Gender Issues

[S'mon]

I mostly only play female PCs if the GM is female or in online and pbem games. In tabletop games female GMs are more likely to be supportive IME. If the GM doesn't seem comfy with it I won't.

Edit: My wife prefers playing male PCs. She gets too attached to female PCs and doesn't like to see them get hurt.

 

[S'mon]

In fact, once I had a woman decide to play a man because she rolled a 16 for strength and thought that girls shouldn't be that strong.

My female Fighter PCs usually have STR 16 - any higher is implausible, any lower doesn't kick enough butt!

 

[S'mon]

Maybe, but it's really not implausible for tough warrior types. For one thing, having romantic relations with fellow male warriors is going to cause a lot of complications and possibly risk loss of status. They can be chaste/asexual like Joan of Arc, or they can have romantic relations with women the same way the male warriors do. And IRL the military lifestyle is proportionately more attractive to lesbians than to heterosexual women, because the military lifestyle involves a lot of masculine activity like fighting, and lesbian women are more likely to enjoy such typically male actvities.

Of course this doesn't apply to female Wizard PCs and probably not much to Rogue or Cleric types either.

 

[Afrodyte]

And IRL the military lifestyle is proportionately more attractive to lesbians than to heterosexual women, because the military lifestyle involves a lot of masculine activity like fighting, and lesbian women are more likely to enjoy such typically male actvities.

...?...?...?

 

[Aeson]

I normally play female characters in video games because their better to look at for long periods of time. Males in WoW are U-G-L-Y. I've tried playing females in table top games but the party often forgets unless I pull out the picture again.

I played in a group years ago with a couple of guys that really got into playing females. We were preparing for a dinner with the king. The two spent most of the session fussing over dresses and hair. They were in heaven with doing all sorts of girlie things. The more insecure guys in the group were starting to get a little uncomfortable. I kicked back and watched. I played along at one point by asking for tips on what to wear. The DM glared at me for it.

 

[Ethalias]

Maybe, but it's really not implausible for tough warrior types. For one thing, having romantic relations with fellow male warriors is going to cause a lot of complications and possibly risk loss of status. They can be chaste/asexual like Joan of Arc, or they can have romantic relations with women the same way the male warriors do. And IRL the military lifestyle is proportionately more attractive to lesbians than to heterosexual women, because the military lifestyle involves a lot of masculine activity like fighting, and lesbian women are more likely to enjoy such typically male activities.

Of course this doesn't apply to female Wizard PCs and probably not much to Rogue or Cleric types either.

You seem to be assuming that

a) Homosexuality is a choice (of convenience!)
b) That there is a "typical" lesbian in terms of interests and physicality.

Whilst making effort to remain polite, I disagree strongly. Our modern notions of masculinity/femininity whilst often assumed to be "natural" are actually only 2-3 centuries old, and have very little to do with one's sexuality outside the realms of stereotype.. You'll forgive me, I hope, for saying but I think your notions of what a homosexual "is" are a little naive.

Please don't take this as a sleight, and forgive me if I'm wrong.

[EDIT] I hope this isn't too off topic. After all the OP is titled "Gender Issues"

 

[Dykstrav]

[EDIT] I hope this isn't too off topic. After all the OP is titled "Gender Issues"

Seems like I opened up a real can of worms here. I don't mean that any of these male players were consciously trying to deconstruct notions of sexuality in their characters or anything like that. It's closer to poor roleplaying. What I've seen is similar to the following:

Player: "I'm playing Anise, the elf rogue. She's a basic sneak attack monkey."
DM: "Cool. You're at the tavern waiting for your contact to show up."
Player: "I order a drink. Are there any attractive women around?"
DM: "Yeah. You're an attractive woman."
Player: "Oh, that's right..." (brief pause) "Okay, my character is a lesbian. Are there any attractive women there?"

Given situations like these, I'm more inclined to think that it's someone not thinking through the ramifications of their character choices before we sit down to play. Like any other character trait not covered by the rules (such as eye color, preferred diet, et cetera), it usually doesn't matter in the course of play. So it gets glossed over. Whether that's a good thing or not for a group is something that I think should be decided by those in the group.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

I have only ever played male PCs(which I am), but I would not mind at all, and in fact would like to try playing a female PC at least once.

 

[pogminky]

Did the OP actually say they'd tried to table-top females?

Sounds rude that.

 

[pawsplay]

Generally not an issue with my gang. However, it's becoming a running joke with my current group that somehow, no one can remember my wife is a male dwarf with a 6 Charisma. So other than,

"What is she doing?"
"He!"
" ...he doing?"

Funny anecodate time. It involves one of my exes, who LARPs, role-plays by e-mail, and goes to ren fairs, but does not play RPGs. So I was in a 3rd edition campaign, and we were playing at a friend's house, so my then-girlfriend came along to kibitz (I offered many times she could stay home or arrange to hang out with someone else, but she always insisted she wanted to come along, sooo....).

We were driving home after a game.
She: It's so funny.
Me: What is?
She: You can always tell when a guy is trying to play a girl.
Me: I'm not sure what you mean by that.
She: Like, the prissy voice and stuff. It's hilarious. It sounds nothing like a woman.
Me: So... an example?
She: You.
Me: Me?
She: Uh, yeah. You.
Me: What do you mean?
She: The way you were playing.
Me: What's wrong with the way I was playing?
She: Just what I said.
Me: You mean, about playing female characters?
She: Yeah.
Me: My character is male.
She: ... Oh.
Me: Hahahahaha!
She: [rolls eyes]