cross gender fun?

[Teflon Billy]

....You admit that you portray women as a DM, but disallow the players to do so. Doesn't that strike you as just slightly hypocritical?

I hand out treasure and the players don't. I run most every monster in the book and don't allow the players to do so. I know ever facet of the adventure and the players have to find it out piece by piece.

Looks like there is no end to my hypocrisy

Don't be ridiculous Vaxalon, "Player" and "DM" are two very different jobs in the game.

Quit oversimplifying.

 

[Teflon Billy]

...I'm a heterosexual guy, but I have twice in about 10 years played a homosexual male character (Well, one was bisexual, actualy, but...). Would the DMs who forbid cross-gender characters forbid this too? Do you force players to only play the same gender and same sexual orientation as themselves as well? If so, at what point does it stop? Same racial group as themselves? (Oh no, no playing an asian character, you might treat them as a sterotype.) Same age as themselves (Oh no, no playing a 55 year old wizard, you might play him as a sterotype.)

I don't give a good goddam about avoiding Stereotypes, I care about them adding something to my game, and in my experience cross gender RP'ing hasn't.

The "Asian character" you mention would get banned pretty damn quick if every time a (non-asian) player were to play one he chose to pull at the sides of his eyes and speak through buck teeth every time he spoke in character, prefacing everything with "Confucius-ah-say..."

That is roughly the equivalent of what I've seen from cross-gender types. They added nothing to the game and pissed me off with their foolishness.

Joh Brown's "why can't you play that as a male" question is a good one, and I'm sorry but "Becasue I don't want to" isn't getting you past the gate.

I've fallen for that before.

 

[BOZ]

i see it this way. RPG is about fantasy right, an escape from reality? why not use it to play characters that are far different than you really are? or even characters who represent something you are not, but would either like to be or are at least curious about? i think the only times the DM should need to step in and restrict a player's choice in PC's is when the character would unbalance the rest of the game, or when it's been proven that there have been problems with such a character and/or player in the past. don't restrict a player's creativity because of your hangups, or at least impose all the rules fairly on all players if you must.

 

[Teflon Billy]

...i think the only times the DM should need to step in and restrict a player's choice in PC's is when the character would unbalance the rest of the game, or when it's been proven that there have been problems with such a character and/or player in the past. don't restrict a player's creativity because of your hangups, or at least impose all the rules fairly on all players if you must.

Done and done

 

[Lady Dragon]

I have played both genders In fact my all time favorite is a male character. I may be biased but I think females can more easily play males mostly due to certain cultural taboos. Most woman would not in any way feel her sexuality was threatened if she played a male characrter. I think a lot of men would feel insecure acting out a female character who is female and acts like it. which is why all of the lesbians, sluts and asexual female characters are played by males.The lesbians and asexual females are just males in female bodies and the sluts are comical so the threat to there masculinity is reduced.

The last thing most male players want is another male player playing a male to make a pass at her it could be embarrassing. Can it be done? Sure by a mature player in a mature group.

So each DM needs to assess his own group,and if he thinks they are mature enough to handle it properly then allow it but he might want to make it clear that Lesbians and sluts are not allowed.

 

[Wikidogre]

My first ever character (1st ed.) was a female Cleric.

(*Now a 30th level Demi-God of Magic, (in 3rd))

 

[S'mon]

Although I've played many female PCs, I don't think I've ever played either a lesbian or a slut - the last slut character I've seen played by a male was around 14 years ago, he would've been about 15. I've seen plenty of slut characters played by women though in PBEMs, as Billy knows.

In my current game, one of the best characters (IMO) is Chin Li, a renegade female Monk played by a male. Although she's somewhat 'asexual', appropriately for her background in a celibate Sisterhood, she's clearly different from the male party members. She did a great 'face down' to a leering hobgoblin chief last week, I recall...

 

[JohnBrown]

Hey AI and Tsyr,

First, lets make it clear that I am not in any way bashing people who like to play cross gender roles. I simply said I don’t allow them in my game. I may be misunderstanding what the two of you are saying, but you both seem to think that I am being restrictive somehow.

