Males playing Female's and vice versa

[Kvar Driftweaver]

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.

That depends doesn't it, we all hate barbies, but tragic characters that withdraw from society tick many boxes well. As long as they are believable, and generally easy to interact with people like writing with them.

If you overplay a damsel role yeeesh you are right, that is horrid, its the mark of a young teen. If you play it just right, as in, I am a character that is about to go and fix my own life, but the odds are really against me... well that is a completely different take on it isn't it? Cross gendered, very believable, makes a good point for any hero to step in.

Heart and soul very true. I like to think of it as reasons to do what they do, any villain without reason is pointless for me to write, any hero without a cause is flat. That is just my take, and it goes the same for gender too.

[Ronan]

Very true - lack of a believable motivation makes a lot of villains fail. As for withdrawing from society e.t.c Ronan was like that, but now he's developed into a more social, strong person. And even in his solace, I still think he was a "strong" character. It's all about the little things... thoughts, mannerisms, dialogue. Which ever gender that might be.

[Kvar Driftweaver]

Here is a female character using softer words:
http://www.sw-rpg.net/forums/showthread.php?t=30616

That is one of my old ones, when I say softer I think perhaps you had the wrong impression . It is all about degrees of scale.

[Ihnar]

Urp.
Hello I am Ihnar, and I play a boy pycon.
However.. IRL I am a girl.
When I created Ihnar... well. To begin with I used to roleplay a lot with animal characters, and with those gender is really not that hard to choose. You just think about what matches the character the best.
I really don't see why gender swapping in roleplay would be different in human characters... it's the way you imagine the character when you create it.

Could be my artist fancy-pants side, but when I create a character, neary always I already form a picture of him/her in my mind... and based on that picture, I pick the gender.

[Verilian]

Goodness, people, its not that hard. Just play your character, it doesn't matter what they act like. Sira is a strong, verbal, sometimes bitchy woman who happens to also have her cute moments (particularly in romantic threads with Addy.) She is super sexy, seductive, but also blunders such situations horribly. She's a fighter, but dislikes killing. She's brutally honest, but keeps a dark secret. She's loud and opinionated, but becomes shy in unfamiliar situations. She's everything, and nothing, just like a real person. Women aren't soft words or blonde hair, over thinkers or.. whatever Jen's other point was, I can't remember. They are all of these things, and so are men. Women are people. Men are people. People are every motion, every stereotype, every mindset all bottled into one body and to say they are anything else is a lie. There is no right way to play any gender, because at any random moment a man could do something feminine, or a woman do something masculine. Quit worrying about it and just play.

[Ronan]

Goodness, people, its not that hard. Just play your character, it doesn't matter what they act like. Sira is a strong, verbal, sometimes bitchy woman who happens to also have her cute moments (particularly in romantic threads with Addy.) She is super sexy, seductive, but also blunders such situations horribly. She's a fighter, but dislikes killing. She's brutally honest, but keeps a dark secret. She's loud and opinionated, but becomes shy in unfamiliar situations. She's everything, and nothing, just like a real person. Women aren't soft words or blonde hair, over thinkers or.. whatever Jen's other point was, I can't remember. They are all of these things, and so are men. Women are people. Men are people. People are every motion, every stereotype, every mindset all bottled into one body and to say they are anything else is a lie. There is no right way to play any gender, because at any random moment a man could do something feminine, or a woman do something masculine. Quit worrying about it and just play.

I <3 you.

(Example of Feminine moment)

[Kvar Driftweaver]

Ah people should be free indeed 100% agree, genders are labels that society could do without, but characters need some definition otherwise they all end up the same . At least that is what I have found, 5 characters, you need boundaries otherwise you are writing 1 character 5 times.

[Caelum]

I play a hero, a villain, a struggling pawn and a rising rebel. The trick is figuring out which one is which at any given time, not because they are alike but because they are all people who in different times and measures and perspectives find themselves wearing many roles. Two boys, two girls. Four different races with a dip into a fifth. V said it well. I know my characters too well to mistake them and my endeavor as a writer is to portray them in such a way that nobody else would be able to either.