males playing females and the other way around, opinions?

[Bagpuss]

Hmm. I wonder what kind of a campaign one could make that revolved around the color of PC's eyes..

Big Trouble in Little China!!!!

 

[Abraxas]

How would blue eyed and brunette affect the game? Half the time I don't even remember those in the real world.

But they are things that are readily apparent - that's all I was saying.

But height has mechanical implications. What if there had been climbing involved? Or tight tunnels only he could stand in?

Depends on the game though - in D&D whether you're 5'0" or 6'6" doesn't affect those things - unless the DM goes out of his way to make them.

If your campaign doesn't involve gender issues then gender isn't an issue. If it does, then it is.

So, if gender isn't an issue in the game I run and it makes it somewhat easier if people play same gendered characters - it shouldn't be a problem if that's all I allow. Some of the statements in this thread make it sound like that is a completely unreasonable position and possibly indicative of me having a "problem"

Hmm. I wonder what kind of a campaign one could make that revolved around the color of PC's eyes.

Probably one that if you described would Godwin the thread.

But that's just it. For the purposes of that campaign it wasn't important, until the other characters took notice and made it so. The point is, she'd thought of it long before it ever became an issue. She'd been prepared to never make it an issue.

So how would the DM requiring same gender PCs have affected that? The only effect you described is the interaction between players - but would the campaign have collapsed with out that? Would the campaign have been less fun? Maybe, but then again couldn't it have also been fun if the DM played that aspect of the character up with NPC interactions - even if the other player's knew what the character was?

 

[jonesy]

Big Trouble in Little China!!!!

Oooh. Good call.

 

[GrimGent]

If the character is female, there are a million and one ways to bring that to the table, some great, some, not so much.

And one of those ways, of course, is to play a woman who doesn't emphasize her femininity in any way. Asexuality is a viable option for character concepts, naturally enough. In these discussions about players failing to portray the opposite sex "accurately", it seems all too easily to slip into sweeping generalizations on how men or women should act, according to some set of conventions: "All men behave like this" or "No woman would do that", when common sense tells that somewhere in the wide world, right at this very moment, people are proving that false.

The old advice still holds true: play a complete person, not some stereotype of a sex or a gender, and it will work out all right.

 

[Abraxas]

Do you not read books, watch films, learn any history?

Why yes, yes I do - and it would have been nice if you would have included the rest of my statement, the part where I said "IMO, I honestly don't see how a player could need their character to only be male or female that doesn't include elements that I don't care to have in a game I play for entertainment."

I have been talking about RPGs where gender discrimination is not the norm. I was not talking about the real world or books or movies where gender stereotypes and discriminations are a reality or explored. In fact those are exactly the types of issues I don't want in my RPG entertainment - and I have stated such previously.

Priestess of Idun as I mentioned earlier. With the release of Dark Sun Campaign Setting how about a Templar from the city state of Nibenay? And those are just ones where there is a gender restriction.

These are mechanical restrictions placed by the campaign and the DM - they could be removed and have no real effect on the game. Why are these restrictions acceptable but a same gender restriction is not? Would you say there is something wrong with a DM who wouldn't allow a male Priest of Idunn because a player thought it would be an interesting challenge to play such a character?

This is all a preference issue, people don't need to be insulting because another's preference differs from yours.

Good Day

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I find this to be offensive. Why is the DM describing the reactions of a PC to "stimuli" in the game world? Isn't that the player's job? Be as lewd as you like but please don't usurp player agency.

This was the point at issue. The player had his character dallying with prostitutes and expected the DM to begin describing details of the "encounter" which otherwise had no bearing on anything happening in the game. It had nothing to do with usurpation of roleplaying by dictating PC reaction. It had everything to do with the DM hitting the player upside the head with the cluehammer to declare to him that the situation did not warrant anything but superficial acknowledgement of the expenditure of money and the characters actions/location during the night.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

IME, I have yet to see a character concept that requires the character to be male or female. IMO, I honestly don't see how a player could need their charatcer to only be male or female that doesn't include elements that I don't care to have in a game I play for entertainment.

YMMV, probably does, and that's fine and dandy

You obviously missed the example I gave earlier- the spellcaster whose mystical ability is innately intertwined with his or her level of sexual activity (based on RW beliefs).

Male PCs of this type only lose their powers temporarily, but their female counterparts are irrevocably changed.

I've played that female mystic- she did NOT play like the boys...

Similar RW mystic traditions linked female spellcasters to their "lunar cycle", their power waxing & waning- or changing completely- at a certain time of the month.

Examples of one or another of these kinds of female-only roles in fiction can be found in Earthsea, DC Comics Vertigo line, Thieves' World, and Xanth.

 

[Abraxas]

You obviously missed the example I gave earlier- the spellcaster whose mystical ability is innately intertwined with his or her level of sexual activity (based on RW beliefs).

Male PCs of this type only lose their powers temporarily, but their female counterparts are irrevocably changed.

I've played that female mystic- she did NOT play like the boys...

Similar RW mystic traditions linked female spellcasters to their "lunar cycle", their power waxing & waning- or changing completely- at a certain time of the month.

Examples in fiction can be found in Earthseq, DC Comics Vertigo line, Thieves' World, and Xanth.

I think you missed my response to your post.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Just curious why you couldn't substitute male or female into either of those traditions for the sake of the game. Nothing above screams only a woman's magical abilities must be lost or changed permanently or a man's powers are lost temporarily- other than the fact that it may have been described that way in some real world text.

The RW biology which inspired such mysticism, for one- males have no menstrual cycle; males do not bear children...nor the intense pain that childbirth entails. Ask any shaman who embodies the Font of Life or ask a rabbi why Judaism is traced matrilinearly and you get essentially the same anwer: women- because maternity os a matter of obvious fact while paternity may be nigh impossible to prove.

Taboo after taboo after taboo stem from all of this.

Sure, you could twist things around to buffer your sensibilities, but someone who wants to delve into those RW traditions for their PCs, that twist is probably pure weaksauce.

 

[Abraxas]

The RW biology which inspired such mysticism, for one- males have no menstrual cycle; males do not bear children...nor the intense pain that childbirth entails. Ask any shaman who embodies the Font of Life or ask a rabbi why Judaism is traced matrilinearly and you get essentially the same anwer: women- because maternity os a matter of obvious fact while paternity may be nigh impossible to prove.

All of which are elements I don't care to deal with in my RPG gaming entertainment. I don't know what games you've played in are like but lots of biological realities are glossed over and/or outright ignored - and if they weren't I know a few people who would think I was either strange or sexist for bringing them up in a game.

But I do have to ask - what exactly would you be gaining by having your characters powers linked to a menstrual cycle as opposed to just a lunar cycle - or any other cycle for that matter, I'm really confused as to what experience your are trying to achieve. And how do you expect your DM to accommodate this aspect of your character - other than just noting the date and what bonuses/penalties you have - which could apply to any conditional power scheme.

Also, in a game rampant with magic, paternity may be easily proved - and in the real world isn't there a TV program that suggests maternity isn't an obvious fact until much too late

Taboo after taboo after taboo stem from all of this.

There are lots of taboos that I wouldn't want to deal with in a game I play in or run, lots & lots...

Sure, you could twist things around to buffer your sensibilities, but someone who wants to delve into those RW traditions for their PCs, that twist is probably pure weaksauce.

I doubt it, and a game of D&D is not the place to delve into such things - at least in any game I am interested in playing.