Beginner's Guide to Cross-gender PCs

[Mallus]

Tip 1: a believable character is no substitute for an entertaining one.

Tip 2: if you catch yourself thinking about your character's "inner life", stop. Instead, consider which witty one-liners and badass catchphrases are right for them.

Tip 3: embellish madly but don't sweat the details (or their accuracy). If the character doesn't quite make sense, remember that you're trying to emulate genre adventure stories and action movies. The bar for 'making sense' is set quite low.

Tip 4: if you're going to be offensive, be cheerfully offensive. You'll know you're getting it right if you're friends laugh. If they don't, or start looking uncomfortably around the room, you're doing it wrong (unless, of course, their discomfort is accompanied by grudging laughter, in which case it's okay).

Note that this is general advice I'd give to anyone making an RPG character. It applies no less to someone creating a cross-gender PC.

 

[Oni]

Remember if you belch loudly and then pick cheetos crumbs out of your scraggly gamer beard it might hurt the believability of that sorceress hottie your playing.

 

[WayneLigon]

Receptionist: How do you write women so well?
Melvin Udall: I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability.
--As Good As It Gets

What are your general "Dos" and "Don'ts"?
Seek out some well-written female characters. Emulate them.

In general, almost any advice for writing characters also applies to roleplaying them. Find some good books in the writer's section on characterization, and apply that advice. For Example: Dramatica's advice on writing characters of the opposite sex.

Do you have particular advice for men playing women?
Don't play the two most common stereotypes I've seen: The Hot Feminine Lesbian and The Man-Hating Rogue Who Was Raped As a Child and so Uses Sex Only As A Weapon.

Don't try to do your girl-voice.

Do you have particular advice for women playing men?
I have none; the only woman I've ever known who'd play male characters did it very well.

What are table-level warning signs that I should not attempt this?
Your DM immediately targets you for a rape-and-revenge scene. Probably about the most common plot in early female-protagonist fiction, most writers quickly grew tired of it and moved on; take the hint and 'move on' before it even begins.

What are table-level warning signs that this isn't working?
Lots of gay- or porn-related jokes directed at the player.

What are the rewards to taking this risk? Why do it?
Why not? It helps build your repetoire of roleplaying talent.

 

[knightofround]

It depends upon the maturity level of your group. We all know the type -- the 30-year-still-prepubscent-male-gamer who uses D&D as a replacement for social interaction. If you have one of those gamers in your group, don't bother playing a cross-gender PC. The hassle you'll get from other PCs won't be worth it.

If you have a mature group though, cross-gender stuff is fine, as long as you don't focus on it too much. Just play normally, or try to emulate an old friend. Don't resort to stereotypes (especially overtly sexual ones) because it can get old and offensive fast.

Something to realize though is that some people are uncomfortable with cross-gender PCs, and find it very awkward to roleplay with them, even if they won't vocally admit it. I wouldn't recommend trying a cross-gender PC with a new group, but rather watch how the DM and other PCs react to opposite genders in-game before giving it a try.

 

[Flatus Maximus]

Play a changling. You and your character can learn as you go, and you can always "settle" into a gender if you're in over your head.

 

[Ktulu]

I've played 2 female characters for any length of time in games. One is considered one of my groups top 5 characters played at the table (A mute female elf bard (played music and practiced sword-dancing).

In the group as a whole, I'd say that One out of Three campaigns had a cross-gendered character, on the minimum. Sometimes there were more. For my group, these existed because that fit the character, not just to play a woman or man.

The biggest area I've seen this fail is when the player either uses a negative stereotype, or begins making sexist-style jokes with the character. If those to areas are avoided, the character can often be fun and rewarding to the group as a whole.

Ktulu

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

Play what feels comfortable.

I'm certainly not an expert. I only get to play online, where many of the issues of being cross-gender aren't present. And I don't think I'm very good at roleplaying.

But I have to say that in the beginning (and still true to some extent) I felt better playing a PC of a different gender. It just felt too weird to play my real gender, and if I (or someone else) had insisted on me sticking to my real gender I think my roleplaying would have been more confused and stunted.

 

[der_kluge]

Nearly any actual advice I could give you would probably come across as sexist, and/or misogynistic.

That said, just ask yourself, "What would a woman do in this situation?" and if you can answer that, you should be able to pull it off ok.

 

[pawsplay]

Do:
- Come up with a recognizable "character voice."
- Acknowledge your character might, in theory, have a romantic relationship.
- Focus on what makes your character special, interesting, and fun.
- Take the opportunity to stretch your perspective and exercise your boundaries

Don't:
- Resort to tired cliches and stereotypes
- Squick other players
- Imitate a Monty Python cast member or Margaret Cho in terms of devising a character voice. Recognizable, not farcical.
- Play out areas of curiosity better explored in therapy.

 

[justanobody]

● What are your general "Dos" and "Don'ts"?
Don't flirt with your own gender of the other players.

● Do you have particular advice for men playing women?
● Do you have particular advice for women playing men?
Don't try to act it out. Just play the character. There is little in the game where sex matters, so it really doesn't matter, unless you are just wanting to play a sibling of a character, or have your own stigma about characters.

● What are table-level warning signs that I should not attempt this?
● What are table-level warning signs that this isn't working?
One guy punching another in the mouth for coming on with his female character through player actions.

One girl slapping another for above reasons.

● What are the rewards to taking this risk?
There can be some more roleplaying interaction just as any kind of in-game effect that may switch a gender. How will a group of mixed sexes be perceived by a community vs a group of just men or women entering a town?

● Why do it?
Boredom. Emulation of a female character persona form some story. Some people think it is impossible to pull of.

One of the main things to be careful of is do not try to pull of a sex change for yourself to make your character that opposite you. It is your character not you.


 Don't flirt with the other players anyway....