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

[Thomas Shey]

Been watching people do it for 40 years; never seen a problem.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I'm also in the "not a problem, barely a question" camp.

For me personally, I can't play a female character live. In a play by post game? Easily, I've done it a few times, but I can't speak that character in a way I'm happy with in a live session.

 

[Ancalagon]

In the "why is this even a question" group.

I think that for many of us, we have had negative experiences in the past with immature players and, at the time, perhaps being immature ourselves, thought that the problem was crossplay (vs the actual problem, immaturity).

 

[cbwjm]

I did not understand the title of this thread since to me crossplay means playing a game on PC against someone on Xbox or something.

Otherwise, yeah, don't really care if people play the opposite gender.

 

[Diem]

I don't see it being an issue as long as the person playing the character is respectful. There's a guy at my table who is playing a hard nosed war veteran who's female. A real bad ass character. He steers clear of anything sexual because that would just be weird. I'm lucky to have such a great group at the table.

 

[FrozenNorth]

In my adult groups, this is not an issue. Players play either sex regularly. Like many on here, I saw occasional foolishness in middle- and high-school when boys would play their fantasies. That wouldn't fly at any table I'm associated with now. (And my middle-schoolers know it!)

Funnily enough, my youngest son has no issue crossplaying (and is pretty mature about it...for an elementary schooler). The other two tend to stick to their genders.

When I DM, my players can play whatever gender they want. When I play, I stick to my gender unless a different gender is necessary for the concept (mostly because I don’t think I’ll do justice to the other gender).

 

[ph0rk]

I don't see why this would be a problem; or I don't see a reason why this would be any more of a problem than certain players make no matter what.

 

[Ace]

I've allowed it with mixed results though I prefer not .

I've even done some myself but it made the group a bit uncomfortable as I'm apparently pretty good at it or so I've been told.

 

[Lanefan]

Why is this even a question?

Just for kicks, many years ago (as in, 1990-ish) our Saturday DM started a campaign with the caveat that each of our starting PCs had to be the opposite gender from its player.

What's truly amazing is that one of those six characters is still going, and - after a very brief blip due to being on the wrong end of a Banshee wail - will be in action again this Saturday.

Come to think of it, in our current Saturday game each of the players have a number of 'core' characters who we cycle in and out. Gender breakdowns, ignoring minor characters and henches, are something like:

Player A (M) - M2, F1
Player B (F) - M0, F5
Player C (M) - M3, F1
Player D (F) - M2, F1
Player E (F) - M1, F2
Player F (M) - M1, F4 - this one's me.

In the alternate game running in the same world it's a bit different, the match is much closer:

Player B (F) - M0, F2
Player F (M) - M3, F0 - this one's me again.
Player G (F) - M0, F1
Player H (M) - M2, F1 (this player very rarely plays female characters; it's just sheer luck his one significant one happens to be here)

 

[Shiroiken]

I've always heard it referred to as "genderbending," and I've found it really depends on the player and group. Having played with a LOT of immature players, I can say that this can cause quite a bit of distraction (see Gamers 2 for several examples). If you have any single player that couldn't handle it, it's generally better to not incorporate it to avoid the distraction (and probable offense) which will take away from the focus of the game. Something that should be obvious, but most DMs genderbend all the time, since they have to roleplay every NPC, male, female, lizard, whatever.

Mature players can handle such a thing, but as a fellow DM has pointed out "what is the benefit?" Most of the time a character's sex is of minimal importance to the concept, and unless there's a specific reason for genderbending, a player is probably better off sticking to their own gender. I have a character in mind that's the daughter of one of my favorite characters from 2E. The reason the character is female is because that's what the DM determined when she was born in game, thus in my mind this is canon. This was with a different group, but both games are set in the Realms, plus I've already referenced this character in my group by playing his nephew in 3E. If none of this was the case, I'd just as easily play a male character that is exactly the same.