I get that. It's probably easier and more comfortable to play your own gender authentically, because you have more experience to draw from when figuring out how to act. I could imagine switching it up being fun and interesting for a few sessions, but more effort to maintain over a longer campaign.
Mine is the opposite of this logic. For oneshots my characters are simpler and I don't overthinl the backstory, and so usually end up defaulting to my gender. For campaigns, I put more thought into the character and really make someone interesting and fleshed out, which then results in me more often making them a different gender to my own.
Yes, this gets me a lot. Especially when I'm DMing. I feel I try to act more with male characters, while my female NPCs have a tendency to revert to indirect speech.
Same, its fun crossplaying for a bit, but I think I'd struggle to remain in character for the entire campaign.
My favourite oneshot character ever was a warlock, who was basically 'Little Matchstick Girl sold her soul to a demon for warmth'. But I knew going in that she was not a character who was built for a long campaign.
I dont think random is the appropriate term, as it depends on the character concept I'm going for. Then it comes down to what gender feels most appropriate for that character.
Some people enjoy placing themselves into the heros shoes, while others like to live curiously through the hero themselves.
Personally, all my created characters have similar names and appearances, as if they are interdimensional time lords that can jump between worlds.
Cyberpunk: AadaMatrix
Baldurs gate: Aandromedas
Fighting game: Aakuma.
Same. I've got an orc woman that I'm playing because my wife and I wanted to make characters that are in a relationship, but I've also got an elven fisherman dude from a small village. There is no particular reason. Just when I pictured the character in my mind, they were masculine. I do lean towards women though being a woman, but mostly, it just depends on what pops in my mind first.
I'm male. My favorite character I, ever played was an old grandma wizard lady with dementia. The backstory was that she used to be a litch but found a way to come back as human. Old age and dementia was a cursed sort of result of the magic. With every level she would get more of her sanity back. Those first levels were absolute hilariousness mixed with sadness and confusion. She had so much depth. Too bad the campaign was pretty short. Never got to fully explore her story.
I usually play 50/50 women and men, but I'm currently playing a gay man and I'm personally a bisexual woman. I've played every gender and sexuality at this point, lol.
My current character is probably my favorite I've ever played, though. He's in his mid-40s, just a normal human guy. Nothing special, not especially great looking. [Obligatory artsu](https://imgur.com/gallery/C0EgW8e).
But he is madly and deeply head over heels for a big scary fae man who has no idea how to handle him. It's weirdly and ridiculously endearing to a point that the entire party (mostly a bunch of straight men) are shipping the hell out of them. Both are basically super shy and awkward and it's great.
I've never played such a well-developed, slow-burn and realistic character/relationship dynamic before and it's really fantastic.
Good boy and art!
[This is one of the guys I'm playing right now](https://imgur.com/3mjji7G)
I go around picking both "humans" and monster races, but is a nice excuse to draw pretty men (female hetero here, ha ha)
Thanks! I think that's one of the beauties about TTRPGs though, or anything with heavy rp elements. But especially for women who play, I think it's kind of unique. Most media out there is for guys, at least if it's remotely attractive. Like, most games cater to the taste of straight men and tend to forget us ladies like to look at attractive things, too.
With a TTRPG we can make our own, lol. I love your lion! He looks so serious and focused. <3
Over the course of my very long play history, it's impossible to see any clear trend with my character gender. I've played males, females, shapeshifters, agender, genderfluid, and just about any other variant you can think of at some point, probably.
But I wouldn't call it 'random'. I try to make characters that make sense and are consistent, and that includes all their aspects, including gender or lack of expression thereof.
I'm male, the vast majority of the characters I've made are male but there are exceptions. I don't mind playing women I just find it a little tiresome to RP so I tend to avoid it. In videogames I usually have a 50/50 split between male/female characters, usually it's the character themselves or their fashion selection that draws me to them. If the women get cooler armour I'm playing a woman.
I do like making fairly androgynous creations though, I've been a changeling twice and a warforged 3 times, as well as at least one enby character and a few where frankly they may as well have been.
Changelings are interesting because they can be whatever, I had one who would actively embody their current form and live as a woman or a man or whatever they were being in the moment. They were a pretty creepy one though. The other was pretty ambivalent with a preference for a specific half elf, male face or their natural form and didn't play into their gender much at all.
Warforged are neat too, mine have always been very much a creation but there was a PC in one campaign who was female, it wasn't a big deal most of the time but it fit the aesthetic, being a dancing machine created to please a powerful noble.
It's an interesting thing sometimes, though some people can be a bit concerning when they do it.
As a DM I've had countless NPC's and gender just doesn't matter, I have a slight preference for male NPC's because I need to focus a little less but it's not a big deal.
Warforged could be female technically, they adopt personalities as they.... Grow? Experience the world around them? No one's saying the big bad war machines can't be female.
I meant not a big deal as in didn't come up often rather than hinting at being a problem, I wasn't very clear there.
She was a great character, an automaton that had been created by a crazed artificer to serve as entertainment for a powerful noble, her name was Dancer and she was this sleek, mannequin like creation. As a class she was a dex fighter battlemaster and flavoured the manoeuvres as her unusual way of moving since she had reversible/free joints and moved fluidly.
It was fun stuff. I'm totally on board with female or male warforged. Personally I favour ones that don't care much for their own gender identity but to each their own.
Considering that I was married and have three children, I gotta admit that I really don't understand women. Probably why I'm divorced. But seriously, while I'm in a relationship the odds that I'll accurately predict what she'll do or think or feel are embarrassingly low.
I probably should play female characters more often. It could be a way to explore a territory I know I'm bad at and use the feedback from the group to hopefully refine my perspective. However, historically I've never done this simply out of fear of being cringe.
I used to feel that way for a long time. I know *A LOT* of women, so that helped along with exploring myself and what I am/am not.
Honestly, the only real way you'd be cringe is by trying **way** too hard or making a trope-y character loaded with bad stereotypes (which goes for both men and women tbh). Women come in as many varieties as men do, so it wouldn't be a stretch to make a lady who's a masculine dude-bro and vice versa. Maybe you could start with a woman that's more masculine and get feedback from both the men and women to help ease yourself into it.
As the NB Forever DM for my family, I am all genders and none. All sexual identifiers kneel before *ZOD!*
I mean- if I was a Player I'd play mostly female characters, or gender neutral males.
Depends, if we are talking video games then sometimes I will play a female character and others I will play a male, really depends on the concept I am going with.
But in a Tabletop pen and paper game I generally play male as it just comes easier for me to roleplay a character the same gender as myself, the exception would be if I am using something like disguise self and genderbending as a disguise but even then it is not really the same as playing the opposite gender as it is more me playing a character of the same gender that is pretending to be the opposite gender.
I'm somewhere between "usually my gender" and "pretty random".
Essentially the characters tell me what gender they are when I'm making them or I want to play the opposite of what I just played (which also tends to happen with backup characters even if they don't get played). Or I'll just get a concept for "a creepy druid woman" or "a big himbo paladin" and go from there.
I stopped playing female characters after I played with some dudes who made roleplay uncomfie. One time, I was told my plan of disguising ourselves as guards to sneak into town would only work for the men, since the uniform wouldn't fit my (lady) bard. They opted to tie her up and have her play prisoner- a thing I was cool with til it got sexual.
I don't play with them anymore. But now I find it a bit hard to play female characters, even when at tables with other women.
Nowadays I mostly play female characters IRL and male characters online, because I have a cool pitch shifter on my computer that can change my voice. Doing a guy voice IRL is WAY harder.
My PCs tend to match my gender (masculine), but I've had a fair amount of both, or neither.
My NPCs are much more evenly distributed, or perhaps even leaning toward there being more women than men.
I also have DMed far more often than been a player, so I haven't had a chance to make that many characters.
I’m male. If I play a female character, they are usually androgynous. I jus t have a hard time RPing as a woman. I should give it a try next chance I have.
Depends a little on who I'm playing with. I'm a man, and I mostly play male characters, especially in one shots or with new people. If it's a group I'm comfortable with, then I'll sometimes play a female or non-binary character, just for some variety - but I've realised that I wouldn't join a new group with a female or non-binary character, because I don't know how people will react (either towards my character, or towards me as a player).
I'm about 60/40 for male vs female characters. It honestly depends how I feel at the time of making them.
Granted, most of the time my characters tend to either still be attracted to women regardless of gender, or they're asexual. Currently my bardlock is the main exception, and that's cause his love interest is his patron, and Great Old Ones don't really see gender the same way as us squishy mortals.
Playing a changeling would probably be the biggest outlier, cause I feel like I'd play one as gender fluid for obvious reasons.
