On women in TRAVELLER....
I have run a great number of female players and characters in my campaigns,
including an all-female party that did quite well in comparison to the male
parties I was running at other times. The ladies felt that the guys weren't
giving them a fair shake, and as it turned out, they were right. The only
tough part was explaining to people who didn't know me what I did on Friday
nights ("Well, I go into a deserted student lounge in my dorm with five
women, and we, uh, play games."). |->
The other big opportunity for women in my games is the Near Miss series of
adventures, where four of the eight primary characters are women. It's been my
experience, at the past six conventions where I've run Near Miss, that the
players get into character best and have the easiest time of it when they run
characters of the same sex as theirs. The closest to this ideal I've ever
managed was three gals and five guys, which was phenomenal. I'd dearly love to
run at least one Near Miss session with a real four-and-four split before I
retire from cons; even better is when you get a boyfriend and girlfriend or
husband and wife playing a married couple. If they're good role-players, the
characters will come to life anyway, but the extra interplay from people who
know each other THAT well ;-> gives the game an extra touch of realism. One
young lady, who won an award for best job of roleplaying, actually started
screaming when her husband's character got shot last game! It scared the heck
out of everyone else in the gaming hall, though....
I love the opportunities that TRAVELLER allows for women. It's one of the few
SF RPGs that doesn't force women into male-libido-stimulating poses, whether
deliberately or otherwise. The rules are strictly free of gender bias (except
for one or two non-human species), and GDW and DGP, rather than trying to
attract buyers (usually young, male, and hopelessly, er, inexperienced) with
book and gamebox covers that depict women as blaster-wielding sex/death/danger
objects (e.g. Living Steel, Space Opera, SpaceMaster, or anything involving
art by Larry Elmore), show women in TRAVELLER as being attractive, perhaps,
but always competent and in control of their lives (e.g. the TARSUS set, or
the art of level-headed female artists like Donna Barr and Liz Danforth), fit
partners for men but never dominatrixes or helpless damsels. Refreshing.
For those who've never run with women, I recommend the experience strongly.
My one regret about my current TRAVELLER party, which is 100% mature, smart,
and skilled, is that it's also 100% male. Some of our lady friends, who are by
and large excellent gamers themselves but who don't feel the need to game on a
weekly basis, have elected to form a "Traveller Widows' Club" and get together
and socialize, ELSEWHERE, while we game. Oh, well. *sigh*
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