#no discussion of trans amazons either but this was 2006

[fantasyfantasygames]

Amazons

Amazons, Warrior Women Games, 2006

As one would expect, you play Amazons in this game - women from out of Greek myth.* You're warriors, hunters, scouts, sailors, and sages. There's only one supernatural power involved (which I'll get into later), so no witches or demigods or anything.

Your characters are defined by a fairly standard set of attributes and skills - Strength, Agility, Wisdom, Spear, Archery, Stealth, etc. All of them are done with a pyramidal cost scheme. As a result, it's easy to build a group where your characters overlap too much. It costs the same number of points to buy a 10-point skill (rolling 1d10x10) as it does to buy two skills at 8 and 6 (1d10x8 and 1d10x6), and the 8 and 6 are generally high enough to hit the typical target numbers. I think what I'm trying to say is that the game could really use a better approach to handling character archetypes, both for flavor purposes and for niche protection.

As mentioned, the game uses multiplication, which you'll either be fine with or will really bother you. Since it's dice-times-stat instead of dice-times-dice, the probability distribution is fairly flat, and you don't have weird statistics stuff going on. You do get margin-of-success effects from rolling higher, but you don't actually have to do two-digit subtraction. Instead, you get one "rank" of success for every point by which the tens place in your result is higher than the tens in your opponent's result. You roll a 25 and they have a 48? They have a rank-2 success. Same if you roll a 28 and they have a 40. Ranks get you damage, but also duration and effectiveness for other types of roll. It's a little weird at low values - a 12 and an 18 get you a tie even though one is 50% higher than the other - but it works well for higher values.

The particularly cool part of the game is that you play in two time periods simultaneously: ancient Greece and modern-day Athens. Your characters went "through" the Oracle at Delphi (is that how that works??) and are experiencing parallel events. When they run into a businessman in the modern day, they meet a merchant in ancient Greece. A Spartan warrior might become a rich but violent criminal. They see both things happening at once, and the GM is encouraged to mix the two in their descriptions. Philosophers arguing in the shadow of concrete and steel. Ocean liners passing by sailing vessels. It's an interesting conceit, and it gives you some cool ways to solve problems in one time by approaching them i the other.

Typical antagonists are "cruel people in positions of power" - slavers, price-gouging traders, sadistic princes, petty senators, etc. Several examples are statted up, along with their entourages. There isn't much discussion of what the backlash is going to be from your characters going after those people and their well-trained bodyguards. Like a lot of this game, the surface level is presented and any implications are left to the GM and their table.

As we leave this review, it may be interesting to know that Warrior Women Games was two cis men in their twenties. The game is written with respect, but without personal experience. There's no major misogyny here, no particular fetishization or anti-feminist rhetoric involved. There's also no real punch to the fact that you're actually playing women. On the one hand - awesome! The game treats your women characters just like it would treat men characters. Straight-up equality. On the other hand, there's a missed opportunity to dig into how your ancient women experience the modern world. There's no discussion of what has changed and what has not since the (admittedly fictional*) time of the Amazons. I think a game written by someone able to delve into that experience more might be more compelling. But I'll at least give it credit for not having fallen into a number of traps that plague other men-written-women-centric games. You're not going to cringe reading this.

*Edit to add, March 2024: Maybe the Amazons are not as fictional as I thought! https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/mar/24/truth-behind-the-myths-amazon-warrior-women-of-greek-legend-may-really-have-existed

#ttrpg #imaginary #indie ttrpg #rpg #review #no glamazon archetype in this one maybe next time #no discussion of trans amazons either but this was 2006 #fun fact there's a trans amazon supporting character in Wonder Woman these days

[thefaeriereview]

Check It Out: GenderQueer

https://ift.tt/2MDXoXv

GenderQueer: A Story from a Different Closet by Allan D. Hunter 

Gender Studies Fiction

Derek is a girl. He wasn't one of the boys as a kid; he admired, befriended, and socialized with the girls and always knew he was one of them, despite being male. That wasn't always accepted or understood, but he didn't care: he knew who he was. Now he's a teenager and boys and girls are flirting and dating and his identity has become a lot more complicated: he's attracted to the girls. The other girls. The female ones. This is Derek's story, the story of a different kind of male hero — a genderqueer person's tale. The century's first decade saw many LGBT centers and services rebranding themselves as LGBTQ. The "Q" in LGBTQ is a new addition. It represents other forms of "queer" in an inclusive wave-of-the hand towards folks claiming to vary from conventional gender and orientation, such as genderqueer people. People who are affirmatively tolerant on gay, lesbian and transgender issues still ask "Why do we need to add another letter to the acronym? Isn't anyone who isn't mainstream already covered by 'gay' or 'lesbian' or 'bisexual' or 'trans'? I'm all in favor of people having the right to call themselves whatever they want, but seriously, do we need this term?" Derek's tale testifies to the real-life relevance of that "Q" - this is a genderqueer coming-of-age and coming-out story from an era long before genderqueer was trending. This story follows Derek from his debut as an 8th grader in Los Alamos NM until his unorthodox coming out at the age of 21 on University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque.

