Question for female players of Champions

[Enforcer84]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

Play them as individuals with different motivations? That should work.

[nexus]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

I know you're asking for advice from women but I wanted to just say remember your character is a full person. Her gender will influence her behavior not define it. There isn't a single defining personality trait for men or women. There are tendencies and biology has an effect but so does culture, background, education, socialization, etc. Usually when some one says "Your character isn't acting like a women (or a man) they mean they're not acting like what their notion of that gender is because I can practically garauntee you can find an example of real life woman or man that behaves in that fashion. I don't know if your game is FTF or online but I've come to think that some of the "man in a woman" feeling comes from knowing the player is the opposite gender and not being able to divorce that from their PC. Of course, I've also had women players corrected for not playing their characters as "female" enough so there you go.

 

Make a nuanced interesting character even if she is a "sex kitten' or a tomboy amazon. Give her a reason and motivation for those character traits and other factors in her personality. Some women do use their looks to get what they want, some men do a well for example but there's generally more to them that. You might also want toi play a shallow character that grows in game as a hero and a person. It can be fun.

 

and I'm getting preachy so I'll shut up and get down off the soap box. Sorry.

[Susano]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

Cool. ^ v ^

 

So what do you need US for?

 

Uhm... advice and suggestions?

 

If I'd asked this way back when Shadows Angelus started, I know I'd have a better idea for what could and would have done in some situations.

[Bunny]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

I agree with Nexus. I've often been told that I am not a typical girl. Gender enhances who you are. There is no one way a woman would act or not act.

 

One thing is, don't worry about one of the personalities being a sex kitten type. Most women I talk to want to be seen that way and if one of the dominant personalities of your character, or perhaps her "true" one, is mousy or masculine, this is a way for her to be who she WANTS to be, and some girls may hate me for saying this, but we all want to be seen as sexy and desirable. We all want the guts to dress "that way" in public.

 

ANd the little details like the Navaho headband, while overly sensitive types might see it as an insult, seem very logical for someone who is merely part of an MPD. They'll do all they can to BE that persona.

 

In my experience, and this is just me, girls do NOT prefer the company of other girls. Maybe occasionally, but I've been very social in my life (cheerleading, dancing, even in a ghost hunting group) and nearly every girl whom I got close to in each setting admitted to going home most times and crying over something one of the girls did/wore/said/looked/got/thought. Not jsut teenagers. One group I belonged to was made defunct due to a group of near-40 married women trying to get the favor of this nasty, trollish, ignorant, sweaty man in the group, cuz he was the only guy. Women are complicated and strange, even to me.

 

Most women in my experience view each other with more suspicion than they do men. They will gravitate to one woman they see as being either most like them, or the least threat, and talk about the others behind their backs. They will try to form alliances against the other women and when a man in the group turns to one of those other women, even if the woman we're talking about doesnt like said man, he will find himself shunned.

 

So, at risk of sounding horrible, and getting people mad at me, that's my experience, being a very feminine woman doing mostly male stuff. I would say, have her play that way, maybe give each personality one person they like out of all the others, LOL. I NEVER buy into these shows and comics where the girls on the team unite against the guys. It's more like a Raven (teen titans) thing

[Weldun]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

Oh, another observation of my female friends...

 

You know the saying "Hell hath no fury..."? Well it should read as, "Hell hath no fury like a woman whose friends have been hurt." I find that women, when they form a relationship that is anything more than mere aquaintance, tend to be fiercly protective of those they care about. Maybe it's nurturing instinct, I cannot say, as I have this very same trait. But it is something that I've noticed as a common trait amongst women, but not so much amongst men.

[Kristopher]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

Could be a self-selecting sample, but many of my female friends have said that they prefer to hang out with guys because "most other girls are too catty and dramatic and aggravating".

[AliceTheOwl]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

It's a maturity thing. Women secure with themselves feel no need to backstab or be catty. I have several female friends who are above all of that.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

Interesting thread. As someone whose primary Champions character is female, I'm always open to ideas of how to roleplay her better.

[Haven Walkur]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

Gamers tend to build their cross-gender characters with idealized, outrageously high Comeliness characteristics...and yes, I'm counting a 20 COM as outrageous.

 

Perhaps you'd find it easier to focus on your character as a "real" woman -- a real person -- if you reduced her incredible beauty down to "merely" very good-looking? If you shift the emphasis off her physical appearance, you may find it easier to connect with the character as a person; she becomes more to you than just a physically idealized "pretty face."

 

Frankly, a 20 COM character would hardly be memorable as anything other than just a perfect beauty anyway. Oh, an eyewitness will remember that the character was really, really hot -- but not much else about her. It's the imperfections that make a person physically striking or memorable; physical perfection lacks those little flaws, making a 20 COM character gorgeous, bland and generic.

 

And "generic" is hard to wrap your brain around as a player. It's hard to get a role-playing handle on.

 

Just because COM is only half a point per point, resist the urge to go crazy. A 20 COM produces clichés and cartoon characters, not real people.

 

(Oh, and yes, I'm a female gamer -- and I've noticed that my very infrequent male characters all end up beautiful as gods and stiff as cardboard.)

[Susano]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

Gamers tend to build their cross-gender characters with idealized' date=' outrageously high Comeliness characteristics...and yes, I'm counting a 20 COM as outrageous. [/quote']

 

Well, she has 20s across the board, for the most part.

[nexus]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

I can honestly say I have never noticed a correlation between high Com and lack of personality or character depth but different strokes I suppose.

[Bloodstone]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

I know you were looking for roleplay advice from female players, but I just gotta know.... Why did you choose Bando and Lethwei? These are both rather obscure arts outside of Burma/Myanmar... and I know this because I briefly studied Burmese martial arts.

