Should girls be allowed to play fighter characters

[billd91]

Women generally have 60% of the strength of men in the upper body and about 70% in the lower body. Height and weight are also huge factors for strength and durability, which women are often lacking.
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Actually, real world experiences in long campaigns have suggested that height and weight don't figure into durability so much. In the conflagration that was Stalingrad, the better survivors of the deprevation and stress were the smaller and "weaker" soldiers. The big strong guys needed more nutrition to survive the conditions and tended to die off faster.

What asset women tend to lack in combat in real life, in my estimation, is the the same thing older men similarly lack... testosterone dementia. It's one of the same factors that cause men, mainly young men, to engage in ridiculously dangerous extreme sports. They are still charged with testosterone and that makes them less susceptible to self-preservation impulses. Older men, on the battlefield, tend to be more cautious than their younger compatriots. One would expect women would probably be the same. Both have lower levels of testosterone production. And being too cautious in an assault situation can be more dangerous in the grand scheme of things than being reckless.
So, if I were in charge of modern armed forces, I'd put women everywhere except maybe in primary infantry assault forces. But that's just me. It may turn out they are quite effective at storming beaches but we won't know until we try, best we can do now is make inferences from experiences we do have.

What does this have to do with D&D and girls playing fighters or playing female fighter characters? Absolutely nothing. There's a big difference between drawing on national resources to build a grand assaulting army and making it as effective as it can be and playing an individual character in a fantasy role-playing game. There are usually exceptions to every trend and that can include highly effective female warriors and paladins.

 

[Thanee]

Re: durability and real world examples.

Long-distance runners?

EDIT: Oops! Thought of endurance not durability here.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

Re: durability and real world examples.

Long-distance runners?

Bye
Thanee

A rather on topic/rather cute aside...

My almost 12 year old neice pitches better than any of the boys on her baseball (baseball not softball thank you!) team. She's the only girl. The guys surprisingly for their age really respect her and think she's great.

She probably pitches better than most of them, and most of the boys in her class.

It can happen. Athletic women, strong women (and girls in this case) do exist. I'd be willing to bet most female athletes can outrun/throw whatever most male non athletes. Training does wonders.

 

[alsih2o]

I think the DM is being silly(read: stupid), but let's not forget Rule Zero people.

 

[hong]

Hey Hong, before you post again please go reread my post at the top of page 4. You know, the one about appropriateness.

~ Piratecat

 

[billd91]

I think the DM is being silly(read: stupid), but let's not forget Rule Zero people.

There have been a lot of people saying that Rule 0 applies, and it does. But Rule 0 also comes with a certain amount of responsibility. Among the responsibilities of a DM are to adjudicate the game fairly and not be an ahole about it.
Rule 0 should serve the needs of the game and the DM's desires to present a particular type of game, setting, or simulate a particular kind of situation in the game. It shouldn't serve the sexist (or any other bigoted) prejudices of a weasel. That's why the DM should have an appropriate justification for the rule.

 

[tetsujin28]

My dm says that girls can only play wizards and clerics and classes like that. I want to play a paladin, but he says that only guys can be paladins. Help is that true?

This has got to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Leave this group: they're losers. Nothing will change. These guys are just yanking your chain.

Always remember, you are not that desperate to game. Repeat this mantra over and over. Find a new group that isn't full of idiots, and have fun playing that paladin

 

[Naafra]

Rule 0 it's OK, but the DM must explain wery well why there are sex restriction in character classes (and remember, he must present male restrictions too). It's very stupid say "you can't" and stop. This is a game and all the players must have fun. If his campaign world normally won't permit female figthers, the obstacle can be overcomed by a male character (and if he don't agree he's a chauvinist: the problem is the female player not the female character) or by an exception to the rule. This last option could create a very interesting character (like a Giovanna D'Arco in a sexist medieval time) with many problems but with many opportunuties of roleplay. I think (years of game mastering...) that it's better have a player happy with a character that you don't like too much than someone forced in a vest he/she don't like.
If he don't understand or if he is too radicated in his convincions try with the battle cleric (and if he don't agree, change master: it's obvious that he play only for himself and not for the fun of all)

 

[Bendris Noulg]

I'm not talking about making every woman as strong as a man, but it is expected that the PC's are exceptional. There is no need to ensure that a player choosing to play a female fighter type is weaker than all her male counterparts IMO.

Agreed. In most of my world, female NPCs tend to be smaller on average than males (except for centaurs, minotaurs and those frisky Amazons, where the opposite is true), but the female PC is under no obligation to fit that mold. They can be taller, stronger, or anything else that the player determines appropriate.

 

[mmu1]

Actually, real world experiences in long campaigns have suggested that height and weight don't figure into durability so much. In the conflagration that was Stalingrad, the better survivors of the deprevation and stress were the smaller and "weaker" soldiers. The big strong guys needed more nutrition to survive the conditions and tended to die off faster.

What does the ability to survive on a starvation diet have to do with "durability"?

The ability to resist injury (and inflict it on others) is certainly a function of height and size - that's why football players look like they do, and the reason there are weight classes in just about every contact sport.

Endurance (definitely another aspect of "durability") by itself is not a factor of size, but once you start looking at endurance while carrying a particular load, it's a completely different matter. The 200lb 6' tall guy is going to be able to keep going with a 70lb pack a good deal longer than a 130lb woman.