Blogfight: Sexism in Roleplaying Games?
I love this, an Irish gaming blogosphere “heated discussion”. I came across mer writes about roleplaying blog when she wrote about one of my articles on roleplaying. So I started to follow her blog… and then this post appears Spirit of the Century. Spirit of the Century is a Fate/Fudge based RPG that I’ve been hearing lots of good words about. Mary was actually commenting on an LJ post (here) about it.
Now, in my mind, it’s a Fudge game. I haven’t read it, however I have read Fate and think it’s one of the best systems I’ve read. So I’m not surprised Spirit of the Century is well-liked. The issue the original LJ poster (peaseblossom) has is that:
The biggest hurdle for me is the list of character ideas, which starts on page 15, at the very beginning of the character creation section. Of the twelve basic ideas for characters, four of them (Gadget Guy, Gentleman Criminal, Jungle Lord, Man of Mystery) are specifically male, four of them (Academic, Operator, Primitive/Foreigner, Two-Fisted Pilot) are referred to exclusively by male pronouns, and the other four (Explorer, Plucky Reporter, Science Hero, Scientist) simply avoid pronouns altogether (and Science Hero uses as its sole example Doc Savage, a guy). I’m a bit gratified that there isn’t a Femme Fatale option (although, wait for it), but, would it have been so hard to come up with an example that would make me, a woman, excited to play the game? And don’t even get me started on the Primitive/Foreigner one; I mean, the fuck?