PC handedness.

[Talakeal]

Something dawned on me the other day, I have never had a player in one of my games make a left handed PC. Occasionally you get an ambidextrous person, but other than that they are all right handed.

I assume that most people just default to their oown handedness, but why? Players dont default to their own height, weight, race, gender, or any other physical attribute, so why are people save averse to cross-handedness RP?

I personally pccasionally make left handed characters, but ten again I am a lefty irl so...

[Man_Over_Game]

Something dawned on me the other day, I have never had a player in one of my games make a left handed PC. Occasionally you get an ambidextrous person, but other than that they are all right handed.

I assume that most people just default to their oown handedness, but why? Players dont default to their own height, weight, race, gender, or any other physical attribute, so why are people save averse to cross-handedness RP?

I personally pccasionally make left handed characters, but ten again I am a lefty irl so...

Left Handedness is more rare than a height or hair color difference.

Additionally, it's something that only is known when it becomes relevant. How many of your co-workers are left handed? How many are brunettes? You'll likely only be able to answer the second question.

Lastly, when would it ever be relevant in the game? Maybe 50% of all characters are left handed...would you know? I certainly don't ask players what their characters' hair color is.



I think the real point is that right-handed people don't consider their handedness a part of their identity. As a result, they don't consider filling in that information when making up a new identity. Kinda like how you don't mark down your number of limbs. Sure, it could change from person to person, but do you consider it a part of your identity? You, being left handed, are different than the norm because of it, and so it probably makes up a part of your own identity.

[Talakeal]

Left Handedness is more rare than a height or hair color difference.

Additionally, it's something that only is known when it becomes relevant. How many of your co-workers are left handed? How many are brunettes? You'll likely only be able to answer the second question.

Lastly, when would it ever be relevant in the game? Maybe 50% of all characters are left handed...would you know? I certainly don't ask players what their characters' hair color is.



I think the real point is that right-handed people don't consider their handedness a part of their identity. As a result, they don't consider filling in that information when making up a new identity. Kinda like how you don't mark down your number of limbs. Sure, it could change from person to person, but do you consider it a part of your identity? You, being left handed, are different, and so it probably makes up a part of yours.

In my experiance most character sheets have a slot for handedness.
It comes up frequently in gritty hames with locational damage as well as some of the more tactical games that actually care which direction you are striking from.

[Kiero]

Worth noting that being left handed is a significant advantage in melee combat, whether unarmed or armed.

Most right-handed people are used to fighting other right-handed people, whereas most left-handed people are used to fighting right-handed people.

[Geddy2112]

Most weapons and tools are achiral, but shields could very well be. In a system where you can easily lose a limb and it cannot be replaced with a functional alternative, having to learn to fight with your off hand could matter. Most systems do have a penalty for fighting with your off hand, but it is generally assumed you are using your dominate hand to wield a weapon unless dual wielding or something else.
For ambidexterous characters, most systems have feats, traits, advancements, talents, what have you.

Worth noting that being left handed is a significant advantage in melee combat, whether unarmed or armed. Most right-handed people are used to fighting other right-handed people, whereas most left-handed people are used to fighting right-handed people.

From years of fencing, this is incredibly true. The real fun comes when two lefties fight each other. Not a lot of systems with this mechanic though, which would only potentially matter when two humanoids are in melee combat.

[Segev]

Most weapons and tools are achiral, but shields could very well be. In a system where you can easily lose a limb and it cannot be replaced with a functional alternative, having to learn to fight with your off hand could matter. Most systems do have a penalty for fighting with your off hand, but it is generally assumed you are using your dominate hand to wield a weapon unless dual wielding or something else.
For ambidexterous characters, most systems have feats, traits, advancements, talents, what have you.


From years of fencing, this is incredibly true. The real fun comes when two lefties fight each other. Not a lot of systems with this mechanic though, which would only potentially matter when two humanoids are in melee combat.

I am not a gun enthusiast, but I've been to a firing range a few times. Speaking as a lefty, most modern handguns (that use a magazine or clip - I always forget the technical difference and which goes into a pistol) are chiral. Releasing the safety and fiddling with some of the reloading and slide releases is a lot more awkward until you realize you're supposed to be using your right thumb for it, not fumbling over the gun with your left hand to do it. ^^;

It also took me until well into my adult years to realize that the scissors with the large ovoid loop and the small thumb loop are designed to be comfortable for right-handed people. The direction the plastic guides is perfect if your right thumb is going through it. With the left thumb going through it, there is a hard and semi-sharp ridge at both the back and front end, making such scissors dig into your thumb uncomfortably (and, after a while, painfully). I honestly didn't even think about it other than grimacing at having to use such scissors for years.

