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Gender
Now that you know the race of your charcter
and have recorded it on your character sheet, consider
your character’s gender: male or female. Gender
is a correlative factor with many things, from
abilities, to height and weight. For example, on average
it is obvious that males tend to be physically
stronger, taller, and weigh more than females.
Most importantly, consult with the Aedile
to see if gender is determined randomly or may be
chosen by the player. Random determination is
more realistic, since no one gets to choose their gender
in reality. However, the random determination
of gender is problematic if a group of players are
involved because random genders may be inappropriate.
Therefore, the Aedile must choose whether
gender is determined randomly or chosen by the
player.
If the Aedile declares that gender is determined
randomly, which is rare, then consult Offspring
Gender in Chapter 6: Sociality. Otherwise, a
player should choose their gender based on the following
information or personal preference. Record
the gender of your character on your character sheet.
According to a prominent philosopher, 1
males tend to be more spirited, savage, simple, and
less cunning. Females, on the other hand, tend to
be more compassionate than males, more easily
moved to tears, at the same time are more jealous,
more querulous, and are more apt to scold and to
strike. Females are, furthermore, more prone to
despondency and less hopeful than males, more void
of shame and self-respect, more false of speech,
and more deceptive. Females are also more wakeful,
shrinking, and difficult to rouse to action. The
philosopher notes that males are more courageous,
sympathetic, and stand by to help. Even in the case
of mollusks, when the cuttle-fish is struck with a
trident, the male stands by to help the female; but
when the male is struck, the female runs away.
The philosopher’s observations presented
above are generalizations and do not hold true for
all characters, though the generalizations apply across
the available races. Certainly, it is possible to find a
surpassingly shameless male, or a female who is less
susceptible to depression than males, but these instances
are the exception to the observed rule.
Consult the following table of Gender Modifiers
to adjust the sub-abilities and Temperament of
a character:
2
Gender
Modifiers
To
be Modified Male
Female
ABILITIES
P hysique: Physical Fitness + 5%
- 5%
P hysique: Strength
+ 30%
- 30%
P hysique: Bodily Attractiveness - 3%
+ 3%
C harisma: Facial
- 3%
+ 3%
I ntelligence: Language
- 2%
+ 2%
I ntelligence: Math
+ 3%
- 3%
I ntelligence: Spatial
+ 3%
- 3%
W isdom Drive
+ 2%
- 2%
W isdom: Intuition
- 5%
+ 5%
W isdom: Reflection
- 4%
+ 4%
TEMPERAMENT
Sanguine
- 2 + 2
Choleric
+ 2 - 2
According to the adjustments above, it may
seem as though males are superior, though it is important
to understand that there are other instances,
such as nurturing, that are unapparent in the adjustments
and may become evident and valuable during
role-playing. The function of altering gender according
to the table above is to shift the averages of
the sexes to more closely resemble reality 3 .
Do not apply the gender modifiers until after
the sub-abilities or temperaments have been generated.
Following is some information about gender
and culture.
Chapter 1: Race and Gender
1. In Book IX of “Historia Animalium,” Aristotle refers to gender differences and compares animals as well as humans. His
comments are deemed relevant to the setting of F.A.T.A.L. due to the prevalence of his opinion throughout the Middle Ages.
2. All Gender Modifiers are based upon scholarly literature. Hand-Eye Coordination receives no Gender Modifier. Males
have faster Movement Times, but finger size is a better predictor than gender. For more information, see studies concerning
dexterity in the References section at the end of this book.
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