Quote from: RPGPundit;695052Yeah, there can be various reasons for doing this, but playing it for sophomoric laughs doesn't tend to be one of them if the player is anywhere over the age of 15.

RPGPundit

Yes, more of a player issue than anything else, I mean one can go for the sophomoric laughs without crossing gender lines. Memories of playing at 15 are pretty vague now 30 years later, though I wouldn't have played a female either back then, not for just the usual reasons, but seeing as how my sister had recruited me into their D&D group.

Come to think of it, in a game this year we had a 15 year old player with a cross-gender character and he wasn't sophomoric at all.

RPGPundit

Honestly my observation is that the players of cross gender characters are not the 'problem'. Not that it's all that common to BE a problem.


But when it is,
It's the rare other person at the table that has issues.

I've never had any trouble with this in my gaming group.
In our last Pathfinder campaign of the five players (all male) three of them played a female; well, that was somewhat extraordinary, but it didn't affect gaming in any adverse way. Playing a woman as a guy never has been an issue in our group (or vice versa).

The university where I did my undergrad had a gaming community that was fucking legendary for people working out their sexual hangups via roleplaying games, or else the most outrageously offensive stereotyping imaginable (the tournament where the pregen secretly gay prince trying to hide his attraction to the knight assigned to protect him flinging open the shutters of the tavern and shouting "Say it loud! I'm gay and I'm proud!" comes to mind.)

My experience gaming in other major Canadian cities on internships was that this was not unique to my alma mater.  And the ages ranged from 18-year-old freshmen to late 30's.

Any new player one looking to play a cross-gender character got vetted very carefully by everybody, although given the size of the communities the fruitbats got identified pretty quickly.

Quote from: daniel_ream;696095The university where I did my undergrad had a gaming community that was fucking legendary for people working out their sexual hangups via roleplaying games, or else the most outrageously offensive stereotyping imaginable (the tournament where the pregen secretly gay prince trying to hide his attraction to the knight assigned to protect him flinging open the shutters of the tavern and shouting "Say it loud! I'm gay and I'm proud!" comes to mind.)

My experience gaming in other major Canadian cities on internships was that this was not unique to my alma mater.  And the ages ranged from 18-year-old freshmen to late 30's.

Any new player one looking to play a cross-gender character got vetted very carefully by everybody, although given the size of the communities the fruitbats got identified pretty quickly.

These were people in College?

Quote from: Bill;696097These were people in College?

University.  "University" and "College" mean two very different things in Canada due to the way post-graduate education is structured.  I don't know enough about the US system to give you a sensible analogue, I'm sorry.

Quote from: daniel_ream;696108University.  "University" and "College" mean two very different things in Canada due to the way post-graduate education is structured.  I don't know enough about the US system to give you a sensible analogue, I'm sorry.

In the region of the US where I live, assuming nothing has changed since I was in school, 'High School' was grade 9-12 at aprox age 14(15)-17(18)

From High school you commonly went on to a 4 year college from there.

In the US universities and colleges are comparable.

As I understand it, in most of the world a University is generally more advanced than a college.

Quote from: Bill;696110In the region of the US where I live, assuming nothing has changed since I was in school, 'High School' was grade 9-12 at aprox age 14(15)-17(18)

At the time (it's changed since) the province of Ontario had a "Grade 13" in high school, so freshmen were usually 18 years old.

QuoteAs I understand it, in most of the world a University is generally more advanced than a college.

In Canada a college is a 2- or 3-year diploma-granting institution with programs aimed at specific job training such as computer programming, police & security foundations, or early childhood education[1], while a univeristy is a 3- or 4-year degree-granting institution with programs aimed at theory such as (by analogy) computer science, criminology, or child psychology.

My understanding is that the US has broadly the same kinds of institutions, but here in Canada they're credentialed differently and no one would ever refer to a college as a university or vice versa, even informally.


[1] ..or TV/VCR repair.

