Guys playing girls (chime in, ladies)

[Afrodyte]

what an interesting topic!

God I love ENWorld sometimes. Two pages of a "sensitive" topic, and nobody's done anything stupid yet. Kudos!

In any case, I'd like to concur with the posters who mention that all things being equal, RPing a male character and a female character would be almost exactly the same, save for the general size and shape of particular body parts.

However, all things are not equal because you have that pesky thing called culture that often has different expectations for people based upon things other than who a person truly is and what s/he is truly capable of. The issues that are swept under the rug in mainstream society become starkly realized when an individual or group of people start having ideas and desires that differ from what they are "supposed" to have. In D&D terms, a man who prefers embroidery to hunting and warfare would get the same quizzical (and even contemptuous) looks as a woman who prefers swinging a sword to baking pies.

I once had an idea for a culture that distinguished gender but not sex. Therefore, you could have male women and female men. Never did much with it, though. It could be interesting in the right context.

 

[der_kluge]

This thread comes up every so often.

I've played female characters for as long as I can remember. In fact, HALF of all the characters I've ever played are female. Of 3rd edition (and 3.5), I am currently on a deficit of male characters (male gnome cleric, female sorcerer, female sorcerer).

I am working on a character for a new campaign - a female human sorcerer. I have built her as a peasant girl, with some "problems". She has attachment disorder, and maybe some bipolar disorder. She's also an alcoholic and illiterate. All that, and only 15 years old to boot.

That's not necessarily what I would call your typical female character.

Some of my early female characters were more stereotypical - a priestess of Sune, for example. One of my favorites was a red-headed paladin that had a 7 intelligence. She was just and good, just really stupid.

One of the common female archetypes I tend to play is the naive, young, impulsive, but cute character. I've never really attempted an ugly, older, more brash type of female character. Of course, I've never really played an ugly, older, brash male character either.

A PbP game is the *best* place to play a female character, because the other players don't have to make the leap of faith from a guy sitting at the table to a female persona. I've played with a few people that have issues with me playing female characters, but I just chalk it up to their own limitations. I've never had anyone deny me the opportunity to play female characters. I'm fairly certain I wouldn't play with them if they didn't allow it.

I think playing a female character is just as complex as playing a male character. Most people tend to play a very similar character. I mean, think back through all the kinds of characters you've ever played, or all the kinds of characters your friend plays. Chances are you can make some kind of statements about those characters, and about potential future characters as well. For instance, whatever my friend plays, I know his character will be impulsive, and will want to go down in some sort of blaze of glory. All his characters are that way.

One idea would be to come up with an idea, write up all the stats, and when you get the character sheet all filled out, all the gear purchased, and all the spells figured out, etc - change the "M" to an "F" on the sex line, and then take a moment to think about what that means to you.

That might work for just stats, but a good character has a history, and relationships, and a personality - and that's true regardless of the sex you are playing.

 

[Desdichado]

There's a recent column on rpg.net that discusses this very topic:

http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/play18aug04.html

 

[Anabstercorian]

My first, and so far only, female character was a 700 year old elven diviner whose primary feature was that she was SO OLD. Of course, my next character, a 23 year old male sorcerer, wound up seducing her, so maybe I'm not as enlightened as I'd like to think.

 

[Patlin]

Flirting all the time, being oversexed, trying to solve all problems with sex. Many men play female characters like caricatures. It's annoying and icky.

That is icky, but the only player I've seen play a female PC that way *was* female. She was a cleric of Dionysius, the greek god of revelry, and liked to play up the revelry.

There is really no such thing as a typical man *or* a typical woman. Rather than trying for a stereotypical package, why don't you look for particular traights you find interesting and try to work those in to your character.

Enough of these serious answers, though. If all else fails, you could always go with the offensive but funny Jack Nicholson quote "I imagine a man, and then take away reason and accountability."

