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I recently ran into an unforseen drawback to playing an opposite sex character during a Pathfinder Society game today.
We had a DM who was Baaaaaad, as in "I should have read scenario before I came today" being a direct quote. His rulings were were not well thought out, he skipped players and many of the players took turns correcting him on the rules.
Needless to say, I had a much harder time staying 'in character' then I would if I had been playing a male character. That said, I would not stop playing female characters, something I do often.
All the Best,
Kerney
Are you the one who plays the female paladin? At the Enchanted Grounds event? Because your criticisms seem oddly reminiscent of what happened there, the date/time matches up and your name certainly matches. If you are, I know what you're talking about (I played the Sorcerer in that group). He was certainly a poor DM, although it didn't help that the module wasn't very good either (seriously, that was the most annoying boss monster I've ever faced). Honestly, I found it hilarious that he wouldn't let your medium-sized character attack a helpless enemy atop a fifteen foot stone with a reach weapon; has he ever cleaned a gutter or trimmed a tree?
Sorry for the slight derail. Anyway, I'm male and I always play male characters, mostly because I really have only been playing Society lately, and it's kind of awkward to play cross-gender there (at least for me), as has been mentioned earlier.
Thinking hard about it, there was one occasion when playing a cross-gender character could potentially have been a problem, but that was when a large group I used to game with threw a house party with the 'come dressed as your favourite RPG character' theme ...
... it was a good party!
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Thinking hard about it, there was one occasion when playing a cross-gender character could potentially have been a problem, but that was when a large group I used to game with threw a house party with the 'come dressed as your favourite RPG character' theme ...
... it was a good party!
I don't see the issue here....
Then again I have seem oh so much bad at anime cons so I'm really not phased by things like that.
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I have no issues with it. I am a guy so normally play males but For me it's about concepts. If the concept and background make the pc a female then I make her female and play her as such. I am playing a female pc now in an eclipse phase game as that is just how she came out{ even though that game gender is dependent on the day sometimes :)}What seeker said. The biggest issue I encounter in playing opposite sex PCs is that the other players continue to refer to "her" as "him" while in play which disrupts the immersion.
Well I had a group that had that issue...then I reached level 3 and got alter self. With all the alter self shinangens I did, the him/her confusion became quite reasonable :P .
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I think those that play opposite genders and think that they are "advanced roleplayer elite" or whatever are really just kidding themselves. 100% of the time the player bases every decision, action, and comment on the fact that they are opposite whatever with all the lame jokes and stereotypes. And after five minutes of that crap it becomes annoying every single time. They get to caught up in the fact that there gender is the single defining / humoruous / over emphasized aspect of there character that gameplay becomes dull boorish and simple.
Having BAD roleplayer means you have BAD roleplayers. I bet all your groups dwarves are drunk scottish acent crude bashers and elves are all tree hugging hippies and all your halflings act like frodo. I'm also betting that the male characters that get played in your group I would find extremely chauvanistic and insulting in some way or other if I played a female character.
Yes, the whole 'ran away from home to become an adventurer/prove myself to my family/defy my critics instead of marrying a man three times my age for politics' character concept kind of falls over if you don't have that gender distinction in society, and that matters to some players.
I think you've given me an idea for a male cavalier character: a guy who ran away from his title because he was being forced to marry a woman who was twice his age for political reasons, so he split.
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I recently ran into an unforseen drawback to playing an opposite sex character during a Pathfinder Society game today.
We had a DM who was Baaaaaad, as in "I should have read scenario before I came today" being a direct quote. His rulings were were not well thought out, he skipped players and many of the players took turns correcting him on the rules.
Needless to say, I had a much harder time staying 'in character' then I would if I had been playing a male character. That said, I would not stop playing female characters, something I do often.
All the Best,
Kerney
Are you the one who plays the female paladin? At the Enchanted Grounds event? Because your criticisms seem oddly reminiscent of what happened there, the date/time matches up and your name certainly matches. If you are, I know what you're talking about (I played the Sorcerer in that group). He was certainly a poor DM, although it didn't help that the module wasn't very good either (seriously, that was the most annoying boss monster I've ever faced). Honestly, I found it hilarious that he wouldn't let your medium-sized character attack a helpless enemy atop a fifteen foot stone with a reach weapon; has he ever cleaned a gutter or trimmed a tree?
