Questions about male & female characters

[Marian]

The male character spawned, introduced himself politely, and read the noticeboard which informed him that certain objects were free if in the Free Resource Building. He picked up a bone knife and some hide pants. As soon as the town awoke, he was immediately imprisoned and murdered for theft.

I don't think that had too much to do with the gender of the char so much as spawning in a town run by murderous lunatics, but...yikes. Think that one needs to go in the newspawn thread.

[Rebma]

I play both men and women, looking back, the amount of women outnumbers men. I have had some great female characters that I loved, but it seems to be my males that I can play most authentically, and develop deeper and more rounded. Actually, I feel most comfortable in the role of no-nonsense protector-males (and females to a lesser degree)

[Undine]

I play males and females equally, and I believe I do both genders justice. Sure, one of the men is hypermasculine and one of the women is the stereotypical "valley girl," but for the most part the genders aren't really pushed to the gender extremes. I believe a part of that comes from my own life; I'm bisexual, a Gemini (not that it means anything), and I'm a firm believer that gender "norms" are a load of crap. I'm comfortable with playing any spectrum of characters, and I can switch between them fluidly. Not once have I ever been worried that my female characters will be too obnoxiously feminine.

[Father Brian]

I try to play an equal number of both genders, and have a generous helping of androgynous characters thrown into the mix. I think only mostly my male characters follow gender roles, and even of the males it's only 2-3. Being a male irl, I have no real concept of how to play a woman as opposed to a man and so mostly I play them as I play male characters.

[bnlphan]

Remember this movie?

Receptionist: How do you write women so well?
Melvin Udall: I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability.

[SekoETC]

I'm female but play about half and half men and women. Some of my men are effeminate. I think I'm rather good at playing men.

[Alutka]

I am quite new to the game and I have only three characters, two of them being male. I think I prefer to play male characters, though on the other hand it may be the case, that I wasn't experienced enough when I created my female character. Anyway, one of my male characters is so extremely time consuming that I just can't imagine how you guys are able to play 12 characters at once.

[Marian]

Anyway, one of my male characters is so extremely time consuming that I just can't imagine how you guys are able to play 12 characters at once.

I think when people play that many chars, a lot of them are just sleepy workers. But I'm never any good at restraining myself, mine always wind up getting involved in too many things to the point where it gets overwhelming, which is why I only have five now and that's pretty much my limit.

One trap new players often fall into is making lots of characters right at the start when things are slow. Then once they start getting more involved with the RP, they find out they've gotten in over their heads.

[Xander]

I haven't noticed my males being more scrutinised than my female characters, and I doubt there's any gender bias of that kind, just that it depends on what the town is like.

Going by chosen gender when spawning, I have eleven men and four women, I don't really have a preference when it comes to gender but I think I play men better than women -

1 - Male, heterosexual and cisgender. I would say he was moderately masculine.
2 - Male, heterosexual and cisgender. Like number 1, probably moderately masculine.
3 - Male, heterosexual and cisgender. Probably more masculine than the first two, but not much more.
4 - Male, heterosexual and cisgender. Has a tendency to enjoy violence, so that's stereotypically masculine.
5 - Male, heterosexual and cisgender. Not really masculine or feminine, but leans masculine.
6 - Male, heterosexual and cisgender. Similar to number four, has no qualms about abusing others.
7 - Male, bisexual and transgender. Started off as a slightly feminine male who liked wearing skirts before revealing her true self. Identifies as a woman.
8 - Female, heterosexual and cisgender. I would say she has feminine traits but she's nowhere near stereotypical.
9 - Female, bisexual and cisgender. She's quite feminine and has some stereotypical traits.
10 - Male, heterosexual and cisgender. Fairly typical male, not hugely masculine but not feminine either.
11 - Male, heterosexual and cisgender. Like number ten, fairly typical male.
12 - Male, gay and cisgender. Probably more gender neutral more than masculine or feminine.
13 - Female, bisexual and cisgender. Fairly feminine but not stereotypically so.
14 - Male, heterosexual and cisgender. Typically masculine.
15 - Female, heterosexual and cisgender. Typically feminine.

[Snickie]

Since we're making lists and comparisons,

including my dead characters,

1. Heterosexual cis-male. Wasn't particularly masculine and had his feminine moments, but not over the top.
2. Bisexual cis-female. Mostly feminine but hopefully not obnoxiously so.
3. Asexual-heteroromantic cis-female. Doesn't really conform to gender roles but identifies as a woman.
4. Asexual cis-female.
5. Heterosexual cis-female.
6. Heterosexual cis-male. This one is modelled after a real person I used to know and so I'm comfortable with his level of masculinity and he's definitely comfortable with his masculinity.
7. Asexual cis-female. Obnoxiously childlish and didn't understand or care about gender norms.
8. Asexual cis-male. Identified as a man but didn't care to conform to any gender stereotypes.
9. Asexual cis-female. I suppose she's kind of feminine.
10. Heterosexual cis-female. Doesn't give a crap about gender norms.
11. Heterosexual cis-female.
12. Male. Died young and I never really bothered to explore or develop his character.
13. Heterosexual cis-female. Most definitely feminine.
14. Greysexualish cis-female. Kind of similar to 7 but childish out of choice rather than ignorance or naivete.
15. Asexual cis-female. Nearly agender.
16. Pansexual cis-female. Obnoxiously feminine.


