Have you considered determining NPC gender randomly? (ttrpg.network)

submitted 3 days ago by juergen_hubert@ttrpg.network to c/rpg@