fusangite said:
There is thus only one matter on which I'll offer some rebuttal: that of de facto enhancement bonuses for Charisma-based skills.
This is brilliant. I love this.
First of all, let's be clear: YOU brought up this notion as a justification for not letting players play women. So what you've done is created your own house rule and then used that rule to ban certain behaviour. Which is fine, but it's certainly not much of a logical argument.
Let us assume 10 is average, 14 exceptional and 18 spectacular in a particular ability. When a woman of average attractiveness interacts with a man, he responds more positively to her than he would with a man of average attractiveness. Similarly, he will respond more favourably to a woman of exceptional attractiveness than he would to a man of exceptional attractiveness.
"Respond more positively" -- that's great. Just what does that mean, exactly? Okay, I know. You're saying that if she suggests something, he's more likely to believe her because she's a pretty girl.
That's complete nonsense. It's nonsense because even if you accept the notion that men are more likely to believe pretty girls (it's not like pretty girls never get led astray by heartless seducers, is it? Oh, no), you MUST believe that they ONLY believe certain types of lies. No man (especially, I think a man who finds it difficult to remain rational around pretty girls) is going to be more likely to believe a woman who says, for example, that she's the local captain of the guard, especially if she's dressed in some saucy little number.
Men "respond more positively" to other men in all kinds of situations. Many men are very uncomfortable, for example, having women in positions of authority over them, and respond much more positively to men in such relationships. I would not be inclined to give a woman in such a situation a Charisma bonus. A man who is dressed in a uniform of authority, by your system, ought to get a better Bluff bonus than a woman wearing the same outfit.
My point is that for every situation in which women have an easier time lying to men, there are plenty of situations in which they have a harder time. So I think it's unfair of you to tote up one column of numbers without adding the other.
Most of the NPCs in a bronze age or medieval fantasy adventure world will be male
WHAT?! Most people are male? Where did all the women go? Are they hiding because they can't find players to play them? Are they ashamed of all these great bonuses they get? This is great, really. Great stuff.
furthermore, even if this were not the case, study after study has shown that women's positive response to attractive males while extant is neither as immediate nor as dramatic as males' responses to attractive females. This is true amongst humans just as the reverse is true amongst ducks.
Really, you ought to be charging admission for this -- this is great material. Take it on the road, add some juggling, you've got a heck of an act. Ducks! I'm speechless.
And you interpret "positive response" to mean "bonus to Charisma checks". Uh-huh. And the ONLY factor you consider is sexual attraction. Obsess much?
The fact that guys get sexually excited faster and more noticeably than women does not, in my mind, translate into bonuses to Charisma. Or rather, maybe it does, but if I do that, then logically I ought to consider all of the other possible bonuses to Charisma. Which in fact I do.
If one of players is playing a beautiful woman and he or she decides this character is going to try and seduce El Lonely Guy, I'll probably award a bonus. Likewise, if the character is an older man and trying to bluff the guards into thinking he's a foreign diplomat, I might award a bonus for that, too. But I don't make a policy for this stuff -- it's situational, not universal.
Generally in D&D, Charisma effects from women are more powerful than from men.
Actually, in D&D, Charisma effects are not the slightest bit affected by the gender of either participant. It's YOUR house rule, buddy, it's NOT D&D.
But, no, this is quality entertainment. So what you're saying is that you've created a house rule that makes the game LESS playable for anyone who wants to play a male character (since they'll always be less powerful than female characters), and then you've compensated for that by disallowing female characters. That's priceless.
What you should really do, though, if you want to do this right, is create a whole new race -- the Munchkins. Give 'em +4 to every stat. Give 'em racial bonuses on every skill, natural armour, firey breath and automatic two-weapon fighting while you're at it.
Then tell your players they can't play that race. Make half the world (or perhaps not -- your world obviously has pretty, em, non-standard demographics) of this race. And never let your players play them. If they ask you why not, say: "You just want to play them because you get bonuses for free! You just wish you had firey breath! And you want hot girl-on-girl action!"
That'll show them.
