Playing cross-gender PCs

[Luce]

I do play female charecters, it helps me distinguish the charecter from myself. When I started RP-ing I tended to make all my charecters male(human) and as close to myself as posible. After a while this started to bug me, so I swich to playing females. That helped. Now I am more confortable playing as either gender.

 

[Gez]

I would say about 30% of the characters I play table-top are female, and about 90% in computer games (I'ld rather watch some female characters butt running across the 3D fantasy realm than some butch fellas).

True. In third-person views, or when the game insists on displaying a portrait of the character's mug constantly on screen, I prefer to choose a character that's cute to look at.

As if it matters anyway in videogames. Especially third-person shooters.

Still, if given no choice, it's not that a problem. I enjoyed Heretic 2 more than the Tomb Raiders. (Because it was more fun.)

 

[Evilhalfling]

I fall into the some female characters group, 3 of 15 PCs were female. Although I am usually a DM. I also tend towards prudish games and only one PC ever got laid, and that was part of a romantic relationship. Several of the gay men I have played with did execellent female characters, but didn't play women every time. Gender switching doesn't bother me, but most of my character concepts are male.

 

[Kanegrundar]

I'm a guy that has played the ocassional female character. Nothing weird ever happens, it's just that sometimes I have an idea for a good female character that I want to try out.

Kane

 

[qstor]

The two female PC's I've played are cohorts and are the wife and sister of the PC with Leadership. So I kinda played the role as protector.

Mike

 

[Pinotage]

Wow! I'm quite surprised by the voting on this poll. I would've thought a lot of the other options would be picked as well. Anywho, I should probably fall under statistical anomaly, since I only play online, but both male and female characters (I'm male). Let's see - of about 12 games that I've played in and can quickly remember, there were about 4 male characters and 8 female. My two current games are both female characters. I guess I fall in die_kluge's camp on this. Would I play females over a table - I'm not sure - but probably more males than females.

Pinotage

 

[freebfrost]

I guess I just don't find it all that appealing to play male characters, maybe because it's too difficult to get into their heads.

I think you're trying too hard Buttercup. We men are not that complex.

All you need to do when you encounter anything is ask the following series of questions (in any order):

1) Can I kill it?
2) Can I eat it?
3) Can I sleep with it?

Then move on and repeat.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

I've played characters in my day. Some are male, some are female, and some were just strange globes of energy.

The one comment that I think is pertinent is that I've seen a small but significant percentage of female players choose male characters to avoid getting hit on by the guys in the group. This is about 1 in 4 times, and tends to occur online and/or in a new gaming group starting a campaign.

 

[freebfrost]

I usually DM, so I don't get to run a lot of characters, but I would say at least a third of them are female. One of my all-time most memorable characters was an 18th level magic-user - Celestine Alicia Lightcrown - in a 1st edition Greyhawk campaign.

I've encountered a few of the irritating player types mentioned above, but only back in my high school days.

Having said that, the majority of my players tend to stick to the same-sex type of character, and I'm really the only one that is expansive in that way.

 

[Desdichado]

I've always approached rpg's from more of a "writer" aspect rather than an "actor" aspect, so to be honest with you, it didn't occur to me until fairly recently that anyone would think it odd to play a PC of an opposite gender than yourself.

If a character concept is interesting, I'll play it, and sometimes that means a male character, sometimes it means a female character.