Female Gamers? Are there more of us now?

[Cannibal_Kender]

1. Been gaming long time (10+ years).

2. I dont have a specific type of character I play. All types (even played a few male characters, though this was usually in response to some guy in the group playing a female in skimpy armor)

3. Probably drawn to gaming because of love of fantasy.

4. Right now, I am playing in 3 campaigns. Playing female elven wizard, female Elven Arcane Archer, and female Human Adventurer (BESM d20).

 

[Emperor Valerian]

In both the campaigns I am in (one I play, one I run) there are a great number of female gamers. Does the fact a player is male or female change the mechanic? Not really.

In the game I play in, we originally started with 3 females (counting the DM) and one male, me. Since then two other guys joined the campaign, though most of the time there's still a female majority. This campaign tends to have some puzzles and problem solving, but still a LOT of hack and slash, burn burn burn type of play... which is cool. Do the male and female players both enjoy it? Yes.

The game I run started out with me and 2 female players, though now we're even in terms of genders once my roomate joined in. This game tends to have a great deal of roleplaying and plot development, with a large dose of hack and slash thrown in as well. Does everyone have a good time? Yes

It depends alot on the individual players, not their genders. And I like playing the game with either one

 

[David Howery]

I haven't been in a gaming group since the late '80's, but the group I was the DM for had 6 players; 2 women, 3 men. I didn't find that the girls were any more into intensive roleplaying or storytelling, but they did seem to have much more of a sense of humor... especially if they could make a joke at the expense of us poor men :\

 

[David Howery]

..uhh.. that should have been 5 players, not 6 (2+3 = 5, duh.....).. man, it's been a long day...

 

[Psion]

I have (had, one is moving next week) 3 women in my regular gaming pool of 9 or 10, but usually only 2 made it at a time. (3 gaming couples, two single guys, plus myself; my wife doesn't regularly play.)

As for their behavior, just like guys, it varies. One is fairly new and I haven't really pegged her as anything too specific, other than she likes elfish thingies (she loves Bow & Blade). One tends to play annoying short things like kender and ewoks, but this game is actually playing a greatsword swinging fighter. Finally, the one that is moving is a thinker/interacter type that is good at investigation any typically likes to play rogues.

 

[milotha]

I've been gaming since 1979 when my family introduced me to role playing. I grew up in a family that gamed together, and they also introduced their firends to gaming. My father was a big war game buff, and my mother loved fantasy and science fiction novels. I think that I have been fairly lucky in that my gaming groups have always been fairly equally divided between men and women. I even introduced my husband to gaming.

I've always checked out EN, I've just been too busy with full time work, full time school, and hobbies (movies, books, miniature painting, programming, pet rats, gardening, etc) to post.

I'm currently playing in 1-2 campaigns. I enjoy role playing for many reasons. I love the tactics and strategy side due to my war gaming past, and I have been known to have fun min/maxing my characters. I also love the role-playing social side, and I've been known to create funny/odd characters with quirky backgrounds. I love getting together with friends over a pizza and some munchies and having a fun time gaming. I've been really lucky to have some excellent GMs throughout my gaming career.

I'm currently playing two characters

a tiefling thief/wizard. The background of the character is as follows: He was kidnapped as a young child, and was to be used as a blood sacrifice in a demon summoning ritual, except at the last minute a group of adventures saved the day. The demon summoning was interrupted, but the child was corrupted by the magic. He was then raised partly by an orphanage and then by a wizard that used his blood in the making of demon warding devices. The character doesn't know/believe that he's a tiefling, and thinks he's human. He is more of a flim-flam man, who pretends to be a high level arch mage. I'm playing him pattered after Vance's Cugel. (Note: I noticed at one point recently someone posted this exact same childhood background story on the boards as a plot device. I've been playing this character for almost a year, so tht was well before this post.)

a halfelf sorcerer/druid. I'm a half elf that was raised by an orcish shaman. I think that I'm actually a half orc, and I compensate for this by being a true macho orc. Note: I'm really physically weak, so this doesn't work very well for me. I've currently been kicked out and sent on a walk-about by my mentor to discover my true nature. I play him as a combination of Worf and B-5's Zathras with a fish out of water theme.

 

[bubbalin]

I've only ever seen one regular female member in my gaming group...

hmmm, she was very disruptive though... And in the end she kinda left.

At any rate... Women, do they really exist?

 

[Dirigible]

At any rate... Women, do they really exist?

If they don't, my girlfriend has a hell of a lot of explaining to do.

 

[d4]

one thing i was thinking about...

like i mentioned, only two or three of the dozen-and-a-half groups i've gamed with over the years were all-male, so i've met a fairly large number of female gamers. however, in all that time, out of two dozen or more female gamers i've known, only one of them ever tried DMing.

i know ENWorld has several female DMs, but i haven't seen that many. does it seem that there's a different ratio of players : DMs among females than among males?

 

[Impeesa]

Just to contribute some statistics... my Friday night D&D group is currently 4 guys, 3 girls, and the Saturday night Rolemaster game is 4-2.

--Impeesa--