AI,

To answer your question about races, no, I don’t make them explain to me why they want to play a race. I don’t do this because there are game mechanic differences between an elf, human, gnome, etc. There are stereotypical (a better word escapes me at the moment) behaviors associated to the various PC races that can form the basis of a PC’s behavior and point of view. The player could chose to play “against type” (say, a city dwelling, nature-hating elf) and I wouldn’t have any problem with that either. I might make someone explain to me why he or she wants to play a Hill Giant, however. If for no other reason, to make sure they understand, the difficulties a Hill Giant is likely to face when trying to interact with other races. To make sure they are likely to “pay” for all of those combat bonuses.

The male/female condition doesn’t have same sort of game mechanics built around it (well, at least not since 1E ). You are correct in saying that bad role players will play badly regardless of what role they playing. However, the number of truly good role players (which by my definition, means someone who can consistently play the game and be consistent to the behaviors and quirks that they have defined for their characters without it turning into bad dinner theater) that I have run into is a relatively small number, and, no, I don’t count myself among them. Most of us fall somewhere in the middle. Based on my experience, it is the average or good player that gets the most annoyed by bad gender portrayal. None of us are actually elves or gnomes. A bad portrayal of a gnome might affect how much fun a person is having, but isn’t likely to insult them. A bad gender portrayal can and many times often does, insult someone. Best, again in my opinion, to make the majority of the people happy. There is no game mechanic benefit, the bad role player isn’t insulting, and the truly good role player is only minorly inconvenienced, if at all.


Tysr,

To address your points, if someone wants to play a homosexual, I wouldn’t stop them. A person’s sexual orientation doesn’t change their gender. If someone wanted to be Asian, no I wouldn’t stop them, again not really a gender issue. If you are asking would I intercede when a player is having their character behave in such a way that it is insulting to any Asian or homosexual players in the group. You bet. D&D is game, its about having fun. If someone is ruining that for me and/or the other players, then I need to put a stop to it. Controversial character portrayals are best left for the stage and screen. Being gay might be important to for a player’s character development. Being jerk in real life, however, isn’t.

Although, I must admit, the number of times truly sexual or race based situations have come up in my game over the years have been very few. A hero’s sexual orientation isn’t going to make the villagers any less appreciative when they are saved from the dragon (in my world at least).

As far as the PC race question, I believe the answers I gave AI pretty much cover that. Dwarves, elves, etc. are different species; they potentially could have radically different abilities (covered in the game mechanics), or points of view (covered by role playing). There is however, no difference form a game mechanics point of view or a game role playing point of view between male or females (whatever real life differences between men and women someone believes exists is probably best left for another thread ). How your character behaves is not dependant on your character’s gender.




Since playing your own gender effectively restricts nothing, and nothing is gained by playing the opposite sex. I again ask, what is the attraction? Why would you want to? Why am I wrong in my ruling? I am not trying to be argumentative, or state that anyone is wrong for playing the opposite sex. I just truly don’t understand why anyone would want to (at least in the context of a D&D game).

 

[S'mon]

The last thing most male players want is another male player playing a male to make a pass at her it could be embarrassing. Can it be done? Sure by a mature player in a mature group.

I think when I play a female character I tend to play her as typically female, so I sit back and wait to be wooed (or not) - if I wanted to hit on people I'd play a male character.
IMC, as in most real-world cultures, it's generally expected that men do the wooing. One (male) player played a female Sorcerer whose high CHA attracted a lot of male attention. His next character was her brother, also a high CHA Sorcerer - he didn't get hit on by women in the same way, mostly for cultural reasons, although he turned heads and could have used his high CHA to sleep around if he'd been so inclined.

 

[Jolly Giant]

You admit that you portray women as a DM, but disallow the players to do so. Doesn't that strike you as just slightly hypocritical?

Absolutely not! How can you even ask? As long as my campaign world contains women, I as the DM, will be FORCED to portray female characters!

I'll explain my point once more -you din't get it the first time, maybe you won't get it the second, but three's a charm, right? I don't let players play cross-gender chararcters because I expect that would just get distracting. That does not mean I'm so up-thight that I leave every female in the world a background blur when I DM.

I really would have thought anyone could see the difference...