D&D General "Players in my D&D Group Sometimes Play Characters of a Different Gender." (a poll)

[el-remmen]

I dunno. Feels a lot like asking if we allow women at the gaming table. The very nature of the question is loaded.

At a loss for how it can feel like that - since the question is true or false and does not indicate a specific gender of player one way or another, or ask whether they are allowed to play or not.

It seems to me you are the only one so far trying to derail or change the question as written.

 

[CleverNickName]

Friendly reminder: don't feed the trolls, folks.

 

[Ulfgeir]

We have had plenty of instances of people playing characters of a gender different than their own in the gaming groups I have been in. I personally usually, but not always, play female characters. Depends on what I feel like when making the character.

 

[Seramus]

It seems to me you are the only one so far trying to derail or change the question as written.

That's fair. If it doesn't feel a bit squick to anyone else, I will politely bow out.

 

[BrokenTwin]

The levels vary by group, but I've always had a few players in every group that played characters that didn't match the player's presented gender. I've only played a couple myself, but that's more due to me usually GMing than playing.

Thankfully the "sexy stripper ninja" trope died out after leaving high school. Haven't had to deal with any particularly cringey gender stereotypes in my games in adulthood, which I attribute more to luck than anything else.

 

[TwoSix]

Not super often, but now and again. Maybe 10% of our characters, roughly?

 

[Laurefindel]

I answered true, but with big emphasis on the « sometimes ». A memorable one was a female character (played by male) mascarading as a male to serve as a samouraï. Other than the DM, other players didn’t learn about it until the latest stages of the campaign, and yet all the clues were there since the beginning.

Interestingly, it tends to happen a lot more frequently in modern/sci-fi games than « regular » D&D.

 

[abirdcall]

And sometimes a player will seem like they are playing a character of a different gender but they're just a different gender than what they are presenting as.

D&D 5e is very popular for queer folks.

It's a wonderful opportunity for some folks to express themselves in a safe way.

 

[Sir Brennen]

I answered true, but with big emphasis on the « sometimes ». A memorable one was a female character (played by male) mascarading as a male to serve as a samouraï. Other than the DM, other players didn’t learn about it until the latest stages of the campaign, and yet all the clues were there since the beginning.

Side note: the Mulan scenario you describe reminds me one of our players tries to base each of her characters off a Disney princess, often flipping tropes on their head, or having a backstory that digs into the in-game political "realities" of those characters.

 

[David Howery]

haven't gamed in a loooooong time, but... way back in college (1E days), our group was all male, but there were a handful of female PCs in the mix; no one really thought anything about it. My last group (early 2E days) was 4 men/3 women, but all of them pretty much played their own gender.