roleplaying across the gender line

Ancalagon · Oct 30, 2002

Hello

We are going to start a spycraft campain soon (the main campain is on hold

), and the DM has pre-made most of the characters.

It seems that the character I will be playing is a woman. Now, I have never played across the gender line before, so, any coments, thoughts, advice?

Oh, and she's german.

And has a charisma of 8 (didn't design the character). And she's from the basement (one of the departments in spycraft, almost like a "race". The basement is where the fox mulder types end up).

Ancalagon

hong · Oct 30, 2002

Anc, you need to stop taking the fact that you are playing a GURL so seriously.

Hong "there's nothing wrong with having your squishy bits in a different place" Ooi

Plane Sailing · Oct 30, 2002

Think of a film or book or comic book heroine and play it like her?

Get hold of a modern pop-psychology book like "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" to get a handle on how to play someone that might think differently to the way you naturally do?

But what I would tend to do is just have fun with the human character, who could have any of the normal human range of aspirations and quirks.

In other words, don't sweat about it.

Cheers

StalkingBlue · Oct 30, 2002

PlaneSailing has good advice.

You could also look at examples of crossed genders (in a figurative sense) in the movies.
I don't know Spycraft, but if being from the basement means you are a Fox Mulder type of character, you're already set. Mulder is the classical female-type character, played by a male actor - relying on intuition more than logic etc. (So is Alec Baldwin's Jack Ryan character in the film "Red October".) Scully is Mulder's fitting counterpart: the female with the male-type mind.

One further word of advice for when you try to make your character "more feminine": don't overdo it. Many people who play cross-gender end up emphasising what they perceive as "gender differences" to such an extent that the character ends up as a bad caricature of its gender.

Buttercup · Oct 30, 2002

Plane Sailing said:
Think of a film or book or comic book heroine and play it like her?

This would work.

Get hold of a modern pop-psychology book like "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" to get a handle on how to play someone that might think differently to the way you naturally do?

I wouldn't waste time with this one, since those books are more likely to turn you into a caricature than anything.

But what I would tend to do is just have fun with the human character, who could have any of the normal human range of aspirations and quirks.

Exactly. Just pick a handful of traits, and run with them. Women and men are more alike than they are different.

Drawmack · Oct 30, 2002

Could be a masculine lesbian. I would do this if I wanted to let everyone know that I didn't want to play female.

In creative writting here is the advise that the professor (one Craig Strete) gave us. When a man remembers an indicent, he remembers the details. When a woman remember an indicent she remembers the emotions. This tells us the base difference to work from, emotion vs. logic.

Fenes 2 · Oct 30, 2002

Remeber that adventurers, heroes, spys and other roleplaying characters are likely to be "freaks", not the norm. "Typical" men/women rarely pick up such hazardous occupations. If you can roleplay a man that risks his life, sanity and health for his beliefs or money, and if you can roleplay an elf or dwarf or alien that does this, then you can also roleplay a woman who does the same, since the traits that make them do such "insane" things are likely to be more dominant than other, more common gender-traits

And most important: Don't let stereotypes hold you back from playing a character that is fun for you and your group - imho it is better to roleplay a Lara Croft-Clone or another stereotype and have fun than trying to roleplay a "realistic" (Meaning "conforming to my own stereotypes and notions" for most people) person of the opposite gender and not having fun.

Snoweel · Oct 30, 2002

Anc, men and women are exactly the same and to be honest, I'm a little offended that you would think playing a female character would be any different to playing a male one.

d20's all about choices and one choice that should have absolutely no bearing on the game is gender.

Now the fact that your character's German otoh...

She should probably hang upside-down quite a bit...

Buttercup · Oct 30, 2002

Drawmack said:
[BIn creative writting here is the advise that the professor (one Craig Strete) gave us. When a man remembers an indicent, he remembers the details. When a woman remember an indicent she remembers the emotions. This tells us the base difference to work from, emotion vs. logic. [/B]

With all due respect, this is hooey. Speaking personally, I remember details of many past incidents. Does that make me unnatural in some way? Of course not. But it does disprove your professor's ludicrous idea.

Snoweel · Oct 30, 2002

I know!

The nerve of the guy.

Next he'll start saying that hormones affect our behaviour...

roleplaying across the gender line

Ancalagon

Dusty Dragon

hong

WotC's bitch

Plane Sailing

Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!

StalkingBlue

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Buttercup

Princess of Florin

Drawmack

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Fenes 2

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Snoweel

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Buttercup

Princess of Florin

Snoweel

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