Female Characters

[SmilingJack]

Recently I started playing a female character in my campaigns and received a mixed reaction and it piqued my curiosity as to other gamers experiences playing a female character and why they chose to pick a female character to play

please feel free to answer any of the following questions

Do you play a female character in your campaigns
Do you think too few people play female characters
Why do you think most gamers avoid playing a female character
What are the reactions you've experienced from other gamers when playing a female character
Which gender character do you prefer to play and why

[Nekira Sudacne]

Are you only asking male players experiances playing female characters? there are female players on the forums here too.

Most of my characters are female, but so am I, so I never got any particular reaction from it.

[Grell]

I depict plenty of female characters as NPC's, but I don't usually play them as characters. No reason in particular, just not interested in doing so.

[DhAkael]

I THINK it's directed to the whole 'genderswap' RP thang.
In my case, having been forced to be GM for most of my gaming carreer, I've sorta had to create female NPC's along the way if for no other reason than to flesh out the world.
Eventually it trickled over into playing female player-characters. *shrug*
To be perfectly honest, I've never had any negative reactions to it ...as long as I keep away from "Buffy'ism", Xena clones or the "damsel in this dress" tropes.

...it's harder than one would think.
Darn you popular media... DARN!

-ahem-
As a side note; if you want female characters (as created by male writers) done well? Read David Weber's stuff, particularly his 'Honor Harringtion' series and 'In Fury Born' novel.

[kaid]

I never had a problem with it. Still I strongly recommend for any guy playing a female character watch The gamers: Dorkness rising and be awesome like lestor.

I think the strangest case of this I ever played was at a gen con. It was an Al'qadim adventure for D&D basically middle east and I was a barber. Barbers had great disguise skills and my character was a female halfling disguised as a teenage boy disguised as an adult so that her fathers barber business would not be destroyed after her fathers illness.

It was confusing but fun and the final reveal of who my character really was to the rest of the group was pretty darn hilarious.

[Prysus]

Recently I started playing a female character in my campaigns and received a mixed reaction and it piqued my curiosity as to other gamers experiences playing a female character and why they chose to pick a female character to play

please feel free to answer any of the following questions

Greetings and Salutations. As Nekira mentioned above, there are females who play female characters (of course, I know females who play male characters too). However, as a male (and how this question is designed), I'm going to answer this regarding male gamers playing female characters.

Do you play a female character in your campaigns

As a G.M., I do it often. They're called NPC, so I've done it ... a lot.

As a player, I do it every now and again (though I prefer males). Sometimes it's just for a change of pace, but more than anything I think it's good experience. As a writer, I think it helps to play female characters now and again to better understand how to write for female characters in stories (and NPC). Understanding females better makes for better characters. Note: When I play characters, I really try to get into the character and think like they think, not as myself. This makes me think harder on how a woman would handle this, and how something might be different from a man. Of course, this is also dangerous. Immersing myself so much into the mentality also affects my real life. For example, one time I played a very angry character (male). Not Kratos level of angry, but tended to take things the wrong way and very defensive. I was miserable for about a month in day to day activities (very easy to provoke) until I finally realized I needed to stop playing that character.

Do you think too few people play female characters

No. Sometimes I think too many (males) do. I mean, I said above I think it's a good experience I think more should try, but I've also seen too many do it frequently and do it badly.

Why do you think most gamers avoid playing a female character

Because it can be VERY creepy, and it's a negative stereotype. The stereotype tends to involve males playing females with exceptionally high P.B., who dress very scantily clad (and/or walk around naked), and/or sluts/bimbos. They play out as male social rejects who need to act out their fantasies by playing a woman because they could never get a woman in real life.

Now I'm not saying that's true of all males playing females, but that's often the view and I've seen enough guys playing females that way to make it feel like it's a justified stereotypes (at least some times). Sometimes it's just guys who have no understanding of women whatsoever, so they can't play one properly. Note: I once played in a game with one of those characters where I had the misfortune of playing a male who hit on everything in a skirt. That was very uncomfortable. If the player of the female wasn't such a creepy guy (and the whole group thought he was), it would've been something funnier or a "whatever" type of thing (but creepy guy makes it VERY awkward). G.M. felt bad for me, but I believe gave me bonus points for staying in character. I think that might be the last time I played that character though (not the first time I had to hit on a guy, but first time it made me want to throw up).

What are the reactions you've experienced from other gamers when playing a female character

Hmm ... I can't remember any actual comments regarding it (at least not towards me). I mean, I've heard a few negative comments, but they're always directed at the general concept of a guy playing a female (and not directed at my specific ability to do so, because they've never witnessed it).

When I've had the honor of playing with a female gamer, I'll take the chance to ask for opinions and pointers (again, I try to play my female characters as much like females as possible, and who better to help than females?). I can't recall any complaints. One comment I recall is that I play females so well that they don't really think about the fact I'm a male playing a female (I mean, they clearly know, but it's not something that stands out ... if that makes sense?).

