I was never told that I couldn’t play or that “girls don’t play”: I was accepted since the first day and encouraged to play, to have fun and not to worry too much fot the things I didn’t know.
Luckily enough, my friends are openminded, even if with almost no experience about how a girl’s mind works…

That sounds like a truly kickass character. A revolutionary cleric…Sweet! It’s good to hear about the 4.0 changes for clerics (except the turning undead part). One of these days I might have to dust off the dice and give it a try!

Bookmole’s comments made me think of one of my favorite characters. A tiefling thief by the name of “Walker” used in Forgotten Realms settings. Total smartass with a penchant for irritating the hell out of DM’s.

Another of my favorite gaming sessions was the Masque of the Red Death scenario, which allowed our characters to trade broadswords for Colt pistols and attempt to survive Lovecraftian horror scenarios. University Greenhouses filled with flesh-eating plants! And mystery galore. Lots of fun, even with modified 2nd Ed. rules.

Great to hear of the other sex playing D&D too. It’s like a rare sighting of some unknown creature.

I too have had some very interesting gaming groups where ladies are involved. I love to see the female take on situations. Many women are more likely to think things out first before they act.

Good Gaming!

DM of the 4th edition group on Myspace.

We taught our children, but the only one who really like it was Daughter, who went to Uni and found her own group there.

These days we play Talisman – it is just the two of us, and lets face it, a board game for two is a lot easier than getting a group of people together and doing all that Dungeon Mastering. But I still miss it.

And Whisper (that elf I was talking about). I really miss her.

I’ve just started playing 4th Edition, and I have to say, the cleric class has been greatly changed — healing has actually been reduced, and combat powers have been increased. (Don’t get me started on the atrocity that is now turning undead, which is worthy of a WHOLE OTHER COLUMN) So that old “we need a cleric along for healing” cliche changes a bit in this dynamic.

And although I’ve certainly played clerics for years, I’ve never felt particularly pressured into playing them for gender purposes — the cleric I’m playing in a 3.5 edition game is most certainly not the healing type (she’s obsessed with chaos and freedom and revolution). I’m the only woman in the 4th edition game (different gaming group), but the only real pressure I’ve faced, gaming wise, is the constant insistence that I need to buy new dice because some nights my D20 is clearly, in their words, “cursed.”

This isn’t to say that I haven’t felt gender pressure — back in college, I was uncomfortable with joining the main group of gamers there because I was the only woman. I’m over that feeling now.

And let me throw this one in too. Ladies, don’t be bullied into playing the cleric, unless you really want to. It’s a player class most people avoid like the plague. Why? Because at lower levels, clerics suck. They do nothing but drag fallen warriors out of the fray and “lay hands” upon them.

Just because you have a womb or possible maternal instincts, it shouldn’t be the accepted norm for getting stuck with a character who only cares about patching people together. Let alone the image of the tender touch of the group’s only girl bringing back their character with the “kiss of life.” That’s like eleven shades of Freud, right there.

Girls can kick ass just like boys. I’ve seen them kick more ass at times. And who cares if the boys don’t like it. Give ‘em hell!