Gender and the Bariaur
Recently Jeremy from the Stormin' Da Castle blog sent me an email. In it, he requested my advice for a project he was working on, updating some of the Planescape races for 4e. In particular, he wanted my opinions on updating the bariaur, a race that had different mechanics depending on gender.
Truthfully, I always get a little nervous when I get requests like this. I love D&D and want to be as respectful as possible to its rich traditions and heritage. However, I sometimes have a problem with how gender and biological sex were handled in the past. To me, this makes it a complex issue.
First, a little info on the bariaur. I don't have any information outside of what Jeremy provided in his email, so if I'm missing a critical bit of information, please let me know. My understanding is that they are a race of half ram, half human. Males were stronger and had a ram ability, apparently on the account of their horns. Females were smarter and had magic resistance. Below is my response, modified a bit to fit into a blog post rather than an email discussion.
So how would I approach this? On one hand, sexual dimorphism varies widely across species in the real world, and we might expect the same among races in a fantasy world. How cultures deal or don't deal with gender is a common theme for highlighting differences between them. And, for me, the big concern is how the overall product deals with gender rather than one particular race or culture. If the vast majority push all male or female characters in one particular direction, I start feeling constrained by the setting a way that's often uncomfortable for me.
On the other hand, some people are sensitive to gender differences that occur along the lines of men use brawn, women use brains and magic. Even if the work itself isn't sexist, it's a trigger for some people.
I know there is also the argument that why pick gender if it's not important in the mechanics. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of making gender part of mechanics because there is still a wide amount of variation within gender. I mean, when we discuss a gender, we're often talking about half of the population. And when we discuss PCs, we are talking about characters who break out of the expectations of their societies.
That said, I think there is a solid story reason here and it being one race out of a number (I'm assuming at least), I don't see a problem with carrying it through. Especially since a fair amount of the audience might really like that about the race (I don't know that for sure, just throwing out that there are always other concerns to balance against).
What I might do in this situation is find one common ability to bump up and then have strength or constitution and intelligence be the set players choose between. Then I would set up two main groups within the society. One group would get the charge racial ability and, in the fluff, I would describe the order of the ram. I wouldn't exclude women from the group, but make it clear that it's a mostly male group. Then I would have the other group that is typically formed from women. This way, if a player really wants to fight against the norms of the society, the rules don't forbid it, but I think we've respected the history of the race.
It turns out that Jeremy had already decided to do the ability bumps as I suggested. Check out his conversion of the bariaur. He is very kind to call me an expert, but I don't really see myself this way. I'm just passionate and willing to share my opinions.
Send feedback using the contact form or through twitter, @sarahdarkmagic.
Funny this would come up with an obscure race like the bariaur when there's a much more obvious example: the drow.
Maybe people're OK with them having a sexually segregated culture because they're chaotic evil. And on one hand, you could say that the drow's gender differences are more cultural than innate. But then again, in early AD&D, the difference between cultural & innate capabilities was a largely academic distinction, because the drow's gender differences were enshrined in the game mechanics.
Of course, I also think that if you invented evil elves and made them black in 2011 instead of 1977, you'd be having an argument about race, not gender.
Jack,
It's only the nature of what I was trying to do, updating some Planescape material to 4E.
It did make for an interesting exercise with a less well-known race (read: less popularity < fewer trolls). Sometimes, we have to pick an example that people are not as emotionally invested in to make our point.
Oh, jeez, I didn't even think about that. :) Yeah, you can't really have a sensible conversation about D&D's version of the Klingons. The drow practically have their own fandom at this point. All it takes is one obstreperous mule who wants to debate the theology of Lloth-worship to eighty-six the whole conversation.
Anyway, getting back to your point... I think there's a distinction to be made between playable & antagonist races, at least in terms of players' comfort with gender differences. I don't think anyone would argue that medusas and maedars need to have the same powers to be politically correct. But when the species in question is a playable race, it's different.
Therefore I demand to be allowed to play a male-to-female trans bariaur who has magic resistance. ;)
Thanks for the help, SarahDarkMagic, I really appreciate it. And you're an expert whether you choose to admit it or not. :)
I'd focus more on the horns. One of the hallmarks of "A woman can do anything a man can do" is that we're almost talking about a physical tautology, not just a sociologial one. With Buariars though, there's a MAJOR physical difference. Any woman who tried to fill a man's place would die from brain aneurism in short order. Likewise, any ammount of blunt force to the head training will likely fry whatever allows people to make magic.
But from a nuetral view point, I would have to say that carrying around large horns, and using them, would increase one's Constitution. Dealing witha herd of concussed males increases ones Intellegence (and hopefullu paitence, but I doubt that in Ysgard)
Abilities based on gender is very deceiving mechanic. People naturally rely on stereotypes, but stereotypes are never true in all cases (if at all). Through proper training, anyone can develop incredible skills. For example, as a martial artist myself, I happen to know a 63 year old woman who is a first degree black belt. Many would dismiss the comments I am about to make as madness, but I assure you, they are completely accurate.
This woman is able to jump, balance, and control her body in ways that most 20-something athletic males who come in for trial lessons simply cannot do. Furthermore, her hands are so powerful that if she were to grab said 20-something athletic male, they cannot break her grip, and they cannot escape. As you might expect, someone with such abilities is easily able to painfully manipulate the joints of a weaker opponent, and able to deliver powerful blows. This is reality, though most people would never think of someone who looks like a grandmother as being physically dangerous.
I'm reminded of taking anthropology classes in University, where they emphasised the difference between gender and sex, and how in some cultures there are more than two genders.
You can see designing bariaur from either direction.
A sex based distinction would be the standard sexual dimorphism in a species. In earlier editions this might hurt a player trying to play against type, but in 4e they'd just have a bonus to a secondary stat and a power that might serve them just as well as a fighter or a magic user. A female bariaur fighter wouldn't have a minotaur-esque charge, but her magical encounter power would broader her abilities making her more flexible as a fighter.
But I like your idea of going for a gender/cultural distinction, with the two role-based genders of martial and magic. It'd be super interesting to design a culture based around that, where you have a set sex but choose your gender and associated gender stereotypes: males that choose to be gents, males that choose to be ladies, females that choose to be gents, etc.