D&D 4E Women in 4E

[Lonely Tylenol]

Well, except for the men being more clean-shaven on the Harlequin romance covers, and swords (if present) tending more to the rapier end of the spectrum rather than the two-hander, I see very little difference between the two. Yaoi anime aesthetics -- if it can be called that -- has a lot with peculiarities in Japanese aesthetic sense: namely, that muscles are ugly, so most characters in those pieces are thin rather than burly.

This also has to do with aiming the works at a younger audience who like their men sophisticated, older, and yet completely unthreatening. Compare these characters to the members of popular "boy bands", and you'll see a stronger similarity.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Wow. I've never encountered this before. My usual experience with the orc accent is either "caveman" or "Klingon."

Any fule kno that Orcs talk with a lower-class Southern English accent and as if through a mouth full of "teesh" and a throat full of gravel.

I've always seen the gravelly "Oi guv'nor" kind of Orc-speak in English RPG groups. I blame Tolkien and Warhammer, but it's certainly better than some of the other options.

The worst are the ones that are really well disguised. They're sneaky, and shelved in the fantasy section, and the sex doesn't start right away. "Eyes of Crow" by Jeri Smith-Ready is a decent fantasy novel. Its one of those ones where, as you're reading it, you're thinking up how cool it would be to use it as a source for a home-brew game. And then when you're least expecting it, SEX TIME!

There are male writers who are absolutely as bad for this, though. I can't remember the name of the one I read last, but it seemed a moderately cool "late-Roman" sort of fantasy world with cool/scary battlefield magic and so on, and there had been one minor sex scene early on that had been inoffensive, but then BAM, BAM, BAM every other chapter contained some lengthy and inappropriate/risky sex scene and I felt that Gladiator had just segued into a hardcore porno or somethign.

Examples from the Forgotten Realms novel Silverfall. The woman's outfit is unbelievably impractical, but some might still see it as having fetish appeal. The man, though... chestnut mustache and long curly hair, scarlet/green/gray clothing, discreet codpiece - I'd guess that if this was an adventure he'd inspire more laughter than hungry awe in women players.

This... is from an FR novel, not an actual romance novel or one those dodgy looking perv novels they sell to men in business suits in train station bookshops? Thats... wow. I'm just glad I don't read FR novels any more. They weren't ALWAYS like that were they?

 

[RPG_Tweaker]

Hookerplate Boobmail

I don't like that cover, but this little tagname is just priggish and sexist poppycock.

"Gee, she has cleavage... SHE'S A WHORE!"

Go back to the farm Jebediah.

 

[Aloïsius]

Can you imagine a module where the men were described in the way women were in STAP? "You enter the room to see Commander Anton discussing strategy with his officers. He moves from map to war table with a combination of grace and barely contained power in his muscled frame. The tousled disarray of his dark locks gives an impression of boyish charm, until the steel of his blue gray eyes locks onto you. Through the loosened laces of his tunic a few wisps of chest hair escape...."

One of my DM does this kind of description. Whatever the character (male, female, beautiful, ugly...) He always add a lot of detail. Great fun overall, especialy in his greece/roman campaign...

 

[GreatLemur]

But purple prose can bad for both female and male characters:

Examples from the Forgotten Realms novel Silverfall.

Oh, wow. That is some of the most annoying writing I've ever seen. Seriously, who the hell can read that without rolling their eyes? It's like the kind of thing my mean-spirited friends and I would discover on some fanfic-writing virgin's website, and make fun of for days. And (unless there was more than one novel called Silverfall) this was by freaking Ed Greenwood? Man, I'd be deeply bothered by this if I was a Forgotten Realms fan.

 

[Pedestrian]

I don't like that cover, but this little tagname is just priggish and sexist poppycock.

"Gee, she has cleavage... SHE'S A WHORE!"

Go back to the farm Jebiediah.

Though the name could certainly use a tune-up, that's really not what is being said, and I think it is ingenuous to suggest otherwise.

If you genuinely don't realize what is being alluded to, then I apologise, and will explain as best I can. The scantily clad woman woman in question is supposed to be wearing protective plate-mail, but it isn't actually protecting several very import vital locations (those already being discussed in a previous post). It is particularly noxious because it is the front cover of the core rulebook for the most widely played role-playing game, and so paints an unflattering perception of women by that social group. However, even if it were crammed in the back somewhere, it would still be a problem. Armour should protect. This is just a plate-mail wonderbra.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I don't play WOW but that sounds familiar. The community had some kind of argument about succubi?

Yeah, specifically incubi. Some female warlock plyers didnt want to summon a bikini clad female demon servant, and instead asked for a male servant, which resulted in massive uproar from gamers afraid of a guy in his skivvies or something. The same people who reoutinely shouted down any requests for female armor without exposed thighs, midriffs and cleavage. I've played a number of MMO's for the past 10 years or so... WoW's community as a whole disgusted me more than any other with an unparalleled level of mean spiritedness. It definately played a role in my speedy departure from the game.

 

[GreatLemur]

I don't like that cover, but this little tagname is just priggish and sexist poppycock.

"Gee, she has cleavage... SHE'S A WHORE!"

It's a dumb outfit. Object to the fact that Ruin Explorer pointed it out in a colorful and entertaining manner if you need to, but his point is completely solid. Old W.A.R. clearly went for titillation over common sense, there, and it stands out enough to be obnoxious. Chick's face is pretty much hilarious, too.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I don't like that cover, but this little tagname is just priggish and sexist poppycock.

"Gee, she has cleavage... SHE'S A WHORE!"

Go back to the farm Jebediah.

Except "boob plates" have a good chance of deflecting the attack INTO the center of your chest. Really you dont want form fitted plate as a busty female. I guess its slightly better than Alias' armor however, as at least theres soemthing to absorb the blow.

 

[KarinsDad]

Women, in my experience, do not tend to enjoy the intricacies of a rule set. Hell, most female gamers I gamed with barely bothered to learn the rules in the books at all. When a rule set is intricate, and part of the fun of game is supposed to be optimizing your character by understanding the rules, you have already lost most women. Making a D&D character (from AD&D on) has always been a bit like doing your taxes, but currently its like doing your taxes if you're self-employed, work at home, have investments, and claim lots of deductions. I don't find it fun, and I've watched the looks of confusion and discomfort while the third edition character creation rules were explained to women.

D&D RAW combat is also off-putting. I didn't say combat, I said D&D combat. In my experience, women like to pretend to kill things just as much as men. And generally they like their characters to look sexy doing it! They don't so much like pushing miniatures around a table, or calculating which attack bonuses stack.

I found this to be true.

My wife is an on/off gamer. For the most recent campaign, I am doing all of the character design work for her PC. The reason: she could care less about the rules. She just wants to socialize with the group and have her PC kick the snot out of bad guys.

She's not into rules. She's not into elaborate immersion. She's into sitting at the table and having fun with the people there, and kicking the snot out of the bad guys. Period.

Sometimes, she remembers to flank.