This page is for non-computer Roleplaying Games. For online gaming, see Gaming.

Overview Edit

Roleplaying games are games in which players take on the role of a character and attempt to achieve certain goals/quests as that character. Although the term is also used for a genre of computer games, this page is about the face-to-face kind of RPGs, including Dungeons and Dragons and other games of that kind.

Issues Edit

• Invisibility
• Essentialism -- some people believe that women are evolutionarily designed to dislike roleplaying games.
  • On Gender and Gaming by Jonathan Tweet
• Condescension -- playing down to women roleplayers
  • Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the D&D Game
• Objectification
  • Usually in art (note: the male version has shirt and pants) but also in gameplay (see Pimp the Backhanding)
• Here with my boyfriend
  • Conventions such as Gen Con have events aimed at non-gamers who attend. Most of them are aimed at women, including a couple of sexualized "courses"

Women in Roleplaying Games Edit

Artists Edit

Writers/Designers Edit

• Jess Hartley - Freelance Writer for White Wolf. Her own personal blog.
• Monica Valentinelli - Freelance Writer. Does a lot of work in the indie scene. blog
• Mur Lafferty - Freelance writer and podcaster. Her website.

Further reading Edit

• On gender disparity in RPGs (blog post by John Kim)
• Why geeks get a bad name on Feminist Geeks, discussing sexism in D&D forums online
• Sexism in D&D and EnWorld (now with solutions!) - discussion of sexism on a popular D&D forum
• Blogger Dorothea Salo has reflected several times on sexist experiences in tabletop and email RPGs:
  • The sickening grunch
  • Assumptions much?
  • Gaming and the non-grunch
• Dovearrow's blog about feminism and gaming

Timeline of Events Edit

2005 Edit

Chris Crawford using "Evolutionary Psych" to explain why women don't like shooting games. [1]

2008 Edit

On Gender and Gaming by Jonathan Tweet