With your tremendous intuitive understanding of the female gender /tg/, tell me, how do you play a female character well?
See my group is about to start a new 5e campaign and I've been contemplating playing a female fighter. Our group being a sausage feast all of our previous female characters were played pretty much identical to male characters and so were female in name only. I don't want to go in that direction, but neither do I want to put on a silly falsetto voice and be stereotypical girly girl, particularly seen as a female fighter would already be breaking gender role in pseudo medieval society.
What sort of preparation can I do to get in my character's head?
>>45738465
Like a human being.
Be a crazy old woman.
>>45738465
To play a female character all you need to do is play a character. Come up with her hopes and ambitions and follow them. Gender doesn't play a huge role. Unless you are trying to make a seductive character in which case don't.
>>45738514
>implying you can't play a non-human
>>45738465
Does your DM deal with gender roles in society, or do they make women and men totally equal in the world?
>>45738514
This guy gets its.
>>45738465
Maybe base them off of a female you know in real life. How would that person react if they were a medieval fighter in the situations your GM provides?
>>45738677
Only sensible and useful advice in the thread, maybe except >>45738543
Even if your group is a sausage fest you probably have female friends or at least acquaintances/family. A good friend or a sister are good bases for your character if you find it hard to build a convincing female character.
>>45738648
It did come up before, but only once. We had to calm down a hysterical woman who was convinced that we killed her husband. Problem is she is right, her husband was trying to still a mcguffin from a party member, and when we came to our party member's aid he attacked us so a fight broke out and we killed him.
Presumably the DM wanted us to somehow talk our way out of this, but instead our bard broke into dance to distract the crowd now gathering and another party member then tried to punch her in the face to knock her out. He failed his strength check for the punch and we had to jump out the windows and so on to escape. Half the party got thrown in jail and the other half had to stage a jailbreak next day.
>>45738713
But does that mean that it's not ok to hit women in this world or that fighting in the street sends you to jail? Both? Believe it or not irl punching a guy in the middle of the street is illegal too.
>>45738465
In most rpgs the same way, i like playing female barbarians because of stomping the sterotypes. But when i play the normal woman i ask the dm what the gender roles are like
>>45738677
>>45738706
>base them off of a female you know in real life
It's nearly impossible to roleplay as someone else without accidentally representing them as a caricature of all their (in your mind) most prominent personality features and mannerisms.
When that someone is a person from the other gender, that tends to result in inaccurate and cringey shit.
I recommend just playing a character without factoring gender into it at all. You're playing an adventurer anyway; what's the chance that a female adventurer is going to act in a lot of "typically female" ways anyway?
When you play a character, you might make a "manly man" or a more normal guy.
As a man, you're fully capable of playing the female character version of the latter, because it's not that different. So do that; nobody wants to see you attempt to play whatever the fuck you think a particularly womanly woman is.
>>45738713
That really doesn't say much about the role of women in your DM's world. It also sounds like you don't need to worry too much about roleplaying a woman, since your group is clearly incapable of roleplaying functional adults.
>>45739044
>our group is clearly incapable of roleplaying functional adults.
Seconded.
>>45739040
>I recommend just playing a character without factoring gender into it at all.
Did you read the OP? He specifically said he doesn't want that, you're not helping.
Sticking to the most prominent features and mannerisms doesn't have to translate on a caricature and even less in cringey shit. It's the perfect way to pull an unambitious but nice interpretation, and it's probably what you and/or most people you know already does with their characters unless they're playing "me but also a wizard".
Inaccuracy is irrelevant or even desired because he's not playing his friend, but using her as inspiration, he doesn't want a clone.
>>45739089
I wasn't necessarily interested in giving him what he wants. I was trying to tell him why what he wants is unattainable.
>>45738465
>Our group being a sausage feast
>>45739108
>sausage feast
>>45738465
Play pic related, you won't regret it.
>Like a human being
Search for answer to this question on google also shows up with this answer all the time and I can even understand what this answer is getting at. Woman and just like us and have their own hopes and dreams just like the dudes blah blah blah.
But it doesn't really answer what this issue is at its core. It's really easy to play a testosterone filled Amazonian woman that's female in name only. And likewise it's really easy to play a caricature. The really hard part is to strike a balance in the middle so that your character really does feel like a female human being.
>>45738465
Why not just play a guy?
Seriously, the reason why I don't allow cross-gender play or really weird races is because people can't do it convincingly. My players have a tendency to forget that they're anything other than human and male when playing.
That's why everyone is human or close-to-human, so it can be realistically portrayed. If you're a walking lump of elemental earth or something, my players just can't wrap their minds around it.
This is probably why we mostly play Exalted, though. Being giant dicks is entirely in character.
>>45738465
To make a GOOD female character: just take a male character and add tits
To make a REALISTIC female character: make a conniving sociopath with no moral compass and the emotional capacity of a six year old
>>45738514
But what if I'm playing an elf?
>>45739205
There is no balance in the middle. If you try to act in some specifically female way, even toning it down in an attempt to "strike a balance" is just you acting out a slight gender caricature instead of an extreme gender caricature.
