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

Guys playing girls (chime in, ladies)

I have a serious question for those in the "don't like it" camp: What is the difference in difficulty between playing against gender compared to playing against race? IOW, why do you feel a male cannot portray a "realistic" female character but you probably have no problem with 21st century humans portraying pseudo-mideval 1,000 year living elves who are considered whelps in their 100th year of existence, just now striving out on their own? Shouldn't you run into just as many instances of "that's not how a real elf/dwarf/gnome would act?"

How does it feel to be treated as a child when you've existed for over a century? All elves go through it. How does it feel to spend time in sunlight, when you lived among dwarves in darkness for the first 40 years of your life? Carved stone walls are your grand vistas.

Personally, I find it much easier to relate to difference in gender than difference it total world outlook. Do you also have this problem and the gender problem is but a subset of it or do you have no problem imagining that the 40 year old balding overweight guy you are interacting with is a slight, sprightly elf of 300 years with a full mane of hair?

Aside: For those who remember What's New? With Phil and Dixie in Dragon Mag: "John, How?!?" "Special Shoes."
 

log in or register to remove this ad

MarauderX said:
Is this character male or female?
I would say those stats look like a possible set of stats for the cleric in PirateCat's story hour or perhaps a young version of Nwm from Sep's storyhour. Both are male characters. (I'm sure there a real set of stats for these characters that points out the differences but I'm just saying what is possible here.)
 

The Sigil

Mr. 3000 (Words per post)
Nicely done, hong. :)

I usually try to pick out three "quirks/dominant traits" for each of my characters when I play - working around these three things helps a lot.

Actually, one of my favorite characters as a player (in a Beyond the Supernatural Game) was a mentally gifted French Canadian who was slightly on the pretty side. The three quirks were - (1) French accent (I didn't go over the top with it, that would have annoyed my fellow players, but I did do a mild one, made slightly "higher" than my normal voice to remind everyone I was female, (2) intellectual snobbery (most who are mentally gifted are a little prone to this), and (3) constantly cleaning/wiping her glasses around uncomfortable situations (including "flirty" ones).

Note that the only place I played "being female" differently than "being male" in the above was the voice I used. I could have had a male character with all the same traits but gender, who did all the same things, and it would have worked just as well. I spent MUCH more time rubbing my spectacles as we pored through old tomes and crept through musty dark libraries than I did reacting to the "hitting on my character" the other players did - well, after the first ten minutes of play, anyway (and believe me, these guys were more of the stereotypical, "I want to DO her" gamer, and I never told them "Out Of Character" to stop it).

In fact, that's my advice to male gamers playing females. Pick three personality traits to "play on" - just as you would do for a male character. Find a way to "spin" one (and only one) of those three traits will allow you to subtly remind people that you're playing a female character - for me it was doing "the voice" - for someone else, it might be paying extra attention to children or being a flirt or being a b*tch or constantly making jokes about how guys suck or making the odd comment that it's tough for you to squeeze under doors or through a tight cavern passage because certain tender parts of your anatomy get in the way.

(I only mention this because I remember my wife complaining that when she was breastfeeding our kids, she couldn't see under the couch as easily as normal because she couldn't get as "flat on the ground" as she was used to thanks to her milk expanding her chest a bit - a reminder to me that there ARE situations where the fact that women have portrusions on their chests DOES matter for reasons other than sex appeal. In fact, the next time I play a female character, I think this is how I'll remind the players... by complaining a bit any time we have to squeeze through a tight space, but never bringing up breasts otherwise.)

My 2 cents.

--The Sigil
 
Last edited:

Remathilis

Legend
MarauderX said:
Str 4
Dex 12
Con 10
Int 10
Wis 20
Cha 18

Bard 1, Monk 1, Druid 7.
Is this character male or female?
despite my comments above on the gender stereotype, this is the stereotype taken to its illogical conclusion (and if this is a stab at my suggestion, prepare for a rebuttal)

Lets say we have two human fighters, one a classic male archtype and one the classic female archtype. Both are typical sword and board style knights.

