Two side notes:
-many times, depending on the details, what we're talking about is actually changing the sex of a character. ("Gender" as a term was always a bit more wishy-washy, but now it has become all but useless)
-don't know about specific RPGs but you can experience magic that changes your sex (I believe) in the board game Arabian Nights.

Quote from: Azraele;1042834I don't want to drift this fine thread off-topic, but I DO want to tell you all that it has inspired me to fashion the Gauntlet of Dick-Having for use in future games.

Gauntlet of Dick-Having
Did you seriously put this thing on before the wizard was done inspecting it? Well, it looks like today is your lucky day, because now your character is the recipient of an enormous, inhumanly veiny man-hammer. What's that? you already had one? Well now you have another, much better one! In case you blow a flat, or for whatever use your depraved mind can concoct. Break down a door? No problem with this beef rod! Cross a formidable Chasm? You'll have no difficulty pole-vaulting on this magnificent member!

Cursed? How can you see this blessing of abundant trouser meat as a curse?! You ingrate! Of course you can remove the gauntlet; why would you want to?! Look at that thing! It's like an ugly baby!

...

You really don't want to know what lonesome wizard made this thing. For use in any game and game-related activity. You're welcome

You are my new best friend.  Come to GaryCon, I'll let you buy me a beer!

Quote from: rawma;1042831In the late 70s we thought ourselves very clever for planning to seek out transsexuals who would want to test unknown girdles, on the condition that they had to return them if they just gave giant strength. It came up once that I knew of, and it was in fact giant strength.

Recently, a character in Tomb of Annihilation drank from a fountain that changed him to female (the fountain killed another character after that, which was probably more the reason that nobody wanted to experiment further with it); since he was the brother of a previously deceased female character, the character was maybe more annoyed with being mistaken for the sister, but then druids are used to changing their physical form.

The girdle of femininity/masculinity was first in Greyhawk, along with "a room which causes a sex to change" (among other heavy handed things to mess with characters) in the tricks and traps section; otherwise, the only things close to that level of arbitrary character altering was in the board game Talisman and in Munchkin. I don't recall anyone changing gender in that game, but one of my characters went from lawful to chaotic as a result of that sort of room, and a Magic-User got turned into an Illusionist. Usually players who were interested in the role-playing were unhappy with that sort of thing, and rooms like that disappeared quickly. Probably DMs stopped using that item for the same reason.

Whereas when the "Ring of Contrariness" was first used, it was Gary's character who put it on.  Rob told him about it secretly during a bathroom/smoke break, and Gary played it to the hilt, and we all enjoyed it immensely.

Quote from: Azraele;1042834I don't want to drift this fine thread off-topic, but I DO want to tell you all that it has inspired me to fashion the Gauntlet of Dick-Having for use in future games.

Gauntlet of Dick-Having
Did you seriously put this thing on before the wizard was done inspecting it? Well, it looks like today is your lucky day, because now your character is the recipient of an enormous, inhumanly veiny man-hammer. What's that? you already had one? Well now you have another, much better one! In case you blow a flat, or for whatever use your depraved mind can concoct. Break down a door? No problem with this beef rod! Cross a formidable Chasm? You'll have no difficulty pole-vaulting on this magnificent member!

Cursed? How can you see this blessing of abundant trouser meat as a curse?! You ingrate! Of course you can remove the gauntlet; why would you want to?! Look at that thing! It's like an ugly baby!

...

You really don't want to know what lonesome wizard made this thing. For use in any game and game-related activity. You're welcome

I just fell out of my chair.

Quote from: mightybrain;1042709I can't imagine anyone having a problem being 'cursed' with a gender switch unless they were either obsessed with their gender identity in the first place or using role-playing to explore their own biases. In the first case, maybe role-playing against their bias would be good for them. But if someone chose to play against their gender bias and then got 'cursed' back I guess it would be annoying.

Player agency. If I want to play a Male Human Paladin if I get turned female or into a dwarf it may bother me. What bias would either imply?

Quote from: Ras Algethi;1042871Player agency. If I want to play a Male Human Paladin if I get turned female or into a dwarf it may bother me. What bias would either imply?

"Player Agency" gets used a bit too much as a passive aggressive whining point to stop bad things happening to characters.

Quote from: Omega;1042906"Player Agency" gets used a bit too much as a passive aggressive whining point to stop bad things happening to characters.

Maybe but as to the point in question, is 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?

