gender limits?

This make me think of those fish where there only are one male per "colony". When the male dies the strongest female changes sex and becomes the new male.

Or what about snails. They're hermaphrodite. (Talk about selfpleasurement)

Once saw a Sci-fi movie about an alien race that didn't have genders. They just got pregnant.... But they were still some kind of lizard/mammals.


How about a race that could change gender? Where they had to spend time in a cocoon state to do so.
 

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I have often wondered why this concept was never used, either in Home Games or in Official Products.

I suppose a truly chaotic artifact or relic could turn a two sexed society suddenly into a three sexed society.

But I must wonder ... which would the players prefer, being altered along with everyone else in the three sexed society, or being allowed to remain themselves and being forcibly sent to Ravenloft?

- - -

If you really want to cause chaos, go to the Gor people and propose the idea to them.

That might cause some chaos ...

- - -

Incidentally: all of the elves of Toril CAN change their gender, and sometimes they do so.
Trust me on this one. I have good sources that confirm it.

Now, that is an idea for the Gor people ...
 

As for gender limits, forget it.

If I put gender limits on MY players, it would start a philosophical argument.
Said philosophical argument would consume the game, the evening, and most of the night.
 



Enkhidu said:
Also try looking up the move and old show "Alien Nation." The newcomers had 3 separate sexes for procreation.

You beat me to it...I liked that show. Anyway, there is an episode or three where the alien cop needs a third alien to impregnate his wife. He chooses a "semi-slow" (mentally challenged)" but dedicated janitor who works at the station house.

I think that it went something like this...there are two kinds of sperm required, the first is a facilitator that enables second sperm type from the potential father to survive the hostle environment of the female reproductive tract and result in a child.

Its not kinky or anything quite the contrary, the facilitators as a gender are venerated in the eyes of thier race because without thier life ensuring fluid the race would become extenct. They "do it" in a cerimonial way. A cleric of some sort is on hand to bless all three participants.

The facilitator goes with the female first, imediately followed seaperately by the potential father. The facilitators have nothing further to do with the child after its conception outside of a modified "god father" type role.

Hope that helps.
 

The novel "The Player of games" by Iain M. Banks describes an alien society with 3 sexes. They are otherwise pretty humanoid, but apart from male and female, there is an intermediate gender called "apex". Reproduction requires the male to fertilize the egg carried by the apex, then the apex planting the fertilized egg in the female's womb. This led to the discrimination of women based on the belief that they did not really contribute to reproduction, although later research showed that the females do alter the foetal DNA via a retrovirus.

The society formed by these people is a pretty ancient interstellar empire dominated by the apexes. Males and females are treated more like slaves or property - selective breeding and genetic engineering actually led to them being less intelligent than apexes on average. Because of their greater physical strength, males serve as labourers and form the bulk of the military (at least the lower ranks). Females, at least those of higher social standing (meaning basically that they belong to the household of an influential an apex), are treated as valuable property.

So this raises the frightening question what happens if a society manages to make certain cliches/gender roles "come true" - or what if they naturally are?. Although this is not dependent on the number of sexes, it could be emphasized in a multi-gender society as there is more room for specialized roles. E.g. you could also claim that bees have 3 "sexes" (the queen as female, the drones as male and the workers who are technically female but do not breed as "neutral" sex). In this example, you don't even have all sexes participating in reproduction. A race modelled on the concept of an insect hive could have vast differences in capabilities, intelligence and roles (see Formians in the MM for a D&D example).
 


alsih2o said:
what got me thinkihng about my latest poll was working on a new race where i have created 3 genders. all 3 are required for procreation and have somewhat distinct attributes.

has anyone else ever done this? any advice?

i've thought before about how something like this would work, but never really gave enough thought to it to try to set up how it would work.
 

nsruf said:
an alien society with 3 sexes. They are otherwise pretty humanoid, but apart from male and female, there is an intermediate gender called "apex". Reproduction requires the male to fertilize the egg carried by the apex, then the apex planting the fertilized egg in the female's womb.

and this shal be the idea i steal, mucho thanks to nsruf, and everyone else who kicked in 2 cents :D
 

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