Sorry for the slight derail. Anyway, I'm male and I always play male characters, mostly because I really have only been playing Society lately, and it's kind of awkward to play cross-gender there (at least for me), as has been mentioned earlier.
Yep, that was me. See you monday?
Yes, the whole 'ran away from home to become an adventurer/prove myself to my family/defy my critics instead of marrying a man three times my age for politics' character concept kind of falls over if you don't have that gender distinction in society, and that matters to some players.I think you've given me an idea for a male cavalier character: a guy who ran away from his title because he was being forced to marry a woman who was twice his age for political reasons, so he split.
It's funny, but that's kind of a theme of another male character of mine - his family have kind of blocked his move to marry the woman he wanted to because they wanted his marriage to be a political alliance to further the family's interests, and he's just a touch too decent to take a mistress.
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Yep, that was me. See you monday?I recently ran into an unforseen drawback to playing an opposite sex character during a Pathfinder Society game today.
We had a DM who was Baaaaaad, as in "I should have read scenario before I came today" being a direct quote. His rulings were were not well thought out, he skipped players and many of the players took turns correcting him on the rules.
Needless to say, I had a much harder time staying 'in character' then I would if I had been playing a male character. That said, I would not stop playing female characters, something I do often.
All the Best,
Kerney
Are you the one who plays the female paladin? At the Enchanted Grounds event? Because your criticisms seem oddly reminiscent of what happened there, the date/time matches up and your name certainly matches. If you are, I know what you're talking about (I played the Sorcerer in that group). He was certainly a poor DM, although it didn't help that the module wasn't very good either (seriously, that was the most annoying boss monster I've ever faced). Honestly, I found it hilarious that he wouldn't let your medium-sized character attack a helpless enemy atop a fifteen foot stone with a reach weapon; has he ever cleaned a gutter or trimmed a tree?
Sorry for the slight derail. Anyway, I'm male and I always play male characters, mostly because I really have only been playing Society lately, and it's kind of awkward to play cross-gender there (at least for me), as has been mentioned earlier.
Yeah. If I survive, I level up to 3.
Also, there really wasn't that much for you to stay in character for. Seriously, the whole module was just one social encounter (which the Bard handled on his own) followed by some combats (one of which could have been a roleplaying encounter if I hadn't gone all trigger-happy).
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Yeah. If I survive, I level up to 3.Also, there really wasn't that much for you to stay in character for. Seriously, the whole module was just one social encounter (which the Bard handled on his own) followed by some combats (one of which could have been a roleplaying encounter if I hadn't gone all trigger-happy).
I know, I just try anyway. Also, if I survive I'm level 2.
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I've actually consciously made the decision to play a male character for my ongoing Legacy of Fire campaign because I felt it would be weird to play women all the time. ;)
I think it's the Lara Croft syndrome: If I'm going to stare at an ass for hours and hours of game time, it might as well be a pretty one. I like aesthetic characters, and find it way easier to make a female character aesthetic. That doesn't necessarily mean high Charisma -- one of my one-shot characters was a Cha 8 female monk who revered Shelyn by striving for the Perfect Self.
I also enjoy playing my current male paladin though. In the end, it doesn't make a difference (though they do make stupid jokes every time I lay hands on myself). ;)
I wouldn't want my female characters to have sexual encounters during the sessions though, that would just be weird. My paladin, though, used his one year of downtime in Kelmarane to settle down and marry. :)
I think it's the Lara Croft syndrome: If I'm going to stare at an ass for hours and hours of game time, it might as well be a pretty one.
That argument made by male players of female characters in MMOs has always made me chuckle, personally.
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I think it's the Lara Croft syndrome: If I'm going to stare at an ass for hours and hours of game time, it might as well be a pretty one.
In a video game, where you constantly look at a digital representation of your character, I get that. In a pen-and-paper RPG where you are, at best, looking at a lead miniature, I don't.
Different strokes.
Different folks.
I doubt we are playing a game that would warrant such judgemental view points.
I find role-playing a female a challenge of my skills.
