Males playing Female's and vice versa

[Bolden Denusk]

Too right Katie!

I remember when Risa asked me how to successfully play someone of the opposite gender. I advised her to make someone she either knows irl, and/or someone she would find attractive and put in those defining quirks. It could be a stubble scratching thing or flipping your hair out of your face kind of gesture. Enjoy it and go with it. I agree with Katie for the most part, however there is one thing I think is the main point. Many societies have preset expectations of what genders should act, be, dress, talk like. Or they might add a stigma to anyone who takes on an opposite role. This is miza though!!! you can be a horned, purple eth male during the day and a bronzed, drykas female by night!

Miza doesn't expect you to fulfill pre assigned gender roles! Miza expects you to let your imagination run wild and have a blast rping tons of different options. Throw off the shackles of irl and join Mizahar as ANY race or gender listed on here!

[Ronan]

Wow. You guys are awesome, thank you for all the advice and kind words ^^. I've been RPing Ronan since June, and definitely will always be using him, but I would love to have another PC on the go, and you've persuaded me that will be a Konti now To be fair, I do a lot of creative writing, and have done plenty of female POV's, so it should be ok.

Thanks again Miza friends!

[Ronan]

And to add: I have made a Konti. Her name is Avina - wish me luck!

[Screech]

Your Konti and my Konti should flashback together when I get her all set up. :3 GOOD LUCK! And, as Gossamer said, you'd be in good company!

[Ronan]

I would love to

[Sira]

Hi. I am Ron, although most of you probably know me better as Verilian, or V, or you know Herself. I am a man currently playing a pregnant female, and nobody has ever called me strange. I have never claimed not to be a man. I also play Leiwinn, a female assassin, and Sashi, another female kelvic. I have played two other females (on this website) in the past as well. ...I've also got two male characters at the moment, Pashake and Massacre. I just prefer to play female characters. And no, I don't enjoy playing Sira so much because she's a lesbian and I get off on that. That's just an added bonus, lol, but no, Sira was originally straight until I further delved into the mindset of a wind eagle and realized it would be better for her to bond/fall in love with a female. On my last site my main character was a male, but my secondary was female and I actually enjoyed playing her better, and she was straight so again it wasn't because I get off on it or something. I've heard people accuse others of that, and rarely do I find that is the case. I remember back when I first started playing WoW, I was with my guild for an entire year on a female character and they just assumed I was female until the day we got voice chat and they were all shocked. I wasn't trying to come off as female, and I don't think I'm very feminine naturally.. so, the point is, there isn't that much difference between playing a male and female. Hell, I'm playing a pregnant female and I think I'm doing a decent enough job. I don't know what it's like to be a woman, to be pregnant, or anything like that, but I am doing it anyway and nobody cares. So, as so many of the people in this thread have already said, play whatever you want. Gender doesn't matter.

[Kvar Driftweaver]

Universal tips for this from someone who has played more than I can count of each. Even flat characters that add these sprinkles can fool people for ages.

If you want to sound more feminine add more description about appearance, add softer words, add more - we, us, our.

If you want to sound more masculine, add more personal reasons for doing something into a post, add stronger/harsher words, add more - I, me.

Please note, not to sound more male or female, to sound more feminine or masculine. There is a big difference.

The primary tip is to write them as people first, women or men second. Cute and Shy females are very easily to pull off. Shy means you can fall back to not saying or doing anything and still not looking masculine in the process. Cute means you can fall back to giggles or play words for instance.

Well rounded cross gender characters are very difficult to pull off, kudos to the writers that can keep them up for a few months or more. I could write one now that you'd never guess it was a man, but they would just run out of steam or development after a month or two, and irritate me too much as they stray from being anything (even a reflection of) 'me'. That said I like to try new concepts out regardless of gender now and again, it's just roleplaying, playing one more role within a story, and it expands your skill set as a writer.

[Gossamer]

I simply have to comment. I probably have no right to as I have never gender swapped other than with my NPCs in my entire life. As a female who never switches gender, I have to look at the above post and disagree quite a lot with it. I mean no disrespect, but as a female the easiest way to spot what I call a genderswap is to see a girl that giggles or who was shy. I call these 'barbies' and I usually turn my nose up at them and ride out the other way never looking back. I've even been known to leave threads that contain barbies because they are so annoying to me. Women play women as strong sensitive independent people and then they become believable. When I see a barbie pc like hes describing that use 'soft' words and phrases and giggles or plays shy etc I know for almost a fact I'm staring at a gender swap. Girls almost never play barbies. Almost everyone who's female that I rp with use what is above characterized as 'masculine' traits. Seriously, its not what you write, its how you write it. Women think about things, a lot, analyzing things in their minds and going over and over scenes again and again. We hold onto small slights. We find things important that men might gloss over... and yet in saying that, I know a bunch of guys that are like that as well. Don't stereotype genders. I find that about as uncool as anything else. Celebrate things instead. The believability isn't in what sort of words you use but is in how well you put the character together and how that PC is played.

[Kvar Driftweaver]

Very true! But you are a clever, experienced author, used to reading many, many posts right? It is just what I have found since starting roleplaying in 93, these are just little sprinkles as I said, not solid cores, that comes from writing a person (not a female or male).

You'll notice I put not how to play female, instead how to write and fool with feminine graces. Some of the women I most admire are strong women very much so, and it is why I cannot as a writer hit that sweet spot which makes a well rounded female character. I think though if they are honest, many mainstream male authors looking at their own books would say the same. Wheel of time one of my favorites as a core example.

I can, without any shadow of a doubt, guarantee you would never guess a man was writing a female I put out there for a long time. I say this with extreme confidence, even if you were alerted and looking for the signs, just because I've written so many over the years and had that response. Not for long term sadly, they all feel too fake long term, and I feel after maybe six months would run out of places to develop.

Its all about impression, I can't hit depth, but I can do impression till the cows come home, and make a fairly endearing, or strong, or even connective female character.

[Ronan]

I agree with Goss - and I think that's the same for both genders. Female's play strong female's, male's tend to play strong male's. Strong willed, determined characters are generally the most likeable. In my creative writing many years ago, I'm guilty of creating one or two 'barbie's'. They were damsels in distress, placed into a story just to allow the male's to perform heroic acts. Thankfully, my writing has progressed a lot since then. Some of newest fantasy stories have placed a strong female as the central character, and I have no qualms with that. I find it much easier to write a strong female than a soft female. I might be male, but I give my characters heart and soul.