males playing females and the other way around, opinions?

[Dannyalcatraz]

As others have commented, if it's a guy portraying a female PC as wanton, or seducing other characters or things like that, then yeah, it can be a bit uncomfortable. But I really haven't run into scenarios like that.

Banshee

Actually, I DID do something like both of those.

My HERO PC- Hazard- was a 7' alien gladiatrix who had won her freedom and was now "retired" to the comfy backwater Earth...and she thought the gadgeteer in the power-armor suit was cute as hell. Her species was one in which the females were much bigger than the males (like many species on Earth), so she had a reverse-chauvinistic view of human males...but HIS PC had proven himself worthy of her attention.

Think of the relationship of Whorf & Dax through the looking glass with a dash of Moonlighting and/or Cheers and you're on the right track.

They never did anything- she was aware that humans were too...fragile...for her attention- but their interplay was hilarious for...well...at least the two of us.

(FWIW, both PCs were played by straight males.)

In a GURPS Cyberpunk campaign, I played a female "Street Samurai" who was 1 part Elric of Melnibone and one part biker-chick slut (based on someone I knew personally). Because of her cybernetic enhancements, she felt safe anywhere, so chased men like some men chase women. That, coupled with her Harley and black Monofilament Vibra-Sword made her a LOT of fun. The only men she actually seduced, though, were NPCs.

 

[nai_cha]

Most girls I've played with have created male characters. Why is this?

Is it because they're playing a "man's game"? They want to fit in?
Is it because they want to fulfil some sort of macho empowerment fantasy?

I can't speak for other women, especially since I game with a group that's mostly female, but my creation of a male character stemmed from no other reasons than (1) let's try something different and (2) LOL I wanna see what Chuck Bass on Athas would be like.

However, I've seen other women sharing their experiences about playing male characters so that they could simply play with the group, without all the baggage that sometimes comes with playing a female character e.g. getting hit on by other PCs, other skeevier/more unwelcome advances, &c.

Sometimes it's reached the point where women gamers (I recall seeing this on Bad RPRs Suck) advise newbie women gamers to just default to male characters instead of working out issues that make them uncomfortable (like sexist remarks or sexual assault in game), because it's easier than requesting that their fellow players tone down the douchebaggery or looking for a group that's douche-free. Which I think is a shame. People should be able to play male (or female) characters because they want to, not just to avoid getting hassled.

Like a lot of people on this thread have stated, playing someone of the opposite gender can be done and done well. Sexuality and gender are fluid IRL, why shouldn't they be in RPGs? And gender's only one part of a character, just like class, race, personality traits &c. Why get so hung up on that one aspect?

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I am a male who plays female characters because about 50% of all people in ANY world are female. Even in oppressive, chauvanistic, male dominated, misogynistic D&D games and game settings there's plenty of room for NORMAL female characters - perhaps even a NEED for such representation.

While I once was a teenager who along with my fellow male conspirators indulged in my share of peurile demonstrations of immaturity (the details of which I'd never care to repeat to any woman that I didn't want to hate me) neither I nor anybody I ever gamed with has quite crossed the line into using female characters for uncomfortable, self-indulgent sexual perversion. Dangerously close a few times, but not quite over the line.

I guess I and my gaming groups have been sensible and/or well-adjusted enough that I've never needed or bothered to give it more than a passing thought. Only in recent years have I seen that enough people seem to have had that uncomfortable or even sickening experience to actually pose the question as to whether the entire possibility of running a character of the opposite gender is suspect. I suppose all I can say to that is I'm glad I'm not you.

I think I can actually credit the DM I first played under. In the EARLY early days of 1E we happened to find a player who did indeed try to turn the opportunity of open roleplaying into a polluted mental playground. The DM's response was, "What the hell do you want me to describe for you here? FINE - you moan, you groan, you ___!" That of course put an immediate end to such stupidity and we never really had much problem with that afterwards. Beyond general teen male infantile humor in the absence of the presence of women, of course.

 

[cattoy]

I like it when good roleplayers do it.

I don't like playing with bad roleplayers, no matter what gender they are/play.

That about covers it.

 

[GrimGent]

Even if you are a mature player, not having to remember which gender a PC is in relation to the player simply makes it easier for me to keep things straight at the table.

You know, I've never really understood the complaints about this problem, since the characters don't necessarily resemble their players in any other respect, either, sometimes to the point that they aren't even remotely human. Not remembering enough about the PCs to keep in mind that the short guy on the other side of the table isn't playing a dwarf would pretty much render any kind of proper IC interaction impossible, after all.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

2) Even if you are a mature player, not having to remember which gender a PC is in relation to the player simply makes it easier for me to keep things straight at the table. No pun intended. Since I'm the DM and I do all the work, I value anything that makes my life easier. Sorry, but there really is no compelling argument a player can make against this.

There is nothing any player can possibly add to my game by playing an opposite gender PC that outweighs the convenience it affords me not to have to track PC vs. player gender.

I'm not trying to be adversarial but is it really that more inconvenient to remember PC vs. player gender when you're already doing that with other PC vs. player differences?

That's "Arwen", not Timmy. That's a wizard, not a IT guy. That's an elf, not a human. It doesn't seem like adding "He's playing a woman, not a man." would be too much extra to remember.

 

[Dausuul]

You know, I've never really understood the complaints about this problem, since the characters don't necessarily resemble their players in any other respect, either, sometimes to the point that they aren't even remotely human. Not remembering enough about the PCs to keep in mind that the short guy on the other side of the table isn't playing a dwarf would pretty much render any kind of proper IC interaction impossible, after all.

As far as I can tell, it's purely a pronoun thing. When referring to a PC by pronoun (which happens a lot), you don't have to remember species or appearance or personality, but you do have to remember sex. Male elves, tieflings, lizardfolk, and floating brain monsters* are all "him." A human woman is "her."

Personally, I don't think this is sufficient justification to ban cross-gender RPing, but I admit it can be a bit of a nuisance.

[size=-2]*I'm not sure how you determine the sex of a floating brain monster, but if you manage it and discover that it's male, you call it "him."[/size]

 

[GrimGent]

As far as I can tell, it's purely a pronoun thing.

That would at least explain why it's never been a problem for me... Face to face, I run games in Finnish, a language which doesn't have gender-specific pronouns. Online, I might not even conclusively know whether the players on the other side of the Internet are male or female.

 

[Jhaelen]

I run games in Finnish, a language which doesn't have gender-specific pronouns.

Cool! I clearly need to learn Finnish

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'm not sure how you determine the sex of a floating brain monster, but if you manage it and discover that it's male, you call it "him."

You look at it's corpus callosum...