 

That right there COULD be something to help flesh out a character, should you choose to explore it.

 

If you want any more information about Burmese martial arts, feel free to PM me. I'm not an expert or anything mind you.

[Susano]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

I know you were looking for roleplay advice from female players, but I just gotta know.... Why did you choose Bando and Lethwei? These are both rather obscure arts outside of Burma/Myanmar... and I know this because I briefly studied Burmese martial arts.

 

That right there COULD be something to help flesh out a character, should you choose to explore it.

 

Uhm... 'cause I was tired of seeing karate or kung fu on character sheet. That's not a requirement either, especially since I think the whole color text is going to get a re-write.

[Bloodstone]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

LOL!

 

I was going to say "Unless you picked it 'cause it sounded cool and was different" but thought that might come off sounding snarkey.

[Susano]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

LOL!

 

I was going to say "Unless you picked it 'cause it sounded cool and was different" but thought that might come off sounding snarkey.

 

I was also thinking "because no one she fights will have any idea what's she's using" which just became my reason.

[Weldun]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

Actually, Susano, try to see if you can get a look-in at some of the Bando stables while you're here in the merry old land of Oz. It's quite popular over here. Not as popular as Capoeira or Muay Thai, but popular nonetheless.

[Spidey88]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

If the complaint is that the female characters don't get along, perhaps it just calls for your character paying more attention to the other females just because they're females. There are certainly activities where females prefer to sequester themselves from males (not just chick flicks and shoe shopping), and so any excursion often means a woman will invite her female friends along for company before she asks the guys. Going to a dinner with a female friend is a wonderful way of eating out without eating alone, and without the pressure to maintain a certain level of conversation while out, or the uncertainty of what happens when the "date" is over.

 

As a note, even with male friends, many females feel uncertainty and some stress about how they're viewed by males, especially if they're single. Many women feel just as uncomfortable rejecting a friend as the friend feels being rejected. Going through that kind of situation just once is enough that one is prepared for its eventuality in the future, which adds a level of strain to the interactions. On top of that, many females feel an attraction on one level or another to male acquaintances, and wish to be viewed in as positive a light as possible, whether there's potential for that to turn into more or not.

 

But going out with female friends doesn't have that underlying tension. One can relax and be oneself a lot more easily if the idea of sexual tension is a moot point.

 

To be honest, Alice - all of these apply just as much to a lot of men, too (at least most of the ones I know)!

[BcAugust]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

Ah, did miss that it was multiple personalities... and since some people have misunderstood me, I'll clarify a couple of points.

 

1) step above sex kitten is a term in my group for what would be, say Lara Croft or Alias. A character that feels like someone took a male action hero down to the core, and slapped on a hot body and dressed skimpily. It actually does make more sense as a multiple personality(IE, she acts like an idealized version of a male action hero).

 

2) As to the Navojo hatband, I pointed it out because it is a major insult in Native culture(Hmm, the closest I could come in mainstream American culture would be a white person wearing a shirt with the n word). Admittedly, 99.99% of gamers would likely never notice, but it bugged me.

[Susano]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

Ah, did miss that it was multiple personalities... and since some people have misunderstood me, I'll clarify a couple of points.

 

1) step above sex kitten is a term in my group for what would be, say Lara Croft or Alias. A character that feels like someone took a male action hero down to the core, and slapped on a hot body and dressed skimpily. It actually does make more sense as a multiple personality(IE, she acts like an idealized version of a male action hero).

 

Now there's yet another idea... each personality is an idealized one. Except Mary Tower... who is probably closest to the real one.

[nexus]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

To be honest' date=' Alice - all of these apply just as much to a lot of men, too (at least most of the ones I know)![/quote']

 

I've found that to be true about alot of observations about men and women, honesty. I think the genders are more alike then either wants to admit.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

Gamers tend to build their cross-gender characters with idealized' date=' outrageously high Comeliness characteristics...and yes, I'm counting a 20 COM as outrageous.[/quote']If COM 30+ is "beyond human" beauty, then a COM 20 just makes a character "movie star" pretty even if we assume COM is strictly a score for physical (read: sexual) attractiveness. (Which I personally don't.) Even the base COM 10 of player characters is better looking than average Joes (or Janes) on the street who have an 8. I think you'd have to get into the 20's to get something beyond "best looking girl in the school" or "handsomest guy in town." Heck, I'd consider COM 16 to be appropriate for the pretty "girl next door," especially for something as subjective as looks.

 

Comic book characters (male and female) tend to be comfortably above average in looks unless they're deliberately ugly like the Thing. Therefore, making a character with high COM (20+) is just replicating a common trope of the source material.

[AliceTheOwl]

Re: Question for female players of Champions

 

To be honest' date=' Alice - all of these apply just as much to a lot of men, too (at least most of the ones I know)![/quote']

I would imagine so. But as a guy, you're seeing women who hang out with guys and are comfortable with it, without ever getting insight into how she feels about it deep down. It's easy to imagine that only one side feels any sexual tension just because the other person's around, or that the feigned indifference is truly indifference, or that it's easier for the woman to hang out with the man than vice versa.

 

We women are taught not to show our interest too strongly, lest we be seen as coming on too strong. Assertiveness in women is associated with sluttiness in our culture, sadly, and so many women work hard to maintain the notion that they're NOT just up for grabs by anyone.

 

So, while we may flirt and giggle and wear low-cut blouses, we're insulted by the notion that that translates to availability, generally. Any sign that such behavior has been taken seriously as an invitation runs the risk of offending the woman in question.

 

Again, many women are confident enough in themselves to not let that bother them.