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This month Id like to talk about "womens issues" in role playing worlds
(and no, I dont mean issues like "female problems". For the record, when
Im playing or GMing, I pretend they dont exist. Thats why its called a
fantasy game). If your gaming group consists entirely of men who only play
male characters, this really isnt relevant for your game and I wont blame
you if you skip right by it. For the rest of you, stay and enjoy the ride!
Id like to start by saying that I dont really consider myself much of a
feminist. Feminist conjures up images of rampant, gung-ho, man-hating equal
rights activists. Its not a fair judgment, I know, but I cant control my
mental images. I do consider myself a "woman of the 00s" (I sure liked "90s"
better as a word). Sure, I married young, and Im content in my role as a
housewife, but my ambitions dont stop there, and Im not a meek, submissive
housewife, either. I believe that women should have the freedom to vote,
have careers, live without a man in their life, and have a wide array of
birth control choices to keep them from starting a family until theyre
ready. Im glad I live in a time and a country where all these freedoms are
available to me.
And Ill admit, I really like the idea of a female-dominated society.
Recently I was reading about trolls in the "Denizens of Earthdawn" book
(yes, I am still on an Earthdawn kick), and I came across this wonderful
line at the end of the section "On the Ordeal of Birth": "For two moons
after the birth, the father shows gratitude to his wife for their child by
becoming her personal servant and granting her slightest whim." Hell yeh! I
want to get in on some of that action. Troll women also initiate the
courtship... Were talking about some real liberated women here. Its funny,
women are equal in ork and troll societies, but almost all the pictures in
the books portray men... That probably says something about the artists, but
Im not here to psychoanalyze them.
As nice as a female-dominated society would be, I cant think of any
historical examples of such a thing. Yeh, weve had societies led by queens,
and with goddesses factoring heavily in their religion, but has there ever
been a society led and dominated entirely by women? If anyone knows of such
a society, please, by all means share and Ill be glad to share the
information in my next column.
When creating a fantasy world, you need to decide how much youre going to
stick with reality on this. I personally enjoy having a mix of societies,
some with men in charge, some with women in charge, and some with true
equality. Oh, I also had a race with male, female, and neutral, where the
null-gender was in charge and the men and women were around just for
breeding. I must have been in a weird mood when I made that one up!
The important thing is to stick with what you decide. If a player in your
game decides to play a female character in a very male dominated society,
shes going to face persecution. Be sure to warn the player of this, and if
they go ahead with this, you have to play it out. The same goes for male
characters in a female dominated society. This can actually make for some
very good role playing situations, as can having a group of characters from
an equal, free society spend some time adventuring among a society where one
gender is very dominant. It can also cause some tense situations, so you
need to judge if this is the sort of game your players will go for.
More important than that is historical accuracy. If youre running a game
set in Earths history, you owe it to yourself and your players to research
womens status at that time. And you need to stick with it. When I ran a
Mage game set in the Renaissance, I actually gave female characters a few
extra points and a bit of an experience bonus, simply because it was tough
to be an independent woman back then, and the characters were facing a lot
of difficulty. I recommend using this tactic... But I dont recommend
telling your players about it, otherwise theyll all create women to get the
extra points!
If you cant play your NPCs in such a way that would reflect the cultural
opinion towards these female characters, then simply dont run a game where
this would be an issue... Just like I wouldnt recommend running a game set
in Nazi Germany or on a plantation with slaves if you have a problem with
racial slurs and the ugly, ugly side of humanity (God knows I wouldnt play
in such a game).
Serious stuff aside, you can have a lot of fun playing a rampantly feminist
character. Ive done it before and it was a kick. A character who refuses to
believe that a man can be better than her and who will at times even refuse
help from a man lest her pride be hurt makes a good addition to any game
where you want some character interaction. Good characters to throw into the
mix would be a chauvinistic man, or a meek woman, or a guy who has a crush
on the feminist and keeps getting cruelly rebuked. This sort of character
interaction is one of my favorite parts of playing and GMing! (actually, I
really miss my feminist, she was also a psy who refused to use any magic
items... difficult characters are great!)
In closing, how to deal with womens rights (and, in fact, human rights in
general) is a personal choice that should be based on your vision of your
world and what your players can handle. Dont be afraid to create a race of
sword-wielding Amazons who have developed a magic ritual to make the MEN
carry the babies. Bwuhahaha!
(ok, so maybe I am a feminist at heart)
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