RP discution: Using the other gender

This is a topic I kind-of wanted to put up sooner. Basically, do you care if men use female characters or if women use male characters? What do you particularly like or hate about it and why? And how do you personally handle using different gendered characters?

I actually use female characters a little more than I think I should. But sometimes you've just got to make characters of the other gender. My personal thoughts are that if I use a female character, I should treat them as seriously as a male character. The last thing I want is just to make a character for fanservice purposes with nothing going on in thier life... but that's an issue for another day.

Sometimes I just get a little bored thinking up guys or just have an idea that can't be really used with a male character. Not to mention, there's kind-of an originallity factor to it. There's an endless sea of male characters who are villians, heroes, and neutral parties with all sorts of abilities and stuff. But at times, it seems like there's kind-of a lack of really good strong or intresting female characters in most media.

So I want your oppinion. Do you use characters opposite of your gender and what are your thoughts on it?

*poll for reference*

I think it's fine to do so. I have a few female characters, but they're more scarce than my male characters. If you only use one gender character, it gets kinda boring, but if you use both, it keeps it interesting. Though, I do believe that you should have more characters of your gender, since you are more familiar with how that gender acts.

Just meh take.

Personally I don't mind if a guy rps as a girl or vide-versa.
I jsut can't play guys for the life of me and i have tried on others sites so I know I'm bad at it

Why would there be a problem in the first place? It's preference of choice. I use female characters who I tend to develop more than my male characters

I've heard someone say they found it wierd. Which, I could kind-of see.... Especially when romances get involved in the RP. Or I could imagine people arguing "You would have a tendency to overdo the fanservice".

That's an interesting question you got there my good Deth.

I have absolutely no issue seeing guys RPing women and vice-versa, and I have no problem playing characters of the opposite sex myself. The irony is, I believe my female characters are more thought-out than my male character. I think they are more emotionally involved in the RP than the guys, which leads to writing in a style that I am surprisingly good at: drama.

Even though the gender changes, all my characters retains their small touch of mystery and inner darkness. This goes as much for the guys and girls. I'm not an expert on feminine psychology, but I try to get by with what I see, hear and read and manage to create a female character with a nice personality that matches her set of skills or a theme.

In fact, I think the reason why I believe I make better female characters than male ones is because I try much harder thinking of a personality and how to role-play as a woman than with my gender. Admitedly, since I'm a guy myself and having lived a life around a different cast of men, RPing as a man is much more simple, and little thought is put the personality. Deriving from thinking hard about the female character's personality, I tell myself "Hell, while I'm at it, I might as well try to make my bio as good as the personality.", and that's how the bio I make is a little bit more detailed and shiny.

As a jack-of-all-trades RPer, I like to mix various personalities, genders and themes together to get an interesting character. Of course, it's not just a random mix of them, they have to fit all together. That is yet another reason why I can play as many female characters as male ones.

Quote :

I think the reason why I believe I make better female characters than male ones is because I try much harder thinking of a personality and how to role-play as a woman than with my gender.

Intresting point.... There is some pressure to make the character good and complex so that it's not just seen, either contiously or uncontiously, as an excuse for smut. So as long as you're trying to keep them in a serious light like that, there's more thought put into it. I think, personally, that might be the reason June was originally so fun and intresting to play as.

As RPers playing in more serious than comical settings, I think you can understand the satisfaction of creating a character that is not just plain, and as you say, complex and more thought-up. After all, as individuals who play in another mindsets, we all strive to create characters with realistic personality and emotions who would react to events in similar ways to reality.

It's sort of a pressure, like you say, I agree that much. It's also our own perfectionism that drives us into making better characters, even if it is in a domain we are unfamiliar with.What's more satisfying than seeing something you worked so hard to create interacting well with the world? I think the reason why we find our opposite gender characters more interesting and fun to play is because of the effort put into them.

I've used characters of both genders and, for each, all sexualities. I will have to admit some people in the past did find it odd how I played so many different kinds of characters so well. But really... why should we think it's weird for someone to have characters of the opposite gender? It's kinda the same thing as judging someone based on their looks, or alienating someone just because they don't like basketball or something. It's their preference.

And an earlier point about some ideas only really being original with one character is a good point as well. For example: I would never got away with a nomadic Succubus in most places... because most would immediately think "Nomadic: no-one's good enough for her!"

Making the character a Guy, like i did with Dalaketx, makes a completely new image!

Perhaps it's personal preference, but I don't really enjoy writing super "manly" characters, and regardless of their physical appearance or capabilities, usually give them noticeably feminine qualities. Whether that's just one type of character I write, or whether it's a writing flaw, I have no clue. I'm not close to a lot of men, so I'm not even that sure of how the two gender's differ, besides basic sciencey stuff. (Men are better with navigating and working with objects, women are more naturally suited to social problems etc. etc...)

That being said, I do like writing male characters, even though I write more female ones.

While I think it's okay to do so, I don't think I've ever done it before. I like playing as opposites in video games. For example, I loved being Ellie in The Last of Us.

But I don't do it simply because I don't 'roleplay' enough. All of my characters seem to have this 'thing' about them that resonates from myself. I don't say "what would 'this guy' do", I also say "what would I do:.

Does that make sense?

So I think it'd be hard to play as the opposite gender just because she'd be to much like me, and that's not a good trait.

Although I was throwing an idea around about a group of warrior-women. But nah.

I have no problem at all with others using characters of opposite genders, but I've never done so myself. I always RP as a male character, but that's just simply because it's what I've done since I first took up writing. Though I do sometimes use female NPC's for the sake of exposition or to fill whatever role I need done in my posts, but that's it.

In my actual story works, I have two female characters. Both are Action Girls, and both can handily kick ass just as well as a man.

That's really about it.

No one voted no? Seriously? Someone come play devil's advocate.

It can't be me because I RP as women all the time. I like to explore different viewpoints when I RP. The more I try to make my characters like me the less I like them. Which is weird since I don't usually consider myself as a self loathing person.