What is the diversity of your group?

[DougRed4]

[Leon The Lion]

[shootingwomprats]

[Leon The Lion]

I was just wondering. Because if "friends don't let other friends cross-gender role play, its just creepy" doesn't that apply to a male GM and the NPCs he creates too? Or does that get a pass, because, necessarily, a GM portraying NPCs is less involved than a player role-playing his single character?
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- Tom Lehrer

[shootingwomprats]

Well, I think my sarcasm what apparently not readily apparent. Regardless, a GM has to populate his game with all the other characters the players interact with. This necessitates the GM role playing a female character once in a while. This is much different from someone playing a female character throughout every session from start to end in that role. The GM may play one from time to time, but its not a steady diet. So we are not really comparing apples to apples.

I am finding this conversation is degrading into something else entirely. Perhaps you are suggesting that if people to not embrace playing cross-gender roles they are somehow homophobic or hate women? Sorry, but that is not a conversation I want to take part in.

This is a hobby and meant to be fun. When real life, polarizing ideals and hot button issues start creeping in, I check out.
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[Assuran]

New group, with 2 characters yet to be made. The setting is 7 years prior to ANH.

All my players are white, 1 is a female. We've been gaming together as a group in one form or another since the mid 90s and our group congealed as a whole around 1999. We did add the 1 female (my wife) a few years ago as she got tired of me not being around 1 day a week.

Group comp:

Verpine Outlaw Tech
Jawa Smuggler (my wife)
Human Bounty Hunter
Ongree Jedi Mystic


As I said, 2 players missed our character creation session, so I'll update this post when I know what they are playing.

As for the cross-gender play, it's not a big deal to our group. Males play females and females play males.

[garhkal]

[Dromdarr_Alark]

I don't see an issue with cross-gender roleplaying - as long as it is not demeaning to the gender you are trying to emulate. If you do emulate stereotypes and what-not, then that's problem. However, from what I have noticed, people who play characters of different genders from themselves put just as much complexity and thought into their development as they would normally. I honestly think it is weird to have an all-male party.

I also do not see RPGs as male-oriented. It is true that they are more accessible to men (in that men have the mentality that it is a men's game, and sometimes behave oddly when a woman is playing with them - and there are the pressures on women to behave feminine, etc., etc., etc. - it's all systematic!). There has been at least one woman in every game I have played for the past 6 years. I also have plenty of male players who are comfortable playing female characters. I think the reason for that is that they do not want their party to be so homogeneous.

As a GM, I make sure that I give equal time to both men and women NPCs. I also make sure that they are distributed among levels of power and status. Their main rebel commander is a black woman, and their first villain was a woman hungry for power. The local Grand Moff is a white man, along with many Imperial officials.

As was depicted in the original movies, the Empire represented uniformity and espoused a master-race mentality, whereas the Rebellion represented diversity and cultural awareness. I try to emulate that in my games.

I think the fact that hundreds of alien species exist in the Star Wars universe causes people to narrow the definition of "human" to white male or female, when in fact our species is wonderfully diverse. Should I get off my soapbox now?

I'm not trying to start any arguments or anything. I just vomited my thoughts into this post as they came to me.


On a different topic, I am surprised to see how many people actually play humans. With so many options to play weird aliens, I can't imagine playing a boring old human. It seems that many people are fine with that, however.
_________________
"I still wouldn't have a roll for it - but that's just how I roll."

[cheshire]

[Leon The Lion]

[DougRed4]

Welcome, Assuran! Glad to have you here, and your group sounds like a lot of fun. I think it would be awesome to have a Jawa PC!
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[Dromdarr_Alark]

[Assuran]

Updating my playgroup, setting is set 7 years prior to ANH:

Human Infiltration Agent, defected from the Empire.
Human Ex-Clone Trooper, defected from the Empire.
Jawa Smuggler, heavily in debt to Jabba the Hutt.
Ongree Ex-Jedi. Survived Order 66 and receded into the shadows. Think Jolee Bindo as a template.
Human Bounty Hunter. Hired muscle for the smuggler.
Verpine Outlaw Tech. The smuggler's engineer.

The Smuggler owns the Starship the group is traveling around in, and in her words: "My ship, my rules."

The game started with the Instant Adventure The Treasure of Cellis Mott because I think it's an amazing showcase of the system. There's a couple of fights, some diplomacy, spaceship fight/chase, landing on an asteroid, etc.

[Dromdarr_Alark]

[Assuran]