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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vorpatril" data-source="post: 1721583" data-attributes="member: 17372">Another suggestion on playing a womanI'm writing in under my husband's account, but I'm a female who exclusively plays female characters, and I've played with men playing women before.  My two cents is that if you're playing table-top instead of PbP, it can help to use female mannerism or two to use when you're first playing your character just to help people remember that you are playing a female, since they're looking at and listening to a man.  If you play realistic but fairly androgynous, it will be a struggle for them to not forget you're a female since it's at odds with your appearance.  It's unlikely to be the central theme of your existence, so it's not something that should be focused on all the time, but I don't think it's needs to be any different than a tall, hulking player exaggerating halfling/short people characteristics a bit early on to cement in the other player's memories that he's playing a nimble halfling. If you're a good physical actor, you could do things like sitting with your legs closer together and less slouched and standing with your elbows in.  We're more likely to clasp our hands together than men.   We women sometimes cover our mouth when we laugh or are suprised, but I can't think of any man who does this.  Our voices are usually higher, but that's harder to copy for a guy.  We tend to have longer hair and may play with that or with earrings when we're thinking (men, conversely, play with their chins more.  I, for no apparent reason, tend to stroke the tip of my nose.  Don't know when that started).  We tend to have more delicate table manners.  If you're playing a ladylike woman, you probably want to use these tendencies.  If you're playing a woman acting manly, she may aggressively or self-consciously do the opposite in an attempt to be taken seriously as a one of the boys. Also, your character may have recognizably feminine quirks that you can play out.  For example, maybe she's an compulsive matchmaker or likes singing girly songs when she's happy.  Maybe she has a small, portable, traditionally female hobby that she indulges in, such as  such as knitting or jewelrey-making.  Perhaps she is a little concerned with the toll her scars are taking on her looks or maybe she needs to stop more often to pee (in real life, an DEFINITE difference).  Maybe she's attractive and has learned to both take advantage of that and be wary of men because of that.  Maybe she's unattractive and gets more negative attention than an unattractive man would.  (need DM assistance playing this out)  Perhaps she has a soft spot for cute animals or babies, or maybe she doesn't let any kids get away with an crap, because she has experience helping raise her brothers and sisters.  Also, it may help to hone in more on what general sort of woman do you want to play.  Different types of women have very different feminine characteristics.  In addition to looking at real woman (a great idea that people already discussed earlier) Look at female archypes that you can use to help cement your direction if you want to play a "feminine" character as opposed to an andogynous female character.  Examples include an ingenue, a mother type, a tom-boy-in-denial, a wisewoman, a shrew, a vamp, a noble lady, and an ice-maiden.  They are all very female archypes, but their characteristics are going to be very differentAnyway, that's all I can think of off-hand.  Good Luck!</blockquote>

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