I was just wondering how common it is for men to play female characters in Adventurers League. I want to create a new character, one that I will stick with an play with through several AL campaigns, and I have one in mind, but she is a girl.
Normally, I wouldn't let the gender of a character stop me from playing them but I am a bit concerned about playing a girl AL characters as so far I have only seen people playing their own gender.
So would it be strange if I turned up to an Adventurers League session with a female character?
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I am an online author and sci-fi lover who plays table too roleplaying games in his free time. See all my character concepts at: Character Bios – Jays Blog (jaytelford.me)
Most people appear to be more comfortable playing their own gender but I know several folks, both male and female with opposite gender characters. It isn't a big deal one way or another in my experience (but culture likely varies geographically). In AL, it usually amounts to playing what you want to play, what you are comfortable playing, and what you have fun playing so I would go for it and if someone comments on it then perhaps ask politely why the gender choice of your character is in any way relevant to them. (though keep in mind that some may ask just out of interest for the character back story so don't immediately jump to a conclusion if someone asks about your character :) ).
It's roleplaying! You should be able to do what you want, and the D&D community is very welcoming and progressive, so I doubt you would get any flack for it. As long as you're putting the story and game first, then you should be fine. I've had straight players play gay or bi characters or I've had gay players playing straight characters, just like I've had females play males and males play females.
It's no different than when a female plays the Prince of Persia series, if that makes sense. Like it doesn't really matter and it can be a rewarding experience to try things outside of your comfort zone when it comes to D&D and roleplaying games in general.
Go ahead and play whatever gender works for the character. I played at a mixed gender table where men played women, a genderless elf, and the women were muscle male barbarians. So fun, so embrace what works best for your vision and damn gender roles!
Also keep this in mind...Adventurers League Players Guide v 8.2:
Character Rebuilding. You may choose to rebuild your character prior to playing their first adventure as a 5th-level character (levels 1–4). You can change any of your character’s statistics but their name. Other, non-mechanical aspects of your character such as their alignment, sex, gender, or personality traits can be changed between sessions regardless of their level.
"Limping towards an inn for a little rest/relaxation after a hard day of adventuring, Bob the Barbarian turns down an alley and is abruptly confronted by a wall of dense fog. After a few moments of waiving his hands to clear the fog, Bob looks down and notices...boobs. She shrugs her shoulders, loosens the straps on her leather chest armor, and continues limping towards the inn.
Please for give me saying this... But, the real reason why guys play girl characters in theory they like to be skinny or thin most of the time.... Rarely heavy but i did see some which is good. But that's also not the problem... It does feel a bit weird at most when a guy using a male voice using a female character in voice chat... If they can some how get that high pitch voice... I may give them a lot of money for being the best female voice actor. sometimes when you play with girls in a game and you choose a female character in d&d they might ask some several questions... Most guys do get sensitive and nervous and playing waifu or making something that they can never have (a real live girlfriend... most of the time)
Most D&D is mostly rely on voice chats... However I feel more comfortable playing as a male character in voice chat... When i'm not in voice chat i feel more comfortable playing as a female. To have different perspective on gender character development. A lot of times i play as a trans... but most people would find it weird.
In my conclusion most people would just text as a female character about 80% because the voice doesn't effect as they play as their character and most voice would be a rarely about 20% Hopefully to get that man into a girl voice (voice changer most times works... However most people would get annoyed for voice changer... as I tried it and it tick people off for robotic voice or unclear.)
Do what you want and what you think will be fun, and if theres no specific reason then you could make it something like a man in a woman's body. If anyone judges you, just ask them why it matters to them.
My longest running PC -- (3 years in 4e campaign + a rebuilt versions for Season 8 + 9 of DDAL) -- is a female (variant) human Storm Sorceress. I've played a female PC on a few occasions in the past, but never as my main/sole PC.
One of the reasons I think I kept up with the character was that I really enjoyed the change in perspective. My DM once commented that most of my characters seem like some version of Logan/Wolverine, Han Solo, Django Unchained, or James Bond. I think I'm more broad than that, but I think it is true that playing a male stereotypical character can be a drag after all the years.
That being said, I have seen male players play a female PC who just happens to be lesbian (when I was much younger). I kind of roll my eyes when they bring in outside, crap reasons to play a character (i.e. somehow 'get off' on a D&D session).
