From: sos@oz.plymouth.edu (Steffan O'Sullivan)
Subject: Re: Looking for "women's" rpg.
Reply-To: sos@oz.plymouth.edu (Steffan O'Sullivan)
Organization: Plymouth State College - Plymouth, N.H.
Distribution: usa
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 92 22:27:48 GMT

millerl@wharton.upenn.edu writes:
>Let's talk about the kinds of RPG that might interest more women than current
>roleplaying systems do. Something that caught my attention earlier, and it may
>not have been in this thread, was that the diceless Amber rpg was more
>attractive to women than rpgs with lots of dice. I think this was anectdotal
>evidence from some tournament or another. Anyway, I can easily understand this
>given the aversion to numbers exhibited by many women.

I have no experience with Amber or women's attitudes towards it, but
from what I've gathered, Amber tends to be more of a competitive RPG
than most others.  I would think this would outweigh the lack of dice
- most women gamers I know don't enjoy the competitive aspects RPGs
sometimes take.  Of course, this is a generality, and we all know how
shot full of holes generalities are . . .

>Let's try to assemble a number of characteristics of a roleplaying game that
>might fbe attractive to non-roleplaying women, and later try to make it
>attractive to men and women who already roleplay.

>1. Less dice rolling. Ideal would be no dice rolling, since that way you know
>what you can do and don't have to mess around with probability theory to
>predict your character's capacities.

I don't see this as a problem.  I always have women in my gaming groups,
and I've never noticed any that dislike die-rolling.

>2. Less emphasis on violence and mayhem. In most rpgs the biggest section of
>the rules is the combat section. This alienates many people, especially women,
>who don't want to worry about murder and warfare when they're just trying to
>relax.

This is the big one.  One genre that attracts more women than others, in
my personal observations of running games at Conventions over the last
eight years, is Bunnies & Burrows.  A game that's based on Watership Down
appeals to lots of women, and the four games I ran this year at Cons
*all* had more women players than men.  When you're a bunny, you tend not
to bully your way through the world.

>3. Mechanics that emphasize *role*playing and perhaps problem-solving rather
>than power trip stuff and board-game style play. I think the best way to do
>this is to remove other distractions, but there may be some positive steps as
>well.

All the better games have mechanics for role-playing and problem built
into them.  I don't think this is the problem.  The emphasis on power
trips and board-game style play is definitely in the rules, too, but
can be ignored.  The problem is finding a GM and group of players that
are all willing to shelve the power-trip aspect of the game and
concentrate on the other stuff.  I'm lucky: my gaming group already
does this, and with the same system that other folks use to create
mayhem.

>What other aspects of play or design should be emphasized or de-emphasized in
>order to attract non-roleplayer women to our games?

Settings that emphasize romance, such as Lace & Steel.  This is another
game that I've seen a higher percentage of women playing than most games.

-- 
  - Steffan O'Sullivan		         sos@oz.plymouth.edu