I think I'm fairly evenly split between the two. Possibly there is a lean towards females as they are what I'm more comfortable with, but when I have RP partners that prefer males, I tend to get the male other half. When I first started playing males, I definitely found it more difficult, and I would argue now about how authentic my males actually are. They are much less feminine males than they used to be years ago, that much is for sure!

But again, I will more often choose the female role than the male!

Ok after a quick count, I'm surprised to actually find I've got more male characters overall than females active at the moment.

I remember at first it was a daunting idea to play a guy. Then Menefer turned out to be my first male character. I think until today he's probably the most female out of the bunch considering how emotional and impulsive he is. After that I think I've taken a liking to playing them given that I find it a challenge because it doesn't just mean getting into someone else's head but also trying to apply a thought pattern different to mine. I'd actually love some feedback I think on how "male" my fellows really are. I usually go by things I've come to notice about my husband, my male friends and what my girlfriends tell me about their boyfriends.

I guess in the end my playing male characters these days is partly me trying to understand a certain type of man and partly and partly just really enjoying the challenge

I thought this would be an interesting topic to bring up, being that most of my characters are female but I am a male. Is choosing your character's gender difficult for you and why? Do you find that it's easier to write for your same gender or do you like to branch out? Are men truly from Mars and women from Venus?

I guess for me, I just find the female voice better. All of my favorite characters have been strong heroines such as Morgaine from Mists of Avalon, Piper in Charmed, Buffy, and Xena. I think that women are such layered people, they've got the whole maternal clock thing going on, they have men suppressing them , and they are just so kick ass. I think if Morrigaine, of EC, were a man, she would be so friggin' boring, I wouldn't be able to stand it. And now I was working on another character for EC, who I was going to make a man, but I changed it last minute because he was so macho, I couldn't handle it, and a strong woman with insecurities is so much better to me. I don't know. Am I rambling?

What do you think?

ETA: Of course there's already a thread on this, why wouldn't there be? And I'm the idiot for not reading. Ugh. Can someone delete this please? Or is there a way that I can?

I've always been more of a female character and it taking the risk of playing males, I have to have a really good reason. Most of the time, it's a good writing partner playing the female paired with my character (either in a couple or siblings form). Four of them I still remember well, two of which are my favorites. One of them I still occasionally play and while his intent originally was to play a sibling to one of my old characters, he ended up getting his own story and branching out. Quite proud of that one.

Usually, if I even venture into playing a character, I first think about what I want in the opposite gender then discuss with the person I'll be starting the character with (parent, sibling, partner) and then get into it.

But even with all that, I prefer my female characters. They're easiest for me to get to and their development goes a lot more easier and writing them tends to just come out of me as long as I have even the slightest inspiration to write.

My first character has always been a gay male, no matter what the storyline is. Second character is usually probed from the first character. Therefore the gender just depends on that character. For instance, in the future, my second character will be the sister of my first character. Just how I wrote it really.

When I first started role-playing at a young age, my characters were male because obviously, I could relate to that! Deciding on gender is usually one of the first, if not the first choice I make when I'm trying to create a character.

Buuuut as of late, I like playing female characters. I dunno, I'm always drawn to strong female characters like TJ mentioned up there. This is probably strange sounding, but I feel like a gay guy RP'ing as a female character is sort of a way to do drag without doing drag. It's fun trying to explore what emotions/attitudes/the way a female character would act or behave.

Nicholas it's funny you say that because my newest CHB character is named Ebony. She's a black girl. And I mentioned one day that she is my drag side coming out. Because I am actually a drag queen. Haha. Especially when I had her bark at a gay couple making out and she said "You work him!" Priceless!