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Comics about RPGs and the One Girl
Lesson of RPG comics: There is One Girl in the gaming group, and there's One Girl in the party. At max.
Case studies:
Knights of the Dinner Table. Sarah is the One Girl. She's an ass-kicker who can out-do any of the guys at their own game but is also less crazy than them.
Order of the Stick. Halley is the One Girl. She is the thief, wears skimpy clothing (despite being a stick figure) and is saucy.
Dumnestor's Heroes. Sue is the One Girl. She is practical, capable, and kinda fulfills the same role as Sarah from KotDT. In the real life portions, her player does as well.
Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic has many different girls and women with different goals and personalities (briefly: Arachne, Charlotte, Maura, Jone, Clover, etc.) However, and this is worth noting, the comic is explicitly about the "bad guys." Among the "good guys" in the comic, there's really only two female characters of any agency, one of whom is a plucky thief and one of whom is a bad-ass fighter chick.
This is just the comics that I read, natch. You will be able to come up with examples and counter-examples on your own.
(The first two comics are written by men, the third by a woman, and the last by a husband and wife team.)
So what do you make of this? Is female agency aligned Evil in D&D fantasy? Is the single girl in the gaming group, and how she acts, a realistic portrayal of the reality of a male dominated hobby or is it the inability of authors to write decent female characters?
Case studies:
Knights of the Dinner Table. Sarah is the One Girl. She's an ass-kicker who can out-do any of the guys at their own game but is also less crazy than them.
Order of the Stick. Halley is the One Girl. She is the thief, wears skimpy clothing (despite being a stick figure) and is saucy.
Dumnestor's Heroes. Sue is the One Girl. She is practical, capable, and kinda fulfills the same role as Sarah from KotDT. In the real life portions, her player does as well.
Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic has many different girls and women with different goals and personalities (briefly: Arachne, Charlotte, Maura, Jone, Clover, etc.) However, and this is worth noting, the comic is explicitly about the "bad guys." Among the "good guys" in the comic, there's really only two female characters of any agency, one of whom is a plucky thief and one of whom is a bad-ass fighter chick.
This is just the comics that I read, natch. You will be able to come up with examples and counter-examples on your own.
(The first two comics are written by men, the third by a woman, and the last by a husband and wife team.)
So what do you make of this? Is female agency aligned Evil in D&D fantasy? Is the single girl in the gaming group, and how she acts, a realistic portrayal of the reality of a male dominated hobby or is it the inability of authors to write decent female characters?
no subject
1. Female agency evil? Yes. (though, this is generally true of a lot of media...ugh).
Drow, sorceresses, queens, hags, sirens, harpies, succubi, etc. Note how monsters defined by gender male are more neutral than monsters defined as female.
2. Single female in groups?
Well, I've seen this before. Mostly it's an all-guy group, where, one person decides they want to bring in their girlfriend/potential girlfriend. How they act is not so certain- some are completely not interested in the game itself, some are even more hardcore than the guys and can outgame them.
This dynamic of single female tends to disappear with older groups, I've noticed. Possibly because either more of the group brings in other female players OR because the women decide they get tired of the little boys' antics of space.
3. Inability to write female characters?
I've only read one of the comics above, but I've generally found that true in other comic mediums.
no subject
If it's not YAFGC, you might like it.
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no subject
By "older groups" do you mean older players or groups that have been around a while?
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Uncritically, it maps to a lot of pulp fantasy, particularly in sidekick/love interest/villainess roles in pulp fantasy. Critically, things like Artesia, Cry for Dawn, or Kevin Taylor's Girl porn comic series would fit. Hellboy would also be interesting to look at in that light.
Media-aside, it definitely makes for interesting play regarding stuff like "Protection from Evil", Evil artifacts, and Helm of Alignment Change. Gender change magic could also have some interesting alignment effects.
no subject
Damn.