Do you let PC's play opposite gender characters?

[Harlock]

Yes, I let players play characters outside of their own gender. I also let my players play great wizards, clerics and warriors when they are actually computer geeks, dance teachers and french teachers.

 

[Desdichado]

My one side note to this (a nod to people like Teflon Billy who have had problems)...I won't game with people I find to be mentally unstable. If my friends and gaming buddies aren't able to handle a reasonably low pressure social situation..then I don't want to game with them.

I agree -- although I totally don't operate that way, I've heard T-Billy's story, and I have to agree that in his situation, I'd probably have done the same. Then again, I firmly believe his situation to be an extremely unusual case of bad luck.

 

[Wombat]

I was in a game a couple years ago where I (male) played a female character. The GM was cool with it, but the players freaked.

The two people who complained about it the most were women.

They were both playing male characters.

I found that an intensely odd situation...

 

[Dark Jezter]

Damn, Teflon Billy's story is being mentioned so many times in this thread that I wish I could remember it.

I know that I've heard it before, but it's just been so long ago.

 

[Mista Collins]

When it comes to character creation, I give my players the option to do whatever they want, as long as it is within the rules. I have found in my groups that all the roleplaying tends to be better when the players are playing cross-gender characters (I have females playing males, and males playing females). All of us are mature and handle all situation fairly well.

As for my personal preference? I tend to play female characters more often then male characters (I am a male myself). I just find it more fun to try and roleplay a character completely different from yourself. Most the sessions I play in tend to be roleplay heavy (instead of combat heavy). The best character I had was a female Thief who was also a smuggler that everyone under-estimated.

I would like to hear some proplems that some people have had.

 

[Desdichado]

Damn, Teflon Billy's story is being mentioned so many times in this thread that I wish I could remember it.

I know that I've heard it before, but it's just been so long ago.

I don't remember the details either. I do remember, however, thinking "no wonder."

 

[Desdichado]

I am a male myself.

Based on your user name, I thought that was fairly obvious.

 

[Henry]

What's wrong? Male to female is too much of a stretch? But 17 year old human to 45 year old gnome is just fine?

I can certainly understand it, mainly because we're talking about frames of reference.

Having never seen any 45-year-old gnomes in real life, we can't compare to say someone is "playing poorly." After all, how SHOULD a gnome be played, male OR female? On the other hand, someone playing against gender, or against color, steps sometimes into some iffy territory, because there are frames of reference.

And in those cases, stereotypes can be hurtful. But the National Organization of Orcish Defamation isn't going to give you heck if you play an orc as always brutish and evil, either, nor are the other gamers at the table going to get on your case for being crudely offensive to all Orcs by playing them as low-lifes.

So what I'm saying is I can certainly understand the desire of some to ban cross-gender play.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

So what I'm saying is I can certainly understand the desire of some to ban cross-gender play.

I can see the reason to ban wizards and sorcerers too but I would never do it... Someone is going to want to play one.

 

[tburdett]

As a DM I generally don't let people play outside their own gender. The few times I have, the characters have been badly played stereotypes of the gender. (Both Men and Women have screwed this up) I was just wondering how others handle this topic??

Why not? The characters sex is probably one of the most, if not the most, meaningless stats on the page. It rates right up there with eye or hair color.

Seriously, no matter how poorly a guy or gal portrays the opposite sex via their character, there is probably a real life example that is far worse.