I think it's an interesting way to experience another perspective and acting different roleplay. Your thoughts?

I am a cis man, yet most of my characters I have played are women; it just so happens that when I first envision a character, their gender comes as it may. As long as you don’t ”make it creepy” it’s totally fine.

why would it be weird, i mean it is a fantasy game, you can play whatever you like, otherwise we should all play human if it wasn't allowed

I do this from time to time. I see it no differently than when you're playing a character that's not-human. Playing something different to yourself can make things more interesting and can help you visualise a perspective different from your own. Some character concepts might be more fitting for different races/genders. It's a way to broaden your mind and acting abilities. 

In theatre actors very often play roles of different gender - it's a very normal thing. In animation it's also very common for young males to be played by female actors - and it usually works out quite superbly. 

Sometimes, for me playing a human male for every character is a bit limiting and so, playing a different gender, race or both gives it something "more" to play as - something that helps to differentiate the character more from me, so there's no relying on me playing 'me with powers'. 

It's a challenge to play something more different than yourself without devolving into a caricature or stereotype. 

Quote from alonhero123 >>

I think it's an interesting way to experience another perspective and acting different roleplay. Your thoughts?

It depends on how you play it.  If your first step is to sexualize the character, that's wrong and the DM should stop it real quick.  I've played women to kind of explore "softer" emotions in a safe space before.  It all boils down to original intent, and then are you faithfully giving it an honest go without being this walking trope.    If yes, you should be fine.  If not, you should stop instantly.

A long time ago, as a DM, I had a hard time with this.  Sitting at a table running a game, and listening to a big guy with a deep voice who had a beard speak the lines of a female character was indeed weird.  I'd forget I was supposed to be dealing with a female, and my npcs would react oddly.  I had similar problems with character race.

A great many things have changed since them.  Online play makes it impossible to know what gender anyone is, and who really cares?  

Not weird. It absolutely can be weird if you make it weird, but I’ve seen plenty of players do it, and done it myself, and it’s totally normal. In my experience, a minority of players actually do it, but I’ve never seen anyone looked down in for it, unless they play a blatant stereotype.

I have actually found that I prefer to play female characters lately. It doesn't feel weird or awkward for me at all. I haven't gotten any complaints from the other players so far either.

It's fine. I do it all the time -- After all, I'm not an elf or a dwarf or a gnome either, am I? Nor am I chaotic evil, true neutral, etc. As a DM, I am not really a murderer, but I have to play one when I run the bad guys, etc. I'm not sure why gender of a character should be special in this regard. And after all, every DM has to do this, whether or not the rest of the players are... as a DM, you *have* to play  both male and female characters, because there are some of each in your world, and you play all  NPCs. So why would it be weird if the player does it but not the DM?

Furthermore, the greatest troubles I have had in RPGs over the years -- whether tabletop, MUSH, MMO, what have you -- was people being unable to separate themselves (the player) from their character. This leads to taking it personally when something happens to the character, which causes no end of problems. If I play a different race, different alignment, or different gender from myself (or better yet, all three!), it's both an increased RPing challenge, and also a massively decreased chance for me to take anything personally.

Just like, as a DM, I don't take it personally when the players express hatred of a BBEG.

It's only weird if you make it weird, and the fastest way to do that is to over-sexualize it, but honestly that's true for characters matching their player's sex or gender too.

Currently playing a Female Gnome Paladin and having a blast. The important thing I've learned overtime is to play the character, not the gender.

It can be. I've been in some awkward situations with players playing a character of another gender than theirs - certainly a minority of cases, but they were extremely cringey. It absolutely doesn't have to be though, and going by personal experience I'd say it more often than not doesn't make a whole lot of difference. Unless the DM makes it so, gender is not a big thing in most D&D campaigns. Mechanically it doesn't change anything, and most settings (today) are very inclusive and have gender equality.

No Inherrantly I play as characters of other gender idenities all the time ( my name sake is bigender just to show you) and it has never been awkward (well sometimes it has but those are because of entirely seperate reasons that to not apply to the average person).

It's not weird if everyone's okay with it. When I create a character, I usually envision what gender they're going to be. I don't purposefully try to play one specific gender, I do whichever one feels right for the character.

I do not think it is weird to play as someone else different from you. Although as a DM, I guess we do have a lot more practice than people who are mostly just players, since DMs have to play all the different NPCs who are often not only of different gender, but also of different world backgrounds, social economic status, world views, etc. As a DM, gender does not really affect my roleplay of NPCs unless a situation comes up where a specific gender matters, such as if you want incorporate and explore stuff like romance and gender inequality in your campaign.

It shouldn't be weird but I have seen some DMs not allow it just because they didn't want to see a guy flirt with another guy in game play. Since starting in 1976, my characters have been about 50/50 M/F and never had anyone question it. My advice would not to involve sex at all in the game play as it makes some people uncomfortable. Keep your character's conduct professional and all will be fine.

Is playing as a character that is a different gender that you weird? Not at all. In my experience, it is pretty common for players to make and run characters of the opposite gender. If you want to get technical, playing as characters that are different genders is common in every game that is played- DM's run characters of all kinds, don't they?

Quote from Myastan_Torinn >>

I am a cis man, yet most of my characters I have played are women; it just so happens that when I first envision a character, their gender comes as it may. As long as you don’t ”make it creepy” it’s totally fine.

Pretty much this. There are some people who will play female characters in toxic, tropish, sexist ways which is definitely to be avoided but for the most part, I haven't found too many players doing that.