rosehiptea
2008-12-05 07:45 pm UTC (link)

I currently have two female characters: Eileen Galvin from Silent Hill 4, in a game called Chaos Unraveled on IJ, and Dahlia Gillespie from Silent Hill, in a game called Parabolical, also on IJ.

I wanted to play Eileen because there was a Henry Townshend (also from Silent Hill 4) already in the game. I wouldn't exactly say I've had issues specific to female characters with her, though I (and other people) really want to see her interact more with characters besides Henry.

Dahlia is interesting to play because older women (I just can't call her a girl, she's well over forty) seem to be rare in RP. I mostly picked her up because a friend of mine plays her daughter Alessa. Fortunately my friend is good at encouraging plot for her.

I think I must be lucky, because there are plenty of girl pups in both the games I'm in, and I haven't really had issues so far.

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	candy 2008-12-16 09:03 am UTC (link)
	That's interesting. I'm not familiar with the fandom but it sounds good. And yes, older women seem rare, though I play Madonna in The Establishment, though I am quite happy to consider her a girl, but then again she's always outside of the norm anyway ;) But that's good that you haven't had issues. Always nice to hear that :) (Reply to this)(Parent)

jackandahat
2008-12-05 08:13 pm UTC (link)

What I'm interested in is dictated by the pup. For example, I've never written anything remotely like smut with Raven, and never will. She's disembodied and only has a physical presence when possessing her brother (...it's a long story) so sex isn't really on the cards for her. Wheras I have others hanging around, from past and present, who would happily do smut, action, thinky plot, whatever. So it depends on them in the same way as with male pups.

Issues - again, depends on pup. I write Kitten from Breakfast on Pluto some, and the fact she's transsexual can be "an issue", in that I want to do a decent portrayal, and not be insensitive/offensive on what could be a delicate subject. One problem, if that's what you mean by issues, was that one of my girl pups really was a girl - she was 13. So when the game she was in ended, I had nowhere to put her, because everywhere was adult-orientated.

In a more general sense, there's the worry if I'm writing them badly, because they're girls/women, and the number of bi-pups that are only bi until you get them near a girl, and then they're gay. Makes it hard to get someone to pair with.

Play - as above - depends on who. Right now I'm trying to sit down and write a couple of them in fic.

Difficulties in games - I play Raven in a combat-orientated PbE, and at the start, there were people unfamiliar with the canon who kicked up a fuss about having a woman leading a small army. Similar stuff have come up with other pups - people seem to get much more stereotypical about female characters (possibly because there's such a small group of them to start with, it seems) and what they can do. Then there's the whole not-bi thing mentioned above.

In game currently I only have Raven from Hex (the books, not the TV show). I have a few I'm trying to work into fic, just to give them a home and stop them taking over my brainspace!

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candy
2008-12-16 09:15 am UTC (link)

The disembodied situation would make smut rather difficult! And yes, I feel the same, it sort of does depend on the pup and what they're like.

*nods* on Kitten (don't know the character but know Cillian played her and the transsexual plot and that's about it). I see why that might be delicate.

Issues can be problems or not, but I know what you mean about a young girl (literally). Not many games are younger character (even as NPCs) friendly, sadly.

Well, I have the same thoughts about men, for what it's worth - I suspect not a lot.

Oh do I ever hear you on the bi until they get near a girl situation. If I play a pup as bi, he (or she) is bi. That means they are absolutely interested in both sexes and in having encounters of the one off or more serious kind with both men and women. I do wonder, though, if sometimes it's not the bi thing that's an issue so much, as that sometimes a bi male pup will hook up with a gay male pup and that relationship will become exclusive - so it's not so much the orientation that's an issue, but an exclusive relationship that happens to be with a guy in those situations. Though given the amount of open relationships that involve more than one guy, I feel like that can be a
convenient excuse.

It really all depends on who, in the end, doesn't it?

Ah yes, on the stereotypes - it can be difficult but I do have pups I'm trying hard to work on doing the non stereotype thing with. And I agree, it's very likely to be related to the smaller pool of comparison, though when you think about it, it should be easier to break out of stereotypes when there's less to fight against (I can't see it being half as difficult, as, say, a very young and pretty male Dom with an older, not so pretty, male sub, for people to wrap their heads around).

I've already said about the not-bi thing so, just, yeah.

That can work - sometimes - the fic thing. I've had that happen :)

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blue_penguin
2008-12-05 08:41 pm UTC (link)

I currently have seven female characters over two games (and one male). Honestly, I think the reason I started playing female characters (and the reason why I play so many more of them now than I did when I was in original-character RPs) is that they're less likely to be already taken... well, most of my characters these days are also from tiny fandoms, but that wasn't the case when I started out.

