Gender Bender Characters

[Dead Boy]

I was wondering, who all plays characters that are of the opposite gender they are in real life? What percentage of your characters over your gaming life have been like this.

Me personally, it's only been over the past few years that I have started playing the occasional female character. And recently, while making a few characters for another game, quite literally after the fact of making and putting them into play that I realized that 75% of them were female. Guess it's not as much as a hang-up for me as it used to be.

[Sentinel]

As a PC, I run mostly male, but occasional female characters.
As a GM, I run closer to 50/50 male/female.

[PigLickJF]

I voted 50/50, although historically I think it's probably more around 75% male(my gender)/25% female. I wouldn't say "it's not my thing" though, so the 50/50 vote seemed more representative of my feelings on it.

PigLick

[Chuck Lang]

I have never had a PC that has been of the opposite gender.

I do, however, play numerous females as a GM, some of whom have had "relations" with some of the PCs.

You can read the "Women in Gaming" thread for the reasons why I am hesitant with allowing gender bending.

[Jesterzzn]

I found that if I play a female character, it's more likely to be in an online RPG...mainly because I'm going to have to stare at her all day...so might as well stare at someone in a metal bikini.

Me too. I play a girl cause she is hot, but that usually means I get bored with her after a few sessions and delete her and start on another. Just like in real life.

[Thinyser]

My current character is a female True Atlantean Undead Slayer cute but too many tattoos for most guys
Next session I'm gonna get her laid even if I have to resort to force

[SkyeFyre]

I find that the majority of my characters are female even though I'm male. I have no problems with it and have actually been told I do a very good job (From a girl thank you very much)

I dunno, I just find they fit the personalities of the characters I play better.

[Marcethus]

I have made a few female charas but the last time (a few years ago) when I tried it she came across as an Uber ***** dyke (no offense to those that swing that way) I have matured in my gaming so who knows about the next time I play a fem chara.

[The Artist Formerly]

Gender is like any other stat guide such as a non bonused attribute or alignment. Something you play at a bit, but is really just another fold in the character.

[Killer Cyborg]

Usually for example when guys play a female character they do alot of stupid sexual innuendos and Stereotypical BS

Yeah... but on the other hand, a lot of people can't even RP their own sex very well...

[Wildfire]

I have to agree with most people here I play mostly male PCs and run a few Female NPCs for story plot lines.

[Nekira Sudacne]

I tend to run and play only characters that are of the same sex as there Player. I have yet to see anyone effectively play a character that isnt the same sex as they are in the real life. Usually for example when guys play a female character they do alot of stupid sexual innuendos and Stereotypical BS so I insist my players match character with real life sexual orientation.

so...if a gay or lesbian joins your group you'd be ok with that?

[Yendor]

I play about 50/50, finding delight in either sex (I'm male), though I have to say I find playing females as more fun, though I don't play them as some over-sexed lesbian.

[Traska]

::Raises hand::

Okay, I'll 'fess up. I'm the one single vote for the last category.

And it's serious too.

My MMORPG characters are all female. My PnP characters are all female. Heck, if I play Street Fighter, I play as Chun Li as much as possible. I just *identify* with female characters easier.

[Kalinda]

I play about 50/50. I game with one other guy who plays about the same ratio, another who plays a few females here and there, another who plays only males, and my wife, who only plays females. we tend to stay away from relationships between characters, and we all act like grown ups, so things work out fine.

I agree that some gamers don't play cross gender characters well, and I definitely agree that acting out some teenage fantasy with your character is just icky and wrong.

But I do think that some character concepts just require the character to be a certain gender, and if a player wants to try playing cross gender and can pull it off, it should be allowed.

[maasenstodt]

I play 50/50. I can't deny that part of that is about trying to experience a different type of sexuality, but immersion and variety in role-playing is the name of the game as far as I'm concerned. The challenge of really trying to look through the eyes of a woman is something that I find enjoyable from time to time, just as it is enjoyable to look through the eyes of a grizzled rogue scientist questioning his motivations, a despondent escaped slave borg struggling with his humanity, or a haunted crazy who feels himself slipping away.

I will say that explicit sex isn't something that happens in my games. Given a mature and agreeable group, I wouldn't say that I'd never give it a shot, but for the most part, sexual intercourse just isn't as interesting as the motives and flavors of the relationships that lead to it.

[Vinny]

I am no way insecure about my sexuality but I do know my limitations. I don't play female characters.

[DhAkael]

Eh...
Male, female...all PC's and NPC's are just fragments of ones' psyche.
M'self, I tend to try and keep an even 50 / 50 split..most of my NPC's are fem, while my PC's are male...just easier to keep track when I'm actively playing to be my own gender, while running a game, it's fun to mix it up.
Most difficult part for any player OR GM is to stay away from stereotypes of the opposite gender.
Even I've slipped up on that point a couple of times
Thus; don't watch or read old style sci-fi / fantasy stuff prior to 'slipping into character' or you'll fall into the Capt. Testosterone or Lady Jepordy, as "always in".

[Vinny]

have not met a guy yet, who does not play the females, if for no other reason to check them out.

Please to meet you. I'm a guy who does not play the females.

[Kalinda]

have not met a guy yet, who does not play the females, if for no other reason to check them out.

Please to meet you. I'm a guy wo does not play the females.

You don't play any video game that has a female main character, or play the female characters in fighting games? because that's what the post referred to...

[Vinny]

Not usually. I don't really feal that playing a video game with a female character really counts as gender bending. I mean, if I have the choice of which sex I'll play in a video game I chose male.

In the video game I'm not playing a male or female perse. The character has already been defined and I don't feel the control over the character as I do in a RPG like Rifts. I become more infused with my character and thus have to play the character as a woman. In a video game, they are really genderless.

[Vinny]

Yes, I once played a character who got all the sex he wanted.

How much did it cost you total?

[Danger]

*shrug* I don't know if it's really 50-50 for me, but I've got no problem with it. It really depends on the game and particularly the GM and other players who will be involved. Several of my favorite characters have been female, and no, I don't think it's necessarily gratuitous (although it can be in some games) or 'weird'. Sometimes it's just nice to have a balance of male/female characters.

[Vinny]

I want to date a female, not be one.

[Traska]

Some of us want both. =P

[Vinny]

Some of us want both. =P

Too much information!

[Svartalf]

I've played a lady or two (or maybe even 4 or 5) over my 20+ years of gaming, but I'm not that good at impersonating them, and there was only one who had a long and distinguished career (rose up to 14th level as a bard in AD&D 1st edition, and was a relic wielding major servant of the Gods of Chaos)

[Sentinel]

Honestly, playing opposite genders is not really that hard.
It helps to read some source material, but then we do that for other characters anyway: No one tries to play an elf without first reading the background, right? Well, read a book about women (Playboy and Penthouse do not count. Nor does Stuff or Maxim).
Women aren't so totally different from men: they do a lot of the same things we do, like a lot of the same things we do, albeit for slightly different reasons.
They to can be motivated by the Spirit of Competition, the need to prove themselves or prove a point to the world, or just plain get even with someone.

[Sentinel]

I've played a grand total of two female PC's ever. One was in the early 90's and was a Glasswalker werewolf. The other is currently active and probably my favorite to play. She also happens to be my lowest powered character. (Though she did knock a bad guy out in two kicks and then triple critted another with a flying kick from the rear with a nat 20 onto the pointy end of a halberd on saturday. ) The people she knows, however, kick serious butt.

I don't find it hard at all to play her. Guess it maybe because I try and help her find her way instead of using her for any type of perverseness.

I was thinking about increasing the level of your opponents, now that you're so much more successful in combat.

Combat aside, it's the interactive elements of playing a female character that make them any different from a male character, and some of that is how other characters react to the interactive opportunities.
Ordinarily, an average male wouldn't really care about someone on the bench, pressing 450 lbs. But, if the lifter is a female with a PB of 16, then all of a sudden there's an opportunity for dialog (as soon as she puts the bar down).

[Ice Dragon]

As a GM I had to run male and female characters. As a player I prefer male, but I do have a few female ones.

[PigLickJF]

sorry i didnt vote, but i have a good reason: i dont know how women think.
I wouldnt want to play a character poorly, i like being able to roleplay the character to the letter, and personally i just cant do that with women cause they're different. Now i mean that in the most non-sexist way. I love women, its just i cant figure out how to think or act like them so i refrain from doing so as a player....as a GM I sometime resort to using women to distracting the group from the overall theme or to get the party to split into smaller groups, but i generally try to stick to what i know.

three cheers for all chicks who RP women so i dont have to...