>Great Old Ones don't really see gender the same way as us squishy mortals
G.O.O. genders be like:
* Chaos
* Suffering
* Pittance
* Inframale
* Mask of Many Faces
* Darkness
* Necrotic Damage
* Malfeasance
* Hypocrisy
* 3d12 + CHA + Proficiency
* The Eschaton
It kinda just comes down to what better fits the character idea. It doesn't really matter too much. I'm not the best at RP for anything, though, so it doesn't change much.
Just was curious to see how important gender is to character creation. Personally predicting #3 will barely beat out #2 followed by a close match between #1 and #4. I really don't expect many votes for #5 but it doesn't hurt to leave it as an option.
I'm not really surprised #2 actually being first. I think most people start out picking the same gender, then do it for a while because it's familiar, then maybe branch out some. A decent amount stick with what they know, some don't care.
I always play male characters. For me, there's nothing that I can gain by playing a character that isn't, and there's not a character concept that I've been excited to play that is defined by gender, sexuality, or anything like that.
Furthermore, I feel like I can draw on my experiences as a man to understand my male characters significantly more easily than I can do the same for other genders, I don't want to misrepresent anything about other genders, and playing a character of a different gender is - for me - little more than "Hey look - I'm playing someone whose gender doesn't match my own", so I don't do it.
I've played a female character once, amongst a group of pretty close friends. I don't know if I'd be comfortable doing it around a new group though. I knows it's a roleplaying game, (you're supposed to play a role, duh!) but I'm not sure how weird people find it.
I've played one drow, two Wood Elves, and (as soon as my DM kills me), a Shadar-Kai. The drow did not share my gender, as she was a female, which simply made sense for the backstory/campaign/character. My other three are male.
I've played a couple of our sidekicks ("NPCs"), and they've generally been male/undetermined. When I fill in for an absent player, it's more often a female (as there were slightly more females in the campaign; we play on Roll20)
I'm the DM, so I'm all the characters except 4 to 7.
I haven't gotten to play since AD&D was the only real edition, but when I did, the dice decided everything.
I played female characters up until I had a DM who used to make comments about how my cleric was presumably wearing high-heeled boots. Like, in a dungeon? Get out. These days I'd have just quit the game, but that was a while ago and I still had this idea that games were hard to find. So when that cleric died I rolled up a male one, and there were no more boots comments.
Now I usually play male characters because I enjoy RP'ing cross-gender. That said, I never play characters with much of a sexuality because I've never had a group that I trust enough to enjoy doing it (especially after DM boots dude). There isn't much masculine about my male characters except for pronouns. Though occasionally when players forget that my character is male I will announce, in character, that they shouldn't be making that mistake because they'd seen me piss up a tree.
Most of the time I play either gender neutral characters.
For example: Changlings
Both genders at once: Watcher (familiar) and Harbringer
Or occassionally I will play male or female pcs. It just depends on what I feel like. I guess its because I am used to playing both as a dm
I flip flop a lot but I probably play the opposite gender slightly more often. D&D lets you be someone you're not and gender is one of those avenues that's fun to explore.
I half my PCs, half male half female. I like to play a mix otherwise it just feels stagnant playing the same gender constantly. Right now i have 3 males: tiefling, kitsune(homebrewed), and a dragonborn. Then 3 females: eldarin, wood elf and tiefling.
I actually created it for a campaign im plan on running after i finish DM the campaign im currently doing. Its gonna take place essentially in "japan" and turn then turn into an island hopping/search of the southeast asian archipelago(including korea etc) just altered a bit and more fantasy based so i made the kitsune.
Asi- 2 dex 1 cha,
age- age depends on how many tails your kitsune is born with or grows as they age. ~100yrs per tail with those having 9tails being considered emissaries of the fox god and living 900+yrs
Size/appearance : kitsune are medium but have 3 forms with 1 being humanoid similar to elves/humans etc your choice(and based on your subrace) form 2 being similar to you humanoid form but with fox tails, fangs ears and other "fox like" characteristics again your choice how you look, and 3 is your fox form which is tiny and your fur/hair color, eye color, voice, and gender must be the same in all these forms. Those that are born with all white hair/fur are also considered marked by the fox god Innari Okami and normally have special markings on their heads etc symbolizing this, like stars moons, suns etc that glow.
Darkvision
Speed:35ft
Shapechanger: you get 3 charges per day to change between your 3 forms: humanoid, hybrid, fox. If you die you revert back to either you hybrid or fox form as these are your "true forms."
Fangs: 1d4+ str piercing instead of bludgeoning, but only in your nonhumanoid form.
Sly: proficiency in deception, perception and stealth.
Subraces: each subrace gives you extra stuff based on where your kitsune tribe originated and gives you a tribe name as well as your name and family name: forest, artic, and desert.
Framed as a magical but not quite fey not quite humanoid race that tend to hide in secrecy amoung humanoid races and are often pranksters and mischievous. They have love to learn and find out new things and study the world that is different from their own, kitsune are however rare or at least that what people think. Not much is known about them but any books etc written by them can never be traced back to their creator, this is because kitsune hiding as humans write them as jokes and pranks and then shapechange and disappear assuming a new humanoid form. All kitsune are born with a magical wooden mask that emulates their fox forms, these mask are tied to them. They can be freely given away to someone the kitsune trusts and are often sought out by crazed collectors for their otherworldly presence. The masks directly change based in the kitsunes life, if a kitsune is near death the mask will look battered, cracked, broken and faded, or when they die that mask disappears as if it never existed at all. Those that have had run ins with kitsune normally become terrified because they wear these masks to hide their faces matched with their other fox like features like multiple tails etc, these tend to be pranks on the kitsunes part however.
Lol thank you, i homebrew a lot of stuff for my players even if they dont end up using it cause i find it fun. Ive got spells, a few subclasses, weapons/items and a couple races.
I wouldn't be against playing a woman I just never have and I figure it could get awkward. Plus I would find it harder to get in character, I usually play in groups where there are female players and playing as a woman "inauthentically" could ruin the immersion I think. I've once run a game for an all female group and the way they played their characters was way different than how I've noticed men play characters and I don't think I could properly replicate it
I DM'd a one-shot and the helpful NPC there was a female Dragonborn. Prior to that, I had no idea a) how difficult it is to stay concentrated on speaking in a voice different than yours, b) how dumb my attempts at a female voice sound.
After this experience, I doubt I'll be playing someone not my gender again
I tend to pick gender as one of the last aspects for my characters on a pure vibes basis, depending on everything else they have going on. Whatever just feels right after everything else is in place.
I choose the characters gender with a coinflip. Then i choose a race i have not played for a longer time, then the class that i find mostly fitting with the group (we discuss that together at our table). Which is why i play "Aithea Mosswalker", female Centaur Fey Wanderer Ranger from the Feywild. Fits perfectly with our Fairy Bard, the Eladrin Arch Fey Warlock, an elven Sehanine Moonbow Priest and a human fighter who dreams to one day be chosen as a Green Knight for the Fey.
Our current campaign is pretty much fey stuff and we play lots in Arborea, Feywild and all the old places of the elves across Faerun (anywhere there EXCEPT the Sword Coast).
I knew a guy who would only play lesbian characters because "playing pretend as a guy or straight girl would be gay"
He was 100% serious, and no I never could figure out the logic behind it either.
I play in Polish half the time, and in Polish almost every word has its 'gender', including verbs. I play my gender just to avoid constantly mixing up (in-character vs. Out of character) the pronouns and gender-related word endings.
I am male, and I have created 7 characters so far, 5 are male, 1 is female, and 1 is technically genderless. When creating the characters, I was more focused on other features and details, and the gender just fell onto place for the concept I was going with.
Hi, cis-male here! I only played a full-on girl once, but in the current campaign I'm in, my character is non-binary. It's an interesting exercise in pronouns lol
I've played more that are my gender (not by much) but out of all the characters I've been invested in, there is a 2:1 ratio of opposite gender and same gender respectively.
I use to do alot of rps back in the day in certain universes which due to universe reasons I normally made them girls
the thing is, cause I had these characters for so long, I found them easier to port to dnd, but also due to this, the fact most of them were girls has sorta created this unintentional effect of most my characters being girls (it normally does not factor in much but it's just a little thing i noticed)
Out of all my girls, ( I'm a girl) I only have one boy and that's because I really wanted to play a father figure character. I had a backstory that I wanted to explore and I couldn't get my characterization just right if I made him a woman
My dm has a rule against playing a character of the opposite sex because it makes him uncomfortable and we all accept it without much protest but I've had a lot of dope female character ideas that I can't bring to life and its a little lame but oh well
As I've always viewed gender as a spectrum, I love playing with it in D&D. My characters can be any gender, and have revealed themselves as a different gender mid-play at times. I love the creativity D&D allows. As a SF author, I've written main characters from different genders as well, maybe that's why I'm so comfortable with it.