5 out of 5 fairies

GenderQueer will open your eyes. Being different is never easy. It's especially hard when you don't fall into what's still considered the standard in today's society.  When you're part of the LGBTQ+ community, it can be especially difficult. A lot of this story spoke to me on a deep level as a member of the community, and I honestly hope that some people who don't understand what the "Q" can encompass learn from this story. It's well written and I hope those less familiar with those who don't conform to traditional gender roles learn something new.

Where to buy: Amazon

Add to your TBR list: Goodreads

About the Author: Allan D. Hunter came out as a heterosexual sissy and gender invert in 1980, long before the word "genderqueer" was in use. Allan received his BA in American Studies with a concentration in Women’s Studies from the State University of New York (SUNY)/Old Westbury and an MSW in Social Welfare and an MA in Sociology from SUNY/Stony Brook. Sunstone Press is publishing his book, GenderQueer: A Story from a Differently Gendered Closet, with a release date is anticipated to be early 2020. It is the story of his growing awareness of his own gender identity and how it affected him, his family, classmates, and friends. It begins with his elementary-school years and continues into adulthood. He is a resident of New Hyde Park, New York. Allan has published the following articles: 1. “Same Door, Different Closet: A Heterosexual Sissy’s Coming-Out Party,” in the journal Feminism and Psychology 2 (3), 1992. It has been reprinted twice in subsequent anthologies, including the book-length expansion of this journal’s special issue, titled HETEROSEXUALITY: A Feminism and Psychology Reader, which was published soon after the first appearance of his article, and in Sexual Lives: A Reader on the Theories and Realities of Human Sexualities, Heasley & Crane, eds., McGraw-Hill, 2002. 2. “The Radical Feminist Perspective in (and/or on) the Field of Sociology,” in Readings in Feminist Theory, edited by S.M. Channa, Cosmo Publications, 2006. This article began as a paper in his undergraduate days and was critiqued favorably by Verta Taylor of The Ohio State University’s Sociology Department and Sheila Ruth, professor at Southern Illinois University, and author of the reader, Issues in Feminism. 3. “Sexual Objectification and Visual Aspects of Sexuality,” Sheffield Electronic Press, 1994 His work has been cited in the following: “Masculinities and Affective Equality,” proceedings from GEXcel Theme 2: Deconstructing the Hegemony of Men and Masculinities Conference, 27– 29 April 2009, edited by Alp Biricik and Jeff Hearn Chapter 12: Analyzing Discursive Constructions of “Metrosexual” Masculinity Online: “What does it matter, anyway?,” Matthew Hall, Trent University, Nottingham, England “Policing Gender at Work: Intersections of Harassment Based on Sex and Sexuality,” Julie Konik and Lilia M. Cortina, Social Justice Research (2008), 21: 313-337 Allan has given the following lectures: - Feminist reading group, Boston College, discussing gender issues introduced in “Same Door, Different Closet,” 2011 - LIFE (Long Island Fetish Exchange), Nassau County Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Center, Woodbury, Long Island, New York, on the topic, “Gender Inversion, Being Genderqueer, and How Kink Facilitates Stepping Away from Gendered Assumptions,” 2015 - Baltimore Playhouse, Baltimore, MD, “Gender Inversion, Being Genderqueer, and Living in a World of Gender Assumptions,” 2016 - EPIC Lifestyle Conference, Lake Harmony, PA, same topic, 2016 - Long Island Leather and Roses, West Babylon, NY, same topic, spring 2017 - Podcast, OffTheCuffs (http:/offthecuffs.libsyn.com/), 2017 - Mars Hill University, 2017 - Castleton University, 2017 - 20Something, LGBTQ Center, New York City, 2017 During his undergraduate days, he was an active participant at the campus Women’s Center, edited the student newspaper, and wrote many articles about sex roles, gender, and feminism; he also did a psychology research project on sex-role nonconformity, where he profiled male sissies (male girls) and female tomboys (female boys), differentiating them from either sexual orientation or studies of transsexual people seeking sex reassignment. Allan has often been at odds with other academics with his views on gender identity and on feminism. He has brought a fresh perspective to these discussions, which have not always been favorably received, yet they have added to the scholarship in an area that has been greatly lacking in researching and writing. Beginning in 1996, Allan began offering his own theory papers on his own website, https://ift.tt/2C1h8Cn. He is in the process of moving that content to his new website, https://ift.tt/2C1h8Cn. He blogs at https://ift.tt/2lwRqYC. He has also participated in various internet-based and small-group volunteer counseling services for people exploring their gender identity and sexuality.

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#Blogger #book review #Check It Out #coming of age #Fiction #Gender Studies #LGBTQ+