Sugar and Smoke

So I'm mildly in awe of my roommate Travis's ability to play a female character. Her name is Seldom, a human stone fist monk. She never speaks, and looks like a small Asian girl with mauy thai ropes wrapped about her chest, arms and shins. She is a little bad ass. Granted, she never talks, but I honestly never feel like he's out of character. I cannot comprehend how to do this. I have ideas for female characters all the time, but I have to relegate them to pc (player character, for my family that reads this) purgatory because I just can't get behind rping a girl. I like female characters (I mean, who doesn't?), I enjoy writing about them, but when it comes to actually acting it out, I'm useless. I have no problem with female npc's as a dm. I don't know if it's a problem or just a preference thing. Something to explore in the future, I guess.

So, upon reminiscing about this, I began to realize something about fantasy rpgs in general. Unlike fantasy fiction, in which female characters are the norm, in the gaming world, they seem to be left to the wayside. Occasionally npc, rarely actual characters unless the player is a woman. Which are also pretty rare. While I always campaign for the inclusion of more female gamers, it seems like a lost cause. I do enjoy a good damsel in distress but sometimes I think it's really awesome when a female takes charge, thwarts the bad guy, or, heaven forbid, tanks. I think it would give a campaign a lot more flavor if the women were more than occasional set pieces.Of course, I fall victim to these very same pitfalls. So I'm going to try and research some better ways of acting for dming, and give a female character a chance for once. Equality, right?

I think I would like to start with D&D for this dilemma (Deathwatch isn't really the venue for this problem). I'm going to knock out some ideas, and have it for an upcoming post.