Le Gamers de Femme

[Greylock]

This shall probably be the 11th or twelfth time I've said this on ENWorld alone, but in my twenty-five years of gaming, I've NEVER played in a group that did not include women. My current group consists of three women and five men. And up until the last session, it was four women, but we lost one player who'd been with us for some time due to real life distractions.

I think what Pkitty said is the key.

 

[krissbeth]

Ask us to play.

Duh.

 

[Jeysie]

I know quite a few female roleplayers... in fact, I'd say that at least half of all the roleplayers I know as more than a random screenname are female. It's just that:

1. The majority of them roleplay online instead of face-to-face.

2. The majority of them do freeform or forum RP instead of dice systems.

So, I think there might be two key factors I can think of off-hand: One, online you don't have men either drooling over you or staring at you like you're an alien because you're a girl that roleplays. I know that part of the reason I seldom visit my local gaming shop is because the employees always treat me oddly.

And two, getting the dice and math out of the way (or mostly out of the way) lets women focus more strongly on the social/fantasizing/communication aspects of the game, as well as letting their RP be more "fanfic-like".

These are just guesses on my part, admittedly, since I don't particularly think very, uh, femininely. But it does match up with some comments I've heard from some fellow roleplayers on the matter.

Peace & Luv, Liz

 

[Greylock]

...the most vicious characters are invariably run by the females; they very much delight in decapitating orcs and splattering kobolds all over the walls. It's actually a little disturbing.

By the way, this describes four of the last five women I've gamed with.

 

[greenstar]

I'm a female roleplayer. I heard women don't make orc or dwarf characters but I do.

 

[greenstar]

Did anyone notice the incubus isn't in D&D?

 

[kenobi65]

I know quite a few female RPGers, including my wife. Of the 25 or so people that I play regularly with, across several different groups, I'd say that about 1/3 are women.

Yes, I think that there's a lot of women to whom RPGs just aren't appealing...but, you know what? There's a lot of men to whom RPGs aren't appealing, either.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Yes, I think that there's a lot of women to whom RPGs just aren't appealing...but, you know what? There's a lot of men to whom RPGs aren't appealing, either.

Spoken truly (by you, and abovethread by Mallus).

That said, IMO RPGs were a nerdy activity from their origin: sedentary, rooted in fantasy or sci-fi (which from the '60s until the late '80s were pretty much exclusively read by nerds, outside of the kiddie stuff like Prydain and the mass-appeal LotR), and involve lots of stereotypically male-oriented power fantasies (being strong, killing things, hanging around with succubi and Tlazolteotl and whatnot). The genre ties to comic books, Star Trek, and other stereotypically nerdy media pigeonholed RPGs as well. I think that label stuck pretty hard.

While fantasy seems to have come into wider acceptance in popular culture (viz. anime, Harry Potter, 10,000 comic book adaptations), tabletop RPGs are now past their prime. I know plenty of women who play computer games, including D&D-based CRPGs. But tabletop retains the image it's always had, and that image is... well, that of a bunch of overweight, T-shirt-and-short-wearing dorks sitting in one guy's parents' basement eating cheetos and drinking soda.

Okay, so I'm taking the polemic approach here. But the fact remains that my g/f, her friends, my friends, and practically every single woman I meet have responded to the revelation that I play D&D with raised eyebrows, jokes, or uproarious laughter. The exceptions are geek girls (and I don't know too many of those), but that just plays to my point.

And yes, yes, I know. I'm sure someone who plays with four supermodels and seven beach volleyball stars will show up to prove me wrong. If that person surfaces, please be aware that I will happily attend your games and bring fine food, booze, and company, just to actually see it for real!

 

[Ycore Rixle]

Yep: just ask them. I've found that there are lots of female gamers out there. Maybe a smaller percentage of the female population is going to be drawn to the hobby, but it's not that small a percentage. And that still leaves a lot of female gamers. My current group is 2/4 female, and at my old job (teacher at a private girls school) we had an active, rollicking, and bloodthirsty all-girls (except me) D&D club. Oh, and in my current campaign, one of the ladies is playing a 1/2 orc barbarian-turned-mithril baron who treats her employees like serfs while doting on her adopted street urchins. The other players sometimes go "Wha..." when she beats down on her miners. Personally I think she's getting out some aggression from her daytime job, but either way, it makes for a fascinating character!

 

[Piratecat]

I just did a quick check. Of the 65 people KidCthulhu and I invite to a private house-con every year, 28 are women. I think that's nifty.

People have been talking a lot about ways to honor Gygax's memory. The best way I can think of is to ask new people to game with you, to teach them how to game, and to make it damn fun. If you're going to teach folks the game anyways, why not ask people of both genders?