Do you let PC's play opposite gender characters?

[Korgan26]

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??

Thanks
Z

 

[Piratecat]

Absolutely. I've seen this done literally hundreds of times in RPGA games, and have never had any problems in my own games as well. I can count the number of problems on the fingers of one hand.

Some people I really respect (like Teflon Billy) have had real problems in this regards; luckily, I just haven't seen it, and I'd rather offer my players free choice.

 

[the Jester]

About half the characters I play are female (I'm male).

About half the pcs in my campaign are typically of the opposite sex from their player.

I've never had a problem.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Until very recently, I would not have played nor would I have been confortable playing a female character or playing in a group where a male player was playing a female character. The main reason was I thought the players, myself included, would totally mess it up and play females the worst, most obscene, most stereotypical way anyone could have imagined, mostly because I saw what happened when one of the characters put on a belt of gender change* (don't remember the exact name of the cursed magic item, in 2E). Wasn't pretty.

Of course, since then, I've had positive experiences with males playing female characters, so I tried it myself (Rapine Abraxas, halfling rogue sorcerer), and as long as there is a minimal level of maturity, things can go fairly well...

AR

*Futurama quote: You loved him as Bender the Offender, now prepare to hate him as he threatens your sexuality as... the Gender Bender!

 

[takyris]

Haven't had any trouble with it. Got some of the best roleplaying I'd seen out of one of my players, who used it as his first real chance to play a character whom he knew was different from the player himself.

Needs to be handled on a case-by-case basis. Some groups, it's probably a bad idea, just as, from the DM perspective, I wouldn't throw a sex-related plot into every gaming group, or a religious-conflict plot, and so on. You find out what your group can maturely handle, and you go with that, and every once in awhile you push the envelope a bit to see if people have matured, and if not, you go back inside the comfort zone for awhile longer.

Teflon Billy had lousy experiences. I respect that. If I played in his game, I wouldn't insist on playing a woman just to tick him off -- just like I wouldn't insist on playing a paladin in a game where the DM has had oft-repeated paladin problems and has stated that he'd prefer not to deal with paladins. I've got a wide range of characters, both male and female, that I've been interested in playing, and I'm sure that I'd have a good time in one of his games under his rules.

 

[Crothian]

Sure I would, but not many of my players are interested in doing this.

 

[Davelozzi]

Sure. In my experience, probably about 80% of the time players choose a character of their own gender anyway, but on the few occasions when they haven't, it has never been a problem.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I certainly allow this. When I play characters (as a player, not DM) I tend to play characters of my own gender, but then again I tend to play characters with my hair and eye color, too, lacking a reason to do otherwise.

About 85% of my characters are male.

 

[diaglo]

yes. it is allowed.

and i've played with others who have done it.

read the story hour in my sig.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

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've seen this happen (one player only seemed to see female characters as virgins or sluts and it showed in his rp of female PCs sadly) but I've also had some good experiences, so I allow it. I havent played cross gender myself, since I rarely have a character concept that doesn't present itself in my mind as a woman...one exception was a sort of "followup character" I was considering introducing who would be chasing a previosly written out character from the same campaign - due to the backstory I had given the first character the second would pretty much have to be male, and I was ready to go with that, but I left the group before it could be implemented...

kahuna burger