Though the funniest thing about the world's right-handed bias that I've encountered is when my brother got me a Razor Naga mouse (it's a mouse with a keypad of buttons where your thumb is) designed for left-handed people. It has the buttons in the right places, and is shaped with the slope to accommodate a lefty rather than a righty. But I can tell it was designed by a righty who over-thought it: the default LMB and RMB are reversed on it. I had to go into my computer settings and switch them to reverse to get them back to normal functionality.

This is funny to me, because it's clear the thought process was, "okay, left-handed people do things backwards. Clearly, they'll need the right and left mouse buttons switched to more easily use their index fingers to left-click and their middle fingers to right-click." In practice, I have used normal mice that have no chirality to them for so long that I just use my middle finger for left button clicks, and my index for right button clicks. That it'd be reversed for righties never crossed my mind.

For the most part, it makes no difference in day-to-day life. But where it does, it's subtle and often catches me by surprise when I realize that what I have thought of as an inconvenience and odd design choice is actually quite sensible if you're right-handed.

Oh, also, apparently I eat "the European way" with my fork and knife: Because I'm left-handed, I keep my fork in my left hand and my knife in my right, and cut and eat without putting down my utensils. Apparently, the most common way for (right-handed) Americans to eat is to use the knife in the right hand, hold the food still with the fork in the left, then put down the knife and switch hands to use the right to eat with the fork. Europeans supposedly just do it the way I do, 85% of them just using their off-hand for the fork. (Me, I'm surprised righties don't just use the knife in the left hand and the fork in the right and not switch.)

That last bit is not well-researched on my part, but anecdotally has been backed up by my limited study after somebody told me about it.

[Kiero]

From years of fencing, this is incredibly true. The real fun comes when two lefties fight each other. Not a lot of systems with this mechanic though, which would only potentially matter when two humanoids are in melee combat.

The phenomenon is less pronounced, though still present in unarmed combat. I've had fun with it over the years, because though I'm right-handed, for the gross muscular co-ordination required in unarmed fighting, I'm functionally ambidextrous.

My right might be slightly stronger and better co-ordinated, but I'm perfectly comfortable switching stance to fight a lefty. That's thrown a few southpaws off when I choose to match them, rather than allowing them their usual advantage over confused righties.

[KillianHawkeye]

I remember when I was a kid and I discovered that Link from the Legend of Zelda games was left-handed and I thought that was super cool. As a straight, white male, it's probably the only story I have of seeing a part of myself that isn't normally represented in popular media. Although I later realized that I was more ambidextrous than strictly left-handed.

I'm a little sad sometimes that D&D 3.5 pretty much removed handedness issues from the game, because it eliminates interesting "warrior who lost their primary hand" stories and also invalidates Princess Bride style "I'm not actually left-handed" ploys. I have to agree with not needing to waste a feat to be considered ambidextrous anymore, though.

[Khedrac]

There's an advantage to D&D 3.5 which did away with handedness - all characters can use either hand with equal flexibility.

Back about 30 years ago we usually rolled either 1d6 and 1d12 - if the smaller dice was the higher number the character was left handed, if the same then ambidextrous.

[LibraryOgre]

Hackmaster doesn't address benefits to lefties, but Ambidextrous characters have a 1 second initiative penalty (but don't suffer penalties for off-hand use).

Character Handedness
Roll (d100) Handedness
01-90 Right
91-99 Left
00 Ambidextrous

Character Handedness (Half-Orcs)
Roll (d100) Handedness
01-20 Right
21-00 Left

Character Handedness (Elves & Half-Elves)
Roll (d100) Handedness
01-75 Right
76-90 Left
91-00 Ambidextrous

[Max_Killjoy]

Though the funniest thing about the world's right-handed bias that I've encountered is when my brother got me a Razor Naga mouse (it's a mouse with a keypad of buttons where your thumb is) designed for left-handed people. It has the buttons in the right places, and is shaped with the slope to accommodate a lefty rather than a righty. But I can tell it was designed by a righty who over-thought it: the default LMB and RMB are reversed on it. I had to go into my computer settings and switch them to reverse to get them back to normal functionality.

This is funny to me, because it's clear the thought process was, "okay, left-handed people do things backwards. Clearly, they'll need the right and left mouse buttons switched to more easily use their index fingers to left-click and their middle fingers to right-click." In practice, I have used normal mice that have no chirality to them for so long that I just use my middle finger for left button clicks, and my index for right button clicks. That it'd be reversed for righties never crossed my mind.

