Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 2095467" data-attributes="member: 18280">1. How many female roleplayers do you have presently in your campaign(s)?Right now, the group is entirely male.  So far as I am aware, my EnWorld game is also all-male, as are my play-by-posts.2. Percentagewise, with how many females did you share your hobby in your own gaming history so far in comparison to the males?In high school, it was 33.3% female.  In the U.S. Army, my games were about 10% female.  Post-army California games were about 10-15% female, depending.  I had one game that was 100% female, though it was very short-lived.  After having moved to Canada, I would say about 10%, again depending.  Overall, maybe 10-20% of the players I have run games for, or been a player with, have been female.3. How do female roleplayers change the style of play in your groups?That really depends upon the individual.  I do think that there is a different dynamic.  The game is made a bit more realistic by adding more points of view, perhaps.  4. Do you think that female roleplayers are more drawn in to the storytelling aspect of the game? If so, why?I'd give that a qualified "Yes".  Several of the women I've role-played with were new to the game, and new players are almost universal more drawn to the storytelling aspect of the game...if given the opportunity to be.  While the people who have invested the most in their characters (and hence, in the world and story that their characters are part of) have not universally been women in my experience, I would say that they comprise a large percentage.5. Do you think that female roleplayers are more or less immune to powergaming/maximizing? If so, why?God, no.  Back in the days of 2Ed, I had a player affectionately referred to as "the Shark," due both to her prowess at min/maxing and the utter ruthlessness of her characters.6. Do you think that female roleplayers are generally ignorant about the rules, concentrating more on the stories and the roleplaying itself?No.  New players generally fit that description.  People who join in once or twice because of Significant Others might fit that description.  Generally, people who play learn enough rules to play.  In high school (AD&D), I had one female player who convinced me to allow her to use new rules from Dragon (bounty hunter class)...certainly none of the male players at that time were reading the rules as much.BTW, hop over to DND Chick's Realm if you like, and take a look at the rules she's posted there.  Clearly, here is a female player who not only knows the rules, but knows how to modify them to her purpose.7. Where do you see advantages/disadvantages of a group that features some/majority/none female roleplayers?More people close the bathroom door when the urinate.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":eek:" title="Eek!    :eek:"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":eek:" />   (Unfortunately, based on actual experience  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f615.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":confused:" title="Confused    :confused:"  data-smilie="5"data-shortname=":confused:" /> )8. Why do you think that male roleplayers are the vast majority in the hobby?A combination of early marketing and the limitations of earlier editions of the game.  Let's face it, the more options for what characters can do, the larger an audience a game is likely to attract.  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?Marketing.  Also, these games focused on eliminating some of the limitations of early D&D-type rpgs.  Remember, early D&D was just killing things and looting them with the occasional trick or trap to deal with.  Role-playing, when it occurred, occurred within that context.10. Are there systems/settings out there in your estimation that are completely devoid of female roleplayers? If so, why?Not that I know of.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.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?Once, in Califonia.  This game was actually designed for the girlfriends of some of the players in my regular game, and my ex (who was not my ex then).  It was a "players new to the game" game, and I am not at all certain that a transcription would allow an outsider to identify the genders of everyone at the table.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?Nah.  A lot of female gamers try the game because of boyfriends, maybe, but if they're going to be "drawn into the hobby", there has to be some personal interest already.14. Have you ever seen relationships break in a group, maybe even while playing? If so, why?Yes.  However, that's pretty personal stuff for the people involved.  Suffice to say that it didn't happen during the game, and oddly enough didn't impact the game.  Actually, that last part is still pretty amazing when I think of it.15. Do you think that female gamers are more prone to draw private problems/conflicts into the actual roleplaying than males? If so, why?No, but only because I have experienced both genders drawing personal problems into a game.  Right now I am running a game where all the players are male, and I am trying to teach the players (many of whom are high school students) not to bring their personal problems into the game.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?No.  There is generally more quarreling in a group with less mature players.  I remember some pretty serious spats in high school.  Less so as I got older.  Nowadays, even though I am DMing a much younger group, I am able to keep the quarreling largely out of the game.  I would say this is a function of age, not gender.17. Do you think that the general approach of a female gamer is different from a male gamer? If so, how?I think that there is enough difference that I would be happier with a more balanced (genderly-speaking) group of players in my regular game.  However, I'd have a hard time saying exactly why that would be so.  Perhaps there is a general difference in outlook, allowing a mixed-gender group to find more things interesting, and thus drive the campaign forward better.  I am not entirely convinced that this is true, though.  It could just be that the best gaming groups I had were mixed-gender.  It could be, really, that I would just like to gather those players back to my gaming table again.Not sure.Hope these answers helped.RC</blockquote>

Verification