Ever play a PC of the opposite gender?

[Zogg]

I'm wondering how often gamers role-play a PC of the opposite gender. I've heard some gamers (especially males) have problems with the idea of a male playing a female and consider it to be "gay" or just improper due to the fact that males often pervert the situation or role-play various female stereotypes that aren't realistic.

Right now I (a male) am playing a female cleric/bard. It's fun - she isn't terribly girly (despite being a priestess of Sune) and no, I don't talk in a high voice. Basically she's just another party member. I've also found it's useful for a party to have a female in it for at least a couple reasons:

1. Females can flirt/distract males and gather information that males might not be able to obtain - assuming they don't have really bad charisma, of course.

2. Females are less likely to be suckered by charming female NPCs that are often inserted by the DM to mislead or distract the party.

So - have people played female NPCs in the past? If so, what did you think?

 

[randomling]

Sure, I've played female PCs. But then, I'm a girl.

I've never got around to running a male PC except once (and I was playing four characters). One day I might, just to see what it's like.

Strangely enough it's never been my experience that female PCs can automatically charm male NPCs as long as they have a decent Cha. My DMs have always made me work for my role-playing payoffs just as hard as the male characters!

And female PCs can (technically) be charmed by charming male NPCs. Remember, as a player, it's up to you whether you get suckered in by NPCs, regardless of the sexes of the characters involved. Charm and dominate spells aside, of course!

I'd say that yes, of course, in the strange medieval-but-women-can-be-adventurers world of D&D, a woman would be (and is) just another party member. I've played all kinds of women, from the very girly (Elven wizard/bard) to the downright churlish, masculine, and unfriendly (human cleric of Boccob).

Aside from cohorts, though, I've never seen anyone role-playing cross-gender. I would definitely be interested to see it.

 

[Drawmack]

I currently play a female alienist/investigator (CoC d20). Though she's not stereotypical in any way. The actual Idea was that I wanted to play androdgony and I simply find that easier to approach from a female pov then a male pov.

 

[The_Gneech]

I had one male player who preferred to play females, except they always came off as men in woman suits -- or near-feral she-wolverines who had sex at really inappropriate times and never wore shoes.

Had issues, that guy.

I have another male player who randomly plays female characters from time to time, but it's fine.

I've never had any female players choose to play a male character, although one or two have done women disguised as men a la Anne Bonny.

At no time was the players' own orientation a factor in the decision-making process, at least as far as I could tell.

-The Gneech

 

[Robbert Raets]

My male human bard was reincarnated as a female drow.

Not much difference on my part, but the other player kept making 'that time of the month' jokes....

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

When I first started playing with the group I'm with now, I had intended to sit in a session and watch . After about 15 minutes, I was playing a male PC that the GM had been running (who's now an NPC). I had no problem playing a male, and I don't think I played him "girly". I did end up creating my own female PC two weeks later when I officially joined up with them, but that was more because I wanted my *own* character. I'd play a male character again if given the chance. I'm sure as time goes on I will play many different characters, some girls, some guys.

I think you are right though, guys have a tendency to feel weird playing female characters. Our GM mentioned once that there are rarely female NPCs because he doesnt know how to act like a female. For him it wasn't a fear of being "gay" (I'm his girlfriend so I think the rest of the guys we game with would probly not confuse), but more just really not knowing what a girl would do/how she would act in situations.

~Sheri

 

[Gez]

Maybe one-third of my PCs are female when I play. Sometimes, sex is so irrelevant to the character concept that I roll a die: odd male, even female. Other time, the concept works better with a female.

When I DM, of course, about half my NPCs are female. How strange. I wonder why.

All other gamers in our group have played characters of both sex. Noone has problems with it. A funny thing is, the highest proportion of "crossgender" characters are those of the group's girl, she usually roleplay men.

 

[iwatt]

I once played the typical elven ranger focused in archery that just happened to be female. I wasn´t planning on running her sluttily or mannish, but my GM terminated her in the first session (she was the geratest threat, so the goblins all focused their fire on her).
I've got a backlog of character concepts I wanna try, and most involve males. First of all, once my GM finnally succeeds in killing my Barbarian/Cleric of Tempus I'm planning on creating a gambling human or half-elf (kinda of like Lando Calrissian). He's gonna be heavy on the seduction, and I don´t wanna play a Slutty female (cliche). Probabaly after that I'm gonna go Illusionist or martial artist, which might play all right with a female, but I don't wanna force it.

But as a GM I notice I have a tendency towards male NPCs, probably for the same reason mentioned above. I don't think I can play female character's without expending a lot of effort, so it's generally easier to create male characters.

 

[Tidus4444]

I have, a couple times. It was pretty good fun. None of the guys at the table were immature about it.

 

[dave_o]

I've never played a female character, but I've played many male characters who are quite feminine in their thought processes.

That is, instead of being rather oafish and angry at things, they calmly thought things out and went about the best course of action.