male & female skills?

[frumbert]

Men & Women tend to be better than the other at some things.. e.g. men *tend* to be stronger than most women, while most women *tend* to deal with several simultaneous tasks better than men. Before I start a war, I\'ll put forward my idea:

You could start a character out with more spendable points in various areas. E.g. males could spend (say) 5 more points on strength than females could, whlist females would spend (say) 10 more points on intelligence than males. These numbers would vary between the races.

There might be some skills that only a male or only a female might have.

[Moogie]

While this is certainly a valid idea, being sensible and realistic, I feel it enforces a kind of seperating \'barrier\' or sexism between the two genders in the game. Ideally, all characters should have the same advantages, disadvantages, skills and stats regardless of their gender. While this is not as realistic, it\'s more fair. RPGs are, of course, all about doing something that wouldn\'t be possible in the real world.

It may also encourage more people to play a gender that they are not. While there\'s absolutely nothing wrong with that, it\'s... kind of weird, to be honest. Imagine the world consisting of mostly female characters, even if 80% of those are actually male, purely because the females have access to a skill and a male does not.

Which brings me to my next, small, point... I can\'t think of anything, other than giving birth, that a woman can do and a man cannot, in the real world.

[Kixie]

this really isnt true that girls are better than boys and/or boys are better than girls. i know pencil stick girls that can bench more than a 170 pound kid. plus this game is all about equality. lets keep sex an asthetic not a bonus or point deduction.

[Xandria]

As many of you are well aware, my forum name sounds like it belongs to a woman.  I, however, am not.

I do this because it\'s called Roleplaying, and because as Roleplayers we are encouraged to make it as good of an experience as we can make it.

I chose a female character, because I thought it would fit better as a merchant character.  Plus, the way I have the backstory planned, it makes more sense to have my character be female.

However, I think that if we want to promote people to try something new, then I don\'t believe there should be any gender-specific qualities.  In frumbert\'s example (men can have more strength and women can have more intelligence), 95% of the people wanting to play fighter-type characters would choose male, and 80% of the people wanting to play mage-type characters would choose female.  This is because these people want to utilize the stats that will most help their character become powerful.

By leaving the genders at equal levels (like it is now), we will encourage people to create a character with a different gender than they\'re used to.

Originally posted by Mogura:
It may also encourage more people to play a gender that they are not. While there\'s absolutely nothing wrong with that, it\'s... kind of weird, to be honest.

It is a bit weird, but I think it gives people to explore a different part of their personality. (if anyone accuses me of the common phrase, I\'m going to kick you    )

Besides, if eveyone made their character the same gender as he/she is, the world would appear a bit unbalanced.

[Kiern]

Bad idea...I don\'t want to have to play a female to be better at something, I mean, if their better at the thing I want to do then males are, that would just suck...

[Kixie]

Besides, if eveyone made their character the same gender as he/she is, the world would appear a bit unbalanced.

sorry xandria thats not really wat were talkin about. were talkin about should women have different skills than men and vice-versa. its totally ok to create a different sex character but them having different skills would be kind of dumb. also think about this, if all the mages had female characters for the bonus to intelligence and all the males were wariors for the strength bonus than it would be more unbalanced of a world than ever... :O

[frumbert]

can\'t they start out with more available points still in some areas - i\'m not saying it stays that way throughout the game, it\'s just a starting out thing - to give an indication of the *easiest* direction the character to take while starting out in the game (getting up initial points before you choose your role/profession).

Also humans might be the same points across the sexes, but dwarves women might just *have* better stamina overall than dwarven men, or whatever. It\'s fantasy after all: not real.

[druke]

i know i know, lets all get puir g/f\'s t play then there would be more balanced genders!

Hey (your g/f\'s name here), wanna try this thing on the computer, it will allow us to be together more often.ohh what that?? a computer... its that thing with the tv screen and the buttons...and...forget it....

[Xandria]

whemyfield,

You do realize that the statment you quoted me on was in response to Mogura\'s post?

The main point of my post was expressing my opinion that this (having gender-specific skills/stats) is a bad idea.  Sorry if I was a bit vague on my point  

[Vengeance]

I also think about this sometimes.  Every RPG makes men==women and I can\'t tell if it is because of some type of political correctness or for some gameplay reason.  I think having differences could make choosing the sex of your character a real dilemma instead of just being about getting stupid guys to give you more stuff because you\'re a female in the game.

Let\'s face it, Xandria, almost no one actually RPs as a female if they have a female character.  It is not about \'exploring that side of you\', but about having a hot ass to watch while you run across the world, or about the aforementioned getting guys to give you stuff. :-)

That said, it would be cool to not be random or convenience choices, but real decisions about paths in life and strengths/weaknesses.  I don\'t know the right way to go about it though, in a way that would a) be fun, and b) not get us crucified by every women\'s rights group in the world, and c) not get me in the doghouse with my wife. :-)

- Venge

[dfryer]

In some ways, it is fair to not make any distinction between male and female characters, at least in terms of capacity.  I don\'t know how statistics will start off, but as I understand it will be the actions of the character that determine the abilities.  If no distinction is made, then someone who wants to play the Amazon (or perhaps an effeminate male fabric salesman) is at no \"disadvantage\".  I think it is likely that the general distribution of character stats in the game will reflect the females=intelligent, males=strong stereotype, and probably doesn\'t need any pre-ordained bias.

Did any of that make sense?

[Grakrim]

That\'s a pretty broad generalization, Venge...  Some people do RP their gender, although I don\'t know how they do it.  I don\'t know how to get women, let alone act like one...  I think its probably more common than most people would think, there\'s a certain stigma in RPGs about cross-gender roleplaying, so some people might keep it secret.
Although, it might be interesting to have gender bonuses; I know I\'ve seen them before, but I can\'t remember in what game.  Although, a) I can\'t think of how they would ever be fun, I think more than anything it would restrict RP in the game by forcing people who want to be successful into specific genders. b) It would be nigh-impossible not to be attacked by at least someone if it was implemented, but that\'s not such a big deal, really; unless of course they boycotted you...
c) There\'s always the magic words, \"I didn\'t do it\", or, \"Its Talad\'s fault!\"

Anyway, partly as Moogie said, there\'s little that one sex can do that the other can\'t (other than the physical attributes that actually seperate the sexes).  There are some minor innate differances (innate strength in males, innate emotional and mental capacties in females), but these can be overcomed.

Ylians are the generic, \"do-anything\", race, correct? If so, one solution might be making the Ylian sexes identical, while making gender differences in the other races.  This might lessen any outcry against the feature being implemented.

[Tuatha]

What ever!
Some races are better than others at certain skills and so forth this has never stopped me from been say the equivalent of a lemur warrior or Kran mage,
 hope you get what i mean.
 Any how the point is if you make differnces in races we may go\" bummer \" but plod along with the character creation even aginst the states because we wanted a lemur warrior or Kran mage.
So if we do that with racses whats the difference if you do it with sexes too!

I would rather you did not, but if you did i\'ll still build my character with the class i want and work at it!

[Saphire]

Originally posted by whemyfield
this really isnt true that girls are better than boys and/or boys are better than girls. i know pencil stick girls that can bench more than a 170 pound kid. plus this game is all about equality. lets keep sex an asthetic not a bonus or point deduction.

D*mn rights... :]

If females have higher int. you will ALWAYS see female mage-class characters. if males have higher str. you will ALWAYS see male fighter-class characters. If females have higher agi. then you will ALWAYS see female theives. if you see ...

get the picture yet?

If females get a higher int. you will HAVE to choose them to become a better mage. if males have higher str. you will HAVE to choose them to become a better fighter.
I, and many others dont want to make that decision!

[Xordan]

I wouldn\'t give woman higher intel, but higher Wisdom. Men generally tend to be smarter, but much more lazy, and clumsy, and usually end up killing themselves if they\'re too smart....

But I think that it would be a good to have different bonuses for each class to start, but make it that it would be quite easy for the opposite gender to become just as good in a short period of time. For example; I\'d have that woman were better at healing, so that\'d be a bonus to crystal, while men are better at killing, bonus to dark way. And maybe men getta bonus to strength and strength, while woman get it to agility and wisdom. I try and base these on proven differences between men and woman, but make them so it would add little advantage in the long run.

Edit: Oh, and if someone wants to be a fighter and be female, then I don\'t see why an bonus in Wisdom or agillity would stop them... Both would be an advantage to a fighter; a clear mind in combat, and fast reflexes. They\'d also be good for a mage; for fire magic, and for fast reflexes. All attributes give an advantage to any player, no matter what they are.