Male player + female character: a new twist

[reveal]

Well, I don't think I can improve on that at all

All of it. It;s exactly what I would've said.

Glad you've had better luck than I have Evil Bob. On the subject of the endless parade of "Sexy Deviants" that Males-playing-females show up with, I'll just add a paraphrase from my friend Fusangite...

[bq]If, after playing my game, someone heads home to pleasure themselves while thinking about it, then my game has failed in every imaginable way for me"[/bq]

So what you're saying is that, to Fusangite, that is actually is an imaginable way that a game could end?

 

[Wisdom Penalty]

changelings? warforged? artificers? males playing females playing males playing females? emotional baggage-laden character backgrounds and confused sexuality seeping into gaming?

by zeus' beard, have treatises on method acting and genderless societies replaced our dice bags?

has quiche replaced greasy pizza?

mineral water instead of bad soda or cheap beer?

soft mood lighting and new age classical music instead of a fluorescent basement lamp and your neighbor's ungodly heavy metal?

somewhere there's a dwarf fighter weeping, and a halfling rogue that's lost his will to Pick Pockets, and an elf wizard that no longer feels like casting magic missile. we used to have dual-classed humans, and now we have dual-gendered player characters.

that sound you hear is EGG vomiting.

yes, im a polyester-wearing dinosaur.

W.P.

 

[reveal]

yes, im a polyester-wearing dinosaur.

W.P.

Go back to Woodstock, ya hippy!

 

[Quickbeam]

JD: Glad to see you're really working through your character, his/her motivations, and potential gender roleplaying concerns, whilesoliciting the advice and commentary of others here at EN World. As you've already noted, we are pretty fortunate in that the people who comprise our group are able to play PCs of just about any race, class or gender without compromising the integrity of the game. And you can bet your changeling hindquarters that your miscreant shapeshifting ways are sure to spell TROUBLE down the line !

T-Bill: That paraphrase of Fusangite is both one of the funniest things I've heard in months, while being horribly disturbing too. I'm sorry for any DM or player who's ever left a game with a thought similar to that running their their heads.

 

[Shemeska]

I've got an amusing example in my current campaign:

Male NPC (former PC) played by a female player getting involved on and off with a female NPC pretending to be male (shapeshifting) played by me, the male DM. Long story. *chuckle*


I've never had any issues with cross-gender characters, except for an ill fated and short lived redeemed succubus PC. She did not survive long, and I'm somewhat glad for that fact. It got awkward at times.

Of course I say this having just RP'd my namesake completely over the top during my two GenCon games.

 

[Campbell]

While I would normally hesitate to allow cross-gendered PCs in my games, JD's changeling doesn't set any alarms off for me primarily because the character concept doesn't seem to be overly dependent on gender issues like most of the cross-gendered PC concepts I've seen. Gender issues just do not fit amongst the sort of thematic elements I want included in my roleplaying sessions.

In general, I do not allow cross-gendered, or more importantly sexually deviant PCs for the same reason I hesitate to allow players to play characters of divergent ethnicity in my modern games. My experience has bore out that when such PCs actually enhance the gaming session it is mostly for reasons that have very little to do with their 'quirks'. Those same quirks have had a negative impact on gaming sessions in the past. If players have a genuine interest in stretching their roleplaying muscles I ask that they concentrate on other issues that are more thematically appropriate for the genre of play, rather than attempting to play characters that may make other people at the table uncomfortable.

 

[Fieari]

I personally dissallow cross gender PCs in my Face-to-Face games, simply due to the visual dissonance factor. However, playing a guy who's pretending to be a girl would work for me, simply because the visual dissonance factor could possibly help the roleplaying there, and thus I wouldn't have a problem with it. The changling thing is a little odd, and I'm not sure that my particular group would be mature enough to handle it...

 

[domino]

males playing females playing males playing females?

If it helps any, that specific instance was a Deadlands game, not DnD.

 

[evilbob]

...
...
I saw this all the time as a Storyteller for a Vampire LARP.
...

OHHHHHHHHHHH. Oh. ...Oh.


Seriously, though, thank you for that excellent response; that really, really helped. And no offense, but the moment I saw "Vampire LARP" the entire issue clarified in my head. Riiiiight.

By contrast, the people I game with tend to come from well-adjusted, generally plesant backgrounds and so far honestly none of them have had issues playing a different gender - of course, many of them are actors by profession and all are non-mysoginistic, intelligent (and honestly, slightly older) people who are as disgusted by simple stereotypes as you or I, so I could see how this might be easier from the get-go. Thanks again for a great response, though!

 

[domino]

At the risk of trying to do oneupmanship, I can do one better.

Female player. Playing a male. Said male was dressed up like a woman.
Male player Playing a female. In disguse as a male.

Said characters fall in love.

And then get their genders switched.

Ok, after checking with the GM of that game, I was wrong on one account.

They didn't get their genders switched. They got their BODIES switched. So we wound up with; female player, playing a PC with the mind of a male, who used to be indisguise as a woman, now in the BODY of "his" female lover. And vice versa.