Didn't Shakespeare have males play female roles?
Depends on the character for me. I played a character who was a female disguised as a male (this was kept a secret from the other players). That was fun.
Depends on the character for me. I played a character who was a female disguised as a male (this was kept a secret from the other players). That was fun.
Even though some people hate the joke.
I don't care.
I played a female dwarf rogue that the party thought was a male dwarf.
It wasn't until she had to give up adventuring for a few months due to.. pregnancy that they found out it was a female.
Because he had to. There were no actresses in his era.
Didn't Shakespeare have males play female roles?
True. Though I still don't see the issue in roleplaying the other gender.
The only times it might become an issue is on MMOs, where on believes they are -with- someone of a certain gender, start getting interested OOCly, and...
We all know the story after that.
The only times it might become an issue is on MMOs, where on believes they are -with- someone of a certain gender, start getting interested OOCly, and...
We all know the story after that.
Even then it should be a total non-issue. Just because someone gets interested in someone OOC doesn't mean the object of their affection is interested back, or available for that matter, and unless they're homophobic (which is a bad, bad thing as far as I'm concerned) finding out said crush is a member of the same gender should just be one of those "oh...well, let's just keep being friends then, and sorry for the awkwardness" things, just the same as if the other party wasn't interested/availabe/etc.
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Even then it should be a total non-issue. Just because someone gets interested in someone OOC doesn't mean the object of their affection is interested back, or available for that matter, and unless they're homophobic (which is a bad, bad thing as far as I'm concerned) finding out said crush is a member of the same gender should just be one of those "oh...well, let's just keep being friends then, and sorry for the awkwardness" things, just the same as if the other party wasn't interested/availabe/etc.The only times it might become an issue is on MMOs, where on believes they are -with- someone of a certain gender, start getting interested OOCly, and...
We all know the story after that.
You have MUCH more faith in your average online gamer then I do.
You have MUCH more faith in your average online gamer then I do.
Hardly...I just don't relax standards of jackassitude because they're online. >_> <_< It might be and issue with some people, but it shouldn't be, same as finding out that hot night elf you've been flirting with is a different ethnicity than you might be an issue (if you're racist), but it shouldn't be.
You have MUCH more faith in your average online gamer then I do.Even then it should be a total non-issue. Just because someone gets interested in someone OOC doesn't mean the object of their affection is interested back, or available for that matter, and unless they're homophobic (which is a bad, bad thing as far as I'm concerned) finding out said crush is a member of the same gender should just be one of those "oh...well, let's just keep being friends then, and sorry for the awkwardness" things, just the same as if the other party wasn't interested/availabe/etc.The only times it might become an issue is on MMOs, where on believes they are -with- someone of a certain gender, start getting interested OOCly, and...
We all know the story after that.
Especially since I swear your average online gamer is around 14... physically or mentally. Most of the time both.
This what I see 90% of the time in PvP areas in every MMO game I've ever played:
"lolz stfu ur gay u n00b"
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Even then it should be a total non-issue. Just because someone gets interested in someone OOC doesn't mean the object of their affection is interested back, or available for that matter, and unless they're homophobic (which is a bad, bad thing as far as I'm concerned) finding out said crush is a member of the same gender should just be one of those "oh...well, let's just keep being friends then, and sorry for the awkwardness" things, just the same as if the other party wasn't interested/availabe/etc.The only times it might become an issue is on MMOs, where on believes they are -with- someone of a certain gender, start getting interested OOCly, and...
We all know the story after that.
I was playing a couple characters on the old usenets, including my Illyana, who was a lot like the Original in appearance. She fell for another character, but I backed her off when the player was uncomfortable RPing affection for a guy's character.
Illyana also lead to one of the more amusing mail exchanges I'd ever had.
Me: Well it's nice to see you're out on your website, answers my wondering.
Him: Matt, I play gay characters online, why wouldn't you think I was gay?
Me: I play 5'2 Russian blond little girls online. I don't assume anything on the internet.
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I find role-playing a female a challenge of my skills.
I don't worry too much about. Gender is hardly ever relevant if you don't insist on gender stereotypes. The lines are less well-defined in Golarion anyway, where the iconic barbarian is a hot chick. ;) The less you worry about your character's gender, the more natural you probably come across.
