DMing Gender?

[Tinker Gnome]

I find I have no trouble RPing female NPCs.

 

[Doug McCrae]

"You see a hot elf chick...uh...do you want to do her?"

Of course, she's hot. Your DM roleplays too much.

 

[MrApothecary]

Of course, she's hot. Your DM roleplays too much.

Ha! The other DMs I know are more like "you do her" before we even say anything, leading to cries of "but my character is a warforged!" or "My character is a straight female!" an so on. Which leads to long, off-topic, frankly kinky conversations involving whether or not House Cannath would build warforged with genitals.

 

[Jhaelen]

It's not that difficult, really. Since D&D's default assumption is equality between the sexes, I play them pretty much identical to male npcs.

It also helps to have a female player in the group. It tends to keep lapses by players and DMs in check.

I have a more difficult time portraying children. For some reason I have trouble remembering how things were like when I was younger... If I had children myself it would probably be a lot easier

 

[Steely Dan]

As a scorching pre-op tranny, I'm comfortable portraying any gender.

But I can understand that it can make some people uncomfortable, especially young men.

 

[Umbran]

For many, it isn't a matter of comfort, so much as believability.

No matter how deep into immersion you go, I'm a bearded guy over six feet tall with a moderately deep voice. Females from me always break suspension of disbelief to some degree.

 

[Terwox]

Human beings* do not have gender. Gender is a grammatical concept (masculine, feminine, and neuter). Human beings have sex: male or female [/nitpick]

*and demi-humans, etc. etc.

The sex of a human can also be intersex. One in two hundred people in America are born this way, without a determinant sex. Here's more on that! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersexuality

Further, gender as the discussion defines it is fairly obviously not in reference to the definition you have stated. Neuter can be broken up into androgyny and undifferentiated terms, as well as lots of other variations on gender as referencing sex role.

The above is all in good fun I assure you.

 

[calighis]

As a scorching pre-op tranny, I'm comfortable portraying any gender.

But I can understand that it can make some people uncomfortable, especially young men.

ROFLMAO!!!
As a Dungeon master
I really enjoy playing NPC female characters. The reason being is that they can get away with saying so much more and not risking physical injury. As a result I use them as platforms to critique weaker character constructions from the PC's. A weak character premise can fall to pieces before the piercing tongue of a female bartender or tavern wench. The Players usually enjoy such ribald and find it refreshing from a female NPC whereas the same attitude from a male would probably initiate combat.
Bethesda is one of my favorite NPC's to play for this reason and the characters really enjoy their time at the inn of the last stand. Everyone should have high pitched red head tavern keeper with a light Scottish brouge.

One time I was a running with a guy who played a Satyr named Nephiles. Nephiles was inclined to try and sleep with everything. It got to be an old gimmick real quick.
So one day I gave him what he wanted in front of the entire group. Nephiles did indeed get laid but unfortunately he was a vegetable for the rest of the game and no one wanted to get him restored after that.
Nephiles will never sleep with anything again after that encounter with Siren.
Most creative use of the intelligence drain ever... Sometimes I think all women have that Supernatural ability to make men stupider....

 

[Lord Xtheth]

Whenever I'm unsure about how to DM a female NPC I ususally think of some movie, tv, or storybook character to base the character off of. It generally works out well. Beyond that I don't realy play females different than males, with the exception of attractive prefference and job title.

I had one DM at one point only play all women as stuck up snobs. As a generalization it was good as a running joke, but after a few sessions of EVERY female having that template it lost it's touch.

So yeah, I kinda know what you're talking about here.

A good rule of thumb I use, is "Just play the character" Male or female in a high fantacy setting shouldn't realy matter. I mean if I were to go the realistic route, There wouldn't be women outside of their houses or with less than like 5 kids or somthing right? I mean Historically women were considered possesions and werent taught much (from what I recall from history class). Ultimately there would be no female characters realy. So yeah, play, have fun, and Bring gender up if and when it fits the situation.

 

[Silver Moon]

Whenever I'm unsure about how to DM a female NPC I ususally think of some movie, tv, or storybook character to base the character off of.

That is a great suggestion. Another thing I often do is base NPC's off of characters who I have gamed with in other gaming groups or at conventions.