Female DM's

[Djeta Thernadier]

I'm a girl. I have only been playing a few years , but have been planning to run my own game (something set in ancient Egypt) for a while. Right now I'm busy with two other games I play in. When those DMs need a break, and I feel like I have enough prepared to keep the players going, I'll DM. And I like to think the guys I game with (and one woman) will enjoy it.

 

[Belen]

My wife is the current GM of the group. It is her first time, but she's doing a great job and I am really enjoying the game. Heck, I have been GMing for years and I think I learned a few things from her.

Dave

 

[randomling]

I'm a female DM - well, I'm running my first game in ages on Saturday. (Eek!)

I've only had one female DM. That's StalkingBlue, in whose Midnight game I play. She's brilliant!

I've been trying (rather half-heartedly) to get a girls' game together: the problem isn't not knowing female gamers, but not knowing female gamers who like to play the same games!

 

[Dark Dragon]

As everybody in the group sometimes becomes a DM, we had female DMs occasionally.
The adventures were quite funny and mostly needed more thinking than using a sword or spell. One adventure had only one short fight, the rest was putting the puzzle together (anyone knows Deja-vu? ).

 

[Davelozzi]

But one of my earliest D&D campaigns back in 1979 was half female, and one of them even GMed a few sessions.

When I first read this, I was sort of skimming and I thought you were saying that in one of your earliest campaigns, your DM was half-female.

As for myself, while I've played with a number of great female gamers, it's never worked out that I've played with one of them GMimg, but I certainly would not have a problem with it.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

If you need a quick resource on Egyptian gods for your campaign, go to www.pantheon.org. Look for mythologies, Africa, then Egyptian...you have to dig around a bit, but it's worth the hunt!

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I'm a girl. I have only been playing a few years , but have been planning to run my own game (something set in ancient Egypt) for a while. Right now I'm busy with two other games I play in. When those DMs need a break, and I feel like I have enough prepared to keep the players going, I'll DM. And I like to think the guys I game with (and one woman) will enjoy it.

If you need a quick resource on Egyptian gods for your campaign, go to www.pantheon.org. Look for mythologies, Africa, then Egyptian...you have to dig around a bit, but it's worth the hunt!

 

[rgard]

In the nearly 20 years I've played D&D, I've only once participated in a game with a woman behind the screen. It was her first time, and frankly, it was an awful game, but being the gentleman I am, played it and did my best to have a good time. I've tried for years to get my wife to DM, but she refuses.

I'm curious as to how many female members of the ENWorld community here DM. Also, what game systems, and how many years?

Nostalgia trip!!!

My first DM in a real campaign was female. Nora (her first name, I can't remember her last name) ran her campaign in South Quad (Taylor House, 3rd & 4th Floor) at the University of Michigan in 1979. She was a junior or senior then so probably had been running the game prior to my freshman arrival.

She used the original boxed, 3 book set of OD&D, but we managed to convince her to let us use CCs and other stuff from the AD&D handbook and Dragon Magazine. We had a blast in her world. She was very well organized and had her major NPCs all written up on 3x5 index cards (funny how one can remember small details from 25 years ago) and had a major dungeon that must have been more extensive than the NYC subway system.

She had lots of house rules in play...experience was based on what you did, not necessarily what you killed. XPs for magic users and clerics when they cast spells, XPs for damage done via melee for fighters, XPs for what thieves stole, and so on. Damage done with melee weapons increased as your fighter increased in level. It worked just fine and she did have a system for us to multiclass that was similar to the method currently used in the 3.5 rules.

I still play several of the characters I rolled up and started in her world. I really do have fond memories of that campaign!

Hey Nora, if you are reading this, send me a note!

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Thanee]

Females tend to be better at deep immersion roleplaying and males better at tactically challenging the group. Not true for every single person, of course.

That's just natural.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Turanil]

I think a sizable number of male gamers simply haven't reached a maturity level where they are aware that females are pretty much members of the same species as they are. They probably are still amazed on some level that women do not have their own separate language.

I will say that the hobby has come a long way from the days when I would go to a con and literally have a crowd gather, not because I was cute but because I was a female DM.

Just to note: I know about 15 gamers, only one of which is a woman (we are old gamers all above 30). One of them is a Californian living in France; so I know that there is a good proportion of female gamers in the US. In France, however (curious to know about the rest of Europe...) there is extremely FEW female gamers. I can't fathom the reason, although I suppose this must be somewhat cultural (i.e.: "women are not interested in stupidities like goblins, sorcerers, or dragons"). Anyway, it will thus takes a major quest to find a female DM in France!

They probably are still amazed on some level that women do not have their own separate language.

Aside the sarcastic tone, I would like to point out that some societies (at least some Mayan indians) have two different languages: one for men, and one for women. Anyone learns both languages at the same time, but only uses that of his/her own gender. In other Amerindians languages this somewhat appears in that one adds a terms indicating his gender to his phrases (At least this is the case among the Lakota).