Gender, Settings, Mechanics, and Everything Else

[Cor Azer]

That's a big assumption. After all, JRRT isn't the only one who wrote about elves. And how he wrote about elves changed over time ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elf_(Middle-earth) ). Heck, JRRT isn't the only source used by D&D's designers that talks about elves.

And some of us players have also wandered far from JRRT's works as well...including sampling the very works that inspired him.

At the large scale, sure, there's still a wide variety of inspirations, but there are a lot of commonalities as well, otherwise the race wouldn't be recognizable as an "elf". Wouldn't those differences in interpretations make it more likely for a person to think "huh... that's not right..."? At least, initially? Sure, more mature players are likely to just let it slide and not have any long term issues with it, but I think it'd twig on the "not how I see elves" meter.

That's sort of my point though... why doesn't "wrong" portrayal of race wig some people the same way gender wigs them?

 

[S'mon]

Interesting...

Firstly, roleplaying isn't real life. "Truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction must make sense."

Secondly, just because a woman owns a rock hammer doesn't mean I think she's "doing it wrong". You seem to have me mistaken for someone I'm not.

Thirdly, if you choose to allow cross-gender play at your table, you do that. I really don't care.

However, what I do object to is suggestions of "homophobia" or "huge psychological issues", when my ban on cross-gender play was a result of only ever seeing it done horribly.

Well I'm not sure my aversion to such DMs is wholly rational either, for me there's a big *squick* factor that just makes me not want to play with them, and to be honest I'm not really all that interested in their reasons/justifications.

 

[Doug McCrae]

OTOH, there has been a distinct improvement in the overall quality of the roleplay when there are players of both genders.

Perhaps we make more of an effort, to try to impress the opposite sex.

A friend of mine says he thinks mixed gender groups are quite different in character to single gender. I think he thinks the players are better behaved. I've not seen it myself.