There's acting and then there's trying to watch the Sixth Sense when someone's spoiled the ending. I'm perfectly happy to know a few secrets to help your character along his path of self-destruction and redemption. But knowing your character has been offered 100k¥ to off mine during a run? Not a chance.

I agree with the cross-gender play issues. They always evolve into some stereo-type. The men and women I game with simply elect to kick the male, lipstick-lesbian wanna-be's to the curb and move on.



I think you are missing the point: It spoils the suspense for the player. Like it or not, conscious actions are affected (even is subconsciously) by knowledge.

I do as well. It totally depends on your group. The biggest problem my group has ever had with crossplaying is getting the pronouns right. When I crossplay, I try to have a miniature in front of me to point to. "She! She! The Empress of Urupa is a she!"

This is an example of why,

1) Never trust the face.
2) Always go with.

Now, a group at our table did manage a two-way scam like that, where the "voucher" was vouching for the authenticity of how much loot we had, which had about 50% more in his and the face's pocket.

I got the point and I understand what's being said. But I choose not to run simulationist RPGs because I don't enjoy playing them. The Surprise!-I-shoot-my-teammate stuff is tired and works better in film than in collaborative story telling. At least in film there are hints and buildup. At a game table it feels like a player is trying to be cute or clever.

As a player, I have no problem with having my character gunned down by a teammate so long as a) I know about it, b) it furthers the story and c) it's done in a way that I find interesting. Knowing about it ahead of time doesn't ruin the fun for me. It gives me time to prep an appropriate dramatic ending to his fictional life.

Opinions on GNS theory aside I'm a narrativist at heart. Simulationist and gamist-purist GMs are welcome to choose their own paths.


True. But a self-aware player will put that in check. It also depends on the temperament of the player and how committed he is to maintaining the shared fiction. A player using OOC knowledge to benefit his PC is no different than a bad GM modifying the actions of the NPCs based upon what characters discuss in order to prolong a game. It's bad form all around.

I disagree, hence my comments about subconscious effects. In either case, not a point worthy of significant debate.

I'm a Narrativist, too. It's more important to me to feel the surprise and confusion than to prep an appropriate dramatic ending - that's the easy part.

I know my first reaction to finding out I'm on a hitlist would not be to try and wrap up the character in any fashion. It would be more... we'll just see what character dies. For the sake of the story? I'm playing to have fun not write a novel or listen to story time; hence playing not listening.

Over the years I've created a bunch of posts and threads about cross gender role playing.

As I have more contact with people over the years I feel more and more like women are actually completely incomprehensible to men, though. I mean, outside of very broad basic needs like food, fire, and an ample supply of ammunition.

Like, go read some fantasy fiction written by a popular female author, and then go read Robert E. Howard or Ashton Clark Smith. You can kind of see the irreconcilable difference in mentalities between genders IMO.

Hmm, maybe it's time for a new thread...

not sure I'd call it an irreconcilable difference; such things are grounds for divorce. The differances you speak of... well as its been said before: Viva la Differance!

You mean vive.

The problem with la difference is that it results in more effeminate but agile and lithe male leads.

For instance, it's obvious to notice that the Magic Bites series is written by a woman. No offense ment by women, but this series (while cool) is really... twisty.

I agree in regard to most action, science-fiction and fantasy genre writers. Female sci-fi authors are not without their tics and tropes but I can't remember the last sci-fi novel I read in which a male author didn't, at least, mention a female character's tits or ass. On the other hand, if I wasn't aware that sci-fi writers like C.J. Cherryh were female going in, I would never know by the writing style.

Since adult sexuality doesn't come into play, authors of books for children seem to be the few who can rise above the stereotypes and unnecessary obsession with gender differences.


Which is no worse than female leads who run their hands over their curves.

I must not read enough Sci-Fi, that or I'm oblivious to the attraction to aforementioned body parts that I didn't notice.
Lets see...science fiction I've read...

Isaac Azimov...Douglas Adams....
Um...

As a side note on the cross gender RP thing. I once had an online based char who was female and based heavily off certain reprsentations of Joan of Arc and that of Paksenarrion Dorthansdottir (from the Elizbeth Moon, deed of Paksenarrion trilogy). Yes this was the game that causes cancer.

At one point, several months into the character's beginning there was an OC discussion about, well i forget. inw hich genders came up and I had a hard time convincing one male and two female players that I was infact a Guy, based entirely upon my char's playstyle.

We have cross gendered characters come up regularly at our table. We have both gendres in players too and ultimately I've yet to see a female play a female more convincingly than a male and vice versa.

There's a female player in my game who's female character is the stereotypical male-playing-a-female-character ever. She's wanting to get a chemical gland in her womanparts that excretes toxins so she can sex things to death.

The sad part is she's kinda like that in real life too...

She sexes things to death in real life?

Sorry to put that madona song here but it passed at the radio while I was reading that post :
My love's a revolver
My Sex is a killer
Do you want to die happy (bis)

Eh, I've known a few girls who wear the sexuality-as-power view point on their sleeve. It's not really that unusual. Granted, I used to be friends with a bunch of rivetheads.

Asimov hit his stride in the '40s and '50s and had few if any strong female protagonists in his works. The only Asimov book I can think of that even pushed the boundaries of social issues was The Naked Sun.

Adams was a dramatist, satirist and a musician. And English. Writers like he and Pratchett mocked the sweaty palmed sci-fi author.

Yes, yes... there are male sci-fi writers out there who do write female protagonists with both hands on the desk. But they're the exceptionally good ones.

I went to art school. That was so common that the "normal" or reserved woman was rare.

Like I said I haven't read enough science fiction. Or the right kind.

One thing IMO is that in a good fantasy setting one thing is that to be interesting the main character should be a hardass with a big body count. Robert E. Howard's Conan stories are literally the most enjoyable to read in the history of mankind. The Odyssey was also pretty good. Just now I imagined Odyesseus and Telemakos back in Ithaca running the walls of their dining hall and massacring the suitors and my legs started shaking with excitement. I still remember Telemakos' first cast where he hits one of the suitors, who is drinking wine, in the mouth and the blood and the wine splash all over. So very Tarantino.

The problem is that when you write a female character doing stuff like that people complain that she's not believable, a male fantasy, etc. If someone had written Kill Bill as a fantasy novel probably all the serious artsy people would claim that The Bride wasn't realistic.

There are some kickass female characters out there. Simon R. Green has trouble not writing chicks who are psycho/scary; David Weber writes lots of strong female characters in his books (especially Honor Harrington, who is basically a female Horatio Hornblower in space); Elizabeth Moon writes military science fiction with female characters who are natural-born-killers (as well as the previously-mentioned Paksenarrion trilogy, which has the archetypal female paladin); there are others.

It is harder to do, I agree. Not because it is less "realistic", but because it is easier to suspend disbelief when it is a musclebound dude chopping heads off. But that difficulty can make the scenes better sometimes - they have to work on it more, so the action is more detailed, more realistic, and more intense.

Good point and probably true. But it's also easier to convey subtle nuances quickly and effectively through film. A straight adaptation probably wouldn't make the best novel but it would make for excellent manga. Like Lady Snowblood.

For a good writer who provides strong male and female characters 9and indeed as they re-incarnate genders switch around) check out Kathryn Kerr.

For some seriously strong male leads check out (if you can find it, probably second hand) Wolves on the Border form the Battletech novel series. Or the Grey Death Trilogy.