Summer-Knight925
First Post
**NO PART OF THIS THREAD OR EXPERIMENT IS MEANT TO BE SEXIST IN ANY WAY. NOR IS IT AT ALL MEANT TO BE BIAS TOWARDS THE LGBT COMMUNITY. THIS IS AN EXPERIMENT I AM RUNNING ON WILLING WOMEN TO TEST HOW SOCIETY SHAPES THE INDIVIDUAL. IF YOU FIND ANY MORAL ISSUES WITH THIS PLEASE LET ME KNOW.**
I assume after reading that disclaimer about how I am not targeting groups of people in any way you might have an idea of what this thread is. I (a 19 year old male who has been playing D&D since the age of 7) am going to run an experiment on some friends of mine who are wanting to learn the ropes of table-top roleplaying. I have yet to confirm on players, but it will come shortly (I have 6 in mind but I am sure they can tell their friends and I can get backups [I would like to have 6-8, plus reserves]).
The point of this experiment is to see is society has shaped the human mind (how we think) and can it be undone (by another society/situations abnormal to our times)
By taking the "unlikely gamers" (a term fairly improper considering many gamer girls are out there and probably reading) and putting them at a table, sitting them down, and throwing challenges that tend to be masculine in nature, I intend to see if they handle differently than a man would.
The control is being run in another group, which started as open but is actually all male.
I will be using the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG for the flavor of "yeah, you can die really easily" and the whole 'fear of the unknow'/newish monsters. This is to bring away from the fantasy cliches as much as possible, resulting in the players having the wonder and awe of when many of us first started playing. (Remeber that first time you fought an otyugh and you pooped your pants a little bit? I do....) I will be running modules for them (to start until I get the ropes for DCC RPG).
Once I start I will be posting regularly with updates, I will also be starting a blog (tumblr since most of them I talk to via tumblr) to publish my information.
The point of this entire experiment is to see both how females act in a gamer setting (the tables, the dice, the miniatures, the music, the food) and how females act in a fantasy setting (monsters and magic and traps and treasure). The theory behind it (my hypothesis if you will) is that society has actually shaped how the different genders think, resulting in gender roles that dictate what we do more so than character roles. I predict more attention to treasure, less eager to fight and a higher level or roleplaying and conversation skils. (The prediction is not meant to be sexist in any way shape or form, it is mearly how I feel society portrays women). This is a sociological endevour.
In the disclaimer I mentioned the LGBT community, one of the players is transgender and while s(he) identifies more as a male, does infact have female parts, this too is interesting and worthy of note taking, as can even a transgender feel gender roles from his or her upbringing?
As a side note (and an exception to a house rule) they will be allowed to choose either male or female characters (normally male players cannot chose female characters at my table). After the first 0-level dungeon run, I will post characters and players.
***if you catch any typos let me know, I'm a "scientist" not an english major.
Furthermore and lastly, the segments of this experiment are thoughout and implemented for a reason. DCC RPG is being used not because I favor it over Pathfinder (which they're about the same) or because I dislike 4e (4e is [i feel] a great starter product, as such I would rather take something with a little more grit, I feel 4e's characters do not die as much (or pathfinder's, another reason I am not using pathfinder) and that DCC RPG has easy to learn rules, easy to die combat and the whole 'magic corrupts/stay on the side of your diety' thing can inspire terror more so than an antimagic field. I will eventually be using miniatures after the 0-level funnel and if the player's so desire they can buy their own. If I can get ahold of any video camera I will, so I can video tape sessions to publish as further evidence. Oncemore, the point is to see if society does shape how we think and act on a subconscious level AND is the power of the situation enough to change that way of thinking.
And also for the fun of it, many of these girls are great friends of mine and it just seems like a blast to do.
I assume after reading that disclaimer about how I am not targeting groups of people in any way you might have an idea of what this thread is. I (a 19 year old male who has been playing D&D since the age of 7) am going to run an experiment on some friends of mine who are wanting to learn the ropes of table-top roleplaying. I have yet to confirm on players, but it will come shortly (I have 6 in mind but I am sure they can tell their friends and I can get backups [I would like to have 6-8, plus reserves]).
The point of this experiment is to see is society has shaped the human mind (how we think) and can it be undone (by another society/situations abnormal to our times)
By taking the "unlikely gamers" (a term fairly improper considering many gamer girls are out there and probably reading) and putting them at a table, sitting them down, and throwing challenges that tend to be masculine in nature, I intend to see if they handle differently than a man would.
The control is being run in another group, which started as open but is actually all male.
I will be using the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG for the flavor of "yeah, you can die really easily" and the whole 'fear of the unknow'/newish monsters. This is to bring away from the fantasy cliches as much as possible, resulting in the players having the wonder and awe of when many of us first started playing. (Remeber that first time you fought an otyugh and you pooped your pants a little bit? I do....) I will be running modules for them (to start until I get the ropes for DCC RPG).
Once I start I will be posting regularly with updates, I will also be starting a blog (tumblr since most of them I talk to via tumblr) to publish my information.
The point of this entire experiment is to see both how females act in a gamer setting (the tables, the dice, the miniatures, the music, the food) and how females act in a fantasy setting (monsters and magic and traps and treasure). The theory behind it (my hypothesis if you will) is that society has actually shaped how the different genders think, resulting in gender roles that dictate what we do more so than character roles. I predict more attention to treasure, less eager to fight and a higher level or roleplaying and conversation skils. (The prediction is not meant to be sexist in any way shape or form, it is mearly how I feel society portrays women). This is a sociological endevour.
In the disclaimer I mentioned the LGBT community, one of the players is transgender and while s(he) identifies more as a male, does infact have female parts, this too is interesting and worthy of note taking, as can even a transgender feel gender roles from his or her upbringing?
As a side note (and an exception to a house rule) they will be allowed to choose either male or female characters (normally male players cannot chose female characters at my table). After the first 0-level dungeon run, I will post characters and players.
***if you catch any typos let me know, I'm a "scientist" not an english major.
Furthermore and lastly, the segments of this experiment are thoughout and implemented for a reason. DCC RPG is being used not because I favor it over Pathfinder (which they're about the same) or because I dislike 4e (4e is [i feel] a great starter product, as such I would rather take something with a little more grit, I feel 4e's characters do not die as much (or pathfinder's, another reason I am not using pathfinder) and that DCC RPG has easy to learn rules, easy to die combat and the whole 'magic corrupts/stay on the side of your diety' thing can inspire terror more so than an antimagic field. I will eventually be using miniatures after the 0-level funnel and if the player's so desire they can buy their own. If I can get ahold of any video camera I will, so I can video tape sessions to publish as further evidence. Oncemore, the point is to see if society does shape how we think and act on a subconscious level AND is the power of the situation enough to change that way of thinking.
And also for the fun of it, many of these girls are great friends of mine and it just seems like a blast to do.
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