If there's one game where stat differences are justified, what game would that be?

Guest 6801328 · May 18, 2019

acpitz 1 said:
Dwarfs are short and chubby with big beards

But all those Scottish accents are just racial stereotyping.

Everybody knows they have Russian accents.

MGibster · May 18, 2019

Having difference in stats between genders among player characters just doesn't work for me. It limits options for those who wish to play a female character, I think it really displeases most women and girls who might want to participate in a game, and it doesn't really add anything to the game to begin with.

But I suppose there are exceptions to every rule. If someone wanted to play a Lady in Pendragon they're going to have stats that differ from that of a knight because the two have very different roles. However, there wouldn't be any difference in stats between a male and female knight.

Tony Vargas · May 18, 2019

You could slip in something of the kind in one of two ways that *might* not go over too badly:

1) Have SIZe and BuiLD stats chosen by the player, together they determine your characters weight, and put limits (min & max) on STRength and DEXterity. They're independent of the player's choice of assigned sex, but will probably result in gender-stereotype-conforming PCs.

2) Setting. If a culture has strong/restrictive gender roles then people conforming to them will strive to achieve ideals, leading to development in the desired directions. It's not that you couldn't build a PC amazon or dandy, just that they'll be consistently mistreated.

acpitz 1 · May 18, 2019

Elfcrusher said:
But all those Scottish accents are just racial stereotyping.

Everybody knows they have Russian accents.

Ach sheilve!

Yardiff · May 18, 2019

Tony Vargas said:
You could slip in something of the kind in one of two ways that *might* not go over too badly:

1) Have SIZe and BuiLD stats chosen by the player, together they determine your characters weight, and put limits (min & max) on STRength and DEXterity. They're independent of the player's choice of assigned sex, but will probably result in gender-stereotype-conforming PCs.

2) Setting. If a culture has strong/restrictive gender roles then people conforming to them will strive to achieve ideals, leading to development in the desired directions. It's not that you couldn't build a PC amazon or dandy, just that they'll be consistently mistreated.

I was going to suggest something like your number 1. Also I'd attach some stat bonuses to classes, so a couple points from SIZE and BUILD and one or two from class.

Umbran · May 19, 2019

acpitz 1 said:
It's just a game after all, right?

It's just a game.

It's just a movie. It's just a book. It's just a joke. It doesn't matter if I meant it as a *joke* right?

It is "just" a thing, until that thing harms someone. Until that thing imposes limits for no good reason. Until that thing gets repeated enough that we let the sense of the fiction bleed into reality. Our stories don't take place in a vacuum. They take place within a cultural context, a social context. Our stories say things about the story-tellers. Our games say things about the players.

What do you (the reader, not acpitz specifically) want your game, your stories, to say about you?

If anyone here wants to do such a thing at their table, well it is their table. But, if you *really* want to claim it doesn't matter, then flip it - make it so *women* have the strength, and the men are weaker.

Tony Vargas · May 19, 2019

Umbran said:
. But, if you *really* want to claim it doesn't matter, then flip it - make it so *women* have the strength, and the men are weaker.

One set in the alternate universe of Je ne suis pas un homme facile, for instance. Or, for us older fellas who may not have netflix, any of those 70s battle of the sexes spoofs, like Queen Kong or Star Maidens.

Celebrim · May 19, 2019

Umbran said:
If anyone here wants to do such a thing at their table, well it is their table. But, if you *really* want to claim it doesn't matter, then flip it - make it so *women* have the strength, and the men are weaker.

Seems like a reasonable thing to do for a science fiction novel. You could then speculate on the conditions that caused this state of being to come about, presumably paralleling the conditions that make say females the larger stronger of the sexes in eagles and spiders.

I doubt anyone is going to feel threatened by that speculation.

Immortal Sun · May 19, 2019

Celebrim said:
Seems like a reasonable thing to do for a science fiction novel. You could then speculate on the conditions that caused this state of being to come about, presumably paralleling the conditions that make say females the larger stronger of the sexes in eagles and spiders.

I doubt anyone is going to feel threatened by that speculation.

Why would we need to speculate about it in the fiction? Because it's different than normal? It's sci-fi/fantasy. It is because it is. Unless the reversed-sexual-dynamic is the underpinning element of the setting, it doesn't need to be "explained" any more than why the world has dragons or magic.

Celebrim · May 19, 2019

Immortal Sun said:
Why would we need to speculate about it in the fiction? Because it's different than normal? It's sci-fi/fantasy. It is because it is. Unless the reversed-sexual-dynamic is the underpinning element of the setting, it doesn't need to be "explained" any more than why the world has dragons or magic.

First, because science fiction and fantasy are different.

And secondly, because even in fantasy, it helps to have an explanation for why the world has dragons or magic. In fantasy however, that explanation is allowed to be (but does not have to be) mythic as opposed to scientific. For example, we can in fact answer the question, "Why are their dragons?" with respect to Tolkien's Middle Earth.