Altorin said:
in my experience, the girls who like RPGs would get a kick out of that, especially the retribution. The girl we lost in our exalted game ran into every battle naked. She had a combo that involved evoking several charms while taking her clothes off. All while getting ready to rip people to pieces with her bare hands.
I miss that girl. lol
Thats fine for her, and for that group. But thats FAR from universal. If this thread has shown nothing else, its that (shock horror) yes there are some girls who play D&D and indeed RPGs in general and have found ways to either ignore or avoid unwanted nerd attention. Some play up to it (with all the scanty leather armour, thigh high boots and whip-based weaponry that implies), while some go the other way (IC retribution). Some just don't come back, and even if they do like the games won't be playing with you again.
Thing is, women frankly shouldn't have to deal with this crap. If nerds ever wonder why we can't have nice things or why we can't play our favourite games with girls in this case, then you have to look at us. Nerds are probably the least accepting people in the world. We think we are, but we aren't. Sure, we aren't gunna beat you down or anything, but nerds LOVE to argue, LOVE to be right, and straight up hate noobs in their personal space.
Basically, if you walk into a game session you better be prepared to defend any ideas you have about how the group should go about anything. If you wanna even talk in character without being spoken to first, you're likely going to have to yell over the top of people until they stop pricking around and listen. For guys, no big deal. Same whatever we do. For girls, not so much.
Between simply not caring enough about arguing to keep it up and being perpetually talked over or ignored in favour louder more abrasive players, its hard to have a good time.
In smaller groups (most people seem to be saying 4-5 with 1-2 girls) then I can imagine its much less of a problem, since you are not only forced to work together for success, but its also a way less intimidating proposition to walk in as an unknown. People are far less likely to get in your face or argue so hard in those circumstances.
In groups I've usually GMed for, with 10+ people, all guys, none of my female friends would consider joining in. Its just too much to walk into a room full of people when you only know one or two and 'play with the big boys'. Even with men, its far better to start in smaller groups where you know everyone, and you know what you can and can't do.
Maybe again its just my experience, but yeah... Nerds can be dicks. Hell we even usually spend at least a whole session in each campaign sorting out either through cunning or violence who is going to be in charge. Just between friends and for fun of course. But yeah... They are our close friends and we still wanna fuck them over if we can. Some of us even make characters that are specifically difficult to put comfortably in the group and are pricks by nature, simply because we enjoy the gadfly role. But with that in mind you can kinda see how that gets in the way of people who actually want to enjoy the adventure, rather than backstabbing.
