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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeff Wilder" data-source="post: 4525619" data-attributes="member: 5122">If we disagree, it's only slightly.  I should have said "good fantasy fiction."  Actually, "good speculative fiction" is even better, because I don't read very much fantasy.  (Interestingly, all of the fantasy authors I actually make an effort to follow are women.)Sure, but aren't there stages of suspension of disbelief for you?  For me, for example, I can't stand wuxia in my fantasy.  Conan -- oops, I mean Red Sonja -- ripping through an army pretty much single-handedly?  Sure, no problem.  Red Sonja walking on the leaves of trees?  No thanks.The 6'5, 300 pound dude -- that's me, BTW -- playing a female halfling goes beyond my levels of suspension of disbelief.  I simply cannot immerse myself in that situation, and frankly, I think gamers who can -- either as the character or playing across from the character -- are exceptionally rare.  As I said, I have, in 24 years, never seen one.I, and the other players in my group, also limit options based on morality, species, squeamishness, in-character cooperation, and any number of other things.  It's a cooperative game, and my group considers the fun of everybody else in addition to their own.  (Although, as I said, with gender it's not been an issue.)  In other words ... no, the fun of the single player isn't enough.I'm missing your point, unless you're implying that I believe playing a woman involves that sort of behavior.  And if you believe that, well, that says more about your stereotypes of women than it does about my expectations at the game table, since I certainly never said or implied anything of the sort.As do I.  And, given that, not playing cross-gender helps with immersion.  When a PC refers to my character as "he," because it's understandably difficult to associate my hulking presence with femininity, nobody has to stop the RP to remind the player than I'm actually a "she."  If anybody out there who plays cross-gender claims this doesn't happen on a regular basis ... well, let's just say I'm skeptical.Right.  So why play cross-gender?  (Especially when playing cross-gender, IME, inevitably means that 5% of incidents end up being played badly.)As a final word, please note that when I don't respond further, I'm not snubbing anyone.  I feel as if I -- and a few others -- have tapped into a pretty big well of defensiveness, and I'm really not interested in engaging it, even in consideration of the productive discussion I think I could have with other posters.  So I'm out.</blockquote>

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