Well, it was relevant in RotRL where a certain antagonist became obsessed with my female cleric after she and her party saved him from the goblins... but that was over soon.
Imitating female voice is a big no-no, though. I had a DM in DSA like that once, sheesh. There was no listening to him. It's way easier to abstract a player's dialog into that of his female character without such jarring distractions.
I think it's the Lara Croft syndrome: If I'm going to stare at an ass for hours and hours of game time, it might as well be a pretty one.That argument made by male players of female characters in MMOs has always made me chuckle, personally.
Back when I was in college, one of the other players in the group I was in was giving me crap for playing a female character. Thinking quickly, I popped almost that same exact line on him, "Well, if I'm going to have to visualize a character that I'm playing for hours on end, I'd at least like to enjoy the view. So uh... why is it that you're playing a big, buff ranger again?"
That was the last time I ever heard that guy give another player crap for trans-gendered roleplaying. ;)
BTW, one thing that I think helps in such scenarios is when the players do not use 'you' and 'your character' interchangeably. When I DM, I'll ask, "What is he/she doing?" NOT "What are you doing?"
Similarly, when I play, I will say, "Alexis is doing this or that." NOT "I am doing this or that."
Whether it's due to this practice or simply having attentive players (doubt it since most of them will get distracted by a squirrel), I've never had problems with people confusing the gender of my female characters.
I find role-playing a female a challenge of my skills.I don't worry too much about. Gender is hardly ever relevant if you don't insist on gender stereotypes. The lines are less well-defined in Golarion anyway, where the iconic barbarian is a hot chick. ;) The less you worry about your character's gender, the more natural you probably come across.
Well, it was relevant in RotRL where a certain antagonist became obsessed with my female cleric after she and her party saved him from the goblins... but that was over soon.
Imitating female voice is a big no-no, though. I had a DM in DSA like that once, sheesh. There was no listening to him. It's way easier to abstract a player's dialog into that of his female character without such jarring distractions.
I can imitate a witch's voice.
But when it comes down to trying to do sexy.
"The woman's voice sounds like a the opposite of myself, if I were a woman." *glares at players*
Yeah. Something like that..
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Question for those of you who say you don't allow cross-gendered characters - how do you/would you handle a transgendered player? Would you force them to play their biological sex, which they're (if they're like me anyway) horribly uncomfortable as and hate having been forced it IRL, or would you let them play their mental/spiritual/whatever-your-favored-term-is?
I had this situation a couple of years ago. One of my players was transgendered male-to-female. It was right at the beginning of her "coming out" so there was a lot of adjustment since we'd known her as a male for so long and it was honestly a bit of a shock. I let her play a female character at at time when I wasn't allowing opposite gender characters.
Nowadays, I would let anyone play any gender so long as they mean it and it's not just a joke.
Back when I was in college, one of the other players in the group I was in was giving me crap for playing a female character. Thinking quickly, I popped almost that same exact line on him, "Well, if I'm going to have to visualize a character that I'm playing for hours on end, I'd at least like to enjoy the view. So uh... why is it that you're playing a big, buff ranger again?"
That was the last time I ever heard that guy give another player crap for trans-gendered roleplaying. ;)
I nearly snorked my tea over my keyboard .... love it!
I nearly snorked my tea over my keyboard .... love it!
Right kind o' ya ta say so! ;)
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I found this on the board somewhere else and I have kept it. I read it whenever I'm going to roleplay a female character as a player.
There are roughly two ways for guys to successfully play female characters (plus everything in between of course). The first is to just aim for not screwing up, the second is to aim for making the character particularly woman-like.The first is rather easily accomplished by just slapping the sex on as an afterthought to an otherwise gender neutral character. This might make it a bit harder for people to remember that you're female, so I suggest taking TeePeeKay's advice about talking in third person.
Avoid the common pit-falls: hyperactive sex lives, the use of sex and flirting as means to an end, lesbianism, overly stereotypical gendered behaviour (this goes for both sexes, don't make a macho woman either), etc.The second is harder. You have to make the character significantly more believable as a woman than as a man, but without resorting to the kind of stereotypes that make it seem like a parody. The caretaker role is a good aspect to empathise for this. Make your character more concerned about other people, perhaps a bit motherly, make community matter.