In the end, with regards to DDAL -- I have seen a lot of men playing female PCs. Usually they are high Charisma characters, which I guess makes sense. It's a sort of Barbie for men, but in my time at DDAL I haven't seen any PC that is really annoying due gender. Normally the most annoying trait a player can have is that their PC is way to Bossy or Rules Lawyery.
I currently have a stable of 10 AL e5 characters (I'm a guy in rl by the way). I have 5 Male characters and 5 Female characters. D&D is a fantasy game where anything goes, and I find it fun to break the stereotypical boundaries when it comes to gender. I have a lvl 4 female water genasi sorceress who's background is pirate, shes really strong willed and outspoken, shes alot of fun to play. I also have an armored lvl 4 female 8ft tall goliath Eldritch Knight fighter/rogue who's a total man hater who's out searching for her cheating husband (her husband is one of my male characters btw). These are just 2 of my 5 female characters, my male characters are just as colorful.
I believe it really doesn't matter what gender, race or class you play as long as you have fun doing it. And if someone has a problem with your choice of character do not let them get you down. Just tell them to go find another table to play at if they don't like YOUR choice.
I currently have a stable of 10 AL e5 characters (I'm a guy in rl by the way). I have 5 Male characters and 5 Female characters. D&D is a fantasy game where anything goes, and I find it fun to break the stereotypical boundaries when it comes to gender. I have a lvl 4 female water genasi sorceress who's background is pirate, shes really strong willed and outspoken, shes alot of fun to play. I also have an armored lvl 4 female 8ft tall goliath Eldritch Knight fighter/rogue who's a total man hater who's out searching for her cheating husband (her husband is one of my male characters btw). These are just 2 of my 5 female characters, my male characters are just as colorful.
I believe it really doesn't matter what gender, race or class you play as long as you have fun doing it. And if someone has a problem with your choice of character do not let them get you down. Just tell them to find another table to play at if they don't like YOUR choice.
The best character that I ever played was a non-binary girl.
She was born a boy to wealthy merchant parents; who had fallen on hard times but was also the inheritor of the soul of one of the legendary female, Knights of Myth Drannor.
As a result, there was a disconnect between her physical body and her soul, and when her legendary soul was finally fully awakened, by a mirror, at a shrine of Sune, she abandoned any pretence of being a boy.
She studied magic and became a transmutation, wizard, with the intent of finding a way to make her physical body match the gender of her soul. As a transmutation wizard, she specialised in support magic, casting spells that assisted her allies while hindering the enemy. Her inability to fight irritated her though. She wanted to be able to help her friends in actual combat, and so she learned spells like Catapult, which she used on daggers to devastating effect.
It was her dream to learn True Polymorph and cast it on herself, finally becoming the woman she knew was, body and soul.
I did actual research for that character. I talked to people who have gender dysphoria about their experiences, their struggles and desires and tried to incorporate that research into my character. Not by directly implanting it, but using it as a way of informing my characters view of herself and the world.
She is the best character that I have ever made.
I retired her though because I didn't think that the campaign she was in was right her. I didn't feel like I was doing her character justice and thought it better to retire her from play until the right campaign along.
I sadly have not found a campaign to play her in, but I continue to practice her character, and practising putting myself into her headspace.
I am an online author and sci-fi lover who plays table too roleplaying games in his free time. See all my character concepts at: Character Bios – Jays Blog (jaytelford.me)
In D&D, the characters I play most are a tough as nails, sworn to the Lord of Blades Warforged Paladin created to protect a 6 year-old girl who named him Pluphy. Yes, this unstoppable juggernaut of destruction answers to "fluffy."
I also have a female Gloomstalker/ Assassin named Maidne (Mahn ya) who is a City Watch Investigator and is also a vigilante killer of criminals.
In Vampire, I play a male Malkavian paranoid conspiracy theorist who answers to the voice of his Sire, and one true love, Libby who talks to him in his head.
In Dragon Age ( the Green Ronin tabletop RPG) I play a waifish City Elf former slave female who made a deal to use Blood Magic to save her and her sister from their slavish existence only to accidentally kill her sister in their escape.
So play what you want. For me, character concept always wins.
SocialFoxes your character, based in your description, is transgender not non-binary.