Quote from: daniel_ream;696114At the time (it's changed since) the province of Ontario had a "Grade 13" in high school, so freshmen were usually 18 years old.



In Canada a college is a 2- or 3-year diploma-granting institution with programs aimed at specific job training such as computer programming, police & security foundations, or early childhood education[1], while a univeristy is a 3- or 4-year degree-granting institution with programs aimed at theory such as (by analogy) computer science, criminology, or child psychology.

My understanding is that the US has broadly the same kinds of institutions, but here in Canada they're credentialed differently and no one would ever refer to a college as a university or vice versa, even informally.


[1] ..or TV/VCR repair.

My americain brain can't distinguish college from university



Everything one needs to know about the US is in the movie "Team America World Police"

As someone whose gone to schools in both the US and Canada, what I basically found in the US was that Colleges tended to be community-funded, cost less for admission, had very little discretion about who can attend, and offered more vocational studies, while universities were privately run, had strict admission guidelines and procedures, focused more on a classic all-around education (everyone needs a certain amount of math, science, lit and history credits to graduate no matter the degree), and tended to focus on the pursuit of masters degrees or doctorates. Universities on the whole are considered more prestigious.

In Canada it seems largely similar.

P.S. this wasn't by chance at Queens university in Kingston was it?

Quote from: TristramEvans;696119P.S. this wasn't by chance at Queens university in Kingston was it?

University of Ottawa, Ryerson Polytechnical (was a college, now an accredited university), University of Toronto, Carleton University, University of Waterloo.

Waterloo and Ottawa were by far the worst at the time, but conversations I had with people from other Ontario universities jibed with my personal experience, for whatever that's worth.

Edit: and this is now horribly off topic.  I can't remember the last time anyone in my current group even expressed interest in playing a different sex of PC, but I wouldn't care because I know all these guys and I can't see it being an issue.  If I were running an open table or a Whatever Society event, I would damn well be vetting anyone who showed up with a mismatched-sex character.

Quote from: daniel_ream;696114At the time (it's changed since) the province of Ontario had a "Grade 13" in high school, so freshmen were usually 18 years old.



In Canada a college is a 2- or 3-year diploma-granting institution with programs aimed at specific job training such as computer programming, police & security foundations, or early childhood education[1], while a univeristy is a 3- or 4-year degree-granting institution with programs aimed at theory such as (by analogy) computer science, criminology, or child psychology.

My understanding is that the US has broadly the same kinds of institutions, but here in Canada they're credentialed differently and no one would ever refer to a college as a university or vice versa, even informally.


[1] ..or TV/VCR repair.

Ah, the Canadian version of college sounds like what an American would call a "community college", "technical school", or "junior college".  They grant 2-year Associates Degrees.

In the U.S., a University and/or College is a (minimum) 4-year granting institution.  A College tends to be smaller and be collected among a similar type of program, such as a "liberal arts college" or an "engineering college".  Universities, by contrast, will often have different colleges under their umbrella (College of Arts and Sciences, School of Engineering, School of Business, etc).  Universities will often be the location where you go for post-graduate degrees (Masters and Doctoral).

Quote from: flyerfan1991;696146College tends to be smaller and be collected among a similar type of program, such as a "liberal arts college" or an "engineering college".

I think the crux of it is that the US generally uses the terms "college" and "university" pretty generally, while in Canada they have specific and exclusive meanings.

In the US, the difference between a University and a College is the ability to award post-graduate degrees (Masters, PhD) usually in multiple fields.  Some colleges are small private schools (Occidental College in Los Angeles, where I attended, for instance, had 1600 total students) but there is no real restriction based on size.  Universities tend to be larger because they offer more programs.  

But when someone is getting a 4-year undergraduate degree (B.A., B.S) they tend to say "I'm going to college" or "I'm in college" whether they're attending Occidental College as I did, or the University of California Los Angeles as did my oldest brother.