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

Zhaleskra · Mar 17, 2012

All I care about that is that the GM runs a fun game. In my experience, even "bad" games can be fun if they're so bad they're good.

Zelda Themelin · Mar 18, 2012

I don't think gender really matters. Bit, but most other female gm:s I met weren't that good. One was inexiperienced with rules, other was terrible drama-queen and "novelist", one was crazy, two other, fine. I've met at cons some better ones. I've met male gm:s who are better and quite some who were worse.

I have always played in groups where everyone was gm. Not always for that group though, and some more often than some.

Nowdays when my groups are smaller and I don't play with so many people I prefer to play games I like. Currently my 2 main gm:s are male. I run games for both of them, so they have female gm.

I prefer playing and gm:ing rather dark games. I can't do it with all these wussies. I sorta miss my "one-shot games like horror action movies" gm. Then again I can live with my current group. There are other medias to look for those things I fancy.

I am not really bothered by any game plots, except boring ones. I woudn't really like "gladiator" over the top style, or "seven" thriller torture scenarios. Excessive torture of pc:s is kinda bad social form. Very few people like excessive losing games. I think that despite all the "

" pc:s should be able to be heroes/anti-heroes of the game rather than victims. Or at lest victim status should be fairly temporaly unless it equals death. And I dont think gm should for player to play their "death".
I am lot less selfish these days. I can play nice/dm games with themes my players prefer.

I rather like water bob:s gaming stories.

Dannyalcatraz · Mar 18, 2012

Never had an option- no woman I've ever gamed with has ever wanted to DM.

Lwaxy · Mar 18, 2012

Tequila Sunrise said:
The women gamers in my experience lack the confidence to GM.

Yeah in my experience, too. Got one of the few other females in the group to co-GM now but it is a bit like dragging someone to the dentist, even though she has good ideas.

Argyle King · Mar 18, 2012

The only DMs I've encountered have been male or female. I would be open to the idea of DMs who were robots, androgynous aliens, or something in between.

My preference is that the game be fun.

Virel · Mar 21, 2012

I've had probably ten female players over 30 years. None of them caused any problems. Some were good players some were fair and one was terrible.

Over time one of the female players expressed interest in DMing. She started fair and got better over time to point of being very good. She improved as her confidense picked up. It bothered her the first time a PC died with her as DM, worried she'd pressed the group too hard etc. She was fair and would listen.

Kynn · Mar 21, 2012

Water Bob said:
Yes, at a certain level, it's about respect. We like playing with grit and pseudo-realism, and we typically feel constrained with that if women are around. The few times a woman has played with us (had one in a long term Traveller campaign I ran) I explained to her husband first, then to her, how gritty the game can sometimes be.

That doesn't sound like respect at all. It sounds like patronizing male chauvinism of the type that drives women away from the hobby in droves.

Jon_Dahl · Mar 21, 2012

I have no preference but I'd like to see female DMs more. Right now we are going to have a roleplaying event with seven male DMs and just one female DM. This simply doesn't sound right to me, especially because we have 6 female participants and 14 male participants.

I'm going to do my best to encourage that sole female DM... Even if she says that my character was insta-killed without a save, I'm just going to say "thank you".

S'mon · Mar 21, 2012

Virel said:
It bothered her the first time a PC died with her as DM, worried she'd pressed the group too hard etc. She was fair and would listen.

My current GM worries about killing PCs, a previous one ran Midnight, and killed loads of PCs - even she got tired of the slaughter, though. Are female GMs less likely to be killer GMs, I wonder?

S'mon · Mar 21, 2012

Jon_Dahl said:
I have no preference but I'd like to see female DMs more. Right now we are going to have a roleplaying event with seven male DMs and just one female DM. This simply doesn't sound right to me, especially because we have 6 female participants and 14 male participants.

I'm really glad we finally have some female GMs at my D&D Meetup no. 2006 to 2012 with 1-3 Meetups a week, up to around 15 or so campaigns running at a time, ca 1/4 female players and not one female GM (except a couple games of Feng Shui) was not right IMO.