I know gender norms as they apply to me. It's more difficult to apply them to other people, even fictional characters. So for the most part I tend to think of my characters as mostly center-of-the-aisle on gender spectrum with a slight bias towards their given sex.

I definitely play more females than males. I'm not even sure that Narrator counts lol.

And only two of my characters have ever been in sexual relationships, a handful have had crushes, and most just really don't care about romance.

[Wolfsong]

I play a Cantrian who self-identifies as the moon.

[cutecuddlydirewolf]

I tend to play female characters, but I have a few males I really enjoy playing. Call me a misogynist, but it's my more masculine characters that tend to be more ambitious and successful in life. *shrugs* Maybe because they're more straightforward about what they want…?

1. Heteroflexible cis-female. Undeniably feminine, soft-spoken, sweet…
2. Heterosexual cis-male. Quiet, stoic, relatively moody.
3. Heterosexual cis-female. Loud, determined, ambitious- dresses like a female and identifies as such, but acts like a male in terms of being "manly".
4. Heterosexual cis-female. Similar to above, but more feminie- specifically using being a female to her advantage.
4. Bisexual cis-male. Charismatic, proud, somewhat narcissistic. Has a fierce determination, and can be ruthless in getting what he wants.
5. Homosexual cis-male. Awkward, cute, loves masculine guys.
6. Bisexual cis-female. Quiet, shy, relatively child-like in mentality.
7. Ditto above.
8. Pansexual cis-male. Loud, flamboyant, and utterly amazing. Acts more feminine, but still identifies as male.
9.Heterosexual cis-female. Maternal and caring, but acts masculine when mad or protecting someone else. Is, interestingly enough, rather masculine in appearance.

[SekoETC]

Since everybody else seems to be doing it, I decided to jump on the bandwagon. Currently all of my characters are cis-gendered. I used to have one transgendered in the past but he got murdered.

- possibly bisexual male - I say possible because he has had sex with both women and men, but with the couple of men it was a power issue and he didn't love them
- polyamorous bisexual female - some of her facial features might be considered slightly masculine. She's also a bit of a sadist. Spawned knowing everything about sex.
- polyamorous bisexual female - a girly girl, spawned clueless about sex and learned through ingame experience
- heterosexual male - the funny thing about this character is that he thinks men having sex with men is against laws of nature, but doesn't have a similar issue with lesbians or transsexuals
- asexual female - she loves someone like a son, but has never felt sexually aroused in her whole life
- heterosexual male - has delicate facial features, a pretty boy. Spawned without knowing anything about sex and has learned everything through trial and error
- heterosexual male - physically very masculine and hairy, yet not afraid of expressing his emotions
- heterosexual female - has spent most of her life with the same partner
- homosexual male - went through puberty when he was in his thirties (as far as I can remember), now has a beard but is still small in stature
- heterosexual female - has only had sex once in her life and remains rather clueless about what happened
- asexual female - dresses in a very feminine way
- heterosexual male - could also classify as metrosexual because he takes care of his appearance
- uncertain male - he assumes he's heterosexual, but might actually be pansexual. Just hasn't found the right partner yet.
- asexual female - someone once tried to come onto her and she had to walk out of the room because it weirded her out
- asexual male - likes clothes and jewelry

[hyrle]

I play 10 males, 4 females, and 1 male that likes to act and dress female. (He has more than once wished he could be a woman.) I am a male player. I feel that I can't necessarily wrap my head around the female mindset all that well, though two of my more interesting characters are females.

Since we're expressing sexuality of each:
1: hetero committed male
2: hetero male - no current partner
3: lesbian female - has a crush but no current partner(s)
4: hetero male - no current partner
5: hetero committed male
6: bisexual female - no current partner
7: polyamorous bisexual female - all her previous partners are dead
8: polyamorous hetero male - all his previous partners are dead
9: polyamorous hetero male, currently only committed to one, though.
10: polyamorous hetero male, currently only committed to one
11: polyamorous bisexual female, only one current relationship
12: unknown male, wants to be female but seems attracted to females as well.
13: hetero committed male
14: hetero male, left his lover because he couldn't communicate with her, or anyone.
15: hetero male, now dying.

[ObsessedWithCats]

I've played more men than women, but my women have lived longer. In contrast to cutecuddlydirewolf I've found my females were more ambitious and driven, whereas some of my males spiralled from boredom or loneliness into depression and died. I blame Treefeather. At any time I always tried to have roughly even distribution. I'm non-binary and my characters tend to have rather a mix of stereotypically neutral, feminine and masculine traits, but I'm not sure if that's at all related.

All of my characters were/are asexual and cisgender, because sexuality is something I cannot fake and being transgender is a pain enough IRL when I'm not introduced as '[birth assigned gender] in [birth assigned pronoun] [rough age]' to every new person I meet.