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Message: <blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 2090073" data-attributes="member: 463">First up, answers vary hugely depending on whether we're talking round-table or PBEM games.  Women are a minority of D&Ders and a minority of my round-table players, but many PBEMs have a majority of female players, especially the more rules-light systems.  So if I run a D&D PBEM I'll have some female players, a non-D&D PBEM might well have over 50% female players.   Some RPG systems are unattractive to most female RPers though, even in PBEM - Traveller is the example I know best, but I expect any gun/tech-focused system like Phoenix Command would be unlikely to have many female RPers. >>1. How many female roleplayers do you have presently in your campaign(s)?<<1/6 players in round-table game.  Maybe 1/3 in current PBEMs, which are both D&D.>>2. Percentagewise, with how many females did you share your hobby in your own gaming history so far in comparison to the males?<<Round-table 1/8, PBEM maybe 1/2 to 2/3.>>3. How do female roleplayers change the style of play in your groups?<<Round table - hm, all players affect the play style.  Female players are usually more interested in character interaction than number crunching.  PBEMs do the interaction much better than they do crunch, so this works well.  A female-led round-table game will tend to have more RP and less hack & slash, but female players vary as much as male ones.  I've had 2 female round-table GMs, one was all-RP no-killing-PCs sort of GM, the other seemed to love attacking our poor PCs with extremely tough combat encounters.>>4. Do you think that female roleplayers are more drawn in to the storytelling aspect of the game? If so, why?<<If by 'storytelling' you mean roleplaying, yes.  Women are generally more interaction-focussed than men IRL, and have better communication skills, so this isn't surprising.  Very few women value 'crunch' for its own sake in my experience, though they may enjoy hack & slash as power fantasy, most don't much enjoy the tactical wargaming stuff.  There are exceptions of course.  If by storytelling you mean the railroading listen-to-GM's-story style of play, no, women GMs aren't particularly prone to this IME, if anything they tend to be more aware than men of the need for player freedom to set the direction of the game. Some male D&Ders tend towards autistic behaviour, you just don't see this w females IME.>>5. Do you think that female roleplayers are more or less immune to powergaming/maximizing? If so, why?<<Powergaming of the munchkinoid "uber PC build" sort doesn't seem to hold much attraction for most female players.  Most female players are as capable as males at building effective PCs but trying to squeeze every drop of advantage from the ruleset seems rare.>>6. Do you think that female roleplayers are generally ignorant about the rules, concentrating more on the stories and the roleplaying itself?<<In general female players are just as capable as males at mastering the rules, but as I said above may be less interested in exploiting this knowledge for maximum advantage, and are definitely more interested in RP than in number-crunching even when they can crunch perfectly well should they so wish.>>7. Where do you see advantages/disadvantages of a group that features some/majority/none female roleplayers?<<Female RPers tend to make particularly good GMs.  They are better on average at creating and playing interesting NPCs, they are better on average at recognising what the players want & adapting their game to suit the players' wishes.  As players, again they enjoy and are good at character interaction and can help a lot to add dept, interest and drama to games that might otherwise be rather shallow.  Disadvantages - some female players playing D&D in a typical (usually male-dominated) powergaming campaign, very much the default 3e model (look at the WoTC scenarios) may be unable or unwilling to min-max & number-crunch enough to pull their weight in a PC group when it comes to combat, leaving them and the other players dissatisfied.   Some female players are insufficiently assertive to get adequate attention in a noisy group of (male) D&Ders, and may be frequently overlooked.Conversely as GM I had a problem of being hyper-sensitive to the demands of one particularly assertive female player, and in retrospect went far too far in attempting to satisfy her (ultimately unsatisfiable) demands, which caused big problems with the campaign & the other players.  I think I, a male, was too sensitive to her demands and went too far to accommodate her because she was female, but this isn't a problem with female players per se, rather with male attitude to female players.>>8. Why do you think that male roleplayers are the vast majority in the hobby?<<If the hobby is D&D, it's the emphasis on rules/crunch over RP.  Male RPers are not the vast majority of PBEM RPers IME.>>9. Do you think that socalled "Storytelling Games" like e.g. "Vampire" draw more female roleplayers to their genre than traditional roleplaying games like D&D? If so, why?<<More emphasis on mood, theme & character, less on crunch.  Goth chicks are more likely to RP than their mainstream peers, and they like vampires.>>10. Are there systems/settings out there in your estimation that are completely devoid of female roleplayers? If so, why?<<Hard-sf settings with a systems emphasis on 'cold tech' like guns and spaceships.  GDW games like Traveller & Twilight:2000 don't attract female players - even if they find the settings interesting, the emphasis on tech & crunch isn't.  Games that are really tactical skirmish wargames.  Why - see above.>>11. Do you know female gamers, that, even after some years of play, have only miniscule/no knowledge of even the simplest rules? If so, why?<<No.  Female D&Ders who play regularly pick up the rules at the same rate as most male RPers IME.>>12. Did you ever play in groups that only featured female gamers? Did you (if so, how often percentagewise) play in a group that only featured male gamers?How do those groups differ in style?<<I've been the only male in 1 round-table game.  It was very 'soft' and fluffy - lots of great RP, minimal excitement.  All male groups tend the opposite - lots of combat, often not much RP.>>13. Do you think a lot of female gamers are drawn into the hobby because their boyfriends are already playing it, or they want to get to know a boy better in the group, rather than out of personal interest?<<I have one m-f couple in my current group, but no, IME generally not.  Most regular female RPers developed their interest completely separate from male influence.  However because the RPG world is male-dominated, many female RPers are girls & women more comfortable in all or mostly-male company than the average girl or woman.  They are likely also less susceptible to negative peer pressure ("You play D&D? Yuck!") than the norm.>>14. Have you ever seen relationships break in a group, maybe even while playing? If so, why?<<No, not exactly.  I've seen PBEMers form IRL relationships and break up later.>>15. Do you think that female gamers are more prone to draw private problems/conflicts into the actual roleplaying than males? If so, why?<<Hm, maybe.  Haven't got enough evidence.  Female RPers may be more likely to express RL emotions at the table, in general females compartmentalise their lives less than males do and are less likely to put their 'game face' on at the table.>>16. Is there generally more quarreling in a group that features some female gamers? If so, why? Could this be also to the benefit of the gaming, e.g. problemes are being dicussed rather that ignored?<<We-ell... in my limited experience the answer would have to be 'yes'.  This can be good or bad, but IME was ultimately bad (see above).>>17. Do you think that the general approach of a female gamer is different from a male gamer? If so, how?<<See above.-Simon</blockquote>

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