Transgender means the psychological gender they identify as is different than the physical gender they were born as. Your character was born physically a male but psychologically identifies as female. Correct pronouns being "she" and "her".
Non-binary means somebody who does not subscribe to the socially imposed labels of psychological gender and do not associate personality to their physical gender - in other words, they do not identify as male or female. Correct pronoun being "they".
These are very different and there would be some who may be offended at the idea of describing one under the label of the other.
I have played characters of either gender, and in my social circuit that happens quite a bit. Technically, DMs have to do this for a proportion of the time for many NPCs so it isn't a new concept. But some tables aren't comfortable with in, which I think is unfortunate. Exploring characters and stories are fun.
I so being a male playing (and writing about) female characters in a game, I spent a lot of time reading and researching the topic to understand the tropes better. I would echo the thoughts above about being respectful from both the player and the others at the table, and also about being clear to yourself on intent. An article I like that covers specifically male/female gender bending can be found here. See also some of the other collected articles she has gathered at the page above here.
In short; if you don't know the group you might want to ask. And even after you do, choose your character wisely.
(Not you specifically SocialFoxes, I've seen your character write ups, but others who are reading this who have never done this.)
SocialFoxes your character, based in your description, is transgender not non-binary.
Transgender means the psychological gender they identify as is different than the physical gender they were born as. Your character was born physically a male but psychologically identifies as female. Correct pronouns being "she" and "her".
Non-binary means somebody who does not subscribe to the socially imposed labels of psychological gender and do not associate personality to their physical gender - in other words, they do not identify as male or female. Correct pronoun being "they".
These are very different and there would be some who may be offended at the idea of describing one under the label of the other.
The people I spoke to during my research much preferred the term non-binary over transgender, due to past negative associations with the term transgender.
They called themselves non-binary while still using she, he, him, her pronouns.
Admittedly my sample was rather small but I did talked to 12 people in total of different ages. Some online and some offline.
All them identified as being transgender, but said they preferred the term non-binary for the reasons I said above. How true that is of the wider transgender community though, I don't know.
I decided that my character would also prefer the term non-binary over transgender, in an attempt to wayley negative associations the people of her world might have.
I will take what you said into consideration though as I am continually attempting to improve and build this character, even though I am not currently playing her.
The intent is to make a character who feels real, one that you could easily imagine coming off the page and existing in the real world, and in so doing make a character that the other players and their characters can really care about.
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I am an online author and sci-fi lover who plays table too roleplaying games in his free time. See all my character concepts at: Character Bios – Jays Blog (jaytelford.me)
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Hi Guys,
I was just wondering how common it is for men to play female characters in Adventurers League. I want to create a new character, one that I will stick with an play with through several AL campaigns, and I have one in mind, but she is a girl.
Normally, I wouldn't let the gender of a character stop me from playing them but I am a bit concerned about playing a girl AL characters as so far I have only seen people playing their own gender.
So would it be strange if I turned up to an Adventurers League session with a female character?
I am an online author and sci-fi lover who plays table too roleplaying games in his free time. See all my character concepts at: Character Bios – Jays Blog (jaytelford.me)
Most people appear to be more comfortable playing their own gender but I know several folks, both male and female with opposite gender characters. It isn't a big deal one way or another in my experience (but culture likely varies geographically). In AL, it usually amounts to playing what you want to play, what you are comfortable playing, and what you have fun playing so I would go for it and if someone comments on it then perhaps ask politely why the gender choice of your character is in any way relevant to them. (though keep in mind that some may ask just out of interest for the character back story so don't immediately jump to a conclusion if someone asks about your character :) ).
It's roleplaying! You should be able to do what you want, and the D&D community is very welcoming and progressive, so I doubt you would get any flack for it. As long as you're putting the story and game first, then you should be fine. I've had straight players play gay or bi characters or I've had gay players playing straight characters, just like I've had females play males and males play females.
It's no different than when a female plays the Prince of Persia series, if that makes sense. Like it doesn't really matter and it can be a rewarding experience to try things outside of your comfort zone when it comes to D&D and roleplaying games in general.
Published Subclasses
Go ahead and play whatever gender works for the character. I played at a mixed gender table where men played women, a genderless elf, and the women were muscle male barbarians. So fun, so embrace what works best for your vision and damn gender roles!
Absolutely no problem. Just be respectful.
Also keep this in mind...Adventurers League Players Guide v 8.2:
Character Rebuilding. You may choose to rebuild your character prior to playing their first adventure as a 5th-level character (levels 1–4). You can change any of your character’s statistics but their name. Other, non-mechanical aspects of your character such as their alignment, sex, gender, or personality traits can be changed between sessions regardless of their level.
"Limping towards an inn for a little rest/relaxation after a hard day of adventuring, Bob the Barbarian turns down an alley and is abruptly confronted by a wall of dense fog. After a few moments of waiving his hands to clear the fog, Bob looks down and notices...boobs. She shrugs her shoulders, loosens the straps on her leather chest armor, and continues limping towards the inn.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
A rather comprehensive list of free WotC D&D resources
Deck of Decks
Please for give me saying this... But, the real reason why guys play girl characters in theory they like to be skinny or thin most of the time.... Rarely heavy but i did see some which is good. But that's also not the problem... It does feel a bit weird at most when a guy using a male voice using a female character in voice chat... If they can some how get that high pitch voice... I may give them a lot of money for being the best female voice actor. sometimes when you play with girls in a game and you choose a female character in d&d they might ask some several questions... Most guys do get sensitive and nervous and playing waifu or making something that they can never have (a real live girlfriend... most of the time)
Most D&D is mostly rely on voice chats... However I feel more comfortable playing as a male character in voice chat... When i'm not in voice chat i feel more comfortable playing as a female. To have different perspective on gender character development. A lot of times i play as a trans... but most people would find it weird.
In my conclusion most people would just text as a female character about 80% because the voice doesn't effect as they play as their character and most voice would be a rarely about 20% Hopefully to get that man into a girl voice (voice changer most times works... However most people would get annoyed for voice changer... as I tried it and it tick people off for robotic voice or unclear.)
i'd say its very common....but i'd also say its uncommon for a male to play JUST female characters. (at least in my experience)
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
A rather comprehensive list of free WotC D&D resources
Deck of Decks
Do what you want and what you think will be fun, and if theres no specific reason then you could make it something like a man in a woman's body. If anyone judges you, just ask them why it matters to them.
As long as you don't intend to be offensive with how you play the character, there should be no issue.
My longest running PC -- (3 years in 4e campaign + a rebuilt versions for Season 8 + 9 of DDAL) -- is a female (variant) human Storm Sorceress. I've played a female PC on a few occasions in the past, but never as my main/sole PC.
One of the reasons I think I kept up with the character was that I really enjoyed the change in perspective. My DM once commented that most of my characters seem like some version of Logan/Wolverine, Han Solo, Django Unchained, or James Bond. I think I'm more broad than that, but I think it is true that playing a male stereotypical character can be a drag after all the years.
That being said, I have seen male players play a female PC who just happens to be lesbian (when I was much younger). I kind of roll my eyes when they bring in outside, crap reasons to play a character (i.e. somehow 'get off' on a D&D session).
In the end, with regards to DDAL -- I have seen a lot of men playing female PCs. Usually they are high Charisma characters, which I guess makes sense. It's a sort of Barbie for men, but in my time at DDAL I haven't seen any PC that is really annoying due gender. Normally the most annoying trait a player can have is that their PC is way to Bossy or Rules Lawyery.
IT
I currently have a stable of 10 AL e5 characters (I'm a guy in rl by the way). I have 5 Male characters and 5 Female characters. D&D is a fantasy game where anything goes, and I find it fun to break the stereotypical boundaries when it comes to gender. I have a lvl 4 female water genasi sorceress who's background is pirate, shes really strong willed and outspoken, shes alot of fun to play. I also have an armored lvl 4 female 8ft tall goliath Eldritch Knight fighter/rogue who's a total man hater who's out searching for her cheating husband (her husband is one of my male characters btw). These are just 2 of my 5 female characters, my male characters are just as colorful.
I believe it really doesn't matter what gender, race or class you play as long as you have fun doing it. And if someone has a problem with your choice of character do not let them get you down. Just tell them to go find another table to play at if they don't like YOUR choice.
The best character that I ever played was a non-binary girl.
She was born a boy to wealthy merchant parents; who had fallen on hard times but was also the inheritor of the soul of one of the legendary female, Knights of Myth Drannor.
As a result, there was a disconnect between her physical body and her soul, and when her legendary soul was finally fully awakened, by a mirror, at a shrine of Sune, she abandoned any pretence of being a boy.
She studied magic and became a transmutation, wizard, with the intent of finding a way to make her physical body match the gender of her soul. As a transmutation wizard, she specialised in support magic, casting spells that assisted her allies while hindering the enemy. Her inability to fight irritated her though. She wanted to be able to help her friends in actual combat, and so she learned spells like Catapult, which she used on daggers to devastating effect.
It was her dream to learn True Polymorph and cast it on herself, finally becoming the woman she knew was, body and soul.
I did actual research for that character. I talked to people who have gender dysphoria about their experiences, their struggles and desires and tried to incorporate that research into my character. Not by directly implanting it, but using it as a way of informing my characters view of herself and the world.
She is the best character that I have ever made.
I retired her though because I didn't think that the campaign she was in was right her. I didn't feel like I was doing her character justice and thought it better to retire her from play until the right campaign along.
I sadly have not found a campaign to play her in, but I continue to practice her character, and practising putting myself into her headspace.
Hopefully, I will get to play her again.
I am an online author and sci-fi lover who plays table too roleplaying games in his free time. See all my character concepts at: Character Bios – Jays Blog (jaytelford.me)
Hi. Just have fun.
In D&D, the characters I play most are a tough as nails, sworn to the Lord of Blades Warforged Paladin created to protect a 6 year-old girl who named him Pluphy. Yes, this unstoppable juggernaut of destruction answers to "fluffy."
I also have a female Gloomstalker/ Assassin named Maidne (Mahn ya) who is a City Watch Investigator and is also a vigilante killer of criminals.
In Vampire, I play a male Malkavian paranoid conspiracy theorist who answers to the voice of his Sire, and one true love, Libby who talks to him in his head.
In Dragon Age ( the Green Ronin tabletop RPG) I play a waifish City Elf former slave female who made a deal to use Blood Magic to save her and her sister from their slavish existence only to accidentally kill her sister in their escape.
So play what you want. For me, character concept always wins.
SocialFoxes your character, based in your description, is transgender not non-binary.
Transgender means the psychological gender they identify as is different than the physical gender they were born as. Your character was born physically a male but psychologically identifies as female. Correct pronouns being "she" and "her".
Non-binary means somebody who does not subscribe to the socially imposed labels of psychological gender and do not associate personality to their physical gender - in other words, they do not identify as male or female. Correct pronoun being "they".
These are very different and there would be some who may be offended at the idea of describing one under the label of the other.
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I have played characters of either gender, and in my social circuit that happens quite a bit. Technically, DMs have to do this for a proportion of the time for many NPCs so it isn't a new concept. But some tables aren't comfortable with in, which I think is unfortunate. Exploring characters and stories are fun.
I so being a male playing (and writing about) female characters in a game, I spent a lot of time reading and researching the topic to understand the tropes better. I would echo the thoughts above about being respectful from both the player and the others at the table, and also about being clear to yourself on intent. An article I like that covers specifically male/female gender bending can be found here. See also some of the other collected articles she has gathered at the page above here.
In short; if you don't know the group you might want to ask. And even after you do, choose your character wisely.
(Not you specifically SocialFoxes, I've seen your character write ups, but others who are reading this who have never done this.)
The people I spoke to during my research much preferred the term non-binary over transgender, due to past negative associations with the term transgender.
They called themselves non-binary while still using she, he, him, her pronouns.
Admittedly my sample was rather small but I did talked to 12 people in total of different ages. Some online and some offline.
All them identified as being transgender, but said they preferred the term non-binary for the reasons I said above. How true that is of the wider transgender community though, I don't know.
I decided that my character would also prefer the term non-binary over transgender, in an attempt to wayley negative associations the people of her world might have.
I will take what you said into consideration though as I am continually attempting to improve and build this character, even though I am not currently playing her.
The intent is to make a character who feels real, one that you could easily imagine coming off the page and existing in the real world, and in so doing make a character that the other players and their characters can really care about.
I am an online author and sci-fi lover who plays table too roleplaying games in his free time. See all my character concepts at: Character Bios – Jays Blog (jaytelford.me)