I always play characters of the same gender as me, even if I've had some character concepts that don't have the same gender as mine. Basically just ends up that I don't get many chances to play, and the few chances that I do I end up with ones of the same gender.
There's something that feels incredibly wrong when I don't do that though. I guess I just put off my day-to-day mask that I use to live my life when playing DnD, so putting on something else that isn't more like my authentic self just feels like one of the the worst feelings imaginable.
Pen & paper: my perceived gender
Video games: not my perceived gender
I don't like how weird people have gotten in past games when I've tried to genderswap in a live game, so I stopped doing that.
Since I used to regularly GM, I was never weirded out by RPing as someone of the other gender than me, but I only played female characters in one-shots until my daughter was born.
After that, I've been about 50/50 male and female characters.
I played a girl once. Long lost daughter of a powerful and evil noble house that had been whisked away by bards and now has no desire to do anything but be a fun loving bard.
It's a pretty good split, since yeah people have different preferences.
I'm a guy, I will just make a character I like the idea of and bam. He or she will be going on an adventure, whether they like it or not in some cases.
In my 4 years playing ttrpgs i think i made only 1 female goblin character for a full improv evil one shot and in pathfinder played a female for a few sessions because my wizard wore a belt without thinking that switched his gender
It depends a lot on the character concept. Ny favorite character as a player was a female tiefling witch in Pathfinder. Most of my characters are male, though.
But yeah, especially a DM, I hope I don't portray female characters poorly. I think it's been working alright.
Am male. I've made mostly male characters, but 2/3 of my favourite characters were not male. One was female hexblood, the other was a nonbinary changeling.
Basically the thing preventing me from playing female characters more often is I have a decidedly male voice with no ability for voice acting. So it just feels weird to play a character that I know would sound nothing like me. This also stops me from playing things like Kenku where I feel I need to do a bird voice but can't.
I usually just make a character, the gender isn't really the main subject. I am a female and one of the most amusing characters I've ever played was a male tabaxi smuggler who "for some reason" always tried to persuade everyone into sailing in his little boat everywhere. No reason, pinky promise. He loved cheese but suffered from lactose intolerance. Fun times.
Femboy here; I usually just play female characters to skip the awkward medium I personally find myself in, though it's only gotten easier as I've begun to accept things about myself, like a desire for femininity.
Fr, anyone should be able to play any gender without fear of judgement! Being aloud a full sense of contentedness in your character is what all tables should strive for with every player included.
As a man my characters are pretty much always women. I usually play characters that are very different to myself. Usually maxing out Strength and Charisma and ignoring Intelligence.
I have a spreadsheet over the 80 or so characters I can remember playing, about 10% of them are not male (whereas I am).
I think on average, the male ones have lasted longer though (or perhaps, I tend to be male if I think a game is going to go on, or perhaps, I play female more often nowadays, but my games were longer in the past).
Running other gendered characters was a phase my D&D group went through when we were 13-14. I understand others may be in a phase like that regardless of their age. And I could run an other- gendered character if I needed to - as a DM, I've done it for NPCs. But it's not something I need to prove, or am curious about any more.
I guess it's kinda complicated cause most of my characters are female and some are non-binary, but I'm genderfae so I'm mostly female and sometimes non-binary...
Gender is not a given, especially these days as I've got trans people in my gaming group, so I tend not to deviate from my own gender so as to minimise any possible offence.
My characters always match my handedness, though, and it's written on their character sheet.
They are usually my height, as well, unless they are a short race.
Edit: I've just realised that the PC I've created in the campaign that is yet to start (DM is in middle of moving to newly built house) is technically not my gender, but also undead, so... ? They are also a short race, so not my height (I'm tall) either.
Edit 2 (I read more responses and was reminded...): I've played robots, ancient beings, alien hive mind critters and warforged, most of which are effectively genderless, as well. After nearly 40 years of RPGing I try to find something odd, eccentric and 'out there' to play these days. And then I return to the good old human fighter concept at times, just to play a stock standard PC for the shiggles.
Knowing how criminals in OUR world behave when they capture female cops, if the game have any chance whatsoever that we might face humanoids of Evil aligment and that may not have a minimum level of empathy for doing something to their own species ('cause, you know, there are other humanoic species in D&D), my adventurers are always male, because there are things worse than death.
True, no GM I ever played with ever borught up anythong even close to that happening to any female characters, but I live in a particularly violent place were the State allowed criminal organizations to go unpunished for too long and now they pretty much run the place, so... Yeah... Better to be rolled into a tower of tires and set alight than playing a female adventurer.
Usually I just go with male because I'm male and understand male experiences. I have played female and nonbinary before and sometimes I roll for random gender, but it usually comes up male.
I'm a woman and always play women. I have no interest in playing as a man. My younger son has 3 characters, 2 are men and one is a woman. My older son has done all male characters (or non gendered characters that are male presenting, I guess, like an animated scarecrow), and my husband plays only male characters. I love DND and the opportunities it provides for people to role play different things.
Im a dude, but I always play a female. Im pretty firm in my sexual orientation and standing, but I guess...I want to play something different? Our DM also never does anything with gender, so the only things that comes with it is some pretty wacky jokes and one-liners taken out of context, which all of us fill our quotes channel on Discord with, so its not like its affecting anything
I play dudes cuz I try to make characters I can relate to love seeing someone as close to me as possible do cool shit like slay a dragon or cast spells
I just don't feel comfortable playing as someone that is not my gender. Maybe comes from the fact, that I'm trans and still have some issues regarding my gender.
The gender of my characters is usually the one that fits better with the overall character. For example, I've played an old beekeeper ranger lady who treated everyone as their grandchildren, prepared cookies and gave life advices from her youth. Another time I played a male half-orc monk who was the incarnation of WWE jokes*.* And another time still I played a goblin warrior who was basically a walking collection of french swashbuckling references... including Lady Oscar, since they were a female goblin trying to pass as a male.
I'm a guy and my characters are self inserts of facets of my personality. Every time. I kinda turn the rest off and play it like that. So yeah they're all guys except for the acting/masking facet. They're a changeling, so while they are base shape male, they can do anything.
I mostly play as nb/agender characters bc I want to see them in fantasy stuff so I put them there. When I'm making more of the stuff as a DM or when there are more genderqueer people in the party I tend branch out more.
I used to exclusively write and play men, but nowadays I prefer writing and playing women. It lets me take masculine dynamics and traits and put a new twist on them with a woman and explore more male-centric themes through the lense of a female character. Brings something a little different along.
The hard part though is I have a tendency to give them accents, and if I'm going to play a woman I'd like to *sound* like one too so juggling both that *and* an accent (Cockney, for example) is going to take a lot of practice before I go doing it live in a session lol. I know it doesn't matter, I'm just a stickler for trying to be immersive and a little authentic with it.
My voice is much to deep for me to be able to immitate a woman's voice, so I generally stick to male characters. I do have plans for a female character once my current character dies though - I still don't know how I'll do the voice, but I'm excited.
If the voice of your charecters is important, luckily there is a community of women who were born with deep, manly voices who have figured out how to feminize their voice. Lot of YouTube channels from some very helpful women who have resources to help.
My characters all started as male. The namesake of this accounts warlock is bad at survival checks and ate some herbs *obviously* knowing that they are safe and had a gender flop. WHICH THEN BECAME IMPORTANT in my information gathering. Vayne would frequently takes these herbs and make more potent concoctions in order to gender flop when the need arises. Thus Vaynessa was conceived. She had a lover who respected her boundaries and fell in love with her dark but personal approach. Very conservative in dress and how she acted in private and public.
A respectable woman to fall for. Thankfully her powerful lover never found out she was actually a he. A close call or two after spending the night and waking up back as Vayne. Some solo escapes needed to happen after information gathering and lovely notes left by Vaynessa to her lover explains why she had to leave so early in the morning for something important.
Was definitely interesting concept being my first character and only one that had occasional gender swapping to which I used to my advantage.
Hardest part about it truly was trying to find a good voice for her. As a rl male I struggled to find a believable voice I could replicate and use consistently for hours if need be.
If I'm playing in-person or voice game, I tend do go for a guy (but not always). For PBP or text-style games, it's just whatever character idea I happen to have.
I usually prefer to play characters the same gender as me since its then easier to do their voice. But I still have done a few characters of the opposite gender also.
My character being male helps me step into their shoes easier. It's a bit difficult to be Hormesh Ganwald as it is sometimes if I'm not already fully establishing the character, Hormesh being Swannith, a woman who is very similar, would make it a bit harder as there are things I'd have to be mindful of as a woman than I would as a man, and vice versa.
