In a now-closed thread, Pundit brought up an effect in his DCC game.

Quote from: RPGPunditAnd note that the LGBT kid who played in my DCC game was quite excited about getting a random mercurial effect where every time they cast magic missile it made their wizard change gender.

And of course, people have been talking about the Blessing of Corellon in Mordenkainen's Tome.

In D&D, there's the cursed Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity. I've never seen it in play, though.

I have seen an item from the comedy game Teenagers from Outer Space, the sex-change pistol - which reverses the gender of whoever you shoot it at. It was a fun comedic gimmick.

More broadly, a lot of shapeshifting has the potential to change gender. In another thread, I mentioned how I had a shapeshifting PC in an Amber Diceless game - where shapeshifting always requires that you have a demon form. He found women rather gross, and his demon form was a bat-winged succubus. I can recall a fair number of shapechanging cases where the character changed gender - I'd be curious about

Pundit - I'd be interested to hear more about this gender-changing effect. Was it written into the DCC rules? How did the other players react?

I'm also curious about what other gender-changing effects people have seen in games, and what they were like in play. Was it interesting? Were there any problems with it?

Quote from: jhkim;1042537I'm also curious about what other gender-changing effects people have seen in games, and what they were like in play. Was it interesting? Were there any problems with it?

That is always going to depend on the table at which it happens, whether gender is a big deal in the world being played in. Order of the Stick (a webcomic, not an actual game, I know) had a pretty funny take on it.

Quote from: jhkim;1042537In D&D, there's the cursed Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity. I've never seen it in play, though.

I changed it up a bit. A girdle of Storm Giant Strength which was also a Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity but only while you wore it. There was no way to remove one effect without getting rid of the other.

The Girdle of Femininity/Masculinity is a cursed item for a good reason. It doesn't just change a guy to a gal or a  gal to a guy: it also causes the wearer to believe that this has always been the case. From the wearer's point of view, some of their closest companions are suddenly insisting that she's really a he, which she knows is ridiculous. Whet the party gets back to town, it's likely everyone's gone nuts, constantly insisting that she's really a guy and trying to change her into a guy, which she isn't, thank you very much!

I only started in 2e where gender change stuff was seemingly starting to get back benched.  We don't particularly care (we often played female characters anyway) about gender but the one time it did happen we all thought it was hilarious.

Quote from: Whitewings;1042543The Girdle of Femininity/Masculinity is a cursed item for a good reason. It doesn't just change a guy to a gal or a  gal to a guy: it also causes the wearer to believe that this has always been the case. From the wearer's point of view, some of their closest companions are suddenly insisting that she's really a he, which she knows is ridiculous. Whet the party gets back to town, it's likely everyone's gone nuts, constantly insisting that she's really a guy and trying to change her into a guy, which she isn't, thank you very much!

Did this change in a later edition? From the 1E Dungeon Master's Guide, the description is:

QuoteGirdle of Femininity/Masculinity: This broad leather band appears to be a normal belt used commonly by all sorts of adventurers, but of course it is magical. If buckled on, it will immediately change the sex of its wearer to the opposite gender. Its magical curse fulfilled, the belt then loses all power. The original sex of the character cannot be restored by any normal means, although a wish might do so (50% chance), and a powerful being can alter the situation, i.e., it takes a god-like creature to set matters aright with certainty. 10% of these girdles actually remove all sex from the wearer.

It doesn't mention anything about changing the wearer's memories.

Hmm. I don't have my 2e books any more, so I can't check them. It's possible I'm conflating the Girdle and the commentary elsewhere in the DMG on people generally objecting to being subjected to shape-changing magic.

I just recently had my sex changed by the dreaded girdle in the Baldur's Gate PC game!

I responded to that tangent in the closed thread.

I think a sex shift works well with OD&D (not Holmes, it seems) elves, who function as either fighting-men or as magic-users and shift between these classes in between adventures. Link sex to class. Fighting-elves are male, magic-users, female.  

This covers the elfin knight and the Fay enchantress types.

I mentioned a few of these in other threads.

The aforementioned Girdle of Femininity/Masculinity which seems to have first appeared in AD&D. I did not see it in O or BX. In 2e it also has a 10% chance to remove all gender. Neither entry changes the users mind. It is also brutally hard to undo. Even a Wish has a 50% chance of failure.

The Portal of Gender and Alignment flipping from Tomb of Horrors.

Polymorph spells, potions, and items can change gender. This is a plot point in at least one Greyhawk module. Polymorph can actually alter the mind of the target as well such that they become what they were turned into. So it is not that they believe they were allways as they are now. Its that they now are as if they allways were as they are now. They might be fully aware its not the case, but their movements and outlook now fit the body. YMMV of course and the exact wording of the effect has changed from one edition to another.

Curses in some cases can do this as well. (Im sure some would view polymorph as a curse in some cases. Considering the risk of death, it effectively is!)

Gods and some other beings can change others as well as themselves. Effectively super polymorph.

Believe in AD&D one of the psionic powers allowed it as well. Pretty sure that returned in 2e.

Outside of D&D its really hit or miss and sometimes about the only examples might be curses and polymorph equivalents. And in one Cthulhu themed game I played a monster race that used metamorphic disguises to walk amongst men and one of the other playable races just hopped bodies. So today we might be male, tomorrow female if the mission so called for it.

As for in play use. This varies absolutely from one table to the next and one player to the next. I know many who like polymorph effects but do not like gendermorph effects. And some who do not like either, and some who like both and a few tho really like the gendermorph tricks. Presentation can be another factor. Is it a curse or is it a power the character has themselves via spell? Some will be ok with a curse effect and others wont. There is just that much variance in outlooks. Ive been in several campaigns where it has never come up once. In fact I'd say that is the norm. But I've been in a rare few where things like this were the focus even of the campaign and how the PCs deal with it as a boon or a bane.

And at the end of the day that is the real point. Are the players enjoying this or are they considering leaving? And that has to be determined on a case by case basis. As a DM I discuss things like this first to get an idea, just like many other things. Makes for a more hassle-free session.

I think I conflated the Girdle and the Helm of Opposite Alignment.

Well, Lunars in Exalted are kinda famous/notorious for the fact that (at least for those of them that decide to learn that) gender-switching is some Essence expenditure away;). Canonically, according to 2e canon at least, a corrupt Solar Eclipse tried really hard to learn it from his Lunar mate, and was quite disappointed that he can't do that (because it's not a Charm).

And of course, D&D elves never needed such a power, because nobody could be sure what their gender is, anyway:D!

Quote from: Whitewings;1042562I think I conflated the Girdle and the Helm of Opposite Alignment.

That or with polymorph. Polymorh, depending on the iteration, can be a potent spell. And even failing that spells like hypnotism, suggestion and other mind altering spells can cover even that. There is a module where one of the villains does exactly that to an NPC to literally hide him in plain sight. And its a darn hard one to reveal as the NPC doesnt just believe they are this fabricated character. They effectively ARE the fabricated character. So things like lie detection wont work.

These sorts of tricks can make for some really interesting adventures when used well.

Never seen any sex-changing or even gender-changing in a game. I once had a m2f transgender player, who played a female PC as I recall.

A character in my current game is transgendered. The only time it came up outside of their backstory was for a magic portal that required the character speak their name as they walked through (an owl over the door would cry "hoo!" upon each character's approach). The player hilariously depicted his character's muttered embarrassment while uttering the character's original name for the sake of passage.