>>45739156
God incase is such an awful artist
>>45739269
this.
>>45738465
I think of a man, then take away responsibility and reason.
>>45739280
But isn't that how people actually are in real life?
For example, we can say the typical image of every guy being a football fan and spend his weekend on the couch watching football and drinking beer is a caricature. I don't fit that caricature, but I do enjoy a beer from time to time.
>>45739269
Who hurt you anon?
>>45739350
His mother, which ultimately are reponsible for the raising of 50% of the men in this world, and as such should be held equally accountable, as a person is largely defined in his early years.
>>45739275
same thing but also roleplay being a massive slut, just like with a male elf.
>>45738631
If you're campaign setting is fairly sexist it would probably make sense to draw on some angst male characters wouldn't have.
Think about it, if in setting your characters been getting told they ain't shit for their whole life, and can't / shouldn't do exactly what they are doing now, they probably have a bee up their ass about it.
>>45739156
>sausage feast
>sausage
>saus
I needs it.
>>45739275
Then you have another, possibly equal problem to the gender difference. Depending on the setting elves are immortal or live for centuries, highly in-tune with nature, highly in-tune with magic, physically weaker on average than a human being, and/or vegetarian. The first of these points however is the most important, because you really have to get into the mind-set of someone who watches time whiz by while they stay the same. It seems just as difficult to me as trying to figure out what a woman would do different in any given situation.
>>45739298
Everyone knows your opinion.
>>45739275
A female elf?
You've been alive for 100-ish years already and you can look forward to an average of 400-600 more.
So you do not take risks in combat. You have no moral compunctions against running away and living to fight another day, but at the same time you absolutely oppose anything that might result in a bad future because you're acutely aware that you'll have to live in that future. You have an extremely mañana attitude towards all things. When things don't go your way today you rarely get concerned, because things'll probably go your way tomorrow, and if not then, then the day after.
You're probably already married and have a kid or two back in elf-land, but you're old enough now that you're freed from parental obligations and elven marriages are extremely loose anyway, not to mention they're fully on-board with polygamy.
You don't view your friendships with the shorter-lived races as in any way less meaningful. You'll be sad to see them pass on, but you also know that you'll always be making new friends too. Elves are optimists by nature.
Also, FUCK orcs, and not in the fun way.
>>45739407
>elves
>massive sluts
Elves are for pure, memefag
>>45739298
Nobody gives a fuck about what you think :^)
>roll a female fighter
>run her just like I would a male
>surly, rough, practical, pragmatic, occasionally ruthless
>only female player in the group comments that I RP'd a convincing female
>>45739495
>oh anon you are such a white knight, let me grant you the fedora of infinite feminism +1
>>45739459
>You're probably already married and have a kid or two back in elf-land, but you're old enough now that you're freed from parental obligations and elven marriages are extremely loose anyway, not to mention they're fully on-board with polygamy.
What kind of setting is this even true for beyond MUH HOMBROO? Tolkien elves were so goddamn devoted they were willing to give up their lifespan in order to live with their human husbando, and one literally willed herself to death rather than cope with getting raped and thus being unfaithful to her husband.
>>45739515
I believe you have inferred from my post in a different manner than I intended, anon.
>>45738465
What is a band of murderhobos anyway? Is this referring to people who just kill things for exp with no ulterior motive or ties to the setting?
>>45739564
Not him and I inferred exactly the same.
>>45739481
You give enough of a fuck to respond ;^)
>>45739554
Standard D&D, actually, at least according to the 3.5 Races of the Wild, the basic concepts of which both predate and continue from 3.5. D&D elves aren't Tolkien elves, and haven't been for some time.
According to Races of the Wild, while it's entirely possible to have a constant lover for your entire life, the idea of having a SINGLE one is utterly alien to elves. Why would you want to tie yourself down for 700 years to one person?
The "already have a kid or two" thing is homebrew, though, mostly what I use as an excuse for what an elf is up to for the first century of their life when they are physically mature by age 25 but aren't considered "adults" until age 110 and yet have no additional skills beyond what a human would have. By my way of thinking elves must thereby have a very different concept of adulthood to humans, and the most sensible thing to my head is that elves spend that first century raising the next generation of elves
Pathfinder is different, of course; in Pathfinder it really DOES take elves 110 years to go from a baby to a physically mature adult. This is an integral part of Meresiel's backstory.
>>45739568
Pretty much
>>45738514
>Roleplayers
>Human biengs
Well you need an xy chromosome
Also a uterus
A vagina helps to
As do all the accompanying organs
They usualy have 2 protruding mounds of flesh about the breast.
The hip shapes a little difrent check the details on that yourself.
Oh and they have a lot more estrogen and a lot less testosterone then the human male.
Also some of them have a greater ability to differentiate colors but that's pretty rare so I wouldent bother.
>>45739412
Go to gelbooru and search for "incase"
>>45738962
im doing the same thing in my game. its fun as hell to play her.
>>45739622
Pathfinder elves literally have a learning disability.
They're actually retarded.
