So, I've been wanting to play a Selonian ever since Suns of Fortune was announced. However, I'm a male, and I don't feel like playing a female. The problem was that Selonians are a female-based society, and males among them are both mistreated and scrawny, making them harder to fit in mechanically under Selonian stats (but much more enticing narratively). So, I made a Selonian male that is basically the last hope of his den.

So, statisticaly, male Selonian is nearly the same, except they switch the ratings of Brawn and Presence. This is because they are more scrawny, but tend to have to spend more time talking their way into privilege. For my character, I then increased Intellect and Presence to 3, to better fit his role as a Colonist.

Now some backstory: te character is named Dergus Vindla-Norn. His original den, Vindla, had been banished to a barren planet. His people lived under ground, and as new dens were created, Dergus (who came well after the Vindla den was banished) was traded to a queen. He grew strangely close to his new queen, which was responded with a lot of scorn, and later saved her and their den by warning her to stay put and close the borders when a plague broke out. After the plague, they were the last dwn left, and they quickly lost numbers when they were both infected with the plague and a blight came to their crops. They were eventually given a cure for the plague by a wandering surviving tribe, but they still need food, and they got so desperate that even the last male, Dergus, is being sent out to find resources to save the den.

How does that sound to other people? How do you suppose you could make a male Selonian?

I wouldn't swap the stats nor would I spend a lot on "physically active skills". I would hesitate to have any sort of gender or sexual differences of that magnitude, simply leave it to a divide of skills often purchased by various genders.

Edit - Wait, is that switch in the source-book? If so, never mind even though it sounds silly.

Personally?

I don't think that playing a Male Selonian would be hard for any male chauvinist pig...

Being a male in a largely female dominated society has some really awesome roleplay implications. I agree to an extent that you don't need the base characteristic swap, but I really like your justification for having presence be bumped up.

Your character's backstory is really intriguing.

NO NO NO! U R DOIN IT WRONG!!!

THERE ARE NO MALE SPACE WEASELS!

DEATH TO THOSE WHO OPPOSE THE FEMINIST SPACE OTTER HEGEMONY!

*ahem*

Yes, carry on...

While male selonians are rare....http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Zonder

Honestly, Selonian females are kind of asexual. It's not like they are overly feminine, because in Selonian society, among the sterile, they don't really follow traditional gender roles that might have you feeling icky about playing a female. You can play a female sterile selonian just like you would play a male, really. And the Zonder character above (who I still think should have been a shistavanen or something, not a selonian, or at the very least, female) is an exception to the rule. And he isn't particularly weak or scrawny.

River: Jayne is a girl's name.

Jayne: Well, Jayne ain't a girl! If she starts in on that girl's name thing, I'll show her good and all I got man parts.

--> Firefly Trash

I have another observation, but why the emphasis on what humans call 'female'? I mean... who lays the egg? It could be the guy you know. Its best to think of Aliens as Alien despite the fact that they are Earth's definition of bipeds.

The Horror Comedy Grabbers hit on this;

"Its a female."

"How do you know?"

"Its got no balls." <they look at the mass of tentacles> "And it laid this egg."

There are two ways to play a female character:

The Nickolson way: start with a man, then remove all reason and accountability.

The Whedon way: Start with a man, then change it to female and realize that whatever sex you make the character give them a personality rather than focusing on gender.

Make him a Death Stick addict! 'Cause you know... he's always lighting up after. (You'd get booted out out of the hole for that in a heart beat.)

Castlecruncher: There is also an assumption that Males of alien species behave as males of the human species. This is not necessarily true. The closest you have to Male Selonian breeding stock in human terms is a woman in a Sultan's Harem. That would be a subservient demure, uneducated individual.

I'd also think that only an unusual individual would leave that situation. In context, they know of no other way to exist. There are other dens to go to. For a male to leave (or as I prefer to think, escape), it would be a pretty unusual individual. Smuggled out by the fifth column, and raised by humans to someday return and free other males? (Empire messed up the plans?)

Your story line may not make sense, in that Harem boy is likely not outgoing or trained. (Wouldn't want him reading equal rights pamphlets would you?)

The other part of that story that may be an issue is that its a pretty demanding requirement for the character, and if he finishes it, he should be rights go home after. (Or they all die as he goes gallivanting across the galaxy.)

What about an escapee who's familiar with the Galaxy at large, and who's been asked to find a new Den on another planet before they all die? Water caves of Tatooine? (FYI that is the big dig in Libya. They found huge ancient water aquifers. A perfect Selonian den if you could secure the rights from the Hutts.)