Funny thing is, I'm right handed, I can use a mouse left-handed... but I need to reverse the buttons because for me it IS mapped to "index finger" and "middle finger"... if I use the "righty" mouse setup with my left hand, I have to slow down and think about which button I'm pushing each time.

[FaerieGodfather]

I am not a gun enthusiast, but I've been to a firing range a few times. Speaking as a lefty, most modern handguns (that use a magazine or clip - I always forget the technical difference and which goes into a pistol) are chiral.

A detachable magazine is a box with a spring in it. It usually goes into the bottom of the weapon, loading the rounds into the chamber, and you replace it when it's empty.

A clip is just one solid piece of springy metal. It usually goes into the top of the weapon, loading rounds into the weapon's integral magazine before being removed.

In practice, most people use the terms interchangeably unless politics are involved.

[Segev]

Funny thing is, I'm right handed, I can use a mouse left-handed... but I need to reverse the buttons because for me it IS mapped to "index finger" and "middle finger"... if I use the "righty" mouse setup with my left hand, I have to slow down and think about which button I'm pushing each time.

And that's probably why a righty designing a left-handed mouse thought, "Okay, they'll need the buttons swapped."

Meanwhile, if I wind up using a mouse right-handed, I have no trouble with the standard layout, beyond how awkward a right-handed mouse already is. Swapping the buttons would confuse me, there, too. ^^;

[Guizonde]

my pc's are all left-handed, left-eyed, and left-footed. like me. easier to mime actions. also, it's a giant middle (left-handed) middle finger to my friends who've given me grief since middle school for my handedness.

paradoxically, i prefer right-handed guns (shot lefty) and guitars (albeit with the strings flipped and played lefty), and i use my mouse with my right hand, since nobody told me that i should flip it.

i'm confusing like that.

[Segev]

my pc's are all left-handed, left-eyed, and left-footed. like me. easier to mime actions. also, it's a giant middle (left-handed) middle finger to my friends who've given me grief since middle school for my handedness.

paradoxically, i prefer right-handed guns (shot lefty) and guitars (albeit with the strings flipped and played lefty), and i use my mouse with my right hand, since nobody told me that i should flip it.

i'm confusing like that.

People seriously gave you grief about being left-handed as a kid? Wow; I've never heard of that in real life before.

[Pauly]

Worth noting that being left handed is a significant advantage in melee combat, whether unarmed or armed.

Most right-handed people are used to fighting other right-handed people, whereas most left-handed people are used to fighting right-handed people.

In sports, statisticians have worked out that there’s roughly a 10% advantage in being left handed in opposed sports like baseball, tennis etc.

It is part of why there is a disproportionate number of lefties in elite sports. In games like baseball there can also be tactical advantages in swapping lefties and righties into the line up.

[Knaight]

This is something I generally just don't bother to specify - much the same way that I usually don't bother with exact height and weight (especially weight, that sort of thing fluctuates at the best of times and adventurers with highly variable levels of exercise and potentially food). I'll have a physical description that will hit highlights and be a coherent description rather than fill out some long list of standard factors.

[Eldan]

In my experiance most character sheets have a slot for handedness.
It comes up frequently in gritty hames with locational damage as well as some of the more tactical games that actually care which direction you are striking from.

I don't think I've ever seen a handedness box, or seen someone's handedness mentioned in a game. Interesting.

[Delta]

In my experience, the main thing is just: It doesn't matter.

Ambidextrous characters happen because of dual wield combat, but other than that, in way more than two decades of gaming, I can't think of a single situation where it was a relevant question whether the character was left- or righthanded.

Now, probably, the question could have come up a couple of times if someone had thought of it, but in my experience, people just don't think about, so there's no reason to make it a thing in the game.

[Talakeal]

In my experience, the main thing is just: It doesn't matter.

Ambidextrous characters happen because of dual wield combat, but other than that, in way more than two decades of gaming, I can't think of a single situation where it was a relevant question whether the character was left- or righthanded.

Now, probably, the question could have come up a couple of times if someone had thought of it, but in my experience, people just don't think about, so there's no reason to make it a thing in the game.

Any more so than eye or hair color?

[Delta]

Any more so than eye or hair color?

Is that a serious question? Yes, hair color matters infinitely more than handedness.

At least in my games, "What does that character look like?" is a question that comes up for just about any relevant PC or NPC at least once. "Is that character left- or right-handed?" has never come up even once.

[Cygnia]

In some games (like 7th Sea), being Left-Handed is an advantage you can actually purchase when making your character.

[Max_Killjoy]

I thought the surprise / secret was not being left-handed...