I ran a game where a half-orc fighter PC was changed from male to female by a magical effect. Everyone found it amusing except for the player of the affected PC. He was a bit upset, but got over it and eventually found a way to change back.

I wouldn't say it was particularly interesting or problematic. It was just mildly amusing.

Quote from: Ras Algethi;1042871Player agency. If I want to play a Male Human Paladin if I get turned female or into a dwarf it may bother me. What bias would either imply?

No one is forcing the character to take the Girdle and put it on. That's a conscious decision by the Player. Just like no one one forces a character to draw a card from the Deck of Many Things.

Quote from: Krimson;1042920No one is forcing the character to take the Girdle and put it on. That's a conscious decision by the Player. Just like no one one forces a character to draw a card from the Deck of Many Things.

And there you have it.  Too many people simply don't want the possibility of bad consequences.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;1042935And there you have it.  Too many people simply don't want the possibility of bad consequences.

Then they should be playing a nice safe game where you get reward without risk.

The curse is not worse than  level drain, petrification, or death.

Quote from: Azraele;1042834I don't want to drift this fine thread off-topic, but I DO want to tell you all that it has inspired me to fashion the Gauntlet of Dick-Having for use in future games.

Gauntlet of Dick-Having
Did you seriously put this thing on before the wizard was done inspecting it? Well, it looks like today is your lucky day, because now your character is the recipient of an enormous, inhumanly veiny man-hammer. What's that? you already had one? Well now you have another, much better one! In case you blow a flat, or for whatever use your depraved mind can concoct. Break down a door? No problem with this beef rod! Cross a formidable Chasm? You'll have no difficulty pole-vaulting on this magnificent member!

Cursed? How can you see this blessing of abundant trouser meat as a curse?! You ingrate! Of course you can remove the gauntlet; why would you want to?! Look at that thing! It's like an ugly baby!

...

You really don't want to know what lonesome wizard made this thing. For use in any game and game-related activity. You're welcome

Cursed indeed, it is!  Why, Randar the Randy, warrior of great fame and fortune, put on this mighty gauntlet and proudly took off towards the nearest wench vending establishment, stark naked apart from the gauntlet and the wheelbarrow he required to transport his manhood.

His mighty meat spear accidentally punched a hole in the wall, knocked out several of the women, and then rendered him unconscious due to lack of bloodflow to the brain.  Randar sold the gauntlet the next day, muttering that he wanted to screw and if he needed a battering ram his half-orc companion would do nicely.

A mighty tool it grants, but only the rather charming gnomish thief Quincy o'Quickdraw has been able to "use it to its fullest measure" so to speak.  He speaks quite highly of the gauntlet, and is very easily tracked by reports of individuals being unable to close the jaw, or walking bowlegged for a week.



I'd give the thing an activation phrase.  "Ru ru ahsvet korfah!"  (translation: go, go, gadget dick!)  Imagine a group of PCs walking towards a tavern.  It's been a long night, and they hate the fucking Eagles.  They're almost to the door, hear that phrase, and out of nowhere the wizard gets knocked flat on his ass by a dick rapidly extending into the courtyard.

Quincy was just showing off, the wizard got hit by friendly fire.

Quote from: Thornhammer;1042944...they hate the fucking Eagles..

Understandable since most of their songs are just griping about something.

Quote from: Krimson;1042920No one is forcing the character to take the Girdle and put it on. That's a conscious decision by the Player. Just like no one one forces a character to draw a card from the Deck of Many Things.

I think there is a distinct difference of scale here.

A character picks up a magical sword which hasn't been Identified, and then has to live with being stuck with a -1 to hit until they can have Remove Curse cast.

versus

A character who has an item reliably Identified as a Girdle of Storm Giant Strength, only for that to turn out to be a lie from the reliable narrator and only source of information about the reality of the game world.  On top of that the resultant effect fundamentally changes the image of the character. It's also effectively irreversible with even a Wish only providing a coin flip chance of restoring the original character's state.

As I stated, I've only ever seen it intentionally dropped with a specific target character in mind.  The target player is always someone invested in their character as an avatar of themselves.  I won't lie.  Some of them probably couldn't tolerate bad things happening to their characters.  But I'd say that about half of them were perfectly fine with making gameplay decisions and dealing with the consequences.

If the item isn't intended to be dickish by design, why is it labeled "cursed" with the connotations that has in D&D (traps and punishment).  Also, why the over the top requirements for reversing it, which some artifacts don't even go as far as?