Question

[i-know-stuff.livejournal.com]

‘Ello Poly~ I’m currently in sociology in college and we need to write a few small papers for extra credit points. One of the subjects mentioned were gender stereotypes, such as girls don’t play video games or boys don’t play with dolls, the stereotype of what society views should happen. I’d like to write about RP’ing, I’ve found that generally (at least with RL people I know) RP is thought to be a “guys” thing.

So I need some basis of statistics to go off of, so if you don’t mind can you please leave a comment with your gender?

To be clear this is optional, it’s not a huge deal as I don’t need the extra credit to pass or event get a great grade, you’re lj name will not be mentioned, your online name/real name won’t be, and where I got the info won’t be mentioned. Basically all I need is a number in real life to go off of, the number won’t event be mentioned. I just need to know which side to go with, if it’s completely absurd to think that girls don’t rp (which is what I think XD) or if it’s fairly accurate.

If you’re not comfortable with telling your gender, don’t worry about it! The last thing I want is anyone to feel uncomfortable so don’t feel like you have to!

Thanks for reading~

Comments

[i-know-stuff.livejournal.com]

Wow that is really complicated. Would it be possible for a game to be stopped mid-way and then picked up another day? Or would that just make things event more complicated?

It sounds like there has to be a lot of pre-planning involved in it. Are there ever games where the GM rotates or something? That seems like an awful lot of work for one person and a lot of responsibility. I guess though if the person really loves it it wouldn't matter.

[mypace-musume.livejournal.com]

In most cases games either take many sessions or are actually open-ended. This only makes the time issue more complicated since people have to be present consistently. Most games move really slow, particularly if a turn-based or dice-based ruleset is used, so trying to finish a story in one session would be grueling.

GMs have a lot of options to lighten the planning burden. Really, the hardest part about being a GM is actually playing (keeping the game moving and improvising so the players feel they have freedom of movement within the game), and the planning is more of the fun part. But for GMs who don't like writing or worldbuilding, you can buy "canned" adventures or campaigns, complete with maps, NPCs, premade player characters for players who don't want to design their own, really all sorts of stuff. There's a big market for books like that.

Rotating GMs is also an option, but actual competent GMing is such a difficult social skill to master that it's often best to stick with one person who knows his or her stuff. Of course, the experience level of the players matters a lot there as well.

Oh, that's another thing - these kinds of games are exclusively OC. I've never played a fan-based tabletop game. It's not impossible, but that's just how it is. One of the functions of the ruleset is to give players freedom to create their own characters, but in line with basic restrictions on power levels and the like. Without a ruleset, it's much harder to keep the characters balanced so that they all have a role in the game.