Score M / F
Str 18/17
Dex 13/15
Con 14/12
Int 11/11
Wis 09/10
cha 08/09

As you can see, the numbers are extremely close. One can imagine the female knight a bit slimmer, packing less of the forceful blow than her male conterpart. She may be more graceful at dodging blows, but a hit can K.O. her quicker. She is on par in intelligence and perhaps slightly more refined. She also has a greater sense of perception and cool-headedness than her male friend. Nevertheless, they both fill the role well.

That is, if you want to keep the classic stereotype. As I mentioned, these are made to be broken.
 

mhacdebhandia

Explorer
jmucchiello said:
I have a serious question for those in the "don't like it" camp: What is the difference in difficulty between playing against gender compared to playing against race?
I'm not one of those who believes it's impossible to play against one's own gender, but I tend to play human characters.

I think it's much more interesting, for one thing. For another, I don't think I've ever come up with a serious character concept which needed to be non-human - so I prefer not to lazily embellish my characters' personalities with racial stereotypes for the sake of it.
 

Incenjucar

Legend
I feel good now; they're 4% sure I'm a woman. Sure, I'm a guy, but I'm a feminist. Now if I could convince the school of this, I could have some co-ed hyjinks going on....

But to the topic, I suggest this: Ask the DM about how gender roles work in the actual fantasy culture your character comes from. An orc woman shouldn't act like an orcish version of a human woman unless their cultures are identicle sans for orcish habits.
 

Hypersmurf

Moderatarrrrh...
Balsamic Dragon said:
What kind of guy (or girl!) are you looking for in a relationship?

I've seen males play female PCs well, and I've seen males play female PCs badly.

But when it's a male playing a female PC looking for a girl in a relationship, the answer to "What kind of girl?" seems to tend overwhelmingly towards "Slutty drow!"

Gah.

-Hyp.
 

vulcan_idic

Explorer
Kemrain - congratulations on learning more about yourself and being comfortable with it - it's more than I can say for a lot of people I know.

On a separate note - Monks are one of my favorite character types to play, but I also enjoy shapeshifters (Eberron's Changelings, Druids, Shifters, etc.) which brings up an interesting thought about gender in a fantasy environment... if your sex is mutable through a mere act of will, how would this affect your gender? Also, on a side note I thought of while watching Ranma last night (this thread inspired me to go back and enjoy the classics) - if a character in female form (natural or assumed) got pregnant, how would a gender shifting shapechage affect that? Would the fetus shapeshift with the parent? If so, one could concieveably not change back to a female form for 9 months and miss most of pregnancy... or not shift for longer and bear it over time... or would time spent in male forms not count towards fetal development? In which case a 9 month pregnancy could be extended over a very long time... And how would constantly shifting back and forth, if you did so, and had all your life, affect your gender identity? To put it in terms of Star Trek, for those familiar with it, why is Odo male and the "female shapeshifter" (the one played by Salome Jens) female?
 

Torm

Explorer
vulcan_idic said:
To put it in terms of Star Trek, for those familiar with it, why is Odo male and the "female shapeshifter" (the one played by Salome Jens) female?

I've had discussions with friends about that before, and also about the sexual determination of Transformers, and now, with Eberron, of the Warforged. (Can you HAVE a "female" Warforged? Would anyone build one? And one hesitates to think what purpose they would build one for - visions of Cherry 2000 er sumtin....)

I lean towards the Yin-Yang sort of explanation for the determination, rather than a purely physical\chemical one - Males tend to be more agressive, less cooperative, more destructive, but also the first to stand to fight for something, even if its not "theirs". And they more inclined to try to change things to suit themselves. Females are less agressive, more cooperative, more creative, more likely to keep out of conflicts unless they feel like it directly affects something that is "theirs". And they are more inclined to adapt their own ways to suit what is around them.

Thus you can judge what your character is by these sorts of traits, even if they are an amorphous blob.
 

hong

WotC's bitch
Torm said:
I've had discussions with friends about that before, and also about the sexual determination of Transformers, and now, with Eberron, of the Warforged. (Can you HAVE a "female" Warforged? Would anyone build one? And one hesitates to think what purpose they would build one for - visions of Cherry 2000 er sumtin....)


alita_sm.jpg


gits_sm.jpg



Also, you know how hard it is to find pics of Priss the replicant, in the middle of all that BGC stuff?
 

Remove ads

Top