Which gender character do you prefer to play and why

Males. As a male it's just easier and feels more natural/comfortable. When I'm playing a female I tend to be a little more self-conscious, always worried that I'll do something that crosses the line and makes me that guy. While playing a female can be fun, having to put all that extra thought (trying to play a female accurately) and worry (not being that creepy guy) into it also detracts from that fun (to a degree).

Anyways, I think that's all for now. Thank you for your time and patience, please have a nice day. Farewell and safe journeys for now.

[Alrik Vas]

I only played female characters when i was a teenager. Even then i didn't do much that was "female", it was usually the result of a die roll anyway. When i got older i GM'd a lot more so playing female NPCs was mpre than enough.

I don't knoxk guys for playing girls or the opposite, however.

[glitterboy2098]

i would imagine that such "crossplaying" is more common with games done online than the ones done around a table. when you can see the male player while your interacting with the female character, your going to react differently than when you only see text on a screen. even if you know that the person typing said text isn't female. online gender cues are much more ambiguous, so it is easier to just respond to the character.

i've not yet tried ot RP a female character in a tabletop style game, online or otherwise. but i have played female characters in RP focused MMO groups, which had a lot of the same elements.

[flatline]

I've played a handful of female characters when the character concept suggested the option. They were received normally by the rest of the group.

I do remember those characters taking more effort to play conscientiously because every decision I made, I had to determine if being female needed to be a consideration in the decision making process. This constant second guessing prevented me from ever really feeling comfortable with these characters, but they were a nice change of pace sometimes.

--flatline

[cornholioprime]

Recently I started playing a female character in my campaigns and received a mixed reaction and it piqued my curiosity as to other gamers experiences playing a female character and why they chose to pick a female character to play

please feel free to answer any of the following questions

Greetings and Salutations. As Nekira mentioned above, there are females who play female characters (of course, I know females who play male characters too). However, as a male (and how this question is designed), I'm going to answer this regarding male gamers playing female characters.

Do you play a female character in your campaigns

As a G.M., I do it often. They're called NPC, so I've done it ... a lot.

As a player, I do it every now and again (though I prefer males). Sometimes it's just for a change of pace, but more than anything I think it's good experience. As a writer, I think it helps to play female characters now and again to better understand how to write for female characters in stories (and NPC). Understanding females better makes for better characters. Note: When I play characters, I really try to get into the character and think like they think, not as myself. This makes me think harder on how a woman would handle this, and how something might be different from a man. Of course, this is also dangerous. Immersing myself so much into the mentality also affects my real life. For example, one time I played a very angry character (male). Not Kratos level of angry, but tended to take things the wrong way and very defensive. I was miserable for about a month in day to day activities (very easy to provoke) until I finally realized I needed to stop playing that character.

Do you think too few people play female characters

No. Sometimes I think too many (males) do. I mean, I said above I think it's a good experience I think more should try, but I've also seen too many do it frequently and do it badly.

Why do you think most gamers avoid playing a female character

Because it can be VERY creepy, and it's a negative stereotype. The stereotype tends to involve males playing females with exceptionally high P.B., who dress very scantily clad (and/or walk around naked), and/or sluts/bimbos. They play out as male social rejects who need to act out their fantasies by playing a woman because they could never get a woman in real life.

Now I'm not saying that's true of all males playing females, but that's often the view and I've seen enough guys playing females that way to make it feel like it's a justified stereotypes (at least some times). Sometimes it's just guys who have no understanding of women whatsoever, so they can't play one properly. Note: I once played in a game with one of those characters where I had the misfortune of playing a male who hit on everything in a skirt. That was very uncomfortable. If the player of the female wasn't such a creepy guy (and the whole group thought he was), it would've been something funnier or a "whatever" type of thing (but creepy guy makes it VERY awkward). G.M. felt bad for me, but I believe gave me bonus points for staying in character. I think that might be the last time I played that character though (not the first time I had to hit on a guy, but first time it made me want to throw up).

What are the reactions you've experienced from other gamers when playing a female character

Hmm ... I can't remember any actual comments regarding it (at least not towards me). I mean, I've heard a few negative comments, but they're always directed at the general concept of a guy playing a female (and not directed at my specific ability to do so, because they've never witnessed it).

When I've had the honor of playing with a female gamer, I'll take the chance to ask for opinions and pointers (again, I try to play my female characters as much like females as possible, and who better to help than females?). I can't recall any complaints. One comment I recall is that I play females so well that they don't really think about the fact I'm a male playing a female (I mean, they clearly know, but it's not something that stands out ... if that makes sense?).

Which gender character do you prefer to play and why

Males. As a male it's just easier and feels more natural/comfortable. When I'm playing a female I tend to be a little more self-conscious, always worried that I'll do something that crosses the line and makes me that guy. While playing a female can be fun, having to put all that extra thought (trying to play a female accurately) and worry (not being that creepy guy) into it also detracts from that fun (to a degree).

Anyways, I think that's all for now. Thank you for your time and patience, please have a nice day. Farewell and safe journeys for now.

In one of the more political sections of The Forums, there was a recent discussion regarding a Video Game Developer who was strongly implying (he never said so directly) that the reason why he couldn't get a bunch of Publishers to market his video game, is because the Main Character was a female.

(To my eyes, just to make it clear, it seemed as if the man was saying that those unnamed Publishers didn't want to market his game JUST BECAUSE they didn't like females as a strong leading character.)

But if your post is any indication of The Average Gamer (RPG or otherwise), then perhaps the actual reason why RPG Publishers don't want to have Females as their Main Character, is because most Video Game Players are Male........and they wouldn't want to play as a Female in a Video Game for more or less the same reason that you don't want to play as one in a Role-Playing Game.

You post has given me food for thought; thanks.

Cornholio_Prime -doesn't get to play in Group Settings in his home these days for either Video or Role-Playing Games, and therefore had forgotten what it might be like in terms of 'peer pressure' for The Average Guy if all his buddies were sitting there with him in the same room and he decided to whip out a Female Character

[drewkitty ~..~]

GB is right that it is easier to cross-play characters online.

I normally play female chars, usually ending up the only female char in the group, because most other RPers are guys also. For me it part is to get around my inhibitions about social interactions. and another part is that the other chars interact with mine more if my char is fem.

[glitterboy2098]

cross-play is also a way to expand your Roleplay abilities. it is easy to play something fairly close to your normal self. but the more different the character is from you, the more entertaining the experiance can be, and the more you have to put effort into RP. which means that later you can RP better with your normal type of characters.
you can step outside your comfort zone using different styles of characters (scholars instead of warriors for example) or attributes than you normally would, but crossplay is a good way to really test your RP abilities. you not only have to build up a personality different than your own, but you have to reexamine some of your own preconceptions about gender in the process.

honestly, the only thing on par with cross-play in testing your RP ability is playing something truely alien (non-humanoid, with odd biology, etc.. ), assuming you actually put thought into how the non-human society and psychology would work.
but crossplay is easier, since you generally have more real world knowledge to draw on. not everyone can use knowledge of zoology, biomechnics, and so on to build an alien psychology.. but most people have enough knowledge of the other sex to at least try to crossplay..

[SmilingJack]

Hi Everyone,

I'm actually brand new to the palladium forums and this thread was literally my very first posting,

Thank you so much to everyone for your honest and truly intelligent responses, I am so excited to continue not only this discourse but also continuing to share ideas with such kind, open minded, and thoughtful gamers

In regards to female characters,

I really like playing female characters, because I feel forces the player to really think outside of the box, I love the idea that I have to use my imagination And wits to tackle problems that I normally would use brute strength or intimidation to conquer. With the addition of a female to a party it enables you to have someone who can influence or charm NPCs and you can often achieve goals you may otherwise not be able to, thusly making for a more well rounded party of characters

I've always believed that if you put yourself in a uncomfortable situation and strive to do your best you'll truly grow and in this case you'll become a better role player

[drewkitty ~..~]

One thing I would recommend, if they play their fem chars as <word meaning with the procreative morals of a man> then they should reap the consequences of their actions. Randomly determined of course.

[Nekira Sudacne]

Hi Everyone,

I'm actually brand new to the palladium forums and this thread was literally my very first posting,

Thank you so much to everyone for your honest and truly intelligent responses, I am so excited to continue not only this discourse but also continuing to share ideas with such kind, open minded, and thoughtful gamers

In regards to female characters,

I really like playing female characters, because I feel forces the player to really think outside of the box, I love the idea that I have to use my imagination And wits to tackle problems that I normally would use brute strength or intimidation to conquer. With the addition of a female to a party it enables you to have someone who can influence or charm NPCs and you can often achieve goals you may otherwise not be able to, thusly making for a more well rounded party of characters

I've always believed that if you put yourself in a uncomfortable situation and strive to do your best you'll truly grow and in this case you'll become a better role player

There's more to playing a female character than sterotypcial charmers or brains over brawn. You want a real challange? Make a female juicer, that likes to use brute force and intimidation to solve problems and isn't charming at all.

then try to make her still noticably feminine and diferent from a male juicer.

"The female" is not a distinct role in the party.

[SmilingJack]

Hi Everyone,

I'm actually brand new to the palladium forums and this thread was literally my very first posting,

Thank you so much to everyone for your honest and truly intelligent responses, I am so excited to continue not only this discourse but also continuing to share ideas with such kind, open minded, and thoughtful gamers

In regards to female characters,

I really like playing female characters, because I feel forces the player to really think outside of the box, I love the idea that I have to use my imagination And wits to tackle problems that I normally would use brute strength or intimidation to conquer. With the addition of a female to a party it enables you to have someone who can influence or charm NPCs and you can often achieve goals you may otherwise not be able to, thusly making for a more well rounded party of characters

I've always believed that if you put yourself in a uncomfortable situation and strive to do your best you'll truly grow and in this case you'll become a better role player

There's more to playing a female character than sterotypcial charmers or brains over brawn. You want a real challange? Make a female juicer, that likes to use brute force and intimidation to solve problems and isn't charming at all.

then try to make her still noticably feminine and diferent from a male juicer.

"The female" is not a distinct role in the party.

Hi,

I respectfully disagree with your assessment as I fully believe that a female add a tremendous amount variability and skills to a party

perfect real world example is you get pulled over, in the cop is a jerk to everybody, if its a male in the front seat he just hassles him, if it's an attractive female and she's flirting with him, the officer is more likely to take it easy on them

in that situation the females saves them, take a beautiful woman and put her in a rift campaign, and how much more can she do

I like your idea about a female juicer, I actually conceived of an occ for a female juicer, instead of the chemicals enhancing her strength and speed they enhance her sexual allure and her beauty, the nano.bots in chemicals keep her in a state of permanent youth and beauty, and maximize her physical assets, well also being able to augment them depending on the situation, I wanted to call it a venus juicer, I thought it was a pretty cool idea and is in line with your suggestion

[Alrik Vas]

Nekira, I have played a Matsu Berserker, a juicer would be a pale comparison.

[Nekira Sudacne]

Hi,

I respectfully disagree with your assessment as I own a fully believe that a female add a tremendous amount variability and skills to a party

perfect real world example is you get pulled over, in the cop is a jerk to everybody, if its a male in the front seat he just hassles him, if it's an attractive female and she's flirting with him, the officer is more likely to take it easy on them

I don't think I quite expressed my assessment clearly. I never said there isn't a role for a seductress in the party that wouldn't be useful in some situations, merely that that isn't the only role for playing a female character.

in that situation the females saves them, take a beautiful woman and put her in a rift campaign, and how much more can she do

My only point was there's more to playing female characters than playing beautiful ones. the dice arn't always kind when you roll the PB stat after all, and sinse I play mostly female characters, i've had to play both. it can be just as challanging to play a plane jane who isn't sexy at all, than to play a seductress. both can be lots of fun when used right, however.

I like your idea about a female juicer, I actually conceived of an occ for a female juicer, instead of the chemicals enhancing her strength and speed they enhance her sexual allure and her beauty, the nano.bots in chemicals keep her in a state of permanent youth and beauty, and maximize her physical assets, well also being able to augment them depending on the situation, I wanted to call it a venus juicer, I thought it was a pretty cool idea and is in line with your suggestion

Actually, my idea was just for a regular old juicer.

but would that actually be a juicer? the way you discribe it, there's nothing that would actually shorten their lifespan in that which is is usually the first thing you think of when you think of juicers. well, that and autododge. but this one wouldn't have that either if it dosn't boost her speed.

[Nekira Sudacne]

Nekira, I have played a Matsu Berserker, a juicer would be a pale comparison.

the juicer was just the first thing that popped into my head. what's a matsu beserker?

[Alrik Vas]

Matriarchal family of berserk samurai from Legend of the Five Rings rpg. Men have to marry into their family and take their name. They love 6' swords and hurling themselves into battle like they're invincible.

[Shark_Force]

i would turn that argument about the usefulness of a seductress around as well.

having ANY character that is extremely competent in social situations can be an incredible blessing for a party, period (also, the more you have that can perform adequately to act as support, the better). it does to some extent matter whether that person is male or female, but only insomuch as the people you're trying to get to do things for you are of the appropriate sexual inclination, and only if you attempt to use sex appeal as your method of getting the person to do what you want.

there are, in fact, numerous ways of going about this goal of getting others to do things for you. you could have a person who is an incredible con artist and can manipulate people by their greed, or even by their selflessness, whether male or female. you could have a person who is incredible at digging up people's dirty secrets, and uses blackmail. you could have a person who is extremely well-connected and has so many people owing them favours, that they can get others to do what they want simply by knowing the right people and calling in the right favours. none of those scenarios benefit particularly from gender inherently, and are in fact more likely to be useful because you don't need your target to be a specific gender for it to work...

now, this is not to say that you couldn't have a female character who is good at one or more of those areas as well as seduction... but the same is true if you had a male character who is good at one or more of these areas as well as seduction.

but ultimately, it is not a matter of "do we have a woman in the party", so much as it is a matter of "do we have a 'face' in the party". an operator can get the group into most small communities just by being an operator. a rogue scholar can be a brilliant public speaker as well as knowing their history and literature, and may be able to haggle as well as any merchant. a person with ties to the black market can have a lot of influence in cities where many people are dependant on the black market to provide the things they want or need. and so forth. it is not unique to women, and in fact, being a woman (or a man) will in some cases cause you difficulty rather than being helpful, and especially in rifts earth, there will be plenty of times where it simply doesn't matter (a grackletooth likely doesn't particularly care if you're the most attractive woman on the planet, because you're not a grackletooth. on the other hand, if he's got into a bit of trouble with the law, and you happen to have a lawyer friend who owes you a few favours... the grackletooth probably cares about that quite a bit. a splugorth slaver probably only cares to the extent that attractive women - or men - are likely to fetch a higher price as a slave, meaning that regardless of gender, being attractive is likely a disadvantage more than anything when manipulating a splugorth slaver, because it increases the value of *not* helping you out... unless for some reason your goal is to get captured).

[SmilingJack]

Hi,

I respectfully disagree with your assessment as I own a fully believe that a female add a tremendous amount variability and skills to a party

perfect real world example is you get pulled over, in the cop is a jerk to everybody, if its a male in the front seat he just hassles him, if it's an attractive female and she's flirting with him, the officer is more likely to take it easy on them

I don't think I quite expressed my assessment clearly. I never said there isn't a role for a seductress in the party that wouldn't be useful in some situations, merely that that isn't the only role for playing a female character.

in that situation the females saves them, take a beautiful woman and put her in a rift campaign, and how much more can she do

My only point was there's more to playing female characters than playing beautiful ones. the dice arn't always kind when you roll the PB stat after all, and sinse I play mostly female characters, i've had to play both. it can be just as challanging to play a plane jane who isn't sexy at all, than to play a seductress. both can be lots of fun when used right, however.

I like your idea about a female juicer, I actually conceived of an occ for a female juicer, instead of the chemicals enhancing her strength and speed they enhance her sexual allure and her beauty, the nano.bots in chemicals keep her in a state of permanent youth and beauty, and maximize her physical assets, well also being able to augment them depending on the situation, I wanted to call it a venus juicer, I thought it was a pretty cool idea and is in line with your suggestion

Actually, my idea was just for a regular old juicer.

but would that actually be a juicer? the way you discribe it, there's nothing that would actually shorten their lifespan in that which is is usually the first thing you think of when you think of juicers. well, that and autododge. but this one wouldn't have that either if it dosn't boost her speed.

Hi Nekira,

I really appreciate your perspective, as I can see the other side of the coin from how you describe it, and I think your points have a lot of relevance and Merit

in terms of the juicer, the Venus juicer, it's kind of like imagine pumping your body full of botox, in overloading your body with chemicals that sustain an enhanced beauty, and even small amount of steroids if they are kept at optimum levels even in overtime the body would break down, you're absolutely right about the life span, I had envisioned the Venus juicers to live for longer, then a regular juicer,i thought with the extended life span and incomparable beauty, it would be a much more attractive option for females then becoming a regular juicer

Btw i really appreciate you challenging my ideas, we can only get better by really examining our thoughts and being open minded to both sides

[Nekira Sudacne]

Hi Nekira,

I really appreciate your perspective, as I can see the other side of the coin from how you describe it, and I think your points have a lot of relevance and Merit

it's okay. we're all friends here on this forum. you can talk normal.

in terms of the juicer, the Venus juicer, it's kind of like imagine pumping your body full of botox, in overloading your body with chemicals that sustain an enhanced beauty, and even small amount of steroids if they are kept at optimum levels even in overtime the body would break down, you're absolutely right about the life span, I had envisioned the Venus juicers to live for longer, then a regular juicer,i thought with the extended life span and incomparable beauty, it would be a much more attractive option for females then becoming a regular juicer

Flooding your body with botox would be instantly lethal, considering botox is actually the most deadly poison we know of. in fact the entire reason it works is because it's so effective it instantly kills and freezes muscle, which means they no longer sag or wrinkle because they're kind of dead

but the point remains. you shouldn't be approaching playing a female character as "playing a female character". just pick a regular class like wilderness scout or mind melter or headhunter or ley line walker or power armor pilot, and just fill in "female" on the gender section on the character sheet and go from there. sure, nothing wrong with a seductress, or a proceedure to make them, but it'd be like only playing conan the barbarian for playing male characters. they have more roles than that.

Btw i really appreciate you challenging my ideas, we can only get better by really examining our thoughts and being open minded to both sides

Your idea isn't wrong so much as incomplete.

[Mech-Viper Prime]

Recently I started playing a female character in my campaigns and received a mixed reaction and it piqued my curiosity as to other gamers experiences playing a female character and why they chose to pick a female character to play

please feel free to answer any of the following questions

1.Do you play a female character in your campaigns
2.Do you think too few people play female characters
3.Why do you think most gamers avoid playing a female character
4.What are the reactions you've experienced from other gamers when playing a female character
5.Which gender character do you prefer to play and why

1. Yes, have too I was the GM.
2. Doesn't matter to me.
3. It's take maturity to play a female right.
4. Got a few laughs from the females playing, and the look of dread from the guys because something bad was going to happen to them.
5. Doesn't matter to me, it's like acting and it's just a role to play.

[SmilingJack]

Are you only asking male players experiances playing female characters? there are female players on the forums here too.

I was wondering about that myself...

Honestly The Question was directed to everybody, male, female, transgender, brodkill, xiticix, dbee, etc

[Nekira Sudacne]

Are you only asking male players experiances playing female characters? there are female players on the forums here too.

I was wondering about that myself...

Honestly The Question was directed to everybody, male, female, transgender, brodkill, xiticix, dbee, etc

Fair enough, it just wasn't very clear from the first post.

out of curiosity, do you plan on fleshing out your juicer idea at some point?

[The Oh So Amazing Nate]

cross-play is also a way to expand your Roleplay abilities. it is easy to play something fairly close to your normal self. but the more different the character is from you, the more entertaining the experiance can be, and the more you have to put effort into RP. which means that later you can RP better with your normal type of characters.

Wow. You make a really good point here that I hadn't ever thought much about. All my PC's have, in one way or another, been facets of my personality that I readily recognize or have been fantasies that I've wanted to be.

Things my pc's are that I am. Smart-alecs, intelligent, loyal, willing to do things not to blatantly break the law, but just to see if it could be gotten away with, slightly disgruntled curmudgeons (everyone quickly becomes an annoyance).

Things my pc's are that I am NOT. Russian, Scottish (what can I say I like playing pc's with accents or distinctive voices/speech patterns. two current ones sound like John Hurt and Clint Eastwood), proficient skateboarders, heavy drinkers, fighters, risk takers.

I can't say I've ever played a character that was fully separate from my own personality. I'm very curious to try this now.

[SmilingJack]

Are you only asking male players experiances playing female characters? there are female players on the forums here too.

I was wondering about that myself...

Honestly The Question was directed to everybody, male, female, transgender, brodkill, xiticix, dbee, etc

Fair enough, it just wasn't very clear from the first post.

out of curiosity, do you plan on fleshing out your juicer idea at some point?

Hey Nekira,

Yes!

actually I'm really really interested in developing the character, because I think it could be so fun to play, I think I would focus skills on espionage, Rouge, and communication, such a character would be really good aT gaining people's trust and culling information
I Envisioned it as the antithesis of a regular juicer,maybe even the chemicals and biosystems could Enhance intelligence along with accentuating physical beauty

On a complete aside, as a gm I think
1 component people always forget about with juicers, is that they need a constant supply of the drugs, and I think it would be interesting to see what happens in situations, where they have a low supply, or are going through withdrawal

[ZorValachan]

Let's see. Online MMOs I normally pay Females. Back in the early 90s, text based MUDS had a larger percentage of male characters than females. Playing a female character had the effect of men giving me kewl l00tz 'cause they thought I was a girl. This transferred over to Everquest. By WOW time people didn't give females stuff just because they were female (in my experience), but nowadays I have to look at the character (females are more pleasing to the eye for me) as well as developers seem to slap together male character models and spend time on female ones. If there weren't so many stupid male models, I would probably choose more male toons.

For table-top, I will not list NPCs or short lived PCs. I usually play whatever I feel like playing. These are my more memorable ones. As I mostly GM, the list isn't too long.

Females
Hope Boclivar: Alchemist trying to be a real wizard (warhammer frpg)
Fae: scholarly cleric of Dunad (magic god) in the 'fantasy realm' (TORG)
Katherina Young: Undead Adept-mage. (Adventure Quest). This game has random sex and everyone rolled the opposite of real life.
Ashley Sugar-notch: Elven Archer/Barber surgeon (2nd ed Warhammer). Once I visited Pennsylvania and saw a road sign for the towns of Ashley and Sugar-Notch, since then I had the uncontrolable need to have a character with this name.
Speranza Domere: Amazon warrior 'pulp realm' (TORG). Fiancee to Yakomoto the ninja 'james bond realm', who is another player's character. All 'acts' are offscreen.
Kali:Windling Cavalryman (Earthdawn). Had romances with the other windlings of the party (offscreen). At one time there were 4 in the party 3 females and one male. I was the only cross-gender.
The Philosopher: Psi-Mystic. Completely covered in loose robes and wore a porceline mask. Talked with a deep whisper. Was a female, but most either didn't know or thought she was a man. (PFRPG 2nd)
Rainbow Spice: Mutant with Light powers (HU 1st)
Mytia Whwyd: Cleric of Anubis (Adventure Quest)

Males
Falstove/Mer Gordon/Evos- male barbarian. (Adventure Quest)
Gaius Dominus: wolfen martial artist. (PFRPG 1st)
Magnus Infernus: Magus (Ars Magica).
Kaltar Malric: bounty Hunter (Star Wars D6)
Shadowspawn: mutant (Heroes Unlimited)
Andraste: Eladrin swordmage (D&D 4th)
Turow: Troll Cavalryman (Earthdawn). A half-favor to the GM when 'windling mentality' was taking over the story and I was wanting a different character as well.
Pine Needle: Porcupine (TMNT)
G: Human stickfighter monk (PFRPG 2nd)


Uhhh
Tabia: Male human thief. Girdle changed to a female. (D&D 2nd). Had different name as man, but I can't remember what it was.

So 9.5 and 9.5, I'm a 50%er

[Giant2005]

I exclusively play males.
I like to challenge myself in roleplaying and play something outside of my comfort zone but I also like to do it well. It is easier for me to get inside the mind of a Ganka or new-born Dragon and react to stimuli reasonably than it is t play a female. Females are just too alien for me and I'd have no idea how to react to any given situation.

[nilgravity]

My friends have played female characters in my World of Darkness campaigns. It didn't really make a big impact. One guy decided to do it because I had made sketches of characters to choose from and he liked he drawing (we had three or four ladies who occasionally played so I made sure to include lots of female characters to choose from). My other friend who likes to mess with the other players chose to play his character as female for no obvious reason. He got super uncomfortable when seduction rolls started coming from the other players.

PS
There is a running gag in my comic about one of the guys being forced to play the GM's kid sister's character. Nothing like that happened in any of my games, it just made sense to the arch of the characters.

[cyberdon]

One of my long time gaming buddies plays a female character named Navara. He uses brawn, wit and charm all the time and is very successful in game.

In real life he's a total sports guy. Because we're all GMs as well, we're used to playing every gender, so no one's thought twice about it.

I believe I played a female fighter once, waaay back.

[Icefalcon]

Over the course of many years about 1/3 of my characters have been female. I have seen others that play every character as female and some that play every other character as female. In my original group, it was not seen as something for comment. In the group I play with now (which on average is quite a bit younger than my original group) I get a few strange looks but not many comments, plus only one or two of them have taken a stab at being a female character (with varying degrees of success).

[DhAkael]

Here's one way to play both an alien mind-set AND female PC;
http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=103576
Enjoy

[Tor]

Why do you think most gamers avoid playing a female character

My guess is, for heterosexual male players anyway (who are still probably the most predominant segment of this gaming population, though I'm not clear on how large) it's fear of being viewed as a homosexual as an extension though playing someone who might potentially flirt with male characters or NPCs.

Kinda pathetic but I think those attitudes still predominate subconsciously.

That and I guess the whole 'live vicariously' thing where you want to let your player flirt with women.

Course you do have the 'male player playing a lesbian' phenomenon which bridges this gap.

'Course it was hilarious in Darths and Droids when the male player who had been playing Qui-Gonn started roleplaying Padme while the female player who had been playing Shmi Skywalker started playing Anakin.

[Snake Eyes]

In my gaming group in which i'm the gm (4 guys and one girl), two of the guys plays a female character. Plus in the past i've played female characters

[say652]

i play female characters and npc's. i play male characters and npc's. i created a race of alien transvestites(The Ten-G) in which all members of the race look female.

[Tor]

One draw I have seen in playing a woman is when I inevitably make a witch pact, I can be sure that the firstborn I am giving over to my Demon Lord is actually mine, and I can be sure nobody runs off with it before crunch time.

Of course you still have to be careful since hospitals can sometimes mix up your babies.

[SpiritInterface]

I have been playing RPGs for over 30 years, from table top, online, to LARP. I have played with GMs who allowed crossplay and others who didn't. Yes I have played Female characters in all of them (it is really strange when the GMs of your LARP troop think that you are good enough that they want you to play an NPC of the other gender). It can be fun and challenging to figure out how you character would react when you are crossplaying, it means you have to stop and think. It was fun one game watching a couple of young ladies trying to play male characters.

[MurderCityDisciple]

One of my players (he's a he) is playing a female cyborg (she was transformed against her will) and is struggling with the loss of humanity and especially her lost female identity. She has a female looking chassis without skin and hair and thusfar has had her replacement wig and fake skin burned off in combat twice. The she-borg's going to have to come to terms with her new reality, which we are roleplaying to great affect.

The fact that though she seems a waifish female in the misogynistic world of backwoods Rifts makes her a living Q-Ship...which was the original concept. (Her name is Quinn)

[Alrik Vas]

One of my players (he's a he) is playing a female cyborg (she was transformed against her will) and is struggling with the loss of humanity and especially her lost female identity. She has a female looking chassis without skin and hair and thusfar has had her replacement wig and fake skin burned off in combat twice. The she-borg's going to have to come to terms with her new reality, which we are roleplaying to great affect.

The fact that though she seems a waifish female in the misogynistic world of backwoods Rifts makes her a living Q-Ship...which was the original concept. (Her name is Quinn)

That's pretty neat, actually. Does your cyborg player watch a lot of anime?

[MurderCityDisciple]

One of my players (he's a he) is playing a female cyborg (she was transformed against her will) and is struggling with the loss of humanity and especially her lost female identity. She has a female looking chassis without skin and hair and thusfar has had her replacement wig and fake skin burned off in combat twice. The she-borg's going to have to come to terms with her new reality, which we are roleplaying to great affect.

The fact that though she seems a waifish female in the misogynistic world of backwoods Rifts makes her a living Q-Ship...which was the original concept. (Her name is Quinn)

That's pretty neat, actually. Does your cyborg player watch a lot of anime?

I think so, we both were huge fans when anime was still known as Japanimation and you could only get it in bootleg form. He kept up with anime more than I did...most modern stuff doesn't interest me personally. I dug the old Robotech, Urusei Yatsura, Dirty Pair and whatnot.

Quinn is a homage to Alita: Battle Angel .

[Niji]

Recently I started playing a female character in my campaigns and received a mixed reaction and it piqued my curiosity as to other gamers experiences playing a female character and why they chose to pick a female character to play

please feel free to answer any of the following questions

Do you play a female character in your campaigns
Do you think too few people play female characters
Why do you think most gamers avoid playing a female character
What are the reactions you've experienced from other gamers when playing a female character
Which gender character do you prefer to play and why

1: I have on occasion though they've always been a tom boy, girly tom boy, or stereotypical girly girl/valley girl or lipstick lesbian.
2. In my experience typically both men and women play male characters more often(baring a specific type of guy gamer or girl gamer), so most definitely under represented.
3. In the USA and certain countries it seems to be the mind set that there are less options for non-extraterrestrial female characters, from a society or behavioral standpoint? And gamers ALWAYS want the most options possible for their character it seems.
4. OH MAH GAWD this character is badass and no reactions to my RPing of her, its always a reaction to the backstory, and how badass one makes ones characters, I've had much more negative reactions to some of my early male characters as the male gender can be a very stale if played to straight, best to add some sugar and spice to any character to make them unique, weird, and believable despite how unbelievable they are! But still i end up with a lot of stale characters including female ones.
5. I generally like to play asexual eldritch abominations from beyond the veil, with somewhat masculine vibe(so would commonly be referred to as "he" in human english idiom). In general i play all my characters with a heavy does of masculine so I trend predominantely toward "male" and asexual or multisexual(multiple genders, because thats really fun to play and really disturbs the average other player,but is a good experiment socially speaking) characters both in NPC land and PC and imagination land, I very rarely make a full fledged female character, but I always poor a serious amount of effort into them, though tend to always make them aloof and mysterious as, thats how I think the best and most mysterious(and curiosity about their motives and selves inducing amongst readers/players/gms), I keep such a small handful of female characters small as I consider the female gender particuarly special and difficult to understand so its both a they are very special to me and lack of understanding thing.

[Dunia]

Do you play a female character in your campaigns

I have played male characters at times, I do not mind doing that, but I feel more comfortable in playing females (or a female dressing up as a male).

Do you think too few people play female characters

No, everyone should play what they feel most comfortable with playing.

Why do you think most gamers avoid playing a female character

They are unsure how to do it, or they feel vulnerable to what other people might think of them.

What are the reactions you've experienced from other gamers when playing a female character

When I play male characters, i have never gotten a bad comment about me genderswapping. My groups usually like my characters as i invest much time in the lives and personality of them. They might not always like my character - but they love the way i play them.

Which gender character do you prefer to play and why

Female. It is what comes natural to me.

[Snow Hawk]

2 of my all time best PCs were girls one was a Demon hound rider from wormwood and the other was a godling they were a lot of fun to play and I did not have any of the problems that many others have described.
I like to play what ever happens to feel right be it man, woman, plant, or sentient AI.
It is all about what you want to play

[slade the sniper]

Do you play a female character in your campaigns
Do you think too few people play female characters
Why do you think most gamers avoid playing a female character
What are the reactions you've experienced from other gamers when playing a female character
Which gender character do you prefer to play and why

I have female NPCs when I GM. I have had female PC's in the past.

I don't think there is a lack of genderswap PCs in gaming...as long as people play what they are comfortable with, why would forcing them into something uncomfortable be any more enjoyable?

I think most people avoid female PCs due to the fact that the majority of younger gamers (teens, early twenties) are not comfortable with the idea of males pretending to be females in any other way other than it being sexualized.

Well, the reactions I have gotten as a female NPC were...interesting, since my wife was playing a male PC...so yeah...it ended up being juvenile, but when my wife plays female PCs and I have male PC's, it just sort of ends up like that

I generally prefer to play males, since I am a male.

-STS