I think this is the right forum.

It has been a long time since I did it. Can I get some advice for rping as a member of the opposite sex. It has been 11 years since I rped a woman. And that one died fast, so you could say almost... 16 years or so.

Honestly, I don't think there really is that much difference. If you want to generalize things; men are typically more visually oriented and use logic and reason over emotion, and women are typically more empathetic. But that's just generalities and stereotypes. I've never had to do much of anything different to RP a female. Then again, I'm a gay man, so I probably don't HAVE to do much different. LOL :P

It helps me to read material written from a female character's perspective or by a female author.  I'm like PsychoJester in that I don't write much differently when I'm writing for a woman, but it's important to find your voice for each character, no matter what their gender is.

I believe it's much the same as playing a character of one's own gender. We don't want to play stereotypes or generalities, but a specific individual. So backstory and personality and attitudes matter very much in shaping the character.

I personally try not to be in any way offensive when I play a character of different gender or race or nationality or background than my own. That said, I have known many women and many men and many gay men and Asian men and African-American men. Some of the men presented themselves as rough and some as cultured. Some of the women seemed frilly and some rather severe. There are a lot of models to choose from.

You just select each of the attributes that will contribute to the sort of character you feel comfortable portraying and try to present them as honestly as you can.

I would say, DONT use gender stereotypes. Personally I hate it and its a good way to make some people dislike or even seek the end of the character. I have played males, herms, females, and even those without gender and the biggest thing is.... make them like REAL people. They have their flaws, their good points, dreams and fears. If you can breath life into them, then gender does not overly matter.

Ok, one of my worries is playing one as a stereotype. I am reading through the posts to get an idea of the character.

In reply to Merevel (msg # 1):

What kind of character are you looking to run? Female is pretty vague. How would you go about building a character you'd usually play? Unless it's crucial to the GM's story (and hopefully not your character's rape-made-me-a-PC backstory --those are the worst!), then gender shouldn't matter much. As long as you don't have your character pissing on walls while standing, you'll be fine.

I am taking over an abandoned character for a gm. From the description and posts I have a decent idea on how to play her.

So far she seems serious, easy to tick off, and very, well authoritative might be the right word? What little I have read of her posts has her wrustling managing some younger cousins for school, while they are wreaking havoc goofing off. So I will try and keep her description and posts in mind for farther actions.

I was also asking for advice in general.

Women are people, just like men are.  They fill all the same ranges of personality, and have all the same quirks, strengths, weaknesses, and so on.

I think (for me) it's when I run across a male author writing "a woman" (or vice versa) rather than "a person" that the whole story starts to feel forced and weird.

(Just had to throw that in as I just made the mistake of reading a novel with an author and a main character of opposite genders where the author seemed to go out of his way to emphasize "see, this character is FEMALE".)
This message was last edited by the user at 02:46, Wed 23 July 2014.

Yeah I am getting from this is mostly, drop the frame of mind concept and play them. Also avoid Stereotypes.

Come to think of it, I have female npc's in my games why am I so worried. Call me neurotic I guess. I mean running a npc and playing a character is basically the same thing right?

Write your character as a person. That's the "secret" to playing or writing someone as the opposite gender from yourself - great them as a person. Hopes, dreams, pet peeves, fears, goals, interests, and so on - women and men share these all in relatively equal measure. Do not look at gender stereotypes (they are, in fact, pretty dang awful and largely rooted in current social constructs) and don't believe in any artificial limits.