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<blockquote data-quote="Jeff Wilder" data-source="post: 4524395" data-attributes="member: 5122">Me too, or pretty close.Understand that I am not making a blanket statement about anybody reading this message, or anybody a reader may know, but:I have never seen a man roleplay a woman well.&nbsp; Never.&nbsp; 24 years of&nbsp; RPGing, and not once.&nbsp; (This includes me, the couple of times I tried it when I was much younger.)&nbsp; I've seen a few women roleplay a man well.&nbsp; (IME, women seem to generally have less desire to play cross-gender, which I suppose is a shame, given that IME they're infinitely better at it.)Don't get me wrong ... I've seen men roleplay, say, a rogue and do a fine job of roleplaying a rogue.&nbsp; And occasionally that rogue might be female.&nbsp; But in those cases, anybody paying attention to the roleplay wouldn't be able to tell the gender of the PC, and that leads to two questions: (1) If someone can't tell your gender from your roleplay, isn't that not such a good thing?&nbsp; (2) So why bother playing cross-gender?There are many logical differences between roleplaying a fantasy race and a real gender, or a genderless PC and a real gender.&nbsp; (At the most basic level, for instance, it's very difficult to tell somebody that they don't seem like a &quot;real&quot; elf, but it's quite valid to express that someone doesn't seem like a real woman.)&nbsp; Those differences are IME dealbreakers.I wouldn't ban cross-gender roleplaying IMC, but I'd make sure the player considers it very carefully.&nbsp; I wouldn't allow a player to do it &quot;just because,&quot; or roll randomly to decide.&nbsp; Gender is too important to immersion, IMO, for it to be a lark.&nbsp; (&quot;Good innkeep, our minstrel is a phenomenal lutist.&nbsp; He's studied with the finest musicians in the Flanaess.&quot;&nbsp; &quot;She.&quot;&nbsp; &quot;What?&quot;&nbsp; &quot;My bard is female.&quot;&nbsp; &quot;Oh, right.&quot;&nbsp; &quot;With a 20 Charisma.&quot;&nbsp; &quot;Right ... &quot;&nbsp; Repeat 10 times a session.)It's pretty much a moot issue, in any event .... nobody seems to have had any desire to play cross-gender in any of our games for years and years.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jeff Wilder, post: 4524395, member: 5122"] Me too, or pretty close. Understand that I am not making a blanket statement about anybody reading this message, or anybody a reader may know, but: I have [i]never[/i] seen a man roleplay a woman well. Never. 24 years of RPGing, and not once. (This includes me, the couple of times I tried it when I was much younger.) I've seen a few women roleplay a man well. (IME, women seem to generally have less desire to play cross-gender, which I suppose is a shame, given that IME they're infinitely better at it.) Don't get me wrong ... I've seen men roleplay, say, a rogue and do a fine job of roleplaying a rogue. And occasionally that rogue might be female. But in those cases, anybody paying attention to the roleplay wouldn't be able to tell the gender of the PC, and that leads to two questions: (1) If someone can't tell your gender from your roleplay, isn't that not such a good thing? (2) So why bother playing cross-gender? There are many logical differences between roleplaying a fantasy race and a real gender, or a genderless PC and a real gender. (At the most basic level, for instance, it's very difficult to tell somebody that they don't seem like a "real" elf, but it's quite valid to express that someone doesn't seem like a real woman.) Those differences are IME dealbreakers. I wouldn't ban cross-gender roleplaying IMC, but I'd make sure the player considers it very carefully. I wouldn't allow a player to do it "just because," or roll randomly to decide. Gender is too important to immersion, IMO, for it to be a lark. ("Good innkeep, our minstrel is a phenomenal lutist. He's studied with the finest musicians in the Flanaess." "She." "What?" "My bard is female." "Oh, right." "With a 20 Charisma." "Right ... " Repeat 10 times a session.) It's pretty much a moot issue, in any event .... nobody seems to have had any desire to play cross-gender in any of our games for years and years. [/QUOTE]

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