Assumptions much?
I just got approved access to the files for an Ars Magica play-by-email. In the house rules, I found this:
If you’re not enjoying the game though, let the sg’s know why and we’ll try to accommodate your ideas. Requests for scenes with semi-naked Nuns I can do. Asking for semi-naked monks will get you a kick in the balls next time we meet up.
Ah. Dude. Your assumptions are showing. Nor are they all that is.
I thought about writing the storyguide to register a protest, but you know what? It’s totally not worth it. I’d frankly rather storyguide my own game than try to fit into a game with a storyguide who thinks this kind of joke is funny. (So funny, in fact, that the above citation is not even the first reference to “semi-naked nuns.”)
Just for the sake of irony, I’ll point out that the character I had in mind to play was bouncy, social, overtly sexual Aino the otter-mage. Weird how these things work.
I’m unsubscribing. I believe the Pyrenees were right nice in the early twelve hundreds. Anybody want to found a covenant?
Update: The beta storyguide mailed me to ask why I unsubbed, which was nice of him, so I didn’t give him an earful, just said “based on some stuff in the house-rules document I read, I don’t think I will be comfortable in this campaign” and apologized for bailing.
And in a stunning display of cluelessness that left even cynical old me dumbfounded, the beta storyguide thought my problem was with the rules. Oh, my gamers!
Look. I’m not even going to get into the ethics of the question. It’s really simple. If you run games, and you would like gamers of the female persuasion to join your games, DO NOT DO THIS STUFF. Just bag it, ’k? No matter what a good guy you (think you) are, overtly sexist jokes and assumptions that all gamers are male are huge red flags that send gamers of the female persuasion fleeing faster than a first-level rogue from an ancient red dragon.
So just don’t do it. Thank you.
Powered by FireStats