Hey everyone,
Just finally read the forums after a 4 month hiatus and I couldn't pass up this post.
This is a delicious topic that has lead to a volume of hours arguing and snipping, even hurt feelings. Some of my players feel that since this is a magical game most of our "Reality" does not play in. Others feel that it only make sense. Please accept my humble 2 cents.
Something I love to throw out is that Canadian Women did not get the vote till 1916. That is an Embarrassment!
Any society that thrives on superstition has a tendency to place one sex below the other. Usually the weaker. IE: The Weaker Sex. Societies that focus on Warriors tend to focus on the Strong. Women never seem to fit into that large, muscle bulging monster of a being. In most Warrior cultures the Women takes a second place role. Japan for instance. They had/have several classes, and even the Noble Women were more for breeding then anything else. China, has been an philosophy seeking society for centuries and they are still accused of female infanticide. Then we look at the Celts and Norse. Women could still buy a sword, learn how it worked but in 'most' cases they were expected to stay at home. Not many women went 'A Viking', but they did own their house and property.
So now we (I) have to twist that into a Fantasy setting were magic adds a new level of complexity. Noble society was/is strife with feuds, because a Gentle was put on the wrong side and/or too far away from the Host (IE: King or Duke or Great Lord). Throwing Wizards, Priests, Elementalists, etc, onto the Heralds plate... That makes for some serious confusion. Now make that Herald a part of a Misogynistic society, and you have the start of an adventure.
I think Terry even mentions that problem in one of his stories. Then again, you read a bit of history and you realize just how important, putting the right person in the right chair was. To be misplaced was a slight so disastrous it started wars.
In a fantasy setting, to have all societies take on an Enlightened Rule of Thought, is honestly silly. Society is still decided by the Strongest; they have more money, more swords, better horses or can shoot more fireballs then the other guy. Those leaders are still only Human (usually) and still suffer from Human foibles. Read the news and you hear horrible stories about well educated Liberal Professors working at prominent Universities being charged with beating their Wives/Kids.
Also, in most cases, creating Women as a secondary citizen is usually Cultural in origin. Some cleaver person tries to turn the religion around to his way of thinking. There are a large number of real World examples of this, takes about 5 minutes of searching the web to find perfectly good (ignorant!) examples.
In my games I do limit the penetration of the Woman Hating Society. Usually I scatter them around; a single city here, remote communities, a cluster of communities dominated by a controlling Male Figure and so on. Although not rare it is not the norm. I try not to drive the few women I have in my games away. I still have nightmares of the first few games with girls I went to elementary school with. I watched the guys go after then, rape and misery became the stuff of two games... I will be honest, at first I really didn't understand. That was my failing. The girls never came back and I put up with this group till grade seven when I was able to get a new crew. It was much better.
Sorry, sort of blathered there...
Ying & Yang... There are different facets to every society. Just because you live in an enlightened society doesn't stop Zealots and Extremists. Just because you live in a society tormented by terrible Gawds, doesn't mean you believe in slavery and thralls. To live too far to one side is not really a Society but an Illusion.
I am reminded about a Moral Quiz I read (Dragon?), it was years ago and I was quite young, as I am an old bitter man now. A paladin and his team kill a pair of werewolves. While searching the den after the battle the team comes upon the pups. Five in total. What was the Lawful good Paladin to do? The pups are innocent and have committed no crimes other then being cute. Yet, to let them live is to let them possibly survive and do exactly what their parents had done; murder cattle, farmers and take children.
In a blaze I gave that challenge to my Paladin. This was a 15 year old I might add. It took him just over two hours to weight the decision. He knew to let the pups be, would only lead to problems later on. To kill the pups would be murder. He actually surprised me. "To a Paladin, there is no Lesser Evil", he killed the pups and took the punishment. He had to explain his reasoning to his Gawd, lost a level and lost all spell casting abilities for three levels. He accepted his punishment and actually became a better Player for it.
So where am I going with this disjointed essay?
Fantasy games are usually a brutal reminder of our failings, and the struggle to overcome terrible odds. Magic, supernatural creatures and Gawds (both Good and Evil) magnify those odds as our PC's navigate the moral sewer. Just because a PC is an Elf with magic and a brilliant education and high mental states doesn't mean he doesn't kill small animals in the dark of his lab. On the flip side, that despot warrior, who has killed thousands on spikes and flays his political decriers, and sacrifices 30 virgins/virgin like girls on the full moon to his smoking armoured Gawd, yet he allows a large group of "good" priests to create orphanages to care for all the children he has made homeless with his conquest.
These sexist and bigoted societies breath reality into games. Why do PC's have to be comfortable? I can't tell you how many boring games I have run because my team wasn't up to a complex adventure.
Why does an magical society have to be Enlightened? Why do barbarians have to be mad men/women that thrive on blood and gore? Can a society dominated by men, respect and admire a rare women that shows her talents as an artist; singer, carver, actress, painter, dancer? Yes, I think it can.
By avoiding the nastiness of Human behaviour or focusing on a few elements, is a disservice to gaming.
Well I think I have been stomping on my soap box for long enough... My goal is to not so much offend as it is to encourage people to use the ugly parts all the time. I have been in games where their was no flavour; no social interaction, no real sense of society, I found it a bit dry. The GM had a tendency to tell you about the environment, but not about the people. We knew what they wore, but not how they acted. When I asked questions about such things he actually got annoyed and accused me of "bogging" the game down with unimportant things. I have not been invited back, although is players have all contacted me asking about gaming. I declined as I have been in the middle of Party struggles... and I might add, my first High School group was "stolen". That was almost 25 years ago and they guy is still angry at me. (whiny little b@%*h)
Again, this is my $0.02 and if I end up projecting, I apologize now.
And thanks for reading my long winded rant!
Elrik the mouthy Bastard.
Night!
