Playing characters of the opposite gender

[Shroomy]

I selected "Neither" since there was no option for actively discouraging or encouraging cross-gender playing. I'm not too concerned about the subject and while I normally play male characters, I'm kicking around a character concept for a female character, but that will have to wait until PHB2 is released since its a deva invoker.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

This came up in one of these threads from years past:

Acting like something that does not exist, no matter how alien, is easier than pretending to be an otherwise mundane member of the opposite sex, because we KNOW what someone of the opposite sex is "supposed" to be like. We have a frame of reference to judge your performance by.

That's why you're weirding us out.

You're in the Uncanny Valley, and millions and millions of years of human evolution tells me you aren't getting out.

But that's a problem within the perceiver, not the perceived. Its not a rational judgement that someone's RP is bad or good.*

Personally, I've never experienced the Uncanny Valley effect, it simply isn't an issue for me.

*Actually, the better the RP, the stronger the UV effect should be. If your revulsion is strong, that is just an indicator that the person who is generating the UV effect within you is doing a good job of RP.

 

[pathfinderq1]

As a GM, I have no particular preference- as long as they enjoy the character and aren't too far-gone crazy it is fine.

As a player, I roughly balance out the roles: my LARP characters are exclusively male, my tabletop characters run about 50/50, and my PbP characters are about 90% female. I have found, over the years, that playing a female character does help keep too much of "me" from seeping into the character portrayal- that is, it is easier to stay "in character", without my own instinctive responses slowly taking over.

 

[lutecius]

Excellent ironic juxtaposition!

Well, not so surprisingly, I don’t think it’s that contradictory

The first point refers to dms prohibiting or strongly discouraging "cross gender" characters on the ground that they were either too stereotypical or you couldn’t tell they were of a different gender (I think in the last thread some posters would actually complain about both), which I find priggish at best, disingenuous at worst.

As for romantic relationship between pcs, they’re not prohibited, it’s just that players in our group often find them awkward* so they rarely happen (npcs are fair game though). See the difference?

* Which is odd when I think of it, because many people I’ve gamed with were quite uninhibited or downright promiscuous IRL.


If you want ironic, I would readily allow all sorts of crossgenderisms and kinky in-game sex but I would have a hard time with furry pcs. They freak me out. Big time.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

As for romantic relationship between pcs, they’re not prohibited, it’s just that players in our group often find them awkward* so they rarely happen (npcs are fair game though). See the difference?

* Which is odd when I think of it, because many people I’ve gamed with were quite uninhibited or downright promiscuous IRL.

Despite my admission that I play a lot of cross-gendered PCs, I've only hinted at one such possibility in 30+ years of gaming.

As for promiscuous gamers?

I do know a bunch who are- all pagans- most of the rest are pretty mainstream. Even the guy who frequented strip clubs and dropped $400+ on a some evenings has settled down to wedded bliss.

 

[Aeolius]

None of the above.

If a player wants to play a character of the opposite gender, I let them. Simple as that. No issue whatsoever.

As a DM, I "play" all of the NPCs, including several recurring characters. Many are hags and thus are female. Therefore, in essence, I am "playing" female characters.

 

[Wombat]

I start this from the position that I am a GM, first and foremost. As such, I have to play opposite-gender characters fairly regularly. If the world was all-male, it would get boring really, really fast...

As a player, I usually play male characters, but far from exclusively. One of my favourite characters was female.

I have had games where men have played women, women have played men, and no one really worries about it. If you can pretend to be an alien lifeform, you can pretend to be the opposite gender. I just ask that such characters be characters, not caricatures.

 

[Aus_Snow]

As a GM, no problems at all. As a player, no problems at all.

People should play what they want to play, within the limits of the setting, and in line with the setting's themes and so on.

I don't believe it needs to be any more complicated than that.

 

[Rechan]

Wow. I thought I had a poor understanding of the fairer sex, but I never thought they were on par with 6-legged, poisonous intelligent insects

Tri-keen are poisonous?

 

[S'mon]

Personally, I've never experienced the Uncanny Valley effect, it simply isn't an issue for me.

Unless the male player is dressing in women's clothing and putting on a high-pitched voice, I can't imagine an Uncanny Valley effect in an RPG.