InSpectres Grrrl version (reprise)

[ThunderCheetah]

Yeah, I was reading this because I was feeling nostalgic. I still have that sketch of Zoomer as a chiuahiuah. Good times, Ron, good times!

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

Caitlin is referring to this thread: InSpectres again! grrl version, dating back to early 2002.

It was a hell of a game. I wonder ... does anyone have any insights, questions, or anecdotes concerning being a male GM with several female players, no other guys involved?

Best,
Ron

[RaconteurX]

Does anyone have any insights, questions, or anecdotes concerning being a male GM with several female players, no other guys involved?

Anecdotally, in my experience female players are often far more vicious and/or ruthless in play... but it is always in-character motivations, rather than petty peevishness, that leads them to it. I still fondly recall the all-grrl Stormbringer group I once had, nicknamed "The Hell Sisters", whose bloody-minded (and -handed) characters did the Queen of Swords proud. It did cause some consternation among the local church groups at the time, as at least once per session the gals would cry out "Blood and souls for my Lady Xiombarg!" in unison. :)

[xiombarg]

the time, as at least once per session the gals would cry out "Blood and souls for my Lady Xiombarg!" in unison. :)

Okay, for obvious reasons I really, really wish I could have sat in on a session of this. Even if I am a boy.

[ejh]

Time: several years ago.  My friend Mark and my wife and I are driving back from GenCon. Mark's a big Warhammer nut.  We are heading south on I-94, and we actually come up alongside the Games Workshop van, clearly labelled as such.  We motion for them to roll down their windows, we roll down ours, and Mark sticks out his head and shouts at them the battlecry of Khorne, Lord of Skulls:

"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD-GOD!"

The Games Workshop guys crack up.  Everyone goes on their way.

Sorry, off topic, I know.  Had to share.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

Yes, off-topic albeit amusing.

We were talking about guys GMing an otherwise all-female group. Comments, questions, anecdotes?

Best,
Ron

[jburneko]

I also ran an all female InSpectres game once.  I remember it being a multistory game as well.  The first scenario was a warm up.  The second scenario was fantastic.  By the third scenario we had overstayed our welcome and I don't think we even finished it.

The thing that comes to mind is that Food seemed to be a big issue.  I remember one character opened the door to her office to discover a dimentional vortex (My contribution, Stress roll).  Her immediate response was: "God damnit!  My lunch was in there!"

Another player kept making tea.  And at the big climax moment of the second scenario that involved a multitude of conflicts between NPCs the solution came down to isolating the conflicting parties and temporarily placating them by ordering lots of pizza and tea!

Jesse

[Theron]

I found very little difference in my rather limited experience (a short series of 7th Sea sessions).  I knew the four women involved fairly well (married to one of them) but hadn't gamed with three.  I expected at least one of them to follow some of the romantic plot hooks I'd set up (based on my knowledge of their likes and dislikes in fiction, etc.), but instead found myself running for a rather blood-thirsty little band of brigands.  The only other real revelation was learning that one of my friends was the absolutely worst spotlight hog I'd ever encountered in over twenty years of gaming.

But, truth be told, the game didn't even last long enough to reach "campaign" status in my mind, so it's hard to say how things would have developed with a few more months of play (apart from the likely tarring and feathering of the spotlight thief).

[RaconteurX]

I really, really wish I could have sat in on a session of this.

They were quite a bunch, anyone would have enjoyed playing with them. The most frightening thing about the characters was that the convenient excuses for rampant cruelty and bloodshed... characters of Melnibonean or Pan Tangian descent... were completely absent.

[ThunderCheetah]

Hey Ron, what about that time we ran Macrosse with you, me, and Maria? Would that count? You can tell them about your escapades in the Gay Bar! ;-)

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Caitlin,

It doesn't quite count. Mark ran that game, and you, me, and Maria played the characters. So that's two men.

