It Slices! It Dices!

Illegal Gods: The Role of Women

There's been an explosion of discussion lately about appealing to gamers who happen to be women, and I wanted to note my particular spin on it, especially as I design Illegal Gods, and as a woman.

Cheesecake Art

I like to look at curvy women, and I probably wouldn't be able to tell you what changed it from good looking to cheesecake. I envision cat girls in skin (fur?) -tight spacesuits.

Actually, I do that regularly. In fact, I got distracted for a moment because I was thinking of something whisker-lickin' good.

I also don't imagine them on the cover. Sure, my marketing director may disagree with me, but... My game isn't about the cool of playing sexy cat girls. (Right now, for the temporary "internal" version, there's that big astronomical picture we've all seen with the nebula that looks like an angel. I've been thinking that if I was going to have a separate "GM" section for folks, I'd get rights for a good picture of the Helix Nebula...) Maybe a ship shaped like some ancient goddess art? Oooh. Anyway, I don't really see any particular characters on the cover. It's not any pre-existing characters people are looking to play in my game, it's their own, so why limit imaginations?

Example characters do include a fairly even mix of men and women, and at that, a variety of ethnic bases. Yes, we do have something that could be considered a "sex robot" who happens to have the form of a woman, but it's a System-biased saboteur first. The escort thing is just "her" day job. (I am hard pressed to think of its gender as anything but a weapon.) I have one drag queen priestess of lingerie. I can't imagine the art not promoting this equity, but then again, I'm silly that way.

Female Characters

I love to make characters...well, at least the design behind them. My husband usually ends up making them for me because so often character creation and game rules don't seem to mesh. Creating characters ought to be part of the game. It should help you absorb the setting and rules, and it keys the GM into what kinds of things the players want to play. One of the biggest obstacles to continuing with the design I'm looking at is how to get the system from character creation on up to connect to the worlds of Illegal Gods.

With that in mind, the setting is primarily futuristic, and thus, any biological differences between people can be negated with technology or magic. So saying "Well, women are X," is going to be ridiculous. Which isn't to say that any gender characteristic is irrelevant; maybe it's not a set modifier on statistics, but the player has made a choice for a reason. If you don't want to respect that reason? Hey, I'm not going to tell you HOW to play, but I know it wouldn't work for me.

With that said, there is a strong caveat: not every existing or imaginary religion treats the genders with equal respect. I recommend strongly that that kind of conflict be developed as another potential challenge, if the gaming group is interested in that kind of story. [shrug]

Female Pronouns

Oh, come on. I'm sorry, I don't feel more included because some guy is clunky with language and shifts "he" and "she." In fact, I don't feel more included when they're suave with language and do the same thing. [grin] Still, when it counts, the GM will be referred to as a woman, and I'll decide what's least likely to cause pronoun confusion for the rest.