As a player, do you have a preferred gender for your GM?

[S'mon]

The only link I can think of: if there are fewer opportunities for women to play, then it may be tougher for them to get extensive GMing experience. I haven't seen that in practice, though.

IME I don't think there is a strong correlation between GMing experience and GMing skill/ability. While there are certainly mistakes a newbie GM can make when GMing an unfamiliar system, I don't find that GMs normally start out poor then get better over time. If they're a good GM then they will normally GM a fun game right away. If they're a bad GM then likewise, their game will always be bad.

At the London D&D Meetup, I commented a few months ago that after 5 years of the Meetup, and many dozens of campaigns, there apparently had never been a female GM, despite about 25% of the players being female! (I was corrected - one female GM had run 3 sessions of Feng Shui). This was soon rectified, with the Ravenloft 4e one-shots giving new DMs a chance to gain experience without committing to a full campaign, several female D&Ders stepped up to try their hand at DMing and since then I have played with 2 female DMs, both very good I think.

 

[Lwaxy]

this includes having a SO in the group (ick).

Is this really an issue (except when they have lover's quarrels)?

Husband and me, son and GF, best friend of son and his GF, sister of son's GF and her BF (at this point I probably confused everyone hehe) Cousin and wife all play kind of regularly, and it hasn't been much of an issue.

 

[S'mon]

I'm pretty sure that gender and skill are largely unrelated.

I'd agree, but players do have preferences in the style of DMing they like, right? It's not exactly about objective DMing skill.

For instance, I'm a man and I quite often like to play female PCs, maybe a third of the time. I've learned to be reluctant to do that with male GMs, who often don't seem to take my character seriously, they may make negative comments about the disconnect between my appearance and that of my PC, etc. I don't experience that with female GMs, I think I can trust them to take my PC seriously regardless of her gender.

 

[S'mon]

I found the last few games (years back) I ran at public events I got stuck with most of the female gamers, which was ok in a way but I really prefer at least some males in the group.

I think that's interesting - although not exactly what I was asking about. I have one 4e Forgotten Realms campaign where I like to have lots of female players, but probably not all-female (currently it's 3f 2m), and another 'Heavy Metal Swords & Sorcery' game which can accommodate female players ok but is much more male-oriented in the setup, and I'm quite happy to have an all-male group for that one. Then I have an online AD&D game on Dragonsfoot which is almost a 'guy's night' type game and definitely suits the all-male player group. And finally I have an old-school Gygaxian dungeon-delving Pathfinder game where the gender of the players doesn't matter at all, but the setup is probably more attractive to male players in general.

 

[Jhaelen]

Nope.

I do have a preference for female sci-fi authors, though.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I prefer female GMs, even though I never played in a campaign ran by them. I also prefer female teachers to instruct me, female athletes on TV, and female police officers to pull me over for a ticket over their male counterparts. But I just like females.

 

[Nagol]

I haven't found any correlation between attributes of the GM and my pleasure at the table.

So long as the GM runs a game I find interesting using understandable in-game actions and reactions, I'm good.

 

[S'mon]

I prefer female GMs, even though I never played in a campaign ran by them. I also prefer female teachers to instruct me, female athletes on TV, and female police officers to pull me over for a ticket over their male counterparts. But I just like females.

Hm, now you mention it I do like female drill instructors (when I was in the army), watching female athletes on TV, and dealing with female police officers (as part of my work with the local Police Safer Neighbourhoods Team - never been on the 'receiving end' of police work), also! I guess I must just like females, too!

 

[jonesy]

I am fine with male or female. I have no experience with all the others

I do. Well, not ALL the others, but S/he was very good and gender had nothing to do with it.

 

[ExploderWizard]

IME it hasn't mattered one way or the other. I have participated in great games run by both men and women.