Girl DMs!

[Buttercup]

And all of us are in our 40s.

I think you might have hit on the real issue, Shadowdancer. The problems Randomling was having with her group probably wouldn't have happened if she had been playing with guys who were more mature.

The people I play with (the game I run and the game I play in have some overlapping members) range in age from one 26 year old to one 50 year old. Most players are somewhere in their mid 30s. None of the guys would *ever* treat a female gamer the way Randomling's so called friends treated her. And none of them are into the ale-and-whores style of gaming, perhaps because they're getting their needs met in real life, IYKWIM (AITYD).

 

[tleilaxu]

But I'm pretty nervous about putting myself in a potentially scary situation. I answered an ad one other time, and the guy was just a complete freak. Fortunately my husband was with me, but I'd rather not do that again, and my husband really isn't interested in playing in another game.

it was eric noah, wasn't it? i knew it!


(j/k )

 

[Silver Moon]

Here is the link to the prior thread, titled "Is it inherently harder to be a female DM?"

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32932

My first DM, who got me interested in the game 22 years ago, was female (and her group still continues). My wife DM's maybe 20% of our games, and is a great DM. Her games tend to have less combat and more puzzles and problem solving than the other DMs.

I just asked her, and her 2-cents worth is that "It doesn't matter if you are female or male, it's just a question of who you are playing with, and do they respect the DM."

 

[Balsamic Dragon]

I suppose I'm a poster child for female gamemaster

I've been running the games almost as long as I've been playing them (over 20 years). I was keeping track of how many sessions of third edition D&D I'd run for a while, but I stopped counting around 100.

I don't have any problems with being female and being a gamemaster, but I suspect that has more to do with personality than with gender. On the one hand, I consider it my job to make sure that the players are challenged and have fun. On the other hand, I don't take any crap.

My games tend to be player-centric in terms of plot, with a decent amount of roleplaying and a lot of combat. I've run sessions with no combat at all, but I've run more sessions where the action is non-stop from beginning to end. I like to encourage players to use clever tactics and I find that the best way to do this is to have the monsters use clever tactics against them And I roll my dice on the table (no screen), so whether I roll a 1 or a 20, it stands.

None of this has anything to do with me being female, it's just the way I run my games. Gender is not the be all and end all, it's style that counts

Balsamic Dragon

 

[DDK]

Edited because I'm not allowed to be funny.

 

[Dr Midnight]

Edited because I'm not allowed to be funny.

Funny's not so funny when you run the risk of offending people. Does anyone remember what that sportscaster/writer/? said of women golfers a few years ago? Your comment made me think of that straight off...

It would probably get a laugh in private company, but out here, I think it just could have turned into "What the hell is THAT supposed to mean?" and a biiiiiiig discussion in that vein.

Cheers.

 

[Mordane76]

Every male DM I've played with was obviously (to me, at least) trying to keep the party alive regardless of their stupidity. The women were just downright evil, let me tell you. No quarter.

I feel the same way -- that's the general feeling I get from most games I've been in, and run for that matter. I haven't seen the female side of the coin, but I have noticed that it's incredibly hard to die in most games I play in. Even I hate killing characters, and I have a tendency to pull punches -- but I think the main reason that it's like that is because most groups I've been in are comprised of people I knew outside of gaming first. I think punches are pulled to keep from garnering the appearance of being out to get someone in particular, because of the repercussions it *COULD* have outside the game. The topic isn't one that gets breached at the forefront, so it's just assumed that killing characters is a Bad Thing (TM). Also, sometimes, it's just hard to spread the death around in a group, because some people unfortunately put their characters in harm's way more often than others.

 

[Silver Moon]

Reflecting on the three best DM's I've ever gamed with two were female.

 

[Piratecat]

Let it go, and let's get on subject, folks. The matter has been dealt with.

Personally, I know a couple of dozen female DMs, partially through the RPGA. KidCthulhu DMs, too. It's cool.

 

[Silver Moon]

KidCthulhu DMs, too.

Yep, she's one of the three.