 

[Incenjucar]

In regards to the stereotypes: Consider how many characters are stereotypes anyways. It's that people tend to be more fascinated by some than others. For instance, I like to blend 'mystery' and 'seduction' in to my characters, and usually a bit of oddity, whether male or female. So you'll end up with:

Dude: "And so, my dear, you must ask yourself... is this stranger's embrace worth the risk of daring against your father's wishes? What worries you more, that you dissapoint him, or that you dissapoint your own desires? My offer stands, but only you can choose."

Dudette: "It's up to you, hun. Follow your fathers wishes, and follow that quiet path of his, or take a risk and let this stranger in to your arms. It is your decision, hun, but make it quickly. If your fire does not burn hot enough that I may quench it, I would not tarry you further."

Not a huge difference.

That said, I don't make a habit of playing female characters aside from DMing. The only instances, in fact, were on-line, and very shortlived. Partially because being told that I played a 7', newly pregnant, mood-swinging half-tabari young woman in an extremely believable fashion made my eye twitch a bit.

 

[Remathilis]

Can't add more to the discussion that hasn't already been said, but I'll throw out some more food for thought.

1.) Avoid the Chainmail-bikini syndrome. While fantasy art is riddled with hard-bodies and large boobs (and I'm not talking about the artists ) you DON'T need to have your female be unearthly beautiful and dressed like a slut, even if she's not.

2.) The Madonna/Whore Complex: Without getting into psycho-babble, the M/WC is pretty much the objectifying/stereotyping of women into either images of purity or as sexual conquest. The first is considered "good" the latter "bad". Watch out for falling to either extreme, be it the icy-chaste paladin or the slutty sorcereress. Your female character can drink, engage in sexual activity, and scream, yell and fight just like a male character can without making her "less of a woman".

3.) Gender Stereotype: I don't want to sound like a sexist, but there has been a long standing stereotype that the female is generally slighter, less physically strong, more graceful, more worldly and better at social graces. IFyou want to play more to that classical stereotype, consider placing a slightly lower score in str or con and a slightly higher one in dex, wis or cha than you would a similar male counterpart. (By slightly, I'm talking a 1-2 maximum). Of course, feel free to break the stereotype at any time. There are many examples of exceptionally strong but not very graceful women.

4.) A NOTE TO DM's WITH FEMALE PCs (either played by females or not) Avoid the temptation to do ANY of the following unless you are 110% sure the player is comfortable with situation.
* Rape
* Unwanted Pregnancy
* Unrealistic Beauty Practices (IE footbinding culture)
* Women as property
* Constant or near-constant nudity (you wake up naked in a dungeon)
* Applying 1-3 (above) onto a PC.

Saddly, some of this advice needs to be told to some of the female players I've gamed with.

 

[MoriaCatlinChattal]

There's some books you might try, by Tamora Pierce. I read them when I was much younger. They have strong girl characters, but are aimed at kids....... My younger sister likes them.......

 

[KnowTheToe]

I have only seen it a few times and have really disliked it. One of the times the guy tried really hard and did a pretty good job but I was annoyed watching a man emulate female manerisms, bat his eyes etc. It just took away from the game. One other time the guy played a 16 year old japaneese school girl and it completely wrecked the game.

In a PBP I think it would work fine as I think the two genders are similar enough that it would be easy to portray the opposite gender without breaking the mood of the game or starting a bunch of off color jokes.

 

[RFisher]

The one main problem that I see with his portrayal is that, in trying to play "female", what he actually achieves is "genderless".

Interestingly, I just recently created my first female PC ever. (I'm not sure I would have if it hadn't been a 2nd character in a campaign in which all the players have 2 PCs.) She's a monk, so I decided she'd be very stoic. So I imagine she'll come across as pretty genderless.

I honestly don't know why I made her female. I suspect it has something to do with traditional gender roles & how society treats the sexes differently. For instance, one of the key elements of her background ended up being that her father didn't hide the fact that he would have rather had a son.