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.
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:
