I have a friend who doesn’t allow cross-gender roleplaying in the groups he runs. I’m not sure why.
But, here’s an interesting article on the subject: http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/play18aug04.html
I personally have played a few different female characters. In one D&D campaign I used to play Ursula Umbragia–a mother who sold her soul to a demon to save her son, and in another I played a barbarian who I modelled after Bjork and whose name was Mjath. I made up a couple of superheroines that I never actually got to play – a black cop, mother of two, who moonlighted as The Black Lantern, and a pair of shopaholic yuppie teenage twins who were also cyborgs. I’ve never played a female in Call of Cthulhu, but I have known guys who have, and gals who have played male characters. I don’t have much experience outside of those genres/systems, so that’s that. I quite enjoyed playing Umbragia because she was on this tortured quest to find some way to break the deal with Anarazel and get her soul back, as her son had since grown to maturity and abandoned her because of the demonic stigma (ingrate!). The others I didn’t invest much time or energy in, but I think I would have had a lot of fun with, like, the twins, totally.
i had a highscool drama teacher who never let any of us do cross gender roles,
(and was gay….the teacher)
so me and my friend were always searching for scripts with cross dressing invovled,
we found only one it was a scene with two cops getting ready for a sting of sorts
and i was a cop dressed in drag posing as a hooker….
or maybe we were trying to catch a purse snatcher ?
i digress
apparently i flashed the whole class my balls
while sitting down with my legs wide open
thats all.
The whole concept of being intolerant toward someone playing a cross-gender character is so ridiculously backward that I can’t believe it’s even an issue.
Then again, there is quite a lot of sexism (and just general ignorance about women) in the gaming community, so I guess it doesn’t totally surprise me.
The whole thing about it is that people can roleplay all kinds of characters badly. If someone is roleplaying a cross-gendered character poorly, it could be that they’re just bad at roleplaying. I mean, you never play yourself when you’re roleplaying anyway. You’re playing someone else. I just don’t get what the big deal is.
I agree with marlo. It’s intolerant. It’s also creepy that it bothers them so much that they actually have a rule they enforce.
The only pen-and-paper character I’ve played female was Ronin, a cyber-samurai type superheroine from the future. She was inspired by Neuromancer’s razorgirl, though evolved well beyond that when I finally created her.
In City of Heroes though, I have several female characters, mostly because if I’m going to be staring at an ass running in front of me every time I play, it might as well be one I find attractive. đ
Its bothered me on MUDs. I doubt it would bother me in real life though. As long as I actually know the person it isn’t a big deal.
i thought the point was role playing not simiar-to-self playing. i don’t see what the big deal is. who could we possibly find to play the androgenous cyborgs?
Firlstly, I am visiting from LJ. we seem to know some of the same people!
Secondly, and more on-topically, I agree completely that Role-players should be free to play whatever gender they want. If the want to play a male character, and are female, that’s fine. If they want to play a female character, and are male, that’s fine. It’s even cool (possible even more so) if they want to play a small furry creature from alpha centari, regardless of actual gender.
From a player’s point of view, I tend to accidentally say “he” or “she” as relates to the PLAYER’S gender, rather than the character’s, but I am getting better about it. From a GM’s point of view, It shouldn’t matter one bit, as long as you can remember that the character is the right gender… IF something affects only the females, then having it not affect the guy-playing-a-female is just wrong.
If that made any sense, YAY! If not, I agree with what everyone else said. đ
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Aaron C
Canada Junkie