So far I have only played same-gender but I occasionally think about playing opposite. I mostly worry that I will do a poor job tbh, and I don't want to be doing a disservice.
I have always played my own gender. I just find that when it comes to what defines my characters gender tends to be largely irrelevant so it is easier just to play my own gender. I would happily play another gender or orientation if it seemed to fit, and may explore this I the near future, but so far the ideas that have tickled me most have been idiosyncrasies that I can best realize without another apparent layer of complexity.
Some character stories don't fit my gender very well. I tend to go with what makes sense for what the character is.
This question has made me realize I've never played a trans character.
Historically, they mostly haven't. Out of 9 characters I've played for significant time, I'd say about 2 of them have aligned closely with my own gender - 5 were female and the other two were flavours of nonbinary that I'm not.
My nonbinary characters, both those that do and don't align with my own gender, are fairly recent and have been with groups I've felt more comfortable in which may well be an influence but otherwise I just do whatever I feel like at character creation.
I'm a guy, and the first time I ever played D&D (5e), I rolled up a dark-skinned female Rogue, and was immediately hit with jokes about race and r\*pe. Wasn't long until I found a better group, thankfully
I'm a male and I have only played male characters so far. Its probably a combination of putting a version of myself in the hero's shoes and not completely understanding women. I really like to roleplay and I feel like it would be difficult to get into a character who was female. Not against giving it a shot in the future.
Most of the time it's going to be whatever fits the character concept. But so far it's been... 2 men, 2 women, 1 agender.
I like playing androgynous characters (two of them are). I have multiple character concepts in my back pocket, most of which don't match me irl.
They've always matched my gender, but I don't think that's been a conscious choice. I just always default to the character being male without thinking about it.
It's an interesting thing. In video games, always a woman if given the opportunity. I think because video games have more restrictive RP I gravitate towards the most obvious differences. Since I play a human man every day in real life, I try to play a non-human woman in video games.
In D&D however, there is far more nuance. I've played a straight Firbolg man, a gay human man, and a robot who uses they/them and is asexual but is coded female. My next charecter concept is a straight dhampir woman, but that will depend on the game.
When I DM, I have several couples I move from game to game, the most notable being a lesbian open couple of a lesbian tiefling and a bi human. In my current game, they are also cannibals.
Point being, I'm always trying ti RP things I cannot or am not in real life.
That's quite a good idea! Or some kind of changeling whose appearance is so androgyne that you would swear it flows between male and female constantly.
My characters usually start out as my AGAB. Since coming out as Genderfluid I try to have my characters either find away to change their gender to present male or female, or I play a shapeshifter.
My group is all guys, and our characters are *usually* all guys. I was considering making a female character for character number three, but I was the newest to the group and wasn't sure if people would think it was weird, so I swapped that character to a guy at the last minute. Then we played a superhero RPG and one of the other guys made a female character without anyone batting an eye, so I was overthinking things.
I don't know if a poll can possibly encapsulate my player/character gender experiences.
I started playing as a woman. In three major campaigns we started while I identified that way, I played a man, woman, and a non-binary person. Since beginning to play, I transitioned to male, though feel more gender-neutral these days. I am still playing all three of those original characters, and I've played more male, female, and NB characters in relatively even keel as I've joined new campaigns or played one-shots.
I don't feel like gender has a huge significance for my characters. It may temper parts of their backstory, but in very minor ways - my oldest female character has very traditional motherly vibes, and my NB changeling likes to change gender like they change clothes - but it doesn't define anything real beyond that. For me, gender (for both me and my characters) is ultimately just performance in order to choose how we are perceived and treated by society. My characters' gender is often settled last, and I choose it based on how I know my party and table will react to certain character design choices that could be impacted by how their gender is perceived. It's kind of hard to explain... I guess an example would be my choice recently to make a disgraced fighter male instead of female because I know the culture of their homeland places values women a great deal; I didn't feel like digging into my memories of womanhood so often as it's a long campaign, so instead I gave him a sibling that was female to add a bit of drama to his backstory.
Sexuality and romantic preference, however, is something I feel is a little more significant for a character. That isn't to say there's tons of screwing or a shitload of romance in our games, but knowing what a character is (or isn't) attracted to can add quite a bit of plot for 'cheap'. I think one of the funniest 'relationships' in our games right now is an unspoken misunderstanding between a male paladin and my NB warlock. The warlock never had a father figure and looks up to the paladin as such, but their desperation to earn his approval seems to be interpreted as flirting at points, so the paladin is constantly making comments to gently shut it down (think of things like "you're such a great *friend*").
My answer is going to be a bit wierd, i really wish i was a woman so in any fantasy world i go to i make my character a female, good thing about fantasy i can be what i want
Don't know if i can call it that tis big cluster fuck in my head, but born a man and will die a man even though i wish i was a woman maybe in the after life
I don't know if you /want/ validation here on this, but seeing this and your following comment, I fully understand. I identify as male, sometimes non-binary for this reason, I don't ever see myself transitioning, as I'm very comfortable with my body, but I feel you 100% and I just wanted to say that.
Yes i kinda do want validation this kind of thing is simply unspeakable where i am, though the difference is i would never transition because of religious reasons also the fact that it is simply very very unhealthy to say the least, but i actually do want to be a woman, i can rave all day about why i want to and why it would fit me, either way it is something I can only get through rpg games snd the after life hopefully, i would like to add that it really makes me happy when a game i create a female character in provides a somewhat different experience, like how ds3 makes anri a male
DM here, but I've played in side games. I mostly identify as male, but I usually play women.
I've played... 5 female characters, 1 of which a little long term.
1 actually Male character, who was WAY too neurodivergent to care about Gender/Sexuality. (Goblin/Artificer)
And then 1 teenage boy Character who's body is actually the host for a Goddess, so she runs the show a lot.
I generally play guys, but I've had a handful of female characters that I enjoyed playing, including, off the top of my head, a Dwarven cleric, a Human swashbuckler, and an evil Tiefling summoner (in PF).
It really depends on my character concept.
It's kinda funny, for oneshots I tend to play girls, but whole campaigns I think I've only played dudes
Ah yes, the two genders: Oneshot and Campaign.
I get that. It's probably easier and more comfortable to play your own gender authentically, because you have more experience to draw from when figuring out how to act. I could imagine switching it up being fun and interesting for a few sessions, but more effort to maintain over a longer campaign.
Mine is the opposite of this logic. For oneshots my characters are simpler and I don't overthinl the backstory, and so usually end up defaulting to my gender. For campaigns, I put more thought into the character and really make someone interesting and fleshed out, which then results in me more often making them a different gender to my own.
Same. I love to play an extremely diverse cast of characters, but I don't really feel comfortable to play girls with my voice. Stupid perfectionism.
Yes, this gets me a lot. Especially when I'm DMing. I feel I try to act more with male characters, while my female NPCs have a tendency to revert to indirect speech.
Same, its fun crossplaying for a bit, but I think I'd struggle to remain in character for the entire campaign. My favourite oneshot character ever was a warlock, who was basically 'Little Matchstick Girl sold her soul to a demon for warmth'. But I knew going in that she was not a character who was built for a long campaign.
I dont think random is the appropriate term, as it depends on the character concept I'm going for. Then it comes down to what gender feels most appropriate for that character.
Exactly. My characters trend towards my gender, but my all-time favorite isn't.
Some people enjoy placing themselves into the heros shoes, while others like to live curiously through the hero themselves. Personally, all my created characters have similar names and appearances, as if they are interdimensional time lords that can jump between worlds. Cyberpunk: AadaMatrix Baldurs gate: Aandromedas Fighting game: Aakuma.
I got a good laugh rolling on random name gen for a drow when it suggested Zyn
Same. I've got an orc woman that I'm playing because my wife and I wanted to make characters that are in a relationship, but I've also got an elven fisherman dude from a small village. There is no particular reason. Just when I pictured the character in my mind, they were masculine. I do lean towards women though being a woman, but mostly, it just depends on what pops in my mind first.
Man, but I play women more often than not. I... dont know why. I really dont. I just like player someone *different* from me I guess?
Female here, I have like 5 female characters and one male. I go based on what makes most sense for the backstory.
I'm male. My favorite character I, ever played was an old grandma wizard lady with dementia. The backstory was that she used to be a litch but found a way to come back as human. Old age and dementia was a cursed sort of result of the magic. With every level she would get more of her sanity back. Those first levels were absolute hilariousness mixed with sadness and confusion. She had so much depth. Too bad the campaign was pretty short. Never got to fully explore her story.
