When Bob wants to play a female PC

[Belen]

fDestan: Still curious. If you had a female player, would you prefer she play a male character, to avoid that whole "off camera rape" scenario? Or will you simply ban female players from your "off camera rape" games?

I do not believe Destan ever said that rape was a part of his game. One of his players said that they ran an "R" rated game. I got the impression that he used rape as an extreme example for shock value rather than it ever having appeared in game.

 

[der_kluge]

He was having fun with the storyline. He tends to develop the PC from level 1-20 before he evens begins play, so he did not want to scrap all that work.

The rest of the group said it was annoying and kept them from really getting into the game, although no one complained about it until the campaign ended. No one wanted to be the bad guy and tell him that it was an annoyance.

So, in a sense it was the player. Or at least, his ability to play this particular female character.

I mean, I think it's unfair to make broad genaralizations that "men can't play females without doing so obnoxiously, or disrupting my game" that I'm seeing here.

Although, I can certainly respect situations where people might have gotten burned by that in the past, and then disallowing it. I just think it sounds awful heavy-handed.

 

[der_kluge]

I think we need to play an "all male playing all female" game at GenCon.

I'll volunteer. We just need to get Destan, BelenUmeria, or Teflon Billy to sign up to be the GM.

 

[John Morrow]

I'd have a problem with GMs who didn't allow cross-racial PCs either (eg white players must play white PCs). Maybe this is unreasonable on my part, but it makes me go *ick*.

I role-play in a mixed-race group and have played both black, Hispanic, and Asian PCs (in modern games) despite being white. I didn't get any complaints because I never played a crude stereotype. I've also played played in other groups that were mixed race. If a black GM asked me not to play a black character because (A) he had trouble picturing me as black, (B) had bad experiences with white people playing black characters in the past, or (C) just felt that the whole thing bothered him but couldn't put his finger on exactly why that was so, I'd be OK with it. In particular, I think reason (B) is simply what someone else has called "risk management" and basic learning from experience. If you put your hand in a fire and get burned, it makes sense to not put your hand in a fire again. And, no, I wouldn't take it personally.

 

[John Morrow]

Without getting into flames, is there a particular reason why a player can't try out a character that they want?

Yes. It's much the same reason why some gaming groups don't allow just anyone to sit down and play. Role-playing games are a group activity and the details of one player's character can affect everyone else's enjoyment. An absence of limits or restrictions let's everyone do what they want but it can have an adverse effect on the overall quality of the experience and enjoyment of the group. So each group has to find their own balance between letting the players do what they want and everyone having a good time.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

So, do some people have a problem with this, and others not so much?

Perhaps your own sexual ambiguities mean that you have a harder time (or easier, depending on how you want to look at it) instinctively categorizing people as male or female and subsequently sticking to that instinctive categorization.


Wulf

 

[Gentlegamer]

I'd allow men to play women, and women to play men, but only if I was running an Aristophanes-inspired adventure (think Assemblywomen) . . .

 

[der_kluge]

Perhaps your own sexual ambiguities mean that you have a harder time (or easier, depending on how you want to look at it) instinctively categorizing people as male or female and subsequently sticking to that instinctive categorization.

Sexual ambiguities? Care to explain what you mean by that??

 

[Plane Sailing]

Females exist. Gnomes do not. When we are sitting around a table we can all see if someone is not playing a female correctly. However, we cannot say that someone is playing a gnome incorrectly.

What about female gnomes, I wonder? Or female lizardmen (lizardwomen?). I wonder if the demarcation lines for different sides on this argument are drawn differently in these cases?


To everybody else:
Of course, if you'd like to find out it is rather important that everybody puts aside rudeness, otherwise this thread is heading for a locking (just like most other threads on this subject ends up).

Try to discuss the issue and not the person, eh?


Regards,

 

[apesamongus]

Why would I let them play a cleric?

Because it's a roleplaying game.