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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Christina Johnson <johnson1@**.UWP.EDU>
Subject: genders
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 20:41:04 -0500
Mmm... I know, this is Shadowrun.

But: I was DMing a campain, and a friend of mine was playing a female with
a charisma of 18. Now, *I* was offended by the way he was playing her, as
were most of the people in the room. She ended up with Breasts of 18, or
something like that, as she had a personality of 3. Anyway, to get even
with him, I pointed out to his older brother (who was playing the game for the
first time in his life) that Bryan was playing the most attractive female
David's little halfling, Fritz, had ever seen. David turned out to be an
excellent role-player, and made Bryan blush more than once. He got the
short end of the sexist thing, when he'd been making everyone else in
the room feel uncomfortable all night. Bryan never played Claurisa again.

Still, all his characters since rarely do anything but shop. I don't
role-play with Bryan much anymore. :-/


Christina M. Johnson, University of WI, Parkside, Kenosha johnson1@**.uwp.edu
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"So this is the Sword of Immortality, huh? What's it doing in a crypt?"
-John S. Novak III
Message no. 2
From: The Deb Decker <RJR96326@****.UTULSA.EDU>
Subject: Re: genders
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1993 21:09:04 GMT
>David turned out to be an
>excellent role-player, and made Bryan blush more than once. He got the
>short end of the sexist thing, when he'd been making everyone else in
>the room feel uncomfortable all night. Bryan never played Claurisa again.

Good.

>Still, all his characters since rarely do anything but shop. I don't
>role-play with Bryan much anymore. :-/

Kinda gets back to what I said about 'Free-Market Gaming"

(BTW, nice sig Christina)


J Roberson
Message no. 3
From: Christina Johnson <johnson1@**.UWP.EDU>
Subject: genders
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1993 18:10:41 -0500
Augh. Look, it boils down to this:

Some people cannot play outside themselves. Some people are unwilling to.
Some people play the easiest thing that still involves their character.
Playing a gruff ork (and making that the ONLY thing about him) is just as
bad as playing a woman who does little but bounce her chest about and
flitter her eyelids. I will admit that there are women who do that, just
as there are (in the game) surely orks who are nothing but gruff cardboard
cut-outs. The only reason, perhaps, that badly playing a female or male
is offensive, or at least more annoying, is becuase we see 3d examples of
these people all the time. I know I'm not a brainless cock-tease... The
ork, if he really existed, would know that he was not simply something
that goes "ung. Me shoot." It's /not/ a matter of one gender being
unable to play another gender. It's a matter of individuals being unable
to (or unwilling to, or scared to, or whatever) play outside of
themselves. I've played both men and women (as a GM i've had to), and my
favourite character is a 14 year old boy, partly because he is comeing to
grips with his own puberty. I don't know that I was wholly successful,
but my players had a good time w/him too.

Anyway, I think the thread has pretty much played itself out. I
personally don't believe in the theory that men and women are different
races come together on accident on this planet, and that we'll never
understand each other. I understand women about as well as I understand
men. That is, not at all. :)

It /is/ offensive, or silly, when someone plays an opposite gender and
does it badly, but again, i believe that it's a result of us knowing how
it should be played...

If half of your friends were elves, and you knew how diverse and deep they
could be, you'd get pretty irritated if someone kept insisting on playing
the flighty, arrogant pointy eared guy. In fact, you might get down-right
insulted if he did it all the time, and didn't even KNOW he was doing it.

ah... another killer post from me. I must be trying to make up for lost
time.

Christina M. Johnson, University of WI, Parkside, Kenosha johnson1@**.uwp.edu
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"He tried to kill me with a forklift... My name is Ken, Olay!"

Further Reading

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