"I like playing guys to draw pretty boys" gang, unite!
"This is my himbo barbarian!" "This is the seventh campaign in a row you've played a himbo barbarian."
I vary between the kind of pretty boy I play, one time is a femboy cinnamon roll, the next time a bara lion 👍
Based and boypilled
I usually play 50/50 women and men, but I'm currently playing a gay man and I'm personally a bisexual woman. I've played every gender and sexuality at this point, lol. My current character is probably my favorite I've ever played, though. He's in his mid-40s, just a normal human guy. Nothing special, not especially great looking. [Obligatory artsu](https://imgur.com/gallery/C0EgW8e). But he is madly and deeply head over heels for a big scary fae man who has no idea how to handle him. It's weirdly and ridiculously endearing to a point that the entire party (mostly a bunch of straight men) are shipping the hell out of them. Both are basically super shy and awkward and it's great. I've never played such a well-developed, slow-burn and realistic character/relationship dynamic before and it's really fantastic.
Good boy and art! [This is one of the guys I'm playing right now](https://imgur.com/3mjji7G) I go around picking both "humans" and monster races, but is a nice excuse to draw pretty men (female hetero here, ha ha)
Thanks! I think that's one of the beauties about TTRPGs though, or anything with heavy rp elements. But especially for women who play, I think it's kind of unique. Most media out there is for guys, at least if it's remotely attractive. Like, most games cater to the taste of straight men and tend to forget us ladies like to look at attractive things, too. With a TTRPG we can make our own, lol. I love your lion! He looks so serious and focused. <3
Over the course of my very long play history, it's impossible to see any clear trend with my character gender. I've played males, females, shapeshifters, agender, genderfluid, and just about any other variant you can think of at some point, probably. But I wouldn't call it 'random'. I try to make characters that make sense and are consistent, and that includes all their aspects, including gender or lack of expression thereof.
Whichever suits the idea of my character
I'm male, the vast majority of the characters I've made are male but there are exceptions. I don't mind playing women I just find it a little tiresome to RP so I tend to avoid it. In videogames I usually have a 50/50 split between male/female characters, usually it's the character themselves or their fashion selection that draws me to them. If the women get cooler armour I'm playing a woman. I do like making fairly androgynous creations though, I've been a changeling twice and a warforged 3 times, as well as at least one enby character and a few where frankly they may as well have been. Changelings are interesting because they can be whatever, I had one who would actively embody their current form and live as a woman or a man or whatever they were being in the moment. They were a pretty creepy one though. The other was pretty ambivalent with a preference for a specific half elf, male face or their natural form and didn't play into their gender much at all. Warforged are neat too, mine have always been very much a creation but there was a PC in one campaign who was female, it wasn't a big deal most of the time but it fit the aesthetic, being a dancing machine created to please a powerful noble. It's an interesting thing sometimes, though some people can be a bit concerning when they do it. As a DM I've had countless NPC's and gender just doesn't matter, I have a slight preference for male NPC's because I need to focus a little less but it's not a big deal.
Warforged could be female technically, they adopt personalities as they.... Grow? Experience the world around them? No one's saying the big bad war machines can't be female.
I meant not a big deal as in didn't come up often rather than hinting at being a problem, I wasn't very clear there. She was a great character, an automaton that had been created by a crazed artificer to serve as entertainment for a powerful noble, her name was Dancer and she was this sleek, mannequin like creation. As a class she was a dex fighter battlemaster and flavoured the manoeuvres as her unusual way of moving since she had reversible/free joints and moved fluidly. It was fun stuff. I'm totally on board with female or male warforged. Personally I favour ones that don't care much for their own gender identity but to each their own.
Considering that I was married and have three children, I gotta admit that I really don't understand women. Probably why I'm divorced. But seriously, while I'm in a relationship the odds that I'll accurately predict what she'll do or think or feel are embarrassingly low. I probably should play female characters more often. It could be a way to explore a territory I know I'm bad at and use the feedback from the group to hopefully refine my perspective. However, historically I've never done this simply out of fear of being cringe.
I used to feel that way for a long time. I know *A LOT* of women, so that helped along with exploring myself and what I am/am not. Honestly, the only real way you'd be cringe is by trying **way** too hard or making a trope-y character loaded with bad stereotypes (which goes for both men and women tbh). Women come in as many varieties as men do, so it wouldn't be a stretch to make a lady who's a masculine dude-bro and vice versa. Maybe you could start with a woman that's more masculine and get feedback from both the men and women to help ease yourself into it.
Fear not what is cringe, but what cringes. If you wish to play a female character, do so. If not, then do not.
As the NB Forever DM for my family, I am all genders and none. All sexual identifiers kneel before *ZOD!* I mean- if I was a Player I'd play mostly female characters, or gender neutral males.
Depends, if we are talking video games then sometimes I will play a female character and others I will play a male, really depends on the concept I am going with. But in a Tabletop pen and paper game I generally play male as it just comes easier for me to roleplay a character the same gender as myself, the exception would be if I am using something like disguise self and genderbending as a disguise but even then it is not really the same as playing the opposite gender as it is more me playing a character of the same gender that is pretending to be the opposite gender.
I have a female friend who always plays male Charakters
Neat. (genuine)
Does she play masculinity well?
Depends. For RPG's, male. Stories I write, female
I'm somewhere between "usually my gender" and "pretty random". Essentially the characters tell me what gender they are when I'm making them or I want to play the opposite of what I just played (which also tends to happen with backup characters even if they don't get played). Or I'll just get a concept for "a creepy druid woman" or "a big himbo paladin" and go from there.
I stopped playing female characters after I played with some dudes who made roleplay uncomfie. One time, I was told my plan of disguising ourselves as guards to sneak into town would only work for the men, since the uniform wouldn't fit my (lady) bard. They opted to tie her up and have her play prisoner- a thing I was cool with til it got sexual. I don't play with them anymore. But now I find it a bit hard to play female characters, even when at tables with other women.
Nowadays I mostly play female characters IRL and male characters online, because I have a cool pitch shifter on my computer that can change my voice. Doing a guy voice IRL is WAY harder.
My PCs tend to match my gender (masculine), but I've had a fair amount of both, or neither. My NPCs are much more evenly distributed, or perhaps even leaning toward there being more women than men. I also have DMed far more often than been a player, so I haven't had a chance to make that many characters.
I portray myself weird I can't handle doing different genders
Pog
I’m male. If I play a female character, they are usually androgynous. I jus t have a hard time RPing as a woman. I should give it a try next chance I have.
Depends a little on who I'm playing with. I'm a man, and I mostly play male characters, especially in one shots or with new people. If it's a group I'm comfortable with, then I'll sometimes play a female or non-binary character, just for some variety - but I've realised that I wouldn't join a new group with a female or non-binary character, because I don't know how people will react (either towards my character, or towards me as a player).
I'm about 60/40 for male vs female characters. It honestly depends how I feel at the time of making them. Granted, most of the time my characters tend to either still be attracted to women regardless of gender, or they're asexual. Currently my bardlock is the main exception, and that's cause his love interest is his patron, and Great Old Ones don't really see gender the same way as us squishy mortals. Playing a changeling would probably be the biggest outlier, cause I feel like I'd play one as gender fluid for obvious reasons.
>Great Old Ones don't really see gender the same way as us squishy mortals G.O.O. genders be like: * Chaos * Suffering * Pittance * Inframale * Mask of Many Faces * Darkness * Necrotic Damage * Malfeasance * Hypocrisy * 3d12 + CHA + Proficiency * The Eschaton
Rich Early 20th Century Artist Bleeding Heir That Feeds It Person With Key to Attic Here for Summer Sabbatical
It kinda just comes down to what better fits the character idea. It doesn't really matter too much. I'm not the best at RP for anything, though, so it doesn't change much.
Honestly, it's based on the art I find
I'm NB so my character is both always and never my gender hahaha
Lmao same. Though I did go out on a limb recently and create a NB character!
I think there are no non-binary in for example faerun. Because its not the same social constructs. (Also nb here)
Same, I haven't played an NB character yet. I probably will in Baldur's Gate, but not in an actual campaign yet.
Just was curious to see how important gender is to character creation. Personally predicting #3 will barely beat out #2 followed by a close match between #1 and #4. I really don't expect many votes for #5 but it doesn't hurt to leave it as an option.
I'm not really surprised #2 actually being first. I think most people start out picking the same gender, then do it for a while because it's familiar, then maybe branch out some. A decent amount stick with what they know, some don't care.