I don't really get this explanation. Does that mean you only play yourself? I don't know exactly how women think either, but I also don't know how elves, dwarves, dragons, borgs, True Atlanteans, Dog Boys, etc think either, but people play them all the time.

I guess the difference is that no one else at the table really knows how any of those fictional things act either, whereas they are (or should be, at least) familiar with how women, in general, acts and can tell if you're doing it "wrong."

I don't have a problem with people who have no desire to try and play a woman (or man, for the ladies), but to say that you "can't" because you don't know how they think just doesn't seem like a good excuse, unless you really only do play yourself in every game.

PigLick

[Vinny]

I was thinking about increasing the level of your opponents, now that you're so much more successful in combat.

Don't you dare. Just because she kicked the crap outta two people , and my 19 and 20 were back to back (and highly atypical of my normal rolls) doesn't mean you get to do that. Especially since I got flattened by that Ballrog right afterwards.

GM = God = He can do what ever he wants.

[Sentinel]

Thistle, you could have taken that Baal-Rog.
It was just bad luck that you got flattened.
Look, I arranged a re-match for you, one-on-one, no ringside interference.


I had never really thought about the parallel line of thought about playing elves, dwarves, etc.
But I guess in that way we all play a character whose thoughts we wouldn't really fathom. I have no idea what an immortal would think or act like, male or female, because I can only imagine what it must be like to live for millenia.
As a GM, I am called upon to play the roles of teachers, protectors, antagonists, rivals, lovers, friends, brothers, superiors and commanders, subordinates, experts, and all sorts of things that I am not. Females are no more difficult than immortal dieties or college professors or white slavers.

[Judas]

We have an all male group but at least half play female charaters, thats cool by me as long as they are not sterotyped and they are played properly.

I personally haven't played a true female character myself though like sentinel said I have to GM loads of them. I did however play a changling that used a female personna quite a bit, Male or female no secrets were safe from me (Changling thief in palladium)

[Traska]

every characters a person makes will have a distinct part of the person making them as a core component. am i the only one willing to admit that my characters are illusions of what i would do?

I don't play my characters that way, at all. I've had evil characters, I am not evil. Heck, there's no way I would, for example, blow up a section of overpass just to create an emergency to distract police from a crime I was going to commit (EXTRA SPECIAL NOTE: I would *not* do this in real life, ever. Homeland Security, you just keep on going), but I've had a character who did just that, using a hazardous chemicals transport as a blind. Got away with the crime, too.

But endangerous people who I've never even met isn't something I could do just to make a few million dollars.

[Sentinel]

GMs are like writers. We have to come up with characters and situations that may not reflect ourselves exclusively.
I'm sure writers like Michael Chrichton, Ken Follett, Tom Clancy, are nothing like the antagonist characters they write about (God, I hope they aren't).
Likewise, Eric Von Lustbader isn't Japanese, but writes about them quite well.

As a Gm, I've had to play a Klansman (I'm black).
I've also done Nazis, corrupt politicians, and power-mad dictators.
I am none of these things (this is where my players better speak up in my behalf).

[Sentinel]

Just as a sidenote, Eric von Lustbader freakin' rules.

I concur.

[PigLickJF]

GMs are like writers.

Not just GMs, anyone who is playing a character other than the "me in a different situation" characters like rellik plays (and even them, though to a lesser extent).

Like Traska though, I don't play my characters that way at all. Obviously, I am the mind behind the character and as such my own personality, expereinces, etc will have a huge influence on how the character is played, just as writers all have their own individual styles, but that doesn't mean I don't try. It's hard for me to really judge how succesful I am or not, you'd have to ask people who have played in games with me, but personally I feel I do a pretty good job.

That really all RPGs are, after, is interactive stories. Instead of one person sitting down and doing all the work, a group of people sit down to share the task. The GM of course does most of the work, creating the overall plot, directing things, creating ancillary characters etc, but it still just a joint effort at telling a story.

PigLick

[Sentinel]

PigLickJF wrote:

Not just GMs, anyone who is playing a character other than the "me in a different situation" characters like rellik plays

True enough: but, let's face it, only GMs count.

[(SHIFTY)]

I have had a couple characters that are female. They were ok non of them really got past the 5th level though.