Playing characters of the opposite gender

[Gilladian]

As DM, of course I play both roles frequently.

For my players, I neither encourage nor discourage the playing of opposite/different roles. I've had a few people play opposite. I've also had gay players play straight characters, and vice versa. But not very often in any of these circumstances. I've been surprised that most players want to play their own gender/orieintation, but it is what they choose... and then they vary their race widely...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In addition to Old Crone, my repertoire also includes Slutty Barmaid.

And Old Barmaid.

And very occasionally, Slutty Old Crone.

What, no Slutty Old Barmaid?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

What, no Slutty Old Barmaid?

Adventurers only want for information, sex, and ale.

What kind of a DM would I be if I put all their needs into one NPC?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Adventurers only want for information, sex, and ale.

What kind of a DM would I be if I put all their needs into one NPC?

Economical?

 

[Lurks-no-More]

"None of the above", since the poll didn't have an option for "I neither oppose or encourage this. If you're pretending to be an elf, does it matter if it's a he- or she-elf?"

 

[hopeless]

Playing a character os opposite gender

Hmm the first I can remember was an npc cleric named Vashalla, initially it was a spare character that was passed onto a female player before I lost my mage/rogue character and her player wanted to play a ranger with a jaguar animal companion.

After Vashalla I ran Bridget Anne d'summerville based on a certain Joss Whedon series who was a paladin that ended up being dragonbreathed to death in the mire of dead men.

Vashalla was slain when the dragon who captured her was conveniently small enough for a 20' fireball to destroy the bag she was being held in with another captive.

Currently running a female halfling sorceror but otherwise I guess it was more due to the miniature i used in two of these cases, if they hadn't sent me a female miniature maybe I wouldn't have run such a character.

 

[Mr. Wilson]

IRL I'm a hetrosexual male.

Of the last three characters I've played, one was a tomboy female Warlord, one was a bawdy human male fighter, and one was a deeply in the closest Ventrue male professor (in V:TM).

I got over that whole gender issue the second I realized I had to play females if I was going to DM a realistic world.

It's just a role in a game.

 

[Amphimir Míriel]

Some 10-15 years ago, I banned players from creating characters of the opposite gender. At that point I'd had too many nerdy guys badly playing slutty elfs.

Nowadays, I play with adults my own age and we feel a lot more confident about both our roleplaying abilities and the maturity of the entire group, so I don't ban it anymore...

...which is ironic because now one of our female players (my best friend's wife) has decided she wants to play a slutty tiefling swordmistress eek

Oh, well... this is going to be interesting

 

[Halivar]

she wants to play a slutty tiefling swordmistress eek

So... she's going to be... ahem... "horny"? *cough*

Thanks, guys, I'll be here all week. Try the veal!

 

[mhacdebhandia]

This point actually helps me a lot. I 'get' why someone would play a female character or evil character now. It's just a role, not an extension of themselves. Just a character with no real connection to it other than to play a game.

Yeah, I guess so. I care about my characters, but I care about them the same way I care about characters in television - I don't pretend to be them, I'm simply engaged by their story. It's one of the reasons I'm happy to play characters that I would hate to meet and absolutely could never be like - the story of their lives, as steered by my choices in play, can be really interesting even if they fail, or do horrible things, or whatever.

It's also why I'm not particularly bothered if my character fails at what they're trying to do - they care deeply about success, but I'm not them, and if their failure is entertaining that's great for me too.