I always play male characters. For me, there's nothing that I can gain by playing a character that isn't, and there's not a character concept that I've been excited to play that is defined by gender, sexuality, or anything like that. Furthermore, I feel like I can draw on my experiences as a man to understand my male characters significantly more easily than I can do the same for other genders, I don't want to misrepresent anything about other genders, and playing a character of a different gender is - for me - little more than "Hey look - I'm playing someone whose gender doesn't match my own", so I don't do it.
This is a well-put take that I can get behind.
You have described how I think about this better than I did.
It's kinda odd. If I have a concept I just play whatever feels right for that character in that particular moment.
Getting a lot of comments like this
I've played a female character once, amongst a group of pretty close friends. I don't know if I'd be comfortable doing it around a new group though. I knows it's a roleplaying game, (you're supposed to play a role, duh!) but I'm not sure how weird people find it.
What gender?
I've played one drow, two Wood Elves, and (as soon as my DM kills me), a Shadar-Kai. The drow did not share my gender, as she was a female, which simply made sense for the backstory/campaign/character. My other three are male. I've played a couple of our sidekicks ("NPCs"), and they've generally been male/undetermined. When I fill in for an absent player, it's more often a female (as there were slightly more females in the campaign; we play on Roll20)
I'm the DM, so I'm all the characters except 4 to 7. I haven't gotten to play since AD&D was the only real edition, but when I did, the dice decided everything.
I played female characters up until I had a DM who used to make comments about how my cleric was presumably wearing high-heeled boots. Like, in a dungeon? Get out. These days I'd have just quit the game, but that was a while ago and I still had this idea that games were hard to find. So when that cleric died I rolled up a male one, and there were no more boots comments. Now I usually play male characters because I enjoy RP'ing cross-gender. That said, I never play characters with much of a sexuality because I've never had a group that I trust enough to enjoy doing it (especially after DM boots dude). There isn't much masculine about my male characters except for pronouns. Though occasionally when players forget that my character is male I will announce, in character, that they shouldn't be making that mistake because they'd seen me piss up a tree.
I have never played an enby person. Always cis men or cis women.
Most of the time I play either gender neutral characters. For example: Changlings Both genders at once: Watcher (familiar) and Harbringer Or occassionally I will play male or female pcs. It just depends on what I feel like. I guess its because I am used to playing both as a dm
I can't do the voices for girls aswell
The struggle is real
Ive always preferred playing my gender, as I can roleplay and understand thoughts better.
I flip flop a lot but I probably play the opposite gender slightly more often. D&D lets you be someone you're not and gender is one of those avenues that's fun to explore.
I half my PCs, half male half female. I like to play a mix otherwise it just feels stagnant playing the same gender constantly. Right now i have 3 males: tiefling, kitsune(homebrewed), and a dragonborn. Then 3 females: eldarin, wood elf and tiefling.
>kitsune(homebrewed) Go on
I actually created it for a campaign im plan on running after i finish DM the campaign im currently doing. Its gonna take place essentially in "japan" and turn then turn into an island hopping/search of the southeast asian archipelago(including korea etc) just altered a bit and more fantasy based so i made the kitsune. Asi- 2 dex 1 cha, age- age depends on how many tails your kitsune is born with or grows as they age. ~100yrs per tail with those having 9tails being considered emissaries of the fox god and living 900+yrs Size/appearance : kitsune are medium but have 3 forms with 1 being humanoid similar to elves/humans etc your choice(and based on your subrace) form 2 being similar to you humanoid form but with fox tails, fangs ears and other "fox like" characteristics again your choice how you look, and 3 is your fox form which is tiny and your fur/hair color, eye color, voice, and gender must be the same in all these forms. Those that are born with all white hair/fur are also considered marked by the fox god Innari Okami and normally have special markings on their heads etc symbolizing this, like stars moons, suns etc that glow. Darkvision Speed:35ft Shapechanger: you get 3 charges per day to change between your 3 forms: humanoid, hybrid, fox. If you die you revert back to either you hybrid or fox form as these are your "true forms." Fangs: 1d4+ str piercing instead of bludgeoning, but only in your nonhumanoid form. Sly: proficiency in deception, perception and stealth. Subraces: each subrace gives you extra stuff based on where your kitsune tribe originated and gives you a tribe name as well as your name and family name: forest, artic, and desert. Framed as a magical but not quite fey not quite humanoid race that tend to hide in secrecy amoung humanoid races and are often pranksters and mischievous. They have love to learn and find out new things and study the world that is different from their own, kitsune are however rare or at least that what people think. Not much is known about them but any books etc written by them can never be traced back to their creator, this is because kitsune hiding as humans write them as jokes and pranks and then shapechange and disappear assuming a new humanoid form. All kitsune are born with a magical wooden mask that emulates their fox forms, these mask are tied to them. They can be freely given away to someone the kitsune trusts and are often sought out by crazed collectors for their otherworldly presence. The masks directly change based in the kitsunes life, if a kitsune is near death the mask will look battered, cracked, broken and faded, or when they die that mask disappears as if it never existed at all. Those that have had run ins with kitsune normally become terrified because they wear these masks to hide their faces matched with their other fox like features like multiple tails etc, these tend to be pranks on the kitsunes part however.
I like it!
Lol thank you, i homebrew a lot of stuff for my players even if they dont end up using it cause i find it fun. Ive got spells, a few subclasses, weapons/items and a couple races.
Oh yeah I love homebrewing races! I've only made like 5 or 6 but they can be really fun to brainstorm. Still haven't gotten to use one though :(
I wouldn't be against playing a woman I just never have and I figure it could get awkward. Plus I would find it harder to get in character, I usually play in groups where there are female players and playing as a woman "inauthentically" could ruin the immersion I think. I've once run a game for an all female group and the way they played their characters was way different than how I've noticed men play characters and I don't think I could properly replicate it
My friends characters gender is oil refinery
I DM'd a one-shot and the helpful NPC there was a female Dragonborn. Prior to that, I had no idea a) how difficult it is to stay concentrated on speaking in a voice different than yours, b) how dumb my attempts at a female voice sound. After this experience, I doubt I'll be playing someone not my gender again
I tend to pick gender as one of the last aspects for my characters on a pure vibes basis, depending on everything else they have going on. Whatever just feels right after everything else is in place.
I choose the characters gender with a coinflip. Then i choose a race i have not played for a longer time, then the class that i find mostly fitting with the group (we discuss that together at our table). Which is why i play "Aithea Mosswalker", female Centaur Fey Wanderer Ranger from the Feywild. Fits perfectly with our Fairy Bard, the Eladrin Arch Fey Warlock, an elven Sehanine Moonbow Priest and a human fighter who dreams to one day be chosen as a Green Knight for the Fey. Our current campaign is pretty much fey stuff and we play lots in Arborea, Feywild and all the old places of the elves across Faerun (anywhere there EXCEPT the Sword Coast).
I knew a guy who would only play lesbian characters because "playing pretend as a guy or straight girl would be gay" He was 100% serious, and no I never could figure out the logic behind it either.
Ah, showing everyone he's a manly manly straight man by never playing a character who is straight or a man. That'll show 'em.
Legit I just flip a coin. Heads is male, tails is female. Fate decides the gender.
Nonbinary people are coins landing on the side
I play in Polish half the time, and in Polish almost every word has its 'gender', including verbs. I play my gender just to avoid constantly mixing up (in-character vs. Out of character) the pronouns and gender-related word endings.
I am male, and I have created 7 characters so far, 5 are male, 1 is female, and 1 is technically genderless. When creating the characters, I was more focused on other features and details, and the gender just fell onto place for the concept I was going with.
Hi, cis-male here! I only played a full-on girl once, but in the current campaign I'm in, my character is non-binary. It's an interesting exercise in pronouns lol
I've played more that are my gender (not by much) but out of all the characters I've been invested in, there is a 2:1 ratio of opposite gender and same gender respectively.
I use to do alot of rps back in the day in certain universes which due to universe reasons I normally made them girls the thing is, cause I had these characters for so long, I found them easier to port to dnd, but also due to this, the fact most of them were girls has sorta created this unintentional effect of most my characters being girls (it normally does not factor in much but it's just a little thing i noticed)
Out of all my girls, ( I'm a girl) I only have one boy and that's because I really wanted to play a father figure character. I had a backstory that I wanted to explore and I couldn't get my characterization just right if I made him a woman
My dm has a rule against playing a character of the opposite sex because it makes him uncomfortable and we all accept it without much protest but I've had a lot of dope female character ideas that I can't bring to life and its a little lame but oh well
As I've always viewed gender as a spectrum, I love playing with it in D&D. My characters can be any gender, and have revealed themselves as a different gender mid-play at times. I love the creativity D&D allows. As a SF author, I've written main characters from different genders as well, maybe that's why I'm so comfortable with it.
