Is D&D and other tabletop-RPGs "unpopular" with girls?

[RobfromtheGulag]

Isn't the the cast of 'I hit it with my axe' nearly entirely female?

Anyway, I think that on the topic of fantasy settings for adults it sometimes grates when you get a gender imbalance.

 

[rampantcreature]

I ONLY started playing D&D because of girls. My school, a women's college, had/has a fairly large 30+ member role-playing club that wasn't exclusively female. I've since graduated and as I type this, my friend and I are rolling up new characters for a friend's campaign.

Moreso than being unpopular, it may just be hard to track down the girls that are interested in it. I met plenty in college.

 

[Cain_Zeros]

I actually met my girlfriend through my D&D group. She loves it, and it's kinda cute watching her feel bad because her character's semi-catatonic right now and not responding to my character's shows of affection (the two relationships developed independently, just a coincidence that they both exist).

 

[DeathWyrmNexus]

My wife and her sister play in my games, D&D or Vampire. We tend to know a lot of rp geeks, however they always seem to be in other states where they complain about being one of the few girls around. :/

 

[DuelLadyS]

I have noticed that most girls I know prefer story oriented campaigns over strategy ones (not all of them, this is a generalization.) I have also noticed that they prefer to hang out with people they know well over finding a new group of people.

This is the case in my group, which consists of 5 girls and 2 guys. We actually end up at odds with each other becuase the guys (our 'co-GMs') are number-crunchers who prefer battle after battle with minimal story and character interaction to get there. Meanwhile, the rest of us could play an entire session without battling at all, and end up dragging out mudane scenes becuase we're enjoying it more than tossing dice around. (Despite technically being in control, they can't do much when the whole group decides to chat instead of fight.)

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

I play them :3 So I guess no XDD

 

[emeraldrafael]

Of course its unpopular. Girls cant do math.

oka, that was wrong. But thats a reason i hear alot. I think its just that they dont get the obsession or fun of sitting at a board, around a table, watching people play through little figures. That, and they cant cheat. >_<#

 

[Orinon]

well some D&D games don't require lots of math except for basics (Addition/ subtraction)
I'd guess the main issue is it's considered a game for massive nerds (Ask Vin diesel) similar to most hard core games and everyone knows that in Xbox Live you don't want most to know your a girl

 

[Turing]

I surely believe that there's a distinct tendency for females "not to get the point", so to speak.
Of course, the more you move away from classic fantasy-fare dungeon hacking D&D and towards other, arguably more "artistic" roleplaying forms, like the Storyteller systems or Live roleplaying ( Also known as "dress-up" ), the large a percentage of female practitioners you generally find.

 

[Dragoniferous]

Most, probably, yeah. I personally wouldn't be, I'm a bit curious to be honest, seeing as I've never met anyone I was aware of playing D&D etc.

 

[ultrachicken]

I've always considered it most unpopular with the ladies, though there are plenty of men who also won't touch D&D.

 

[Requx]

I had the idea of bringing a girl into our Dnd, that said only the guys in my groups culd actually be considered nerds. So I found this one girl who was willing to give it a try, I later found out the only reason she came was because she liked me... a bit too much. Anyways so I later found out my cousin plays a lot of dnd who is infact a girl. And at a Dnd camp I went too there was one girl.

 

[GrymZero]

I'm in a D&D club at my college. There are 7 of us in total in the club, three of which are girls. You just need to find the right girls to play.

 

[CrazyMedic]

it's like saying having red hair is a turn off for guys for some people maybe for some people they don't mind it and for some people it is a major turn on, I know a girl (who doesn't look like a pile of lard and she doesn't smell like old meat) who actually introduced her boyfriend (a normal guy) to tabletop gaming.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

I don't believe so... at least not through my experience, I know a LOT of Pen and Paper Gamer Girls.

I have two female regulars in my game (granted one is my wife, but she loves it) and I know of a regular sunday campaign that has been running for almost 7 years now that has at least 3 ladies in it.

I know a gal who draws a webcomic about PnP Gaming (www.weregeek.com)

and I've even met a few fantastic women who work in the industry.

The idea that women don't like/don't understand/whatever Pen and Paper Roleplaying is complete bunk, I know more women into Pen and Paper/Tabletop Gaming than I know women into VIDEOgaming.

 

[A Gent of Villainous Intent]

I don't think it's gender at all that makes girls stay away from Tabletop games.

I think it's the whole niche most girls are trying to fill, along with some boys.

Also my D&D group has a girl in it

 

[hannan4mitch]

In my D&D group there is an entire group of girls (5 or so). Some girls like it, some don't.

 

[Cylaran]

I suppose I fall into a weird subclass, being a girl gamer who absolutely loves tabletop gaming (not necessarily Warhammer or things like that, just really complicated European tactical board games). I play D&D once a week with friends, and out of a group of six I'm the only girl. Apparently last campaign there was another girl who played, but she didn't really like it and only stayed because she wanted to finish the campaign (what with her being a bit of a completionist). I've got a couple of female friends who also want to join in, but one of them just never shows up and the other one doesn't like catching public transport for an hour to get back to her house at 9:30 at night (I have no qualms about this and happily do it for the sake of D&D).

 

[Valeriannnn]

I've been having trouble finding *anyone* who plays D&D in my area, but I've never had any aversion to it; to the contrary - I love D&D as much as any computer or board game.

 

[Macgyvercas]

I used to play D&D with my friends and fiance. She was always the half-orc barbarian.
"Why should I place 2 skill points into literacy when I can stick 'em into intimidate and make people read things for me." Best line ever.

If I ever feel the need to play as something other than a Human Paladin, I am totally using that line.

OT: I'm in a Chivalry & Sorcery group. We have two girls in that (so 2 out of 10 people = 20% of my regular gaming group is girls).