[Luccan]

Something dawned on me the other day, I have never had a player in one of my games make a left handed PC. Occasionally you get an ambidextrous person, but other than that they are all right handed.

I assume that most people just default to their oown handedness, but why? Players dont default to their own height, weight, race, gender, or any other physical attribute, so why are people save averse to cross-handedness RP?

I personally pccasionally make left handed characters, but ten again I am a lefty irl so...

I don't think I've ever specified a character's dominant hand. I think in my head it's been the right hand, but that's because I'm right handed. I've never stated it out right.

[CharonsHelper]

I don't think I've ever specified a character's dominant hand. I think in my head it's been the right hand, but that's because I'm right handed. I've never stated it out right.

Yeah - the only time I ever mentioned it was a lefty bard. And that's only because I've heard that (generally) lefties are more creative/musical because they're right-brained.

But as said above, in virtually any sport being a lefty is an advantage just because it's different. There are a hugely disproportionate number of southpaws in baseball, especially pitchers. (I do realize that sometimes right-handers bat as southpaws for the edge it gives.)

Boxing, fencing, hockey, and tennis all have large advantages to southpaws, though I've heard that there are minor advantages in basketball & other sports too. About the only sports I can think of that it wouldn't be on minor advantage are sports where you aren't really up against anyone, you just have competing scores. (golf/bowling/marksmanship etc.)

An interesting article about it here - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/s...advantage.html .

As a summary; the less time someone has to react in a sport, the bigger of an advantage being a southpaw is. So in baseball 30% of top pitchers are southpaw, while in squash only 9% are because it's a somewhat slower paced game. Also, apparently cultures which were more warlike historically have a higher % of lefties because of the advantage it gave in combat.

[KillianHawkeye]

my pc's are all left-handed, left-eyed, and left-footed.

Is "left-eyed" a joke, or is having a dominant eye an actual thing? I've seriously never even heard that before, and never personally noticed a difference between having one eye closed versus the other one.

[Faily]

People seriously gave you grief about being left-handed as a kid? Wow; I've never heard of that in real life before.

This can be a cultural and age thing. I know that in my country, it's not that long ago that left-handed people were forced to be right-handed in school (forced to write right-handed and everything, in some cases they'd tie your left hand behind your back to make sure you didn't feel tempted to use it at all). When I say long ago though, I'm talking about my parents'/grandparents' generation. In some cultures, the left-hand is considered unclean and inferior for various reasons.

I'm left-handed, but I don't think I was ever given grief for it as a kid. On the other hand, I sometimes feel like I get looked on as some kind of fantasy creature when people see I'm left-handed. ("omg you're left-handed?")


I think the only games I can think of where handedness has come up for me has been Ars Magica? Either way, it's not something that people can easily notice about a person. And most people tend not to notice unless they look closely because they're just so used to seeing things a certain way. So when you're describing your character it's natural to say "blonde hair blue eyes" because that's something you can tell from meeting a person.

It might just be my personal experience too, but I feel that left-handed people are more likely to have ambidexterity. When I was doing martial arts, almost everything I learned was from the mindset of right-handedness being dominant, like Segev I use fork in my left and knife in my right, I've learned to knit the way right-handed do but for crocheting I do it left-handed, I use my computer mouse with my right-hand, etc...

[Squire Doodad]

Something dawned on me the other day, I have never had a player in one of my games make a left handed PC. Occasionally you get an ambidextrous person, but other than that they are all right handed.

I assume that most people just default to their oown handedness, but why? Players dont default to their own height, weight, race, gender, or any other physical attribute, so why are people save averse to cross-handedness RP?

I personally pccasionally make left handed characters, but ten again I am a lefty irl so...

I'd imagine that it would be simpler for people to use their dominant hand in-game. On the other hand (*rimshot*) there's...basically no point. It's largely irrelevant, as unless an amputation occurs there is little reason to specify which hand is being used. Sure it is an interesting tidbit to ponder, but odds are one focuses on the more obvious aspects of physiology or someone's personality over hand preference.

A game centered around a world that has an inexplicable dividing issue based on hand preference would be an interesting idea though.

[Cluedrew]

Is that a serious question? Yes, hair color matters infinitely more than handedness.

I'm not sure I have ever called out a character's dominate hand. On the other hand I can think of only one time I called out my character's hair colour, and that is because it was graying. (They were much older than you would expect.)

[Max_Killjoy]

I had a character who cared about his enemy's dominant hand.

Because he'd make puns about "disarming" them... or say something like "Which was your off hand... well I guess they're both your off hand" after cutting off both their hands in a battle.

The joy of puns and location-based damage.