D&D General Do you allow "crossplaying" at your table? Has it ever caused problems?

[billd91]

On the subject of experiences in middle/high school with players portraying other genders, one of my best friends always played women in D&D. Those characters never came off as creepy or disrespectful, but it was a noteworthy pattern. Now, twenty-odd years later, turns out she’s trans. She’s far from the only trans person who used roleplaying games as a safe way to explore their identity before fully coming to terms with it, and I think that’s a big part of why we get so many LGBTQIA folks in the hobby, despite it having a history as a bit of a boy’s club.

Back in 1991, I ran a Cyberpunk 2020 game in which one of my female players played a gay male character. A year later, she came out as a lesbian. At that point, I strongly suspected her character may have been one of her tools for her working out her identity.

 

[Richards]

I allow it, but in all my decades of gaming I've only ever seen the option chosen twice: at one point, each of my sons tried running a female PC - one had an elf thief/mage in AD&D 2E, the other one ran an elf sorceress in 3.0. Oh, and in one 3.5 campaign I had about half a gaming session in which the players all ran various female NPCs: dryads and nymphs (and their unicorn allies) fighting off an attack on Ehlonna's Grove after one enemy from the main attack force made it past the normal PCs.

Johnathan

 

[Fauchard1520]

Oh, and in one 3.5 campaign I had about half a gaming session in which the players all ran various female NPCs: dryads and nymphs (and their unicorn allies) fighting off an attack on Ehlonna's Grove after one enemy from the main attack force made it past the normal PCs.

Johnathan

Well hey, the new She-Ra turned out to be unexpectedly entertaining. A Princesses of Power game sounds like good goofy fun.

 

[Weiley31]

I mean the closest I ever did to cos-playing at a dnd session was putting on my hoodie and putting the hood up when my pc did the same thing for his Cloak of Elvenk-oh............wait.

I mentally read that as the wrong thing.


Well, in regards to the topic, I honestly have no probs with it. I feel like people make a super huge big deal outta it cuz, they have an issue with role-playing/understanding IT'S JUST A GAME/or whatever other stupid reasoning people seem to use to make a stupid huge big deal outta it.

Granted: sometimes a bad example gets set by a player, but that honestly shouldn't stigmatize or give a bad rap to players that want to do that. Especially if they are big on the roleplaying.

But maybe I feel that way because it takes a lot to bother me or like the the obvious things that are an agreed upon big nope.

I will admit that I am for the rare 5E intersex Elf: Mordenkienin's Tome of Foes opened up that doorway and Corellon seems like somebody to go full on flipping the script that way if the mood hit that level.

 

[Lord Twig]

One thing I have found useful about running characters of the opposite gender is that it allows you to practice trying to think like the opposite gender. Which is then useful for when you are trying to write a story. I'm sure I am not the only person here that has tried their hand at authoring. And if you are writing a story, you are going to include characters of the opposite gender. It is a good idea to figure out how they think so you can write them in a realistic way.

The two traditional genders are similar in many ways of course, but there are other ways where they are very different. They think different, they are emotionally different, their minds work in subtlety different ways. If you are married and haven't figured this out then your spouse probably has, and is very understanding.

Views on sex and relationships are of course a big one. The male/female relationship dynamic I find fascinating. What do men find attractive? What do women find attractive? How do they communicate? Men can say one thing and mean something very different from a woman who says the exact same thing. And if you don't understand that difference you have just miscommunicated and it can lead to hurt feelings.

Anyway, I think it is a very useful tool in understanding the opposite gender and is fun in a challenging sort of way.

 

[BrassDragon]

Long before I was politically aware or exposed to other gaming groups, I always considered this part and parcel of being the GM. Of course I had to portray characters with different genders and outlooks, making sure they feel like believable and properly motivated characters. I guess that set the tone for the groups I played with over the years and we never stopped to reflect on the role of 'crossplay' as the OP calls it or thought it was awkward. Maybe in the rare romantic contexts but that stuff is hilariously awkward / funny with ANY combination of genders or preferences.

The one thing that still occasionally trips me up is gender assumption when players introduce their new characters (e.g. Me: 'From the balcony overhead, a freckled halfling strums his lute and begins to sing...' Player: 'Wait, Sabrix is a girl') but I've become more sensitive to that.

After one of my players came out, I realized I never really portrayed queer NPCs or described non-straight relationships in my games and included more of that without making a big deal out of it. I guess that's the sum of my experiences: 'just do it and don't make a big deal out of it'.

 

[Reynard]

I did not read the whole thread, so I apologize if this has been mentioned, but I have found that playing via a VTT has helped alleviate the accidental misgendering of the character simply because you can use an appropriate token.

 

[Knight_Marshal]

I have had many female characters with only one of the who acted kind of easy/slutty. She was a bodyguard/assassin solo in Cyberpunk and by the time you found out it was an act, you were dead.

 

[erc1971]

Our group has been together for about 20 years, and we have always been "Play whatever you want."

I am a man who 99% of the time plays female characters. Not sure why, but whenever I make male characters I end up making The Punisher...every...single...time. (Even when I try not to, it still happens.) When I play female characters, I tend to make a large variety of personalities, etc., etc., which makes for better role playing. Are some sexual? Yes. Are some not sexual? Yes. They vary alot, just as real people do.

Eric

 

[Charlaquin]

I will admit that I am for the rare 5E Futa Elf: Mordenkienin's Tome of Foes opened up that doorway and Corellon seems like somebody to go full on flipping the script that way if the mood hit that level.

Could you not use that word to describe intersex characters, please?