That's just so perfect for PF that it brings a tear to my eye.
>>45740014
It's not a learning disability, it's that they actually physically age much, much slower than humans.
D&D presumes 15 = mature for humans (with 16 being the minimum starting age), so if a 110-year-old elf is the physical equivalent of a 15 year old human, then they only age at around 13.6% the rate of humans.
So a 25-year-old elf is physically (and mentally) the same as a 3.4-year-old human.
I mean, I *guess* you could call them retarded when compared to humans due to taking longer to age, but by that logic orcs are geniuses since they age *faster* than humans. An orc is physically mature at age 12, three years before a human.
>>45739350
He probably simply doesn't have a woman by his side acting out as his perfect waifu. It's usually enough.
>>45739379
>His mother raised half the world's men
Damn, guess she really does get round...
>>45739269
>>45739269
Show us on the doll where the women didn't touch you
>>45739621
>I made him spend 5 seconds of his day shitposting
>haha I bet he's so mad he's shitting blood
>>45740116
Well, she IS mother of all monsters.
>>45739495
You would be appalled at how ruthless and pragmatic intelligent women can be. These SJW and new wave feminazis aren't really women.
>>45740504
>be woman
>roll stats
>low charisma, low intelligence, low wisdom
>blame DM for patriarchy
>>45740551
>be randomly determined entity
>blame anything at all
>>45740107
Physical and mental development are not the same thing, I think that muddies up this issue drastically.
I didn't know about PF elves being that way, but it sounds very unappealing to me.
>>45740504
idk about intelligent, but SJW's are a perfect example of how ruthless women can be.
>>45740782
>I didn't know about PF elves being that way, but it sounds very unappealing to me.
Elves living among elves makes it not an issue; it's only when elves live among humans that it becomes an issue; they're called the Forlorn. Merisiel's (the iconic Pathfinder rogue) entire thing is that chronologically she's 119 or so but developmentally she's the equivalent of a human 16-year-old.
http://paizo.com/people/Meresiel
Mind, Meresiel is perhaps not the best example as prior to Pathfinder becoming a distinct IP from D&D, Merisiel actually *was* retarded, having an 8 Intelligence (more or less the equivalent of an 80 IQ). It only got boosted to 10 thanks to Pathfinder giving elves +2 to INT in addition to their normal D&D 3.5 bonuses.
Personally I find it interesting in the setting, though I don't like it for elves in general, with whom I generally follow Races of the Wild aging patterns (physically mature at age 25 and from there age *very* differently from humans).
>>45741683
Hang on, right description, wrong link.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/npcCodex/iconic/merisiel.html
>>45738465
>With your tremendous intuitive understanding of the female gender /tg/
You broke my suspension of disbelief in the first sentence.
>>45739156
Blessed be the Incase
Proportions are a bit off, but at least the people involved actually enjoy themselves
>>45741683
I don't dislike it because of setting internal issues, I dislike it because it seems stupid to conflate physical and mental development like that.
>>45738648
If it's anything like the real world, then yes.
>>45739622
>According to Races of the Wild, while it's entirely possible to have a constant lover for your entire life, the idea of having a SINGLE one is utterly alien to elves.
This ruins my Elf headcanon.
I wanted a loyal wife for 1000 years, not a slut for 5.
>>45741974
You sound like the type of person who should have their headcanon ruined, so this is good.
>>45738465
>I don't want to go in that direction, but neither do I want to put on a silly falsetto voice and be stereotypical girly girl, particularly seen as a female fighter would already be breaking gender role in pseudo medieval society.
Depends on the Setting™
What I mean by this, is how the character's gender influences their behavior depends entirely upon the setting in which they are being played. There are a few questions that should come up about the setting that influence how the character should probably turn out:
>Is a woman's role in society enforced, either through social or legal pressure?
Should be self explanatory. What's it like being a woman in this world/region/dimension? Is her adventuring getting in the way of her expected "duties" as a woman?
>Are there any inherent difficulties in a woman receiving combat training
What this means is, whether by social or physical coercion or limitation, how much more difficult is it for a woman to become a warrior than a man? A woman who faces extreme prejudice and overcomes tremendous obstacles to become a warrior will be a far cry from some peasant who decided he wanted to start whacking things with a sword. Conversely, if a woman can just say fuck it and join the military without too much extra trouble, then she probably wouldn't be all that different from a male soldier.
>Is this an ERP game?
This has nothing to do with the setting at all really, but unless your group is up for this kind of thing it's probably not a good idea to bring your nymphomaniac bimbo fantasies to life through your character. Of course, this is kind of universal across both genders despite shitty bait threads on this board telling you otherwise. A manslut bard is just as bad as a whoreceress if the group is not okay with it. If you have to wonder if it's acceptable or not, always come back to this question, "Would this be weird if I was playing a guy?"
>>45740107
Me orc! Me forge Zeplin. Me make circles that make dirty hummies fall down.
>>45742011
Whatever, I liked Drow better anyway.
>>45739269
>a conniving sociopath with no moral compass and the emotional capacity of a six year old
Yes, but how is that different from a standard player character?
