All D&D trolls are male?

[Dragonbait]

Paizo's Classic Monsters Revisited gives details about Troll females. Basickly, troll females live throw out the males from society as soon as they're old enough to take care of themselves. Males are as such left to wander the countryside.

that's hyena society, too.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

In my game, the troll mating dynamic is a little different - with the rare female being a larger more defensive but less violent being. During "troll-mating" season, the male trolls will dump their trollpats in open and highly obvious places so as to better catch the prevailing breeze, all in the hope of attracting the wandering female. Bloodshed between the randy males is prodigious as each attempts to disturb or overlay their opponent's mating "gift". During such times, my PCs are much warier of trolls figuring it better to leave them alone.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[freyar]

There was some mod I played that had a BBEGirl troll...Gates of Firestorm Peak, I think.

She may have had two heads and psychic powers, but I distinctly remember her having some chesticles, definitely.

EDIT: Actually, it may have been something with The Night Below. My memory's a bit lax.

Gates of Firestorm Peak has "troll mutates" (mutant trolls) including a matriarch with two heads and psionic abilities, so that's probably what you're thinking of.

3.5 versions of those are in the CC: troll mutate and troll mutate matriarch.

 

[howandwhy99]

In our OD&D game the females are gnoll-troll hybrid casters. I don't know if this is from some publication or not, but Diaglo would know. These might even be non-troll or just troll-like creatures that are females for one or both races. Not sure on that either.

Also, an idea that just struck me is Trolls may not have any females or males at all and I'm just misunderstanding our game's few encounters with trolls so far. It may be possible trolls are asexual, yeast budding, ambulatory fungi with regenerative properties. That would mean we're spore spreading for these creatures with our troll-gut stomach sack of neverending elastic rope/magic item we found. Which is disturbing in whole new ways from the disturbing nature of the item to begin with.

 

[Wicht]

I seem to recall an older Dungeon magazine that had a picture of a female troll on the cover. The adventure inside was a 2ed 'humanoid' adventure. I'm too lazy to go look through my magazines at the moment, but I do seem to recall it.

 

[Fifth Element]

Doesn't the OP's question answer itself? If all trolls are male, then none of them are, because 'male' only makes sense if it's opposed to 'female'.

 

[Delta]

Doesn't the OP's question answer itself? If all trolls are male, then none of them are, because 'male' only makes sense if it's opposed to 'female'.

Hypothetically, the female could appear as a different type of monster (hags being a good prospect).

For example: All dryads are female, are satyrs are male, procreation occuring between the two types. (Per the very old Dragon "Sex in D&D" article).

 

[Fifth Element]

Hypothetically, the female could appear as a different type of monster (hags being a good prospect).

For example: All dryads are female, are satyrs are male, procreation occuring between the two types. (Per the very old Dragon "Sex in D&D" article).

Yes, that's true. Sexual dimorphism so extreme that the sexes are called different things is possible. My brain was locked in "monster name = species" mode.

 

[GAAAHHH]

Like many animals, male and female trolls may look similar. Those who don't know what to look for may not be able to spot the differences.

 

[chronoplasm]

Like many animals, male and female trolls may look similar. Those who don't know what to look for may not be able to spot the differences.

Yeah, like with snakes where there isn't a dangly bit; you have to stick something in a hole to tell the difference? ...Or something like that?