• The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!

Gender Inequality Issue...

TornadoCreator

First Post
OK, so I'm planning on running a 4e game in which I'm using my own dark take on Forgotten Realms. I intend for gender inequality to be a major thing. Women are expected to be treated with much more "respect" than men, ie. no swearing in their presence, displays of violence etc. however women have a harder time gaining any real power unless they're manipulating men.

What this will mean also though is, where a man couldn't insult a noble general by telling him that he's going to get his men killed by walking them thought that mountain pass without being smacked or possibly worse, a woman could, would be "ignored" or laughed off and then the advice acted on later. Conversely a woman will have a harder time convincing the old wizard to listen to her where as he'd be much more likely to listen to a man....

My question is this. How do I go about doing this without it getting unfun. I'll have 4 male and 2 female characters (all played by players of the same gender), and I don't want the female players to feel like they're being ignored or the male players to start acting too macho. I want it to be a double edged "gender roles" issue to add roleplaying and adversity to the game so they're not just hacking from one Goblin to the next.

Any advice on how to handle this idea with tact would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: I forgot to mention, the reason I'm planning to add what is basically an undercurrent of sexism to the game is because I think it will make a nice contrast to the Drow based storyline I have planned for a few games in, as this is intended to be a 6 month campaign and I plan for them to be in the Underdark after about 6 weeks. The Drow, are extremely matriachal, so much so that it's outright gender segregation, men are inferior to women in Drow culture. Now as female to male sexism is rare, and it's Drow, I don't expect anyone to be offended by that but I don't want people uncomfortable for the 6 sessions (once per week) we have before they get trapped in the Underdark.
 
Last edited:

log in or register to remove this ad

Incenjucar

Legend
Frankly I would avoid making it so dominant. Even in contrast, it's likely to get tiring if every campaign is ABOUT gender issues. Provide some egalitarian contrast so that they can relax from the subject and focus on something else for a change of pace.
 


Dannager

First Post
Explain to the players the situation, and make it clear that you're representing a hypothetical fantasy society because it might make for interesting roleplaying situations, not because you feel as though the gender roles portrayed are the way things should be. Assuming your players have developed reasonably thick skins and don't have a habit of looking for offense where none was intended, you'll probably be fine.
 

TornadoCreator

First Post
Did you ask your players if it would be okay? What were there thoughts?
I have generally mature players all in there late 20's and early 30's so I'm sure they would be fine with exploring such themes. Honestly though, I don't tend to discuss my plot ideas with my players because they feel it ruins the suspense for them. I've run much darker games than D&D, such as World Of Darkness and Shadowrun and they've been fine with adult themes, horror, religious imagery (we have a Christian in the group so I was a little concerned that vampires desicrating a church may upset him but it didn't) and plenty of disturbing imagery but I've never really done what is basically a much more mundane twist as sexism is... granted, the sexism is only supposed to be an undercurrent, it's not ment to define the game, just a slight change to the way NPC's talk to players, perhaps a +2 to a skill DC occationally. My problem isn't that it will outright offend them, I just don't want it to bore them or annoy them if you get what I mean.

Hopefully that made some sense.
 

TornadoCreator

First Post
Explain to the players the situation, and make it clear that you're representing a hypothetical fantasy society because it might make for interesting roleplaying situations, not because you feel as though the gender roles portrayed are the way things should be. Assuming your players have developed reasonably thick skins and don't have a habit of looking for offense where none was intended, you'll probably be fine.
We've played together for over a year, they know I'm an equality preaching liberally minded socialist at heart as is much of my "hippy" player group... ironically we seem to have a tendency to end up with power hungry, capitalistic, authoritarian, pro-military special ops/police/doctors in my World Of Darkness game... It's almost as though we're playing "World of lets be a Republican for 3 hours". I never even noticed that before.

I may mention it to them before the game then to test the water, generally though I'm used to writing the games without any playing input, it seems everyone else involves the players in the planning alot more.
 

Dannager

First Post
We've played together for over a year, they know I'm an equality preaching liberally minded socialist at heart as is much of my "hippy" player group... ironically we seem to have a tendency to end up with power hungry, capitalistic, authoritarian, pro-military special ops/police/doctors in my World Of Darkness game... It's almost as though we're playing "World of lets be a Republican for 3 hours". I never even noticed that before.

Hardly surprising. People enjoy brief tastes of the other side of the coin. Same reason that some spindly, awkward geeks will play intimidating, abundantly-muscled warriors. Escapist fantasy isn't worth much if it's just like real life.
 

S'mon

Legend
This sounds much less unequal than most of the real world. I wouldn't foresee any problems, especially with all the players the same sex (male?). If you had one or two female players in a mostly male group there might be an issue; most people play D&D as a power fantasy and occasionally female players who are playing to get away from daily life will be upset by even mild sexism in a fantasy world, if it's sexism that they feel constrains the power of their PC.

I think the main thing is to discuss your plans with your players; this kind of thing (gender roles) would be baseline common knowledge after all.
 

S'mon

Legend
Hardly surprising. People enjoy brief tastes of the other side of the coin. Same reason that some spindly, awkward geeks will play intimidating, abundantly-muscled warriors. Escapist fantasy isn't worth much if it's just like real life.

Yeah - as a schoolboy I enjoyed playing wizards who could twist reality to their will, but now I'm a fairly senior academic with responsibilities, I enjoy playing musclebound warriors and (now) cowardly thieves. :)
 

Dannager

First Post
I wouldn't foresee any problems, especially with all the players the same sex (male?). If you had one or two female players in a mostly male group there might be an issue;
Four of his players are male, two are female. They are all playing characters of the sex that matches their own.
 

Voidrunner's Codex

Remove ads

Top