PC sex relative to player sex

[Plane Sailing]

I would have thought that playing other races convincingly would be much more challenging than playing other genders.

Thinking back to my 3e characters, in D&D I've had a male, then a female, then a male. In Star wars I've had a male, then a female, then a male. I don't think I particularly aim for 50/50, it might be sorta 70/30 in the end. It pretty much depends upon the character concept. As it happens all my D&D characters and all but one of my star wars characters (Meela the Twilek) have been human.

Mind you, I DM nearly as much as I play, so I get to play every race and gender under the sun as NPCs, which is great fun!

Cheers

 

[sniffles]

I'm female, and I predominantly play female characters. I started doing so because I was the only female player in the group and I wanted to balance the scales a bit. Fortunately none of the guys objected.

After 10 years of roleplaying, I've still mainly played women, but there are now 2 other regular female players in the group. The other women don't play males. Several of the male players have played females, however. In a recently-ended campaign, my fiancee played a thong-wearing female wizard.

I don't really care what gender my fellow players choose to play, as long as they're not stereotypical about it, or offensive.

This thread made me think a bit about gender in our campaigns, and I've come to the conclusion that there really isn't any. We say that our PCs are male or female, but how we run them doesn't differ much depending on gender. If my male fighter PC suddenly underwent a sex change it wouldn't change anything significant about the way I run him (but it would make a bit of a problem for the GM since the PC is married to an NPC!).

One question for those who say they can't run a convincing female PC: why does running a PC of a particular gender require you to do anything different? I'm particularly referring to the comments about voices. I don't use a gruff voice or lower tone when I play males. Why do you think you need to use a different voice for a female?

 

[Eli-kun]

I voted as about 50/50. Most of my earlier characters were female(same gender as me). My most recent character concepts are male. My most recent character is physically male but gender confused. One of my characters was a hermaphrodite because in that particular campaign setting all dwarves are hermaphrodites.

I've had the pronoun confusion with most of my female characters. For some reason they keep being mistaken for males.

I'll play whatever I think fits the particular character.

 

[Eolin]

two whole pages on this topic and nothing unreasonable? No blatant generalizations about those who do (or do not) play the other gender?

After watching the last thread on this, I'm more than a little suprised.

 

[Ogre Mage]

I am male but 60% of my PCs are female. I originally began doing this because in the (mostly male) groups I played there were no female PCs. Eventually, it just became a habit more than anything.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

As a player: all of them. But as a DM, it'd be a pretty boring world if every one of my PCs were men.

 

[AuroraGyps]

I'm female, and I predominantly play female characters. I started doing so because I was the only female player in the group and I wanted to balance the scales a bit. Fortunately none of the guys objected.

After 10 years of roleplaying, I've still mainly played women, but there are now 2 other regular female players in the group. The other women don't play males. Several of the male players have played females, however. In a recently-ended campaign, my fiancee played a thong-wearing female wizard.

I don't really care what gender my fellow players choose to play, as long as they're not stereotypical about it, or offensive.

Same here... I don't think I've ever played a male PC. I don't think I'd ever have a problem playing one, but until I run out of female character concepts or come up with a really cool idea for a male PC, I don't think I'd be playing one soon. Besides, as they say, 'I enjoy being a girl', IRL and in games. Sometimes it's even an advantage to be a girl gamer playing a female PC... I & my PCs have been underestimated several times through the years by male, and usually newly met, gamers.
I'll never forget the first time I played with my old, hometown game group. I was the first girl they ever played with, and I was new to the game system and everything (though I'd played D&D years ago and was a DL novel junkie), so they we're quite suprised when I shot the kneecaps off a bad guy to keep him from running. It worked and they were all kinda impressed.

One question for those who say they can't run a convincing female PC: why does running a PC of a particular gender require you to do anything different? I'm particularly referring to the comments about voices. I don't use a gruff voice or lower tone when I play males. Why do you think you need to use a different voice for a female?

Again, same here. If a guy is going to play a female PC (or visa versa), it's easier to say, "my PC sounds like (insert actress', actor's, etc voice here)". My PC's rarely speak the way I do, but I don't change voices from my way of speaking to my PC'swhen I play, unless it's to set a mood, or to emphasis something being said. A lot of times, I find it's more what's said and the tone used, than "a voice".

 

[bubbalin]

I am male but 60% of my PCs are female. I originally began doing this because in the (mostly male) groups I played there were no female PCs. Eventually, it just became a habit more than anything.

I too try to balance the gendres in my group since we have no female players. buti'm probably getting to about 20/80 in favour of the opposite gender.

 

[Philip]

I have the "audio/visual" object to cross gendered PCs, and as such ban it from my in person games and never try it in person. However, online, I have no objections whatsoever and have frequently cross gendered, to about a rate of 50/50 ish, sometimes bucking on one side or the other.

I think that playing another sex is harder, becase you have to put your mind in another track. I can't really do that at all, so mine are all big, buff, and stupid guys.

I imagine if playing another sex is so difficult for the reasons mentioned above, you must all be playing humans, for playing another race is supposedly more difficult still.

But many male players have less difficulty in playing a male half-dragon minotaur than a female human. Methinks that it has nothing to do with but reasons mentioned above, but the powerful stigma in our society of assuming cross-sex roles.

My ratio is 70/30 (same gender/cross gender). I did once play the same character concept in two different campaigns as two different genders. Didn't make much of a difference though.

If you woke up as a different gender IRL, it would have little impact on your personality (at least in the short term), it does have a big impact on how other people treat you. So the weight of correctly role-playing PCs assuming a cross-gender role would lie on the shoulders of the DM (and your fellow players). Many players incorrectly assume that they have to 'do someting' when playing another gender (such as assuming a high-pitched voice). This is simply not neccesary.