It’s New, Big Axe Barbie

When gamer dudes talk about gamer women, you hear the usual gender stereotyping. Women aren’t interested in combat. They want storytelling, cooperation, and the dreaded shopping.

Uh huh.

Now maybe it’s just the type of woman who are attracted to roleplaying, but in my experience the above is not at all the case. I have noticed that many roleplaying women LOVE to kick ass. In fact, they are often more bloodthirsty than the guys. They want a big axe and they want action.

Not that there aren’t women who are into character development and storytelling. I just don’t think that’s the whole story.

10 thoughts on “It’s New, Big Axe Barbie

  1. I confirm. It even seems to be a worldwide truth: I’m a french GM and my wife DO LOVE to play axe-wielding dwarves!

  2. I’ll agree to that! I’m running a campaign where one female is playing a combative Dwarf Fighter, and the other is playing a Monk… she plays a monk because she likes to feel people die with her own hands!

  3. Ask my husband–I just want to slaughter things. Half the time, I play male characters for the more macho effect, but my female characters are still usually kicking ass and taking names, even my clerics.

    Storytelling is for suckers!
    -Kara

  4. The most awesomely bloodthirsty actions in all the games I’ve played or run recently were the work of one female player. These include single-handedly murdering an insane queen in an Amber game (without so much as a word of warning to the rest of the players), and gutting a pregnant dead/dying monster in a D&D; game to ensure its unborn child (which was actually completely human, and nearly full-term) would not live (she was playing a Cleric at the time). On the other hand, she’s currently playing a social-fu character with no combat or even physical skills in my SotC game, so she’s got plenty of roleplaying range.

  5. Yeah, my wife is pretty bloodthirsty too. The character she’s been running for the past almost-year is a golem with a magitech canon built into her arm, and an axe that’s the same size as her.

    And in a game set in Rome, her character bought poison and quietly poisoned those folks that were due to be crucified, so they didn’t die such a horrible and nasty death.

    She’s also a lot more interested in rooting through all those “boring rules bits” in character creation. She gleefully plans out her character for several levels, and when running a Rogue… I’ve never seen such a ninja-looter except as a webcomic joke.

    She’s pretty serious about making sure she gets story though, and it bugs her that the others in the group don’t really get into their character.

  6. I like storytelling, cooperation and shopping. I don’t understand why characters want to imagine spending time with people they don’t get along with. And my wizard has a dagger with a prism in the handle and a sweet rainbow sash. Only problem is… I’m not a woman… I think.

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