Is D&D and other tabletop-RPGs "unpopular" with girls?
- Thread starter IxionIndustries
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o_0
I think I can smell....*evil smirk* nerds!
*runs away in hysterics*
Oh God. Back when I was in school, the DnD group was one step below the Chess Club in terms of social standing. Both of them were below the Warhammer fans.
I always regarded the Warhammer Group to be the lowest of the low.
Guess this makes DnD lower than Whale shit
So yeah, in my opinion it reeks of nerdiness
I think I can smell....*evil smirk* nerds!
*runs away in hysterics*
Oh God. Back when I was in school, the DnD group was one step below the Chess Club in terms of social standing. Both of them were below the Warhammer fans.
I always regarded the Warhammer Group to be the lowest of the low.
Guess this makes DnD lower than Whale shit
So yeah, in my opinion it reeks of nerdiness
This TBH.Jedi Sasquatch said:
And this too. Although I prefer to frame it in more verbose format... (ie long post will be long, you were warned)CTU_Loscombe said:
At least in my experience, there aren't a lot of girls who will happily subject themselves to us lot (ie beareded, long haired, semi-unwashed men who have played every dice and paper based game ever). Im not saying we're all socially inept weirdos who scare women, but even waaaaay past teenage years some of us really are. Even when we are all fairly normal people in a group, each group has its own dynamic, and a lot of them aren't very new-player friendly. Doesn't mean 'unfriendly' but it tends to create a feeling that anything less than totally mastery of every rule and game system makes you a chore to play with.
So that's why I don't see many solo girls starting playing D&D. There's plenty enough girls interested in role playing, but they don't necessarily want to be (depending on your age group) constantly leered at/fallen in love with/patronised/spend so long reading the rule books they start bleeding out the ears. You may laugh, but at my fiancees university group, where everyone is over the age of 20, there's still enough guys trying to chat her up that she stopped going to the main group and played D&D with some of her friends in their kitchen.
Role playing takes many forms, and LOADS of the girls I've met who are into sci-fi/fantasy/anime/etc DO partake in role playing games, but are more about the role playing than the game, which also puts them off playing with the power-gaming one-upingness of the games groups I've been to over the past few years. Lots of girls either stick to playing RPGs online through forums or MMORPGS or whatever (basically anywhere that they don't have to be singled out as girls unless they want to be) and only get into physically playing them when they have friends who wanna play too, rather than seeking out the playing.
Could be I'm totally wrong, but the last gaming group I went to a lot has nearly 40 regular members now, spread across 3 nights of the week, and the only girls are peoples girlfriends (a handful, and they seldom actually play games), or Weeaboo types who are socially dysfunctional enough themselves to overlook how nerdy the rest of us are.
Hell my fiancee only ever once played with my group, many of whom she was friends with, and then I had to talk her into it and be a personal rules coach during character gen, because even amongst friends she hated being made to feel like a noob. In all honesty, I think she had more fun drawing her character and writing the back story than actually playing because without 10 years experiance of any system, playing with veterans just makes you feel left out whatever gender.
Huh. News to me. Encouraging/cool/whatever, but still news. It always seemed a very male (if not that "manly") thing in my experience. Something to do with the group dynamic of it all. Lots of squabbling and so forth that women tend to give up on as childish (or at least remould into gossip and bitching, to be incredibly sexist) long before men, if they ever do.
But, that could just be the circles in which I've moved, where roleplay has spread amongst the guys first - maybe it just hasn't "crossed the line" yet. And other very vaguely RP games I've played in groups of friends (at the winding-down of a party and such) have definitely had evenly distributed interest. But they came with premade models and no great setup, no DMs and the like. No ringmaster or power-play infighting...
(and a guy i know who got a GD award for a model he did... the soc net response to the news wasn't entirely male - but probably a good 90:10 split. It may just be the tomboys getting interested?)
Its a wierd thing really. Most aspects of my life experience of late suggest a world with a pretty good equality rating. This is an unexpected blip that's just been exposed.
But, that could just be the circles in which I've moved, where roleplay has spread amongst the guys first - maybe it just hasn't "crossed the line" yet. And other very vaguely RP games I've played in groups of friends (at the winding-down of a party and such) have definitely had evenly distributed interest. But they came with premade models and no great setup, no DMs and the like. No ringmaster or power-play infighting...
(and a guy i know who got a GD award for a model he did... the soc net response to the news wasn't entirely male - but probably a good 90:10 split. It may just be the tomboys getting interested?)
Its a wierd thing really. Most aspects of my life experience of late suggest a world with a pretty good equality rating. This is an unexpected blip that's just been exposed.
Having been a roleplayer for almost 10 years now and having many a different groups. I cannot honestly recall a single group that did not have at least 1 female. Now, a good percentage of these were probably a player or GMs girlfriend or something, but many of them weren't. I think it depends on the game and the group more so than anything else.
If your group is full of socially awkward nerds who make any female they lay eyes on feel creeped out, you definitely aren't going to find many females willing to walk into that situation. I've also found many chicks put off by the genre/system of game more so than tabletop in general. It is sometimes hard to pull a chick into a D&D game if she isn't already into fantasy, but chances are there is some other game she is willing to try. Any of the World of Darkness games are easy to pull chicks into right now because of True Blood and Twilight. Show a Sci-Fi chick a Star Wars game or the Firefly role play and their heads will swim with possibilities.
Ultimately its just about knowing your group and being able to compromise so that play interests everyone you are trying to pull in.
Edit: Another thing, you would really be surprised how many people you wouldn't expect to be interested in RPing, actually are. Just because they have not done it before or don't fall into the geeky/nerdy purview, shouldn't deter from asking. Its all about having fun and if you can sell a non-nerd on how fun RPing is, then you can get them to play if you can figure out the stuff they will enjoy.
If your group is full of socially awkward nerds who make any female they lay eyes on feel creeped out, you definitely aren't going to find many females willing to walk into that situation. I've also found many chicks put off by the genre/system of game more so than tabletop in general. It is sometimes hard to pull a chick into a D&D game if she isn't already into fantasy, but chances are there is some other game she is willing to try. Any of the World of Darkness games are easy to pull chicks into right now because of True Blood and Twilight. Show a Sci-Fi chick a Star Wars game or the Firefly role play and their heads will swim with possibilities.
Ultimately its just about knowing your group and being able to compromise so that play interests everyone you are trying to pull in.
Edit: Another thing, you would really be surprised how many people you wouldn't expect to be interested in RPing, actually are. Just because they have not done it before or don't fall into the geeky/nerdy purview, shouldn't deter from asking. Its all about having fun and if you can sell a non-nerd on how fun RPing is, then you can get them to play if you can figure out the stuff they will enjoy.
That really sounds like the opposite of being interested, to be quite frank. As far as bringing people into tabletop gaming, there's no real reason to pressure them into it. Either they are into it, in which case they'll jump at an offer, or they're not. Given enough badgering, they may choose to play, but they won't be as invested and are more prone to flaking out, quiting when interest wanes, etc than your standard members.IxionIndustries said:
That being said, that's not just a "girls thing" but applies to guys too.
In my group (and from what I know of my group's other groups) we average 1-2 girls per group. Roughly 15-20% of the group I guess. Gaming, in general, is a fairly guy dominated hobby even if girl gamers are becoming larger parts of that group as time goes on. Certainly the "I Hit It With My Ax" crew here on the Escapist being an obvious example.
I ran a large campaign this past summer in which the party was comprised of 4 guys and 4 girls so it was an even balance. It really just depends on the people you know.
my old room mate was a girl...i mean, she still is a good but shes no longer my room mate......anyway, she played a lot of tabletop rpgs. in fact shes the one who got me into them. however, she didnt like d&d
my ex girlfriend loved d&d and has DMed a few times
there is a sort of stigma that goes along with it but its becoming more and more mainstream
my ex girlfriend loved d&d and has DMed a few times
there is a sort of stigma that goes along with it but its becoming more and more mainstream
I'd guess it's about the same as with videogames, not like all guys like tabletop RPGs either anyway. Most of the LARPS and convention i've attended had about 3:4 ratio in favor of guys. That said however, if someone asked me to play over Skype and to make things worse basing it on DnD id probably say no too. Only DnD setting i ever enjoyed was Planescape, and roleplaying while sitting at PC doesn't sound like fun. If i'm to use internet for roleplaying i'd rather do some form of forum or chat roleplay where it's more of writing a detailed story.
I've never played D&D but I've played similar games like Traveller and 7th Sea. The group I played with included a few women. This does nothing to cancel out the stereotype though.
Are you kidding me? D&D isn't unpopular with us!
I'm a HUGE player.
Just started and I love it like crazy.
I'm a HUGE player.
Just started and I love it like crazy.
As a girl, I have to say games like D&D CAN give off a sort of weird vibe. Well, it's not so much the games themselves as the people who are generally associated with them. The super nerds, if you will. You know the ones, the either ridiculously skinny or ridiculously obese, under-bathed acne-ridden teenagers who hide in their parents' basements designing dungeons every waking hour.
I personally happen to know that this stereotype isn't always true (as most stereotypes tend to be), and I've known plenty of relatively normal people who all play the games and enjoy them. They were, coincidentally, all boys.
Have I played the games personally? No. Mostly because I don't know anyone well enough who's familiar with the games and patient enough to walk my stupid ass through it. D&D DOES seem pretty complex, which I suppose would repel girls as well, specifically ones that don't game much. I like to think of myself as a gamer, so the complexity doesn't particularly put me off, but I'm far from hardcore, so I would need my hand to be held through it for quite a while, I'm sure. I also roleplay, so I'm familiar with storytelling and character design. If that helps at all.
I played a game somewhat similar to D&D once with a couple of people I met in a chatroom, but lost interest in it because I couldn't keep up. I think if we had played in person it would have been easier for me, because more visuals could have been provided, but that's not to say I wouldn't try it again if the opportunity would present itself.
I personally happen to know that this stereotype isn't always true (as most stereotypes tend to be), and I've known plenty of relatively normal people who all play the games and enjoy them. They were, coincidentally, all boys.
Have I played the games personally? No. Mostly because I don't know anyone well enough who's familiar with the games and patient enough to walk my stupid ass through it. D&D DOES seem pretty complex, which I suppose would repel girls as well, specifically ones that don't game much. I like to think of myself as a gamer, so the complexity doesn't particularly put me off, but I'm far from hardcore, so I would need my hand to be held through it for quite a while, I'm sure. I also roleplay, so I'm familiar with storytelling and character design. If that helps at all.
I played a game somewhat similar to D&D once with a couple of people I met in a chatroom, but lost interest in it because I couldn't keep up. I think if we had played in person it would have been easier for me, because more visuals could have been provided, but that's not to say I wouldn't try it again if the opportunity would present itself.
