Realistic Female NPC Resources

[Aoirorentsu]

Hello Enworlders,

I am designing a female NPC for a 4e minicampaign I am preparing, and I want her to be a realistic or at least non-asinine portrayal of how a woman would actually behave, and how aspects of her background might affect her differently than if she were a man.

I am not female, however, so that's where I hope my fellow enworlders can help. Do folks know of any good and freely available resources on how to roleplay (or write) female characters? Or, if you happen to be female, can you offer advice from what you've experienced in men designing and roleplaying female characters? Any non-obvious pitfalls I need to look out for?

(obvious but all too frequent pitfalls include "Oh, a perfect stranger just made a crude sexual comment about me. How cute! Now I totally like him and want to trust him with my life as adventuring partners!" as well as "I'll totally sleep with any and all NPCs to further the party's goals!")

I am trying to make the scenario in the minicampaign as realistic as possible (you know, given eladrin and magic and stuff), and I think part of that is creating characters with verisimilitude. Yeah, she's a nigh-immortal eladrin ardent, but she's also a woman, and I want to get all the potential influences on her personality, motivations, and reactions as genuine as possible to facilitate immersion into the setting.

Thanks in advance for any help. I look forward to the discussion.

 

[Cor_Malek]

Any non-obvious pitfalls I need to look out for?

Well you've already fell for one, but hopefully not too deep You assume there's some major difference. Or that there's none.
Think of all NPC's as it's the case with angels - it's not which one they are, but the fact that they're neither.

Anything and everything you might connect to given sex relies on culture it's in. And I do mean everything. Even what we call "maternal instinct" is not universally occuring, and it's paternal instinct in some cultures (OK, to be fair I know of only one).

So in your own world, it's a carte blanche. It depends solely on what you want to achieve with story, or what kind of world you want to build, and what your characters will want to achieve.

Even what we have sewed into our minds by culture is not that deep though. In psychological studies, sex is either irrelevant to final results differentiation, or very rarely confirms or completely overturns our habits (like the puppy + electrical shock study ).

What you have here, designing a female NPC as male DM is similar exercise to any creation of NPC's. What do you do, when you're creating a neutral necromancer? It's not like you raised any zombies yourself, or even used magic.
You compose this character. You give him goals and abilities. You add background. And now, everything he does is more or less reaction to what's around him.

For example, the situation you mentioned - PC's making some sexual remarks to NPC. First off, who is the NPC? It's rather safe to assume that she had to deal with stuff like that on numerous occasions, and it's nothing more or less than an irritating, common re-occurrence. Though if she's particularly influential - she might be accustomed to more classy approach.
It doesn't mean the female NPC would be irrevocably against any advances. If the PC has charisma of 20, and is already known as a powerful hero... I hate to break it, but if I noticed one distinction between women and men talking about well crafted bottoms - it's that men I know put less heart in it (might be my confirmation bias though). Even then though, there's an escape plan that women use for such emergencies, and might come in handy to DM - label such PC as "cute". It's the same men do - when someone is undeniably attractive, not only physically, but with reasonable amount of charm... but is just... you know*.

So the crucial, most important thing you need to actually focus on is... not to over-think it Just play her as you'd do with any male NPC, and if her ovaries come up, just don't panic (unless they, like literally pop out ← fine to panic). Try to remember some female protagonists from modern (hopefully not too pulpy) literature. Would Clarice Starling be any different if she was a bloke? On the other hand - did the fact that Ursula le Guin was female herself - made her characters, bulk (all?) of which were male - less believable? Would it matter if you imagined Ged to be a woman? Unless you actually want to make a damsel in distress or some other trope - just relax, and do what you always do.

Huh. Now that I thought of Starling - there actually was an important reason why a woman was put there instead of Will Graham. Sexual tension was the only way to make a connection with Hannibal without retconning most of what we knew about him from first book (and he himself, rare gem as he was already - simply couldn't be a woman - there was under 100 female serial killers in US that we know of (96 last time I checked, so it might be slightly above now), and their modus operandi was noticeably different from male counterparts (again, with several exceptions). A "pure psychopath" was far fetched already, and a female one at that would be just too much of suspension-of-disbelief breaker).
Sorry for a long start-up, but what I'm getting at is: and why exactly is this NPC a woman?

*customisable Put in this spot what is missing - intellect, too much, too few self reliance, whatever is crucial for you to be attracted to someone. In this case you can just put in there whatever the character is lacking in .

 

[Hand of Evil]

I think there is a link in this thread: http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...-dming-advice-links-fixed-july-20-2008-a.html

 

[Gilladian]

As a woman myself, I agree that you can probably ignore the gender differences on the whole. While there ARE biases, as others have said, many of them are more cultural than we realize.

If the society this woman comes from is fairly gender-equal, then simply allow her to respond the same way a man would; it will depend a LOT on what she wants the final relationship with that person to be.

If a man makes a (non-threatening) pass at me, on the job, for example, I simply ignore it. I may smile politely or just glance away and shake my head, or I may (if I feel it was rudely done and meant to bother me) simply stare at him for a moment or two as if to say "what the hell?" and then go on with my job (I'm a Librarian at a largish public library and my interactions almost all happen in open view and hearing of other people).

The one or two times I have felt that a person's remarks were overly intrusive or mildly threatening, I've simply turned to a co-worker and asked them to take over the interaction. Once, when no coworker was around, I said "I'm sorry, I can't help you any more" and walked away. He stood there in apparent shock, and then left.

I suspect that if a woman was a tough, physical type, she might respond with a little more emphasis than I do; but if the person she's dealing with has power or authority (either over her or over something she wants) it is amazing what can be tolerated!!

Then again, men tolerate different kinds of crud from other sources (anyone pretend to like football at work?) all the time. We all do, and do it instinctively.

So play a woman with her goals and her background in mind, and don't worry about the "woman" aspect.

 

[krupintupple]

i tend to play women NPCs as the same as my male NPCs. because really, in a setting where anyone could secretly be a magical dragon, powerful mage, or a shape-shifting werewolf, people tend not to backhand the simpleton stable boy, or the serving wench if they be unsatisfied with their service.

sure, you're going to have drunken morons at the tavern casting eyes at the beautiful elven woman who comes in with her party, but at the same time, i think if she was even partially magic-looking (like most PCs by the time they hit level 5), her threat that maybe he'd prefer spending the rest of his life as a swine since he thinks like one would make him shut up and keep his eyes on his drink.

if anything, i'd imagine certain creatures like vampires would pose as elderly beggars or helpless women in dark alleys, in hopes of having the scum of society prey upon them. i imagine that this would result in a steady stream of delicious blood for the vampires, and secondly, societies may enjoy the strange disappearance of their lesser-wanted citizens, like thugs, abusers and exploiters.

moreover, i could only imagine the poetic justice of a back-alley ruffian advancing upon a hauntingly beautiful woman with immoral intent, when all she did was beg for medicine for her ailing baby, when suddenly the sick "child" she was cradling shifts into a cackling imp and scales a wall, while the "helpless" waif leaps upon the cad with supernatural strength, fangs bared, undead eyes gleaming red with fury and hunger.