The first taste is free...
Posted by M. K.
5/26/99 02:45 PM
Skelflesh's posting begs the question:
How old were you when you played your first RPG?
I started playing D&D when I was 13. Strangely enough, there were at least as many girls in the group, if not more. I've been gaming ever since.
How about you?
Untitled Posted by: L. B. in response to The first taste is free...
5/26/99 02:50 PMI actually didn't start playing until I was 16 and in college. My first game was Amber. The second D&D. I haven't stopped (at least not willingly!) since!
Untitled Posted by: L. T. in response to The first taste is free...
5/26/99 04:34 PM> How old were you when you played your first RPG?
I was twelve. My mother gave me the lovely boxed set with the red and blue books ad cheezy die. I played with my sister (L.) and next door neighbor (a boy named R.) niether L. nor R. played for long but I started a weekly gaming group up during High School with people in the Drama dept. We pretty much went streight for role-playing. That group had 2 guys (M1. and T.) and 5 girls (C., L1., A., L2., and Me) playing regularly. M2. (girl) and D. (guy) also played occasionally. M1 or I usually GMed although occasionally L2 or T. could be talked into it. Oddly enough the gaming group survived M1 breaking up with me and T. breaking up with L2. Pretty impressive during the stressful high school years.
I've now been playing for almost 18 years (come this Christmas it will be 18). Most of that time I've played in at least one regular weekly game. I've only been going to gaming conventions for 8 years though.
--
L. T.
"Duct Tape is like the Force there's a light side and a dark side and it keeps the universe together"
Untitled Posted by: L. F. in response to The first taste is free...
5/26/99 05:15 PMHello M.
My first taste of D&D was about 7-8 years ago, when I was still at school. It wasn't anything in particular, but it whetted my appetite for more. It was a couple of years after that I begun to play regularly. The boyfriend of a friend of mine was playing and he asked her to join (a very usual situation). She told us because she knew we'd love it and, voila!, I got hooked. But in the first years, me and my friends were the only women in the field (apart from some other girlfriends of the male players). This seems to be abating now, because I see more and more women in RPG fairs and conventions. Maybe we're finding our well deserved place in the field after all ;-)
L."May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rain fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand"
Old Irish blessing
Untitled Posted by: L. H. in response to The first taste is free...
5/26/99 07:23 PMDear All,
Greetings! This posting is in response to the question 'why don't girls/women play D&D'? But before I add my 2 cents worth, I think it is only fair to introduce myself. My name is L. and I have been involved in gaming for about, let's see, 6 years now. I began gaming in Graduate school as a diversion from the stress of PhD exams, powerful-yet-arbitrary faculty decisions, and intense graduate poverty. I have played in Advanced D&D, Call of Chthulhu, a few other RPG's of extrarodinary silliness based on classic horror films, Vampire the Masquerade (which I did not like so much, more due to the subject matter than due to the gaming system, which seems very well developed), a few live action role playing games, WarHammer 40k and WarHammer Fantasy battles (both of which I rather like, despite myself). I have been the GM of my own Call of Chthulhu role playing group for several years now; I have also GM'd an advanced D&D world of my own creation for a few years, on and off. I have even been a consultant for an Aliens MUSH (a friend of mine who is VERY much into on-line gaming recommended me to someone who was creating an Aliens site. This friend of mine had played Call of Cthulhu under me, and felt that I had the mood and genre down pretty well. Besides, I have a slightly sadistic, grisly streak that goes well with horror RPG's, probably due to my lengthy incarceration in Grad school). So, here stands an example of a woman who began to 'game' late in life, around the age of 26. Despite my comparatively 'late' entrance into the sordid world of RPG's, however, I have loved Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror books and films all of my life.
Now for my 2 cents: Just a warning: I am speaking in VERY broad, VERY reductive terms, and there are some exceptions to what I am about to say. But I do believe that my over-all assessment has some merit, even if you might disagree with some of my particulars. Also, despite some of the seemingly disparaging stuff I'm going to say, never forget that I'm only addressing the issue of sexism in gaming, SciFi and Fantasy. I love this stuff myself, and, obviously, things are NOT all doom and gloom. But, to the question: why are girls and women so few and far between in gaming and SciFi and Fantasy gatherings, etc.?, I'm going to have to get 'down and dirty', so the explanation might seem overly negative. Pardon me for that.
In my experience, it is not just gaming that girls and women are encouraged to avoid (and by 'encouraged to avoid', I mean both explicitly, i.e., when people actively make you feel geeky or less feminine should you mention your interest in gaming, and implicitly, i.e., the cultural pressure that pushes girls and women away from certain male-identified topics, like science and Science Fiction). As a youngster, I never role-played (and I'm convinced that if I had tried to get involved, I would have been discouraged by everyone concerned), but I adored SciFi and Fantasy, and I received a lot of flak from my family and friends for this interest. It was made very clear to me that proper girls did not read such things, or watch such movies. Why the gender distinction? Why is it ok for boys to read Heinlein, or Tolkein, or to watch Star Trek, or Space 1999? I think the answer lies in the perceived purpose behind SciFi and Fantasy. The life of the mind, action and the interest in new ideas and worlds that they encourage is not the sort of life that future mothers are supposed to engage in. Girls are not supposed to want to create and use machines, study arcane texts, discuss theology (even a fake one), spread civilization, defend civilization, fight, steal, or travel. Women aren't supposed to become scientists, doctors, soldiers, leaders, thieves, wizards, Rangers, Jedi Knights, fighter pilots, or mechanics. Girls and women are suppose <Truncated on SixDegrees>
Early Bloomer Posted by: R. H. in response to The first taste is free...
5/27/99 02:56 AMI started with Tunnels and Trolls at the age of 12 or 13. My brother brought it home from college and got 4 of his younger sisters to play. (only two of us kept on with it)
Now, 22 years later, I still play. I enjoy AD&D, Travler(the old system), Star Wars, Chill, and Macho Women w/ Guns. I am a RPGA member and attend a minimum or 3 local conventions a year. (I also help to organize a couple of them)
At first there were very few women, that seems to be changing. (at least here in CO) I've notice that our cons are nearing about 1/3rd women, of a wide age range. It sounds like I'm lucky to be in the area that I am in.
If you are looking for gaming with more women and can't find it in your area I'd be happy to have you all come here! :)
Fairy Dust and Laughter to you all,
R.
Untitled Posted by: I. J. in response to The first taste is free...
5/27/99 10:12 AMI think I was 12 or 13 as well. There was this one girl in the group. We've been friends ever since. Sometimes I long back to those uncomplicated times, where you bought candy and a coke for all the money you had, brought your dice and your Games Workshop figure and just roleplayed some ancient and pretty lousy D&D scenario.
I.
Late bloomer Posted by: J. R. in response to The first taste is free...
5/27/99 12:14 PMHeh, I didn't play an RPG until I was a junior in hs, 16 yrs old. And that night and the next I played were both just me and the DM; he ran AD&D for me and I played a party of 6 (because he wouldn't let me play 7 by myself.) Then I didn't play again until freshman in college, where I was extremely lucky and 90% of the people on my dorm floor were people with similar intests as mine. I met the best damn Rifts GM ever there, and I am currently living with him still. We played as much as we could back then. Also, that first year I bought the Marvel rpg and gave a whirl at gming, which I would say is extremely early, seeing how I'd only been playing for that year if you discount those two first AD&D games.
All in all, counting high school, I have been playing for almost 8 years now. Seems I'm the spring chicken here. I'd rather not be.
Untitled Posted by: T. W. in response to The first taste is free...
5/27/99 12:35 PMI played my first RPG when I was fourteen. I had been playing "Jyhad" (a card game based on "Vampire" then went out of print a few months after I started playing it) since I was thirteen, but had no idea it was based on an RPG. So my boyfriend at the time decided to start me on AD&D, with a group of other gaming couples from our high school. Like me, the other girls were only there because their boyfriend dragged them along, but after a few months I was DMing some pretty decent campaigns.
Untitled Posted by: D. B. in response to The first taste is free...
5/28/99 07:19 PM*groan* I'm afraid I'm one of the dreaded "a boyfriend got me interested" types -- I started playing about 3 or 4 years ago, when I was about 20! But I've read fantasy voraciously since 1st grade, and come from a very artistic family, which probably helped postpone my "growing up".
Untitled Posted by: R. M. in response to The first taste is free...
5/29/99 07:42 PMI was 8. We of course had little idea what we were doing. (my character was a female deity out of Deities and Demigods) I was playing on a regular basis (the right way) by about 15.
late bloomer Posted by: S. M. in response to The first taste is free...
5/30/99 11:45 PMActually, I didn't discover roleplaying until I was 16 when the boy I was holding a torch for asked me to join the AD&D session he'd been in for a few years. (It was just as well, my mother dogged my footsteps on roleplaying until long after I left home...she still thinks it's a form of Satanic worship, no matter how many times I've assured her otherwise...urk ). I've played more or less steadily since, and have recently gotten my four year-old son interested...he likes creating stories, especially after seeing such 80's fantasies as 'The Never-Ending Story', 'Legend', and 'Willow'.
All of the games I've been involved in are about 90% men to the 10% me. Not that it bothers me excessively, they tend to be good guys, but I've always wondered... I've had a few games where there's been another girl involved, but almost never a very experienced girl...I don't mind newbies, but it seems like the scene here is populated by them, and they don't stick around long enough to become more than newbies.
It appears I'm another spring chicken here. :)
Untitled Posted by: C. C. in response to The first taste is free...
6/1/99 07:35 PMHi. I'm C. You asked how old were we when we played our first RPGs?? Well, if you count stuff like Final Fantasy, I was about 11 or 12 when I first played that!! =)
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