Why is does it seem like this is an actual issue now with things like gender bending elves? If it was groovy back then, then, why are people questioning it now?
There was no "Ideological Purity" requirement then being shoved done people's throats.
You'll find people are more comfortable swallowing things at their own pace, rather when they are being force fed it.
No. The presumption is that your character is the same gender as you because you are the one portraying the character.
That's a terrible presumption. I'm not gonna to ask the strawman nonsense questions of "so then everyone at your table is playing a human with poor combat skills then". I mean I will, but only by presumption.
If your elf behaves exactly like your human character then why are you playing an elf?
Depends on the system... but at first blush for the inherent racial benes, duh.
Or because I enjoy playing elves like the stuck up egotistical jackholes they are, and no one does egotistical as well as an elf (they really are better at everything [/joke]).
It's theoretically possible that Inkyrius sired the children and V bore the children, but V sure doesn't act like the one who nursed them.
Ehhhh.... knee-jerk pedantry: Vaarsuvius' and Inkyrius' children are adopted.
Sorry, sorry... I couldn't help myself.
What if I make a character of the same gender as mine with those exact traits?
No, I've come to understand it based on this thread, even if you are a sexy lamp in real life, you may not play one in game.
Sorry.
Really? Jason-freaking-Momoa?
You don't understand how Conan can be a sexy, sexy, sexy, sexy, ummm... I lost my train of thought.
No, I've never seen anyone who played their barbarian like a sexy walking stick.
You need to sit at the table with me. I think every Barbarian I've ever played has been a sexy walking stick.
If I may ask, what about playing female characters makes them fun for you? What, specifically related to the gender of your character, makes it fun?
Depends on the setting. Sometimes it's about upsetting the inherent social power-dynamic. Sometimes it's because otherwise the party would be a total sausage fest. And sometimes it's because I know it will specifically make someone uncomfortable.
Currently I'm playing a female Ogre barbarian/wrestler with a bit of a 'Red Sonja' complex (she won't take a mate unless they can best her). Which is a bit difficult when she is literally the strongest creature so far encountered in the campaign... (she keeps hoping to 'meet a real man', by which she means another mountain ogre, a male, and of course one stronger than as she is so she can finally settle down. It might be easier if she were to go anywhere such a guy might be found, but she hasn't figured that out yet).
Just previously I played a female troll wizard, because I wanted to play a troll wizard and the GM said "in this world the only trolls that can work magic are female". So... female it was.
Sure, you introduced your character five months ago (in real time), but, since then, never once mentioned that your character is _____. It's not too farfetched that people might not recall that given that you (generic you) have never actually referenced ___ other than at that session 1.
If _____ has never mattered since session 1 (if it even mattered then*), then why should I go out of my way to reinforce that my character is _____?
* I once played a gay character in a very long campaign. It never mattered (the Characters almost never had time for anything personal, the mission was always foremost) and her sexuality only came up when towards the end of the campaign another Player had gone back and reread the campaign diary that we were all writing in all along.
In another it was very obvious I was playing a flamboyantly, cringingly, gay character. But as he was rich, powerful, and had tremendous social capital, he delighted in being as inappropriate as he could be, since being gay in that culture wasn't exactly accepted. It wasn't illegal, or even socially abhorrent, it was simply something kept 'on the down low' or at least kept 'respectfully quiet'. So he was loud as possible. Which also explained why his family was happy whenever he decided to run off and go adventuring.
It seems very odd to me that this isn't the case for most game groups; of the last dozen long campaigns I've been in, all of them have had characters who have sex quite often.
That's generally not a feature of 'Orc and Pie', of which an
awful lot of D&D is.