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

[Dioltach]

Some of my players insist on playing characters that aren't even the same species as them!

(So no, apart from one guy a couple of decades ago who got a bit creepy about playing a female necromancer, it's never been an issue. I'm more likely to ban a player from choosing to play a kender than from "crossplaying".)

 

[R_J_K75]

When I played on the rare occasions (2E & early 3E) I would play a female every so often. I did it for the roleplaying challenge and just to play something different. I played a Priestess of Loviatar for a while that was really fun. As far as any of my players they haven't asked to play the opposite gender in a very long time. I'm not against it but I think I'd have to give it consideration before I said yes. If they genuinely want to do it, then probably but if its just as a joke then I wouldn't waste the time and effort helping them with the character generation.

 

[Charlaquin]

Not only am I in the “why is this a question?” camp, I probably wouldn’t play with someone who had a problem with the idea of people playing a different gender than their own. Literally the only problem I can imagine coming with it is some creepy dude portraying a woman in a way that made other players uncomfortable, and that’s a problem with the specific player. That person would be out of my game very quickly.

 

[ccs]

Its not ever been an issue with my groups.

The only issue has been that one of the players who has close to a 50/50 mix of m/fm characters plays them all so blandly that its often hard to remember what they are.
This BTW is not his intent.
So in this case its a problem storytelling wise....

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I'm reminded of the time I was playing Pathfinder at a con and the one dude says he's playing a female pole-dancer bard, and pulls out a miniature to match. Like, really?

Literally the only problem I can imagine coming with it is some creepy dude portraying a woman in a way that made other players uncomfortable, and that’s a problem with the specific player. That person would be out of my game very quickly.

But generally, it's a non-issue at my own tables. Way back in the day, there was some immature nonsense from time to time with this, but we were immature ourselves.

 

[payn]

Immaturity explains most of the issues at play here, but not always. My super model lesbian player was in his late thirties and a rather mature person. Sometimes a player needs to get it out of their system, and sometimes it is their system.

 

[GlassJaw]

I allow it. Never been an issue.

That said, I generally prefer people play the same gender, but that's only because I've never seen a male do any justice to a female character. Certainly hasn't been any issues of sexism or anything like that, the characters just haven't been that interesting.

 

[Bacon Bits]

I'm in the "Why is this a question?" camp. However, some people at the table I play at think it's weird or unusual. It's not unusual to find people who think it's weird. I think it's weird that they think it's weird, though.

Some people are really picky about this, however. There were people who were upset about Star Wars: The Force Awakens because they felt there was no point-of-view character for them (white males) to relate to because it was largely about Finn and Rey. There are people who don't play roleplaying games because they don't like to imagine themselves as other people. Matt Colville talks about this briefly in his Roleplaying video and says that people have said to his face that imagining yourself as someone else is a sign of weakness(!). There are people who won't read books or play video games if the POV character isn't their race (meaning skin tone) or their gender. It's not something exclusive to white males, either, and it's one reason why diversity in movies is important. Media needs to represent everyone, even people whose identity is very tightly integrated with their demographics.

For myself, I'm happy to imagine that I'm someone else.

 

[Stalker0]

I’ve had it at my table, the only issue has been with pronouns. When your looking at a guy its hard to remember to say “her” in reference to the character...but that’s about it

 

[Retreater]

This is common in my game. Nearly every group I've DMed has a player who does this. And why not? If the player's maturity level is so low as to play an offensive character in term of gender, race, sexuality, etc., that player is getting a talking to or not coming back.
I've had far more common issues of male players exhibiting misogyny against female players. Just recently a female player was tallying all the times a male player talked over her, ignored her advice, etc. It was three times the number of times he did for all the male players combined. Even when I said something to the group, it didn't improve. We're playing our first session without that guy this weekend.