Do you let PC's play opposite gender characters?

[Desdichado]

I fall into the "I don't see why this is even an issue" camp.

Same here. It never occured to me until I starting hanging around here that anyone had issues with this.

 

[Buttercup]

I allow it, and it hasn't ever been a problem. We've had this discussion here before, and some folks have mentioned that it causes serious problems in their groups (Teflon Billy is the only one I can remember right now, but there were others). I don't doubt them, so I guess I've just been lucky.

Honestly, if I had to forbid cross-gender characters because my players were too childish to handle them, I think I would find another group to DM. And since my players are all my friends, I guess that would mean I'd need new friends too.

 

[Belbarrus]

I've had no problems with male players playing females characters. They either role-play a character like they normally would or they play their character just like how they would play any character Usually the problem comes from OTHER players. Other players that make crude remarks or statements.

B

 

[Mallus]

Don't see a problem with playing against gender type. Never have.

If a 21st century guy can play an elf, its no big stretch to think he can play a girl. Or a girl elf.

My new Mutants and Masterminds character isn't just female, she's several females all rolled into one. She's Penny Edina Burroughs, aka Penny Dreadful, who channels the Purple Power of Pulp Fiction to transform [randomly] into Princess Spaceship, the Venusian Vixen, Chimpanzetta, the Contessa of the Jungle, Dr. Geraldine "Gary" Indianna, archeologist adventuress extraordinaire, and Sue Manchu, the Dragon with a Blue Dress On[/b] with a mysterious power over mens, err, umm, minds.

Mind you, this is all meant to be a parody of the female stereotypes found in actually pulp adventures. Mostly, anyway...

 

[wocky]

My elven rogue character "Hunter S. Elf" once used a wish to turn himself into a woman (he really was into trying all sort of things).
Due to the consequent constant attempts of the DM to have my now female character act in a slutty way (plus having EVERY SINGLE NPC hit on me) I decided against playing a female character ever again

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I don't have a problem with it, as long as the players are fairly mature about it-- and immature players are my biggest pet peeve in gaming. It's not an issue.

I've played some female characters. I'm not particularly good at it, but I'm not particularly bad, either, and I'm not particularly horrifying. For the most part, though, my character ideas are either male, sexless, or of a race that the difference between male and female isn't something that the other characters would notice.

 

[RangerWickett]

Are you saying the three handled the roleplay immaturely or that you thought the decision was the players using the female characters to seduce rather than the female characters decided to seduce?

If you'd been there to see the Beavis and Butthead-esque laughter, you'd have known it was just an excuse for three repressed homosexuals to have a tryst with each other. Okay, maybe not consciously, but we know what psychiatrists would say.

 

[Pielorinho]

I took it as quite a compliment once when several months into a PbEM game, someone referred to me in an OOC comment as "she", and several players expressed surprise when I corrected him - apparently I'd avoided the cliches successfully enough that they'd assumed it was a female running the character.

Understand that I mean it as a compliment when I say you may have it backwards: it may be precisely because you handled the cliches so well that they believed you. In other words, you may understand certain stereotypical gendered behavior well enough that you were able to emulate it successfully, making them believe you were female.

The only problems I've ever had with crossgender roleplaying is when the DM and other players (that = me) refers to the character by the player's sex, and the player gets miffed or constantly corrects the DM/other player. Such corrections can completely derail an idea, a description, a conversation, a mood, especially when they're happening over and over.

A certain amount of subtle stereotyping (or archetyping, if you wanna be hifalutin about it) can help with this, I maintain. Pitch your voice slightly higher or lower than your normal speaking voice when talking in character as a subtle reminder to other players that you're genderbending. Do a little bit of flirting -- not grossly, but just enough to act as a reminder. Consider, if you're a man playing a woman, not playing an especially "masculine" woman; similarly, a woman playing a man might want to stay away from especially "effiminate" men. Mention, at the inn, that you want a room separate from the others. In other words, one option is to remind people of the subtle but pervasive ways in which gender matters in day-to-day life.

Another option is not to worry about it when people mess up on the pronouns: if someone refers to your enchantress as "he," don't stop their speech to say, "she!"

Note that I am NOT suggesting turning the character into one raging stereotype; that would be awful. However, stereotypes are a necessary part of RPGs, and recognizing and using them a bit can only help folks remember the character.

Daniel

 

[Epametheus]

I tend to pick my character's gender while I'm coming up with the character concept, but I generally play a male when it's my first game with a particular group. 60/40 favoring male characters, basically.

Almost everyone I've gamed with has played an opposite-gender character at one point or another. Though three of 'em almost invariably make their female characters lesbians, so I can see where this could easily cause a problem in less mature groups. Generally, the PCs don't hit on each other.

 

[Cedric]

I'm not trying to offend anyone by saying this...but I find it funny that people are ok with a 300 pound guy playing a halfling sorcerer or a 125 pound nerd with a 160 IQ playing a half-orc fighter with an int of 6...but as soon as a 20 year old human man wants to play a 20 year old human female...everyone balks.

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 will happily honor any requests that my players have to play cross-gender characters.

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.

Cedric