Another good idea is to reduce the character's amount of risk taking.Women are more careful on average.
If you portray the carefulness as your character being afraid, it can seem sexist, so it's better to go for thinking things through more, and planning ahead instead of charging ahead. It's not that women can't take risks.
Smile more.
Ask more questions.
Explain yourself more, especially your feelings.
Note that explaining your feeling is not the same as being emotional.
If you make your character talk more casually about how she feels, and be more open about her emotional agenda without being controlled by it, the behaviour will be feminine without seeming unflattering.Many stereotypes about masculine/feminine behaviour is not about actual personality traits, but the perception of them (e.g. women don't really talk more than men, they're perceived as talking more).
In my experience, that makes it hard to crossplay, because the perception of femininity/masculinity relies not just on exhibiting a certain behaviour, but also on getting judged on said behaviour.
The care-taking, and lack of risk taking, are pretty well-founded true stereotypes.
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Huh...following Kerney's quote means I did a great job playing my last female character. I was more cautious than the rest of the party, despite being the only paladin, I was the first person to be nice to the mutant, really a sorcerer with the aberrant bloodline, we picked up, and I tried to save the others even when they were jerks to me. Though she was really quiet unless the party couldn't make up their minds, then she would make a decision and stick with it, or if they were in danger. I figured this probably stemmed from being bullied, she was an Aasimar, when she was younger, even if she did beat up her bullies when push came to shove.
Because he had to. There were no actresses in his era.
Didn't Shakespeare have males play female roles?
But he did enjoy playing around with opposite sex disguises for his female characters in several comedies, which was kind of meta meta for then.
To me getting bothered by people who play a different sex character from themselves is like getting bothered by some one playing a halfling when they are twice the size of what any halfling would be. If it's not your thing, that's cool. I game with a guy who will never play any small race (rarely plays anything other then human for that matter) but who recently shocked me by playing a female character in a Mutants & Masterminds game. It didn't bother me he was doing it, I just thought he would only play male characters because I thought that's how he rolled.
When I play a female character I might have her going out looking for men (or women depending on the character) during in game down time (in a reasonable fashion) but I generally avoid pursuing anything with another PC for the grounds that the character works with the PC which could be just as awkward for them as it could be OOC.
For me I mix it up, but I do have a fondness for female characters. This is probably because the first characters I had that I was able to really get into the RP aspect of the game as AND had them survive for a significant amount of time were female.
It all depends on the characte concept I'm going for. 3 of my 5 all time favorite characters to play are female. Unfortunately that top 5 list is also mostly a "too powerful to play" list, but I keep hoping.
I think it's the Lara Croft syndrome: If I'm going to stare at an ass for hours and hours of game time, it might as well be a pretty one.
City of Heroes, Black Spandex, 'nuf said!
"Many stereotypes about masculine/feminine behaviour is not about actual personality traits, but the perception of them (e.g. women don't really talk more than men, they're perceived as talking more)."
Women also tend to ask more general questions, opening up avenues in options, where as men tend to focus, excluding options. This allows women to create ad hoc 'sewing circles' to solve problems and men to generate power structure to solve problems. Playing with a half+ female 3.0 group was eye opening, as they insisted on worrying around the edges of encounters to find the proper solution, but running the same sequence in a 100% macho group a month later fell into the same 'Buff and assist the Barbarian' that ever other encounter was. Ultimately, the first group recognized that they were outclassed (pushing too hard, suffering to much damage and depleting resources way too fast, etc.) and the all-Rambo crew was soundly thumped by foolishly chasing a screaming ogre back into his TRIBAL camp! One decided to withdraw and re-arm, the other beat a bloody retreat and fled into the wilderness.
To me getting bothered by people who play a different sex character from themselves is like getting bothered by some one playing a halfling when they are twice the size of what any halfling would be. If it's not your thing, that's cool. I game with a guy who will never play any small race (rarely plays anything other then human for that matter) but who recently shocked me by playing a female character in a Mutants & Masterminds game. It didn't bother me he was doing it, I just thought he would only play male characters because I thought that's how he rolled.
