No Women Only Females: A musing on rpg world building and gender

Originally Published September 18th 2022

"Although the masculine form of appellation is typically used when listing the level titles of the various types of characters, these names can easily be changed to the feminine if desired. This is fantasy - what's in a name? In all but a few cases sex makes no difference to ability!" - Gary Gygax, AD&D Players Handbook.

Within the standard realm of elfgames there is a pattern: there is gender. This is not a particularly insightful observation, there is gender in the real world so it makes sense that it shows up in fantasy. Talking about gender in RPGs isn't even new. However, there is one aspect that has always irked me somewhat, the way world-building is often carried out it creates a situation where only men exist. Sure a character can be female but at the end of the day, she is a man.

What I mean by this of course is that the tradition of medieval fantasy roleplaying there has been a current of a more of a quasi-feminist reimagining of the world, women can be fighters just as well as men can. To me however, this rings hollow it is not a true reimagining of the world where men and women are on truly equal footing, it is a world where women are able to fill roles traditionally filled by men without friction.

Women can wear be knights in shining armor! However, when you look for examples the historically fantastic that has been associated with women you realize the field is lacking.

For example, looking to d&d and its many many derivatives we have the hag, a woman with incredible magical powers based around the history of European witchcraft. Of course, however, you find this in the monster manual, not something to be easily embraced by a feminine character. Instead in the domain of magic for player characters, we have the magic user/wizard something that draws heavily upon idealized masculine forms of academic studiousness, for at the end of the day a woman can be anything she wants to be as long as it is a man.

So I implore you, dear reader, next time you are working on a fantasy world, think about the difference in expectations placed on men and women. Creating a place for women does not mean creating a place inherently lesser than that of men. If women and men fight side by side in suits of armor on the battlefield then is there a difference between what exactly they wear? Are women and men expected to learn the same types of magic?

Does every fantasy world need an in-depth exploration of gender in the world? No, but I would much rather have that be an intentional choice on the part of the author rather than something that goes without saying.

Post Script

For a good example of thoughtful uses of gender in rpgs and world-building I suggest reading the playbooks for the pbta game flying circus. There is obviously a lot of intentionality with word choice. Secondly if the world has strong gendered expectations even if those expectations are seen as being equal should they still be strictly enforced? No, rules are meant to be broken, especially rules about gender.