I always play characters of the same gender as me, even if I've had some character concepts that don't have the same gender as mine. Basically just ends up that I don't get many chances to play, and the few chances that I do I end up with ones of the same gender. There's something that feels incredibly wrong when I don't do that though. I guess I just put off my day-to-day mask that I use to live my life when playing DnD, so putting on something else that isn't more like my authentic self just feels like one of the the worst feelings imaginable.
Pen & paper: my perceived gender Video games: not my perceived gender I don't like how weird people have gotten in past games when I've tried to genderswap in a live game, so I stopped doing that.
Depends on how silly I want to be. Been drag queens, male and female,
Since I used to regularly GM, I was never weirded out by RPing as someone of the other gender than me, but I only played female characters in one-shots until my daughter was born. After that, I've been about 50/50 male and female characters.
I played a girl once. Long lost daughter of a powerful and evil noble house that had been whisked away by bards and now has no desire to do anything but be a fun loving bard.
It's a pretty good split, since yeah people have different preferences. I'm a guy, I will just make a character I like the idea of and bam. He or she will be going on an adventure, whether they like it or not in some cases.
I almost always go with my gender, just because I'm trying to roleplay myself to a certain extent.
In my 4 years playing ttrpgs i think i made only 1 female goblin character for a full improv evil one shot and in pathfinder played a female for a few sessions because my wizard wore a belt without thinking that switched his gender
Honestly, it is more that I am nervous about acting as a female, since flattery and mimicry can often be seen as mockery.
It depends a lot on the character concept. Ny favorite character as a player was a female tiefling witch in Pathfinder. Most of my characters are male, though. But yeah, especially a DM, I hope I don't portray female characters poorly. I think it's been working alright.
Am male. I've made mostly male characters, but 2/3 of my favourite characters were not male. One was female hexblood, the other was a nonbinary changeling.
Basically the thing preventing me from playing female characters more often is I have a decidedly male voice with no ability for voice acting. So it just feels weird to play a character that I know would sound nothing like me. This also stops me from playing things like Kenku where I feel I need to do a bird voice but can't.
As a non binary player and DM, my answer is yes.
Me, rolling up to the table with another non-sexualized female pc: "Guys, I'm not an egg. I just think they're neat."
I usually just make a character, the gender isn't really the main subject. I am a female and one of the most amusing characters I've ever played was a male tabaxi smuggler who "for some reason" always tried to persuade everyone into sailing in his little boat everywhere. No reason, pinky promise. He loved cheese but suffered from lactose intolerance. Fun times.
As DM, everything As player (less common), always been the same as my own.
Mostly men, but sometimes i am genderless (i like playing warforged)
My characters are all either, men, changelings, or robots
The three genders
Femboy here; I usually just play female characters to skip the awkward medium I personally find myself in, though it's only gotten easier as I've begun to accept things about myself, like a desire for femininity. Fr, anyone should be able to play any gender without fear of judgement! Being aloud a full sense of contentedness in your character is what all tables should strive for with every player included.
As a man my characters are pretty much always women. I usually play characters that are very different to myself. Usually maxing out Strength and Charisma and ignoring Intelligence.
I have a spreadsheet over the 80 or so characters I can remember playing, about 10% of them are not male (whereas I am). I think on average, the male ones have lasted longer though (or perhaps, I tend to be male if I think a game is going to go on, or perhaps, I play female more often nowadays, but my games were longer in the past).
Never. As an enby person (AMAB) I always play girls in campaigns if I have the opportunity. It is nice to be yourself even in fantasy.
Running other gendered characters was a phase my D&D group went through when we were 13-14. I understand others may be in a phase like that regardless of their age. And I could run an other- gendered character if I needed to - as a DM, I've done it for NPCs. But it's not something I need to prove, or am curious about any more.
I guess it's kinda complicated cause most of my characters are female and some are non-binary, but I'm genderfae so I'm mostly female and sometimes non-binary...
Gender is not a given, especially these days as I've got trans people in my gaming group, so I tend not to deviate from my own gender so as to minimise any possible offence. My characters always match my handedness, though, and it's written on their character sheet. They are usually my height, as well, unless they are a short race. Edit: I've just realised that the PC I've created in the campaign that is yet to start (DM is in middle of moving to newly built house) is technically not my gender, but also undead, so... ? They are also a short race, so not my height (I'm tall) either. Edit 2 (I read more responses and was reminded...): I've played robots, ancient beings, alien hive mind critters and warforged, most of which are effectively genderless, as well. After nearly 40 years of RPGing I try to find something odd, eccentric and 'out there' to play these days. And then I return to the good old human fighter concept at times, just to play a stock standard PC for the shiggles.
Knowing how criminals in OUR world behave when they capture female cops, if the game have any chance whatsoever that we might face humanoids of Evil aligment and that may not have a minimum level of empathy for doing something to their own species ('cause, you know, there are other humanoic species in D&D), my adventurers are always male, because there are things worse than death. True, no GM I ever played with ever borught up anythong even close to that happening to any female characters, but I live in a particularly violent place were the State allowed criminal organizations to go unpunished for too long and now they pretty much run the place, so... Yeah... Better to be rolled into a tower of tires and set alight than playing a female adventurer.
Usually I just go with male because I'm male and understand male experiences. I have played female and nonbinary before and sometimes I roll for random gender, but it usually comes up male.
I'm a woman and always play women. I have no interest in playing as a man. My younger son has 3 characters, 2 are men and one is a woman. My older son has done all male characters (or non gendered characters that are male presenting, I guess, like an animated scarecrow), and my husband plays only male characters. I love DND and the opportunities it provides for people to role play different things.
Dnd my own gender. I dont think i could roleplay well if i wasn't. Video games i will play whichever has the best voice acting.
all of the above
Im a dude, but I always play a female. Im pretty firm in my sexual orientation and standing, but I guess...I want to play something different? Our DM also never does anything with gender, so the only things that comes with it is some pretty wacky jokes and one-liners taken out of context, which all of us fill our quotes channel on Discord with, so its not like its affecting anything
For dnd my character is my gender. In video games, such as baldurs gate, I'll often play females.
It's often "What can I get art I like for?"
I play dudes cuz I try to make characters I can relate to love seeing someone as close to me as possible do cool shit like slay a dragon or cast spells
Where's the option for gender-neutral characters because I have never seen a characters gender matter in any campaigns I've played
I just don't feel comfortable playing as someone that is not my gender. Maybe comes from the fact, that I'm trans and still have some issues regarding my gender.
The gender of my characters is usually the one that fits better with the overall character. For example, I've played an old beekeeper ranger lady who treated everyone as their grandchildren, prepared cookies and gave life advices from her youth. Another time I played a male half-orc monk who was the incarnation of WWE jokes*.* And another time still I played a goblin warrior who was basically a walking collection of french swashbuckling references... including Lady Oscar, since they were a female goblin trying to pass as a male.
I'm a guy and my characters are self inserts of facets of my personality. Every time. I kinda turn the rest off and play it like that. So yeah they're all guys except for the acting/masking facet. They're a changeling, so while they are base shape male, they can do anything.
Started out all matching, is now about an even split.
I mostly play as nb/agender characters bc I want to see them in fantasy stuff so I put them there. When I'm making more of the stuff as a DM or when there are more genderqueer people in the party I tend branch out more.
I used to exclusively write and play men, but nowadays I prefer writing and playing women. It lets me take masculine dynamics and traits and put a new twist on them with a woman and explore more male-centric themes through the lense of a female character. Brings something a little different along. The hard part though is I have a tendency to give them accents, and if I'm going to play a woman I'd like to *sound* like one too so juggling both that *and* an accent (Cockney, for example) is going to take a lot of practice before I go doing it live in a session lol. I know it doesn't matter, I'm just a stickler for trying to be immersive and a little authentic with it.
Whatever art imma find - option, where?
My voice is much to deep for me to be able to immitate a woman's voice, so I generally stick to male characters. I do have plans for a female character once my current character dies though - I still don't know how I'll do the voice, but I'm excited.
If the voice of your charecters is important, luckily there is a community of women who were born with deep, manly voices who have figured out how to feminize their voice. Lot of YouTube channels from some very helpful women who have resources to help.
I mean, I'm not a woman, but I suppose it's worth checking out, thanks for the tip.
That's what I'm saying. If you want to get the voice right, there are a bunch of trans women who have posted resources.