While male selonians are rare....http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Zonder

Honestly, Selonian females are kind of asexual. It's not like they are overly feminine, because in Selonian society, among the sterile, they don't really follow traditional gender roles that might have you feeling icky about playing a female. You can play a female sterile selonian just like you would play a male, really. And the Zonder character above (who I still think should have been a shistavanen or something, not a selonian, or at the very least, female) is an exception to the rule. And he isn't particularly weak or scrawny.

No way that's a Selonian! The EU strikes again, huh?

Actually Keith, I'm grateful that you and the writers of EoE are giving SW such a serious treatment. There's so much in the EU I find silly or trite, but I'm loving reading the EoE fluff.

The Space Hamsters could have been dumb, but seeing that picture of them arguing toothily gives me a new respect for the little critters. Please keep this up!

The Whedon way: Start with a man, then change it to female and realize that whatever sex you make the character give them a personality rather than focusing on gender.

Agreed, TBS. Castlecruncher, I'm interested why you wouldn't want to play a female? Especially an alien, who wouldn't actually be especially 'feminine' by human standards? Both myself and my players play cross-gender in everything we play.

Agreed, TBS. Castlecruncher, I'm interested why you wouldn't want to play a female? Especially an alien, who wouldn't actually be especially 'feminine' by human standards? Both myself and my players play cross-gender in everything we play.

Our usual play group is always shocked when my wife chooses to play a female. I've played a few female characters in the past and it's usually 50/50 with one of my other players. None of my players really care, and we don't ever fall into the Luster/Flinn trap either.

I can understand why playing a cross-gender character might not appeal to everyone, but I can say that I have had great fun playing females at the table. In fact, a few months back I popped in on an Order 66 game GM Chris was running as a part of a kickstarter, and since I was a guest and didn't actually pay for anything, I let the paying folks pick their characters first. Naturally, I got left with the lady-doctor with an unhealthy obsession with extinct diseases.

I helped the party avoid a combat encounter by sneaking up on the BBEG and injecting him with a stim pack. I think bluffed him into thinking that the skin flush and rapid heartbeat he was feeling were the effects of some obscure disease in cliche cold-hearted-b!itch fashion. He ran for the medcenter screaming while we casually walked back to the hangar bay to move forward with the adventure.

I think gender-swapping RPG characters is something girls are more used to than guys simply because many/most tabletop games are still designed with men as the primary audience. Note that I don't think that girls have been forced to adapt in this way is a good thing, but I think it's fair to say it is a thing. Girls who enjoy gaming are forced to play male characters. Guys aren't used to that. I think as a guy (especially say, a 13-18 year old guy) playing as a female instantly has this boundary that makes a lot of guys feel uncomfortable. And I get that, I probably wouldn't have been comfortable with it either when I first got into gaming.

That said, if the Selonians interest you, I say get out of your comfort zone and try playing a Selonian female. You might find the experience rewarding.

Sorry for the delay: it appears people like to jump to conclusions if I don't explain.

The issue I have with being a female is not the personality, but the anatomy. My character is going to be a very quiet, peaceful person who achieves most of his likability from having purple fur. He does not act overly brawny or the like, instead choosing to follow the peaceful route. He doesn't understand woman, seeing them as overly violent (not making a sexist joke here, just referring to the warrior society of Selonians), but he still prefers their company since he never met many other males on his planet, with the ones he did meet being even more quiet than him. In Selonian standards, he is very outgoing and impossible to understand, but is stilly necessary in the eyes of his den.

Now, first off this kind of necessary underdog is hard with a female, since she would seem normal, and so I'd have to make an extra complicated story. Second off, feminist means female superiority, while feminine means the human view of stereotypical house wives. Selonians are feminist, not feminine. Lastly, as I said I just don't feel comfortable being a female character, since I'd have to reverse the affects of charm (if I decided to woo a female trader for a better deal, I'd be creepy if I was playing a female myself, but normal as a male), as well as exit my comfort zone.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, one of the players from my current group I'm GMing is playing a female Twi'lek, which is fine by me. I just prefer to play the same gender because it makes me feel at home from gender, gives interesting backstory, and sets my guy out as an individual. I saw female Selonians as only warrior based, while males are more peaceful based, which is my gaming style (I'm the doctor, charmer, mechanic, and the like most of the time).

Be a freak!

One of us! One of us!

Be like some ultra-macho genetic aberration: Dirk Thistlebritches IS the Selonian Sith Slayer!

Just one minor digression/nit-pick with Castlecruncher's last post...

Feminism is not the same as female-superiority. Feminism is simply recognizing that women are every bit as capable as men.

Sadly, the female-superiority sub-movement could never be bothered to use a different term, so people who ran into them first (or most often) never get the chance to internalize the actual meaning of the term.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled discussion...