needs to be mentioned to be relevant, but it should be a background feature of that race.

[GrayDeath]

Thats difficult to do well.

I support the "do really inhuman ones" and "try created psecies".

A very good example from my pov is the

Spoiler: Perry Rhodan up to around silver book 40

Show

Haluteans/the Beasts from the Perry Rhodan Universe.

Result of a galaxywide eugenics/Radiaten Experiment program to design the ideal soldiers.
With some steps in bewtween ended in beings that expressed behaviour humans interprete as male or female. And tough as they get to boot

Also no, avoid Asari, the only thing well done with them is the Scene with the bachelor party where humans, Turians and Salarians all say they look like them. ;)

[JNAProductions]

Just make it a footnote, basically. They are monogender-what else is interesting about them? Basically, build a race, make it cool, and then add in the one-gendered nature, or do it concurrently. But don't make that all there is to them.

[jayem]

Just make it a footnote, basically. They are monogender-what else is interesting about them? Basically, build a race, make it cool, and then add in the one-gendered nature, or do it concurrently. But don't make that all there is to them.

Or go the other way. Follow the consequences through everywhere.

If they bud.
The family tree is very tree like (no mixing) and either very thin with few close relations, or very competitive or expansive.
No chance of marrying up your children.
Anything based on impressing the other sex is out. Any need to show bravery?
(the afore mentioned disease issues)
Is one of the buds clearly the child? If not how does inheritance and the like alter

If hermaphrodite
Does an effective gender reappear (consider worms), based on what, class/age/strength?
Is it subverted, how?

If hidden gender
...

[Steampunkette]

Also worth noting and very important:

Gender =/= Genitals.

You could have a race with several different types and combinations of genitals and no identification, understanding, or care for issues of gender (division of labor, social expectations, power dynamics).

Such a group might or might not consider itself "Monogender" so much as "Agender", though.

[jayem]

Also worth noting and very important:

Gender =/= Genitals.

You could have a race with several different types and combinations of genitals and no identification, understanding, or care for issues of gender (division of labor, social expectations, power dynamics).

Such a group might or might not consider itself "Monogender" so much as "Agender", though.

I was wondering about making the same point the other way for the hermaphrodite case (but didn't).

[Skorj]

The Sontarans as presented in the rebooted Doctor Who are another great way to go with this. Perfectly normal organic creatures, as far as game rules go, but procreation is a process of mass production that most individuals just aren't concerned with. You hatch from an egg along with your brood mates, and the eggs are created by a (magical for a D&D game) process, not an organic one.

Another approach that I've played, slightly different from what your asking, is that only one sex would ever become an adventurer due to strong sexual dimorphism. This was an insect species with 3 sexes, where the queens and the warrior sex that guarded them simply don't leave home, and are very focused on their specialist tasks. However, the drones may go adventuring, being expendable and having a general-purpose mind. The other sexes may figure into the game as NPCs from a diplomacy-and-intrigue perspective, but effectively aren't a playable race.

[lightningcat]

Are you doing this for scifi or fantasy? Because in fantasy you can throw biology out the window. I remember at least a few versions of dwarves that are created from stone, either by ritual crafting or "natural" budding from caverns. Many fae races only have one gender (or are totally asexual), and reproduce either by mating with other races or through more magical means. Even if you aren't using the "because magic" reason, you still need only the briefest reasoning.
With scifi you want to go a bit deeper, and at least follow some of the rules for biology. Although science can make what was previously a bigender species into a monogender species. There are examples of this in both the old Star Wars EU, and in David Weber's Mutineer's Moon series.

[CharonsHelper]

Are you doing this for scifi or fantasy? Because in fantasy you can throw biology out the window. I remember at least a few versions of dwarves that are created from stone, either by ritual crafting or "natural" budding from caverns.

In The Lord of the Rings movies didn't they show that Uruk Hai were basically made with some sort of magic or alchemy? (The books were pretty vague about them too.)

[khadgar567]

Dot so not lose this treat but i am trying to warp my head in same f ing question i got races but i dont know how the f a fluff them as mono gendered species( i got race for both fantasy and sci fi side)

[Anderlith]

Mushroom based life would be cool, when they die their remains just self pollenate to eventually grow more mushroom people. They could be related to the myconids

[khadgar567]

Mushroom based life would be cool, when they die their remains just self pollenate to eventually grow more mushroom people. They could be related to the myconids

which is 40k orks in a bolter shell.

[Ninja_Prawn]

If you've got time (or are a quick reader), I'd recommend reading The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. That's an excellent exploration of a single-sex humanoid race and there are lots of ideas in there you could steal.

[Anderlith]

which is 40k orks in a bolter shell.

That's heresy son

[Excession]

In A Fire Upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge had an alien race where each "person" was a pack of four to ten animals, sharing thought via ultrasound. The individual creatures had two sexes, the conglomerate people were much more complex. I'm not sure how an RPG would represent them, but sonic attacks would be really nasty for them.

For a standard fantasy race, I think dwarves can be adapted to work. Each dwarf is crafted from stone, precious metals, and gems, then given life just as the first dwarves were created by Moradin. For a more silly option, perhaps pixies are just a really advanced type of sycamore seed, flying around until they find a good place to put down roots.

[Steampunkette]

The biggest problem with monogender races is the external assumption of automatic assignment into binary categories. The Asari are meant to be agender but designed, clearly, to appear as humans interpret women from body shape to social interaction and pronoun use.

Warforged are supposed to be a genderless robot species but are built to look like beefy dudes and presented with masculine pronouns. The Transformers were the same for a long while. Part of the assumed male default.

To create a monogender race that doesn't fall into that sinkhole you have to go with an androgynous appearance and use of They pronouns. Or Zir and such if you wanna get fancy with it.

[Lentrax]

They aren't actually one gendered. But due to some kind of biological disaster there are only day one or two males for every two or three hundred women (or vice versa). So everyone assumes only one gender because the race doesn't allow the small percentage of genetic material get in harms way.

[Millstone85]

Terry Pratchett had an interesting take on the subject, with dwarves:
* They have the same biological sexes as humans but all can (and will) grow a beard.
* Even among themselves, asking what genitals a dwarf possesses is a taboo.
* Their one cultural gender is male. This is not a mistranslation done by humans.

An ongoing plot through the Discworld series is that many dwarves wish they could openly identify as women, and wear dresses (of chainmail), high heels (under iron boots) and lipstick (along with the beard).

I don't remember the possibility of a biologically male dwarf identifying as female ever being brought up.

[halfeye]

Some animals change sexes as they mature, starting as one then changing to the other.

[Zombimode]

Warforged are supposed to be a genderless robot species but are built to look like beefy dudes and presented with masculine pronouns.

Well, for Warforged the physical capabilities are in a good part the result of their physical make up: the body of a warforged is not just for show - to be strong a Warforged needs those muscle-analoges.
Thus the reason most Warforged appear as "beefy" is the same as warriors of any gender appear as beefy.

The second point, that they are uniformly presented with male pronouns is not true. Most Warforged NPCs are introduced like "Screwdriver, Warfored (Female personality)..." or "Rusty, Warforged (Male personality)...". Others are not described with either male or female personality, implying that the particular warforged doesn't care.


Personally I think Warforged are quite well designed as a non-gendered race. It is true that they look somewhat masculine but it is also quite clear that this similarity is incidental.

But I'm curious, what changes to the Warforged design would you propose?*

*in the hypothetical case that you could traval back in time and have a say in the Eberron design proces

[Steampunkette]

Well, for Warforged the physical capabilities are in a good part the result of their physical make up: the body of a warforged is not just for show - to be strong a Warforged needs those muscle-analoges.
Thus the reason most Warforged appear as "beefy" is the same as warriors of any gender appear as beefy.

The second point, that they are uniformly presented with male pronouns is not true. Most Warforged NPCs are introduced like "Screwdriver, Warfored (Female personality)..." or "Rusty, Warforged (Male personality)...". Others are not described with either male or female personality, implying that the particular warforged doesn't care.


Personally I think Warforged are quite well designed as a non-gendered race. It is true that they look somewhat masculine but it is also quite clear that this similarity is incidental.

But I'm curious, what changes to the Warforged design would you propose?*

*in the hypothetical case that you could traval back in time and have a say in the Eberron design proces

I'd skip the small hips big chest/shoulder design.

They're robots. There's no reason they need big muscle analogies to be super strong. You could have them be slender as elves and stronger than half orcs. The only reason they have big muscles is that someone wanted them to have big muscles.

They could be filled with handwavium for raw power, or use sleek greenwood muscles that are twice as strong but take up 1/10th the space. And even if they did NEED big muscles for some inane reason, why not give them flaring hips and more massively muscled legs to even them out rather than having it all upper body?

Because the social assumption of fighting power is big guys with big arms and the easiest way to get that across is the triangle build.

And while they live in a gendered society and may ascribe a given pronoun to themselves the rest of gender as a social construct, things like assumed duties, social treatment, gender performance, and power dynamic, they're all treated like men from start to finish.

To some degree that's the beauty of D&D's "gender doesn't matter for adventure!", but along with the body type it deeply undercuts the "Warforged as agender in design" thing.