When Bob wants to play a female PC

[John Morrow]

That post was made to show a point - that it is ridiculous to limit someone to what they can play in a role-playing game based on any attributes they have in real life.

Do you have a check-off list of logical fallacies that you are running down over there? You seem to be doing your best to hit every one.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Personally, I couldn't care less what gender PC anyone plays. * As long as they make a good job of it. I've found quite a few male players with women PCs play them exactly like their normal male PCs... but most are interesting.

I've reckon I've played with about 6 GMs in the last 5 years... 1 of them felt like you do, perhaps knocked down a notch. He said it weirded him out, but couldn't explain why. Although he's allowed all the cross gender PCs that anyone has asked for. I know the guy fairly well and he seems normal? Not to mention a good GM.

I'd far rather play in a 'no cross gender pcs' group than a 'Grim n Gritty Low Level No Magic Ha Ha I am killing you with my leet GM Powerz' one.


* except for the 'no more kender for bob' guy in the group I GM for. He's creepy at the best of times and it gets worse if he plays women. Nothing overt, kinda 'clown creepy'. I try my best to steer him towards playing male PCs.

 

[hrafnagud]

That post was made to show a point - that it is ridiculous to limit someone to what they can play in a role-playing game based on any attributes they have in real life.

Telling someone the way he approaches a game is ridiculous might easily be construed as 'rude'. Given the obvious joy you're taking in trying to make this decision appear as puerile as possible, I'd say you've gone beyond rude and into the realm of obnoxious. This is clearly only an opinion, but I'd bet you are losing ground with more members than myself in employing this tactic.

 

[Oryan77]

I don't allow it at my table. In the end, it's not really a problem, I understand that. But personally, I don't want to think of my male buddies as being hot women. It's mainly because I have to look at them the whole game and I don't want to concentrate on the fact that I'm looking at a guy but it's a female PC I'm dealing with. There's no good reason other than it kind of weirds me out. I don't even like watching men dressing up as women on tv, it just grosses me out.

I don't even allow my female players to play males either. I have one player who always bugs me about letting her play males because....well I don't know why...she's tom-boyish in RL.

I just don't allow it because there really isn't a reason to do it. They can never give me a reason that is any better than my reasons for not allowing it. People complain about equal rights, well, my game has equal rights, so you aren't benefiting from playing a different sex, so there's no need to do it

Another reason I don't allow it is that it makes the game become more silly to me than "cool". I don't even want to risk the chance of my game becoming childish because men think women always act like like hornballs. I try to run a more macho game than that.

I wouldn't mind hearing justifications as to why a man needs to play a woman PC other than just "because I want to". Why do you guys want to play female PC's? What do you get out of it that you don't get when playing a male?

 

[CrusaderX]

The criticisms being leveled against you are uncalled for and unfounded. As for the ridiculous Freudian haruspicy that others are engaging in, I encourage you to ignore it. It is difficult enough to psychoanalyze someone in person--doing so over the internet is nigh impossible. Besides which, as I previously stated, there is nothing wrong with you for imposing that restriction.

Agreed 100%. There's nothing wrong with wanting players to play their own gender. You've commited no sin here, Destan, and you don't need to justify your gaming preferences to anyone.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

It seems that most of the other folks that would have problems with this type of thing are concerned on grounds of whether the player would somehow mock/stereotype the proposed back-up character. I must admit - that's not the case, here. I think the player could probably play a pretty balanced and good female PC.

And with that admission, it looks like I lost my only somewhat "justified" defense for my actions.

To be fair to yourself, I'd start by eliminating any responses from Europeans as data outliers.

I don't think it makes you weird to be weirded out by someone who insists on acting weird.

I think BiggusGeekus hit it right on the nose. Generally speaking, I think most folks gravitate towards characters to explore things we can't do in real life-- but wish we could. In my case, that's usually, "Kill people and take their stuff." Ok, ok, just kill the bad people. Mostly.

Other people have other issues at work.

Gender issues? Maybe. Rape fantasy? All too often.

Some people-- even some people in this thread, I suspect-- like to play female characters just to prove to everyone (including themselves) what mature, self-assured roleplayers they are. Frankly, that's even more annoying. Go play Vampire or something.

There's just no advantage to allowing it that outweighs the legitimate concerns and risks. It's more likely to screw up your game than not, and it will be a bigger issue to retire the character later than to forbid it up front.

"Well, Bob, I think we can officially call your cross-gender character experiment a failure. Would you like to make a new character now or should we sh*t-can the whole campaign?"

But what do I know? I'm not real comfortable with elves or bards, either. Bob wants to play a female elven bard-- ooo-weee, recipe for disaster.

Wulf

 

[Lasher Dragon]

What can I say? Ya win some, ya lose some. I'm an easy-going type of guy, and I'm always joking around. Sometimes this offends people, and I can deal with that. I was honestly astonished by how many people limit their players in this topic. If you are easily offended, ignore me, it won't break my heart. Just understand that I am not writing posts specifically to offend anyone; I do however like to employ shock tactics when I am debating certain issues.

I believe that the only way to become a better role-player is to challenge yourself. If you have always for the last 20 years played only male or only female characters, then IMO the person who has only played for say 5 years yet has played the gamut of characters/races/sexes/classes is in all probability a better role-player. Note I said IMO.

 

[John Morrow]

What can I say? Ya win some, ya lose some. I'm an easy-going type of guy, and I'm always joking around.

On Internet message boards, everything sounds a lot more hostile than intended because all of the body language and nuances that make a statement a "joke" are missing. It's not a great medium for certain types of "joking around".

Sometimes this offends people, and I can deal with that. I was honestly astonished by how many people limit their players in this topic. If you are easily offended, ignore me, it won't break my heart. Just understand that I am not writing posts specifically to offend anyone; I do however like to employ shock tactics when I am debating certain issues.

It's making you come off like an idiot and a bully. And given the rules of this forum, yeah, that can be a problem if you offend enough people.

I believe that the only way to become a better role-player is to challenge yourself. If you have always for the last 20 years played only male or only female characters, then IMO the person who has only played for say 5 years yet has played the gamut of characters/races/sexes/classes is in all probability a better role-player. Note I said IMO.

Please take a look at:

http://www.datanation.com/fallacies/index.htm

Particularly, the first item.

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

I can see non-perjorative reasons why someone would want to roleplay a character of the opposite gender.

I can also understand why some people would be uncomfortable with it.

I've got some theories to explain the various attitudes, but before I elaborate, I want to test something.

If my theory's correct, one outcome would be that of the "uncomfortable with it" crowd, some will say that they are equally uncomfortable with males playing females as they would with females playing males. Some will say that they are more comfortable with lady roleplayers with male characters than gentleman roleplayers with female characters. Practically none (unless they are being intentionally provocative) would say they were more comfortable with males playing females than with females playing males.

I'd love to know if I'm right...

 

[jrients]

I think I'm going to play across gender bounds for my next PC. There's some sort of middle ground between lame stereotyping and different-in-name-only PCs. I want to see if I can find that middle ground.