I can understand that thought process if the problem was a conceptual issue. For me it is more basic than that though, it is an annoyance with dealing with pronouns and having constantly to be reminded not only of the character's class and race but also the sex of the character. So for me, if there were separate pronouns for a male halfling, male elf, male dwarf, male human, male orc, etc. Then playing a different sex would be comparable to playing a different race. Since we don't have any half-him's (halfling pronoun for him) or fis's (elf pronoun for his) or de's (dwarf pronoun for he), I just don't think the comparison is relevant for my concerns.
Note: I do allow players to freely cross-play, it just gets annoying to me sometimes.
I've played characters of both genders, but my all-time favorite PC is my 10th-level female elven ranger, Edala. I haven't played her in a while... she dates back to when it took quite a bit of game time to make it to 10th level.
I don't play MMORPG's, but my character in Baldur's Gate was also a female ranger, named Rhapsody. She and Imoen were pretty much an unstoppable pair when they got to the higher levels.
I just find women more interesting than men, I guess.
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I've played characters of both genders, but my all-time favorite PC is my 10th-level female elven ranger, Edala. I haven't played her in a while... she dates back to when it took quite a bit of game time to make it to 10th level.
Wait, what? On the fast setting it can take 2-3 sessions to level once. That means it's 18-27 sessions to make it from 1 to 10, if you game every other weekend, that is most of a year at minimum. Most games don't last that long.
Wait, what? On the fast setting it can take 2-3 sessions to level once. That means it's 18-27 sessions to make it from 1 to 10, if you game every other weekend, that is most of a year at minimum. Most games don't last that long.
This character has been around, off and on, since 2nd edition. It probably took 5 years of real time to get her up to 10th level... but then, I haven't been able to game every other weekend since I was in college.
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This character has been around, off and on, since 2nd edition. It probably took 5 years of real time to get her up to 10th level... but then, I haven't been able to game every other weekend since I was in college.
On the slow setting it could take 2.5 years (roughly speaking) to make it from 1 to 10, so playing an average of once a month on the slow setting is about where you sit.
On the slow setting it could take 2.5 years (roughly speaking) to make it from 1 to 10, so playing an average of once a month on the slow setting is about where you sit.
We didn't have fast and slow settings when I was playing her.
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I can understand that thought process if the problem was a conceptual issue. For me it is more basic than that though, it is an annoyance with dealing with pronouns and having constantly to be reminded not only of the character's class and race but also the sex of the character. So for me, if there were separate pronouns for a male halfling, male elf, male dwarf, male human, male orc, etc. Then playing a different sex would be comparable to playing a different race. Since we don't have any half-him's (halfling pronoun for him) or fis's (elf pronoun for his) or de's (dwarf pronoun for he), I just don't think the comparison is relevant for my concerns.
Note: I do allow players to freely cross-play, it just gets annoying to me sometimes.
If you can find decent images, you can print one out and have the players put the image up on a little stand up in front of them. That helps a lot. Had a guy do that once long time ago when everyone keep saying he, it made a big difference to glance his way and see the picture of his character as a reminder.
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I wonder though, reading the comments, if peopole that prefer warrior-types, prefer playing male characters irregardless of their own gender on average, and if they prefer playing spellcasters if they prefer playing female characters.
Hm... I don't think this is the case. I love playing female barbarians; they're a lot of fun. But more often than not, I play a guy. I just rolled up a male witch, actually.
You can call this sexist, stereotypical, or just plain stupid, but my rule of thumb for whether or not my character is going to be a boy or a girl, is how the stats fall, if strength and con are both 13 +, boy; if 12 or less, girl.
I'm usually the last one to get a character for our group, because I'll probably get another get another handed to me by our DM. Yes, I still game with that idiot; As such, I design my characters for what the party needs, and I still DM my own campaign when I get a chance to, but its a guideline I use for my own NPC's as well. I do understand that the average townsman and peasant have stats blocks of straight 11's , but then average townsmen are different from PC's. PC's are supposed the stuff of legends, townsmen just live and work in the town, and rarely do anything to get noticed in a good way.