| From: | Pete Sims <petesims@********.demon.co.uk> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Women In Shadowrun re: was Mistaken Underpants |
| Date: | Mon, 7 Oct 1996 01:36:40 +0100 |
100000@*******.qut.edu.au>, RAY MACEY <r.macey@*******.qut.edu.au>
writes
[snip]
>I found the same thing with my wife. I eventually talked her into
>playing, and she has now played SR and Earthdawn. She much prefers
>Shadowrun because it's more realsitic than EarthDawn, and allows her to
>fully develop her character with flaws and all.
>
Don't tell me about character flaws, I think nearly every one of my
wifes characters has had some personal flaw and she's usually played it
to the hilt.
Her first one was psychotic (a sociopath probably describes it best)
Her next one was gang related and she had three "troll sized humans" as
brothers, whom she mothered terribly, and all sorts of problems
developed from that, but the character was a compulsive collector, of
guns and motorcycles.
Her third character (the present one) is an elven nutter with a taste
for outragous clothing and hair styles, with metallic shade make up to
match. (What an eyesore) :) :( A constant traffic light to the rest of
the world :)
The characters and RP style have all improved as the game has developed
and she has progressed in her RP abilities, it's quite amusing watching
them develop, but boy do they cause the other players some headaches
(she's also a terminal practical joker, and is always pulling some prank
on the other characters) :)
>I think this may be related to my earlier post on female munchkins. I
>have never found one. Maybe it's because (sorry if I am generalising, I
>don't mean offense to anyone), in general, women are talked into RP'ing
>and don't start from the beginning with D&D and the like. I found (in my
>wife especially) that the reason she loves Role Playing as much as she now
>does, is simply because it allows her to make a real character. She can
>play someone with a personality.
My wife says that the reason she enjoys RP and Shadowrun so much is not
so much the chance to play a personality, although that counts, but it's
the total escapism offered from boring old mundane life. It's one of
the few times when she can let her hair down and "get nuts". I think
her next character is going to based on either Darkwing Duck (let's get
dangerous) or the Fantastic Four (It's clobberin' time).
It does seem that RP is primarily a male oriented thing, but I have
noticed in my travels around the net, that more females are becoming
involved in it, in fact I believe one posts to this group (Lady Jesty?).
Whether this "male thing" is because of the general image given to SciFi
and Fantasy or whether they just follow the "it's childish" view I can't
really say, nearly every female I've known where I live, thoroughly
enjoys playing RPG's and is usually very reluctant to stop playing,
complaining that real life interferes and should be cancelled :)
Maybe I'm just lucky that I live in a part of England that has the
highest unemployment in the UK, and the highest proportion of "nowhere
interesting to go" places. The women here are very receptive to Role
Playing, and usually leap into it enthusiastically.
Just my thoughts.
Pete
--
Pete Sims
Heroes or Fools? That's a determination others will make in hindsight. But by
being here now, we make that determination for ourselves, and it's neither.
Lt.Col.T.C.McQueen