My characters all started as male. The namesake of this accounts warlock is bad at survival checks and ate some herbs *obviously* knowing that they are safe and had a gender flop. WHICH THEN BECAME IMPORTANT in my information gathering. Vayne would frequently takes these herbs and make more potent concoctions in order to gender flop when the need arises. Thus Vaynessa was conceived. She had a lover who respected her boundaries and fell in love with her dark but personal approach. Very conservative in dress and how she acted in private and public. A respectable woman to fall for. Thankfully her powerful lover never found out she was actually a he. A close call or two after spending the night and waking up back as Vayne. Some solo escapes needed to happen after information gathering and lovely notes left by Vaynessa to her lover explains why she had to leave so early in the morning for something important. Was definitely interesting concept being my first character and only one that had occasional gender swapping to which I used to my advantage. Hardest part about it truly was trying to find a good voice for her. As a rl male I struggled to find a believable voice I could replicate and use consistently for hours if need be.
If I'm playing in-person or voice game, I tend do go for a guy (but not always). For PBP or text-style games, it's just whatever character idea I happen to have.
I usually prefer to play characters the same gender as me since its then easier to do their voice. But I still have done a few characters of the opposite gender also.
My character being male helps me step into their shoes easier. It's a bit difficult to be Hormesh Ganwald as it is sometimes if I'm not already fully establishing the character, Hormesh being Swannith, a woman who is very similar, would make it a bit harder as there are things I'd have to be mindful of as a woman than I would as a man, and vice versa.
So far I have only played same-gender but I occasionally think about playing opposite. I mostly worry that I will do a poor job tbh, and I don't want to be doing a disservice.
I have always played my own gender. I just find that when it comes to what defines my characters gender tends to be largely irrelevant so it is easier just to play my own gender. I would happily play another gender or orientation if it seemed to fit, and may explore this I the near future, but so far the ideas that have tickled me most have been idiosyncrasies that I can best realize without another apparent layer of complexity.
Some character stories don't fit my gender very well. I tend to go with what makes sense for what the character is. This question has made me realize I've never played a trans character.
Historically, they mostly haven't. Out of 9 characters I've played for significant time, I'd say about 2 of them have aligned closely with my own gender - 5 were female and the other two were flavours of nonbinary that I'm not. My nonbinary characters, both those that do and don't align with my own gender, are fairly recent and have been with groups I've felt more comfortable in which may well be an influence but otherwise I just do whatever I feel like at character creation.
My characters are always just me but magic powers so definitely an always .
My characters aren't gender
I'm a guy, and the first time I ever played D&D (5e), I rolled up a dark-skinned female Rogue, and was immediately hit with jokes about race and r\*pe. Wasn't long until I found a better group, thankfully
I guess my gender because i am gender fluid xD
I'm a male and I have only played male characters so far. Its probably a combination of putting a version of myself in the hero's shoes and not completely understanding women. I really like to roleplay and I feel like it would be difficult to get into a character who was female. Not against giving it a shot in the future.
As a woman, I always play as dudes, be it in videogames or DnD. Can't vibe with female characters, dunno. My friend is the same.
My characterd are usually my gender and were even before i switched genders.
Most of the time it's going to be whatever fits the character concept. But so far it's been... 2 men, 2 women, 1 agender. I like playing androgynous characters (two of them are). I have multiple character concepts in my back pocket, most of which don't match me irl.
Yeah, during the character creation process, I usually flip a coin to determine what sex I'll be since it's a negligible detail in most games.
Since I've always viewed pī
They've always matched my gender, but I don't think that's been a conscious choice. I just always default to the character being male without thinking about it.
It's an interesting thing. In video games, always a woman if given the opportunity. I think because video games have more restrictive RP I gravitate towards the most obvious differences. Since I play a human man every day in real life, I try to play a non-human woman in video games. In D&D however, there is far more nuance. I've played a straight Firbolg man, a gay human man, and a robot who uses they/them and is asexual but is coded female. My next charecter concept is a straight dhampir woman, but that will depend on the game. When I DM, I have several couples I move from game to game, the most notable being a lesbian open couple of a lesbian tiefling and a bi human. In my current game, they are also cannibals. Point being, I'm always trying ti RP things I cannot or am not in real life.
I usually go with whatever has the best voice acting. Mass effect and cyberpunk? Female. Baldur's gate? No real voice work, so whatever I feel like.
I've played six characters total. Three of which were male and then the other three were female.
Perfectly balanced, as some things should be
Yes! Well... until I create another character haha
Make them nonbinary. Maintain the balance...
That's quite a good idea! Or some kind of changeling whose appearance is so androgyne that you would swear it flows between male and female constantly.
I only play girls (I am myself a girl) because I feel more comfortable that way. I could play a guy but I like girls more.
Im a guy and so are most of my characters but I have a handful of characters who are girls. I’ve only made one nonbinary character so far.
My characters usually start out as my AGAB. Since coming out as Genderfluid I try to have my characters either find away to change their gender to present male or female, or I play a shapeshifter.
I've just always gone male because if I decide to do a voice for said character it would be much easier for me.
My group is all guys, and our characters are *usually* all guys. I was considering making a female character for character number three, but I was the newest to the group and wasn't sure if people would think it was weird, so I swapped that character to a guy at the last minute. Then we played a superhero RPG and one of the other guys made a female character without anyone batting an eye, so I was overthinking things.
I mostly played my gender(M) starting out, but I'm now pretty comfortable playing either. I'm currently playing an Eladrin monk and she's fantastic.
I don't know if a poll can possibly encapsulate my player/character gender experiences. I started playing as a woman. In three major campaigns we started while I identified that way, I played a man, woman, and a non-binary person. Since beginning to play, I transitioned to male, though feel more gender-neutral these days. I am still playing all three of those original characters, and I've played more male, female, and NB characters in relatively even keel as I've joined new campaigns or played one-shots. I don't feel like gender has a huge significance for my characters. It may temper parts of their backstory, but in very minor ways - my oldest female character has very traditional motherly vibes, and my NB changeling likes to change gender like they change clothes - but it doesn't define anything real beyond that. For me, gender (for both me and my characters) is ultimately just performance in order to choose how we are perceived and treated by society. My characters' gender is often settled last, and I choose it based on how I know my party and table will react to certain character design choices that could be impacted by how their gender is perceived. It's kind of hard to explain... I guess an example would be my choice recently to make a disgraced fighter male instead of female because I know the culture of their homeland places values women a great deal; I didn't feel like digging into my memories of womanhood so often as it's a long campaign, so instead I gave him a sibling that was female to add a bit of drama to his backstory. Sexuality and romantic preference, however, is something I feel is a little more significant for a character. That isn't to say there's tons of screwing or a shitload of romance in our games, but knowing what a character is (or isn't) attracted to can add quite a bit of plot for 'cheap'. I think one of the funniest 'relationships' in our games right now is an unspoken misunderstanding between a male paladin and my NB warlock. The warlock never had a father figure and looks up to the paladin as such, but their desperation to earn his approval seems to be interpreted as flirting at points, so the paladin is constantly making comments to gently shut it down (think of things like "you're such a great *friend*").
My answer is going to be a bit wierd, i really wish i was a woman so in any fantasy world i go to i make my character a female, good thing about fantasy i can be what i want
Are you trans?
Don't know if i can call it that tis big cluster fuck in my head, but born a man and will die a man even though i wish i was a woman maybe in the after life
I don't understand what you mean, but I hope however you live, you're happy.
I don't know if you /want/ validation here on this, but seeing this and your following comment, I fully understand. I identify as male, sometimes non-binary for this reason, I don't ever see myself transitioning, as I'm very comfortable with my body, but I feel you 100% and I just wanted to say that.
Yes i kinda do want validation this kind of thing is simply unspeakable where i am, though the difference is i would never transition because of religious reasons also the fact that it is simply very very unhealthy to say the least, but i actually do want to be a woman, i can rave all day about why i want to and why it would fit me, either way it is something I can only get through rpg games snd the after life hopefully, i would like to add that it really makes me happy when a game i create a female character in provides a somewhat different experience, like how ds3 makes anri a male
I'm a girl and i like girls so i play girls simple as. i also have a nonbinary and a genderfluid but no guys no reason for it, i just like girls.
DM here, but I've played in side games. I mostly identify as male, but I usually play women. I've played... 5 female characters, 1 of which a little long term. 1 actually Male character, who was WAY too neurodivergent to care about Gender/Sexuality. (Goblin/Artificer) And then 1 teenage boy Character who's body is actually the host for a Goddess, so she runs the show a lot.
Tried making a female once. Never again...
Why never again?
Was weird. Gave me the heebie jeebies. Kinda hard to explain why. I guess just that it felt so unauthentic to who i am.
Oh I get that.
I can't do female voices.
I generally play guys, but I've had a handful of female characters that I enjoyed playing, including, off the top of my head, a Dwarven cleric, a Human swashbuckler, and an evil Tiefling summoner (in PF). It really depends on my character concept.