DMing Gender?

[MrApothecary]

We all know there are those who have trouble roleplaying the opposite gender. It particularly annoys me when that person is a DM.

I've had experience with one who had only one mention of a female NPC the entire game:

"You see a hot elf chick...uh...do you want to do her?"

Has anyone every DMed and had a problem roleplaying gender?

 

[Mark]

Welcome to EN World!


Nothing stunts growth in the hobby like misogyny, particularly from DMs.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

First, welcome to the boards!

Second, not for a loooooooooong time. Role-play ability grows with personal maturity.

 

[MrApothecary]

Thank you for your greetings, my usual greetings at when I join new forums are usually: "Ugh, another n00b."

 

[MommaDM]

In all honesty I'm seriously Dming for the first time with 4e. (And don't feel bad I'm a n00b too. Although my husband has been feeding me the more interesting or amusing bits from here for ages)

I can RP the opposite sex well enough for short periods, but after a while I tend to have trouble keeping the comments masculine. For that reason I've never really played a male in any long running game.

 

[WayneLigon]

Has anyone every DMed and had a problem roleplaying gender?

Welcome to ENWorld!

The main way I GM a different gender is the way I roleplay it on the rare occassions I've had a different-gendered PC: I base that character off another character in a book or TV show, or based on direct observation. That way I'm well within the ballpark on speech, mannerisms, etc.

The other way I do it is to just write men and women the same.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Hey Mr. Apothecary.

I'm not sure I'm any good at role playing women as distinct from men. I guess I don't see men and women as being that different. I don't hold with that Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus crap. Oh certainly in the real world men and women are indoctrinated with different gender roles from birth. But in a fantasy world I can say what gender roles people inherit. Generally this means males and females can adopt any gender role in my games. Exceptions are made when I want to have a culture where that isn't an option. As I said: I use these as exceptions and always because I'm wanting to create a particular style, mood or plot point. Generally speaking I let my modern, lefty, liberal sentiments colour my fantasy worlds.

All of which doesn't really answer your question. Are my female NPCs very feminine? No, not really. I'm not that good an actor. But they're as well rounded as my male ones.

Now you've got me worrying. Ya see, at some point my players are going to be meeting a rather large, rather unlikeable dragon. She just happens to be a she. Now I'm wondering if the players will realise she's female. I'm also wondering should it matter? Shouldn't her dragoness be a more important trait than her gender? Or should it? I don't know.

A very thought provoking question. Thanks.

 

[GSHamster]

I know I have trouble portraying female NPCs in first-person. It's one reason I usually portray NPCs in third-person. Being able to use words like "she" and "her" emphasize that the NPC is female, even if I don't do a particularly good job of portraying her feminity.

 

[Terwox]

In all honesty I'm seriously Dming for the first time with 4e. (And don't feel bad I'm a n00b too. Although my husband has been feeding me the more interesting or amusing bits from here for ages)

I can RP the opposite sex well enough for short periods, but after a while I tend to have trouble keeping the comments masculine. For that reason I've never really played a male in any long running game.

Same here, in a sense. I have trouble playing very masculine characters convincingly for a long period of time. I've been DM'ing for awhile, and it is difficult for me to roleplay out conflictive allies of the party -- friends tend not to be standoffish, and will back down.

I have a lot of trouble playing male PCs as well who are standoffish. I keep trying, because I like to try and play a different personality type each time I make a new character, but it's exceedingly difficult for me to pull this off without falling back to my usual character behavior.

 

[Gentlegamer]

Human beings* do not have gender. Gender is a grammatical concept (masculine, feminine, and neuter). Human beings have sex: male or female [/nitpick]

*and demi-humans, etc. etc.