But I can't help it, I'll talk about it. We were playing using the Palladiam system and all the Macross sourcebook stuff, which Mark had read 1000 times and dog-eared and marked up with notes.

See, I didn't know a thing about the Macross universe, and Mark had all this stuff going on with sexism and gender-splits and male-culture/female-culture, apparently all from the source material. Two of the characters were real gung-ho women, and mine was a fighter pilot guy, pretty stock character.

Once the Setting-based theme stuff appeared ("men and women have to learn how to get along," more or less), I decided my character would be much more fun and have a much greater impact on what was happening as a gay man. Not a flamer, but a solid military type who knew his job and believed in the mission - but able to get into the underculture and turn the assumptions of most of the NPCs upside-down.

Not to mention the GM ... who'd put me into the space station's (or whatever's) bar, probably expecting me to run smack into all kinds of prejudice from this relatively-hostile place. But as soon as I identified my character as gay and thus able to make subcultural connections with NPCs who "must" be there as well, he just boggled. He'd never expected any such thing or foreseen that it was a potentially-obvious Premise-enhancer. The women at the table hooted and slapped my back and waved their fists in the air.

I played the character with great dignity and a sense of mission. He did not, for instance, flirt with anyone at the bar or make romantic connections; he was on the job. I actually felt a sort of non-erotic gay-pride surge while playing him, an odd sensation as you might imagine.

The really fun thing was that the idea worked very well with the female characters being extremely gonzo and full of lock-and-load firepower. To have my character be the "steady" one worked perfectly.

Best,
Ron

[David Chunn]

My wife only wishes we had more girls in the group.  I certainly wouldn't be opposed to it.  Our gameplay improved dramatically once she joined.  But an entire group of girls . . .   I can't help but think that my ideal game group would be 50-50.  My experiences hanging out with a group of cool girls, though not gaming, is that they can get a little viscious and crude which is not all that dissimilar to the all male game groups I've played with.  

This jives with RaconteurX's Stormbringer experience.  My wife also tells me that when girls get pissed off concerns of honor are always tossed out the window, unlike with men who grow up learning all sorts of conditions on how you should wage war.  I tend to believe her on this.

This might be slightly off topic, but I wonder if anyone's played in an all male game with all female characters or vice-versa.  Gender-swapping roleplaying in my group is a touchy subject, even though they're all mature and experienced players.  They do it some, though not with relish.  Starting to come around though.  I've been thinking that I should expand their horizons by putting them in a game with all female heroes.  That way everyone's in the uncomfortable zone together.

[Jonathan Walton]

Running a game for 4 grrls right now.  Rocks on toast.  We're using the cards from Once Upon a Time, no Myth, and nothing else.  I was going to write up a session once we get all the players to show up, since it's been just two or three lately.  We're just getting started and people are busy.

Still, most of the guys I know wouldn't quite be up for the system we're using.  I started out with an experiment, putting 3 seperate systems out there and then seeing which ones they'd choose to use.  The playing cards never got picked up (they were intended for a Castle Falkenstein approach) and the Everway Fortune deck got called on once.  However, the grrls latched onto Once Upon a Time instantly.

It works like this:  I deal out a hand of 5-7 cards to each player and myself.  Then I flip over a few more cards and build a story premise from those and anything I want to play from my hand.  At this point, the grrls can play cards too if they want to affect the premise.

Then we play.  I act as GM, but the players can throw down cards at any time and narrate their effect on the story.  Then narrative control reverts to me and we keep playing.  They all have characters, but they aren't quanitified or even described in any way (at least, not one that's written down).  So far, zero issues.

Personally, it's changing many of my preconceptions about the kind of "control" players need to feel in order enjoy themselves.  Sure, it's freeform, in many ways, but there's that interesting Director stance component as well.  Basically, it's like taking the mechanics of Once Upon a Time and just stretching them all out.  Works beautifully and, without the girrls, it would never have occured to me that something like this would work.