Given that I've only had the male character for about a week and a half at this point, and he's the only male character I've played in 3+ years of fandom RPing, I can't really say whether there's a difference yet.

... yeah, I don't have any deep insights here. I'm mostly just here because I'm curious about what other people have to say.

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	candy 2008-12-16 09:17 am UTC (link)
	Still interesting to hear. And yes, I do hear you on them being less likely to be taken - that can be a blessing with girls if you have an inclination to playing them. Looking forward to hearing more from you as things progress :) (Reply to this)(Parent)

hangingfire
2008-12-07 01:26 am UTC (link)

Frankly? I suck at playing male characters. I've only played three actual biological human males as far as I can remember, even counting my pre-LJ days, and of those three, two were pretty asexual, and one was married and entirely faithful to his (NPC) wife. One friend has humourously referred to my male characters as "prissy", but she's not far off.

When it comes to fandom-based gaming, it happens that most of my favorite fictional characters are female. Even the ones who are underwritten in canon; I've played Tonks in a couple of games and taken the opportunity to try and make some proper sense of her wet-blanket-ness in the latter HP books.

I've been in games where the girls seem to get less love in general; i.e. if you were to run a Most Popular Characters poll, the winners would be overwhelmingly male, and I've never quite understood why that is. Recently I've been lucky enough to be in a game where this wasn't the case, although at one point it was noted that I seemed to have all the female characters of more-or-less childbearing age in the game. The balance has shifted since, one way or another, but it was sort of a funny observation.

I've sometimes wondered if, in the world of fandom gaming, girl characters sometimes get short shrift because of a general fandom bias in favor of slash, but this gets dangerously close to thoughts-on-yaoi territory, so I think I'll leave that can of worms alone for now.

Ultimately, I think a lot of the issues I've had with playing girl characters comes not so much from their being girls as that (with one or two exceptions), I tend to play obscure characters. One of my favorite current characters comes from a series of Michael Moorcock novels which no one else seems to have read.

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candy
2008-12-16 10:37 am UTC (link)

That's really interesting, because you see so much emphasis on men and/or m/m slash. And I like faithful husbands :) *g* at the "prissy".

I know what you mean. I often think that fandom writing could be a good way to do things like that - and I love Tonks, but... yeah.

I've noticed that too - less love in general. I like a lot of the guys played - I play guys myself and love it - but I like girls too.

I do think it is sometimes that, with the general bias in favour of slash, I have noticed it, and well, it does seem to be a pattern, but yes, we'll
leave thoughts-on-yaoi for the moment.

Oh do I hear you on the obscure too - again I have fondness for well known girl pups (I play Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow among others) but I really like my couple of not so well known girls too.

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arami
2008-12-07 08:44 pm UTC (link)

For so much of my fandom life, be it writing or rp, I've just been drawn to playing or writing guys. For the most part it just seemed that m/m slash is/was more prevalent, and my interest just lay there. Not to say that I didn't like female characters but I just didn't have the same interest for the most part. Now though, or lately, I've started seeing the potential for the girls and wanting to explore that.

The biggest issue is that there aren't enough girl pups around in many of the games. Either the games have limits and OFC's just are easily integrated, or they become relegated to 'the girlfriend' or something.

I would just want fun and exciting lines. To be involved in moving the plot and be in the position to play with many of the others.

Most of the RPs I've come across just seem so male oriented. It's not a bad thing but it does seem to leave quite the hole for female pups.

That being said I do have a few but they've only come out in the last couple years or so. I have Nike and Peitho over at DDC, Constance at Toujour Liberer, and Gabrielle at Aftermidnight. Compared to the other pups I have, that's quite the minority.

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candy
2008-12-16 10:51 am UTC (link)

I know what you mean. I wrote a lot of guy-centred stuff when I started in fandom (while, mind you, loving characters like B'Elanna Torres and Scully and Jadzia Dax among others) although I did eventually branch out :) But yeah, the guy emphasis is so prevalent, I know what you mean. But yes, the girls have so much potential! :D

That can be an issue - I've got lots of guy pups who I know would like to have at least some play with a girl, if the right girl was around, and they haven't been able to find it - and I'm really flexible on who 'the right girl' might be, too, so it's not that. Limits can be hard - there's a reason I have the most girls at Cit, because they don't have a limit - though I am at my own limit there.

Yes to that. The position of being able to play with others is a good one!

They are very male oriented. The one plus to that is that I've rarely had a problem picking up any of the girls I actually have wanted to play.

I'm glad you've found some girls you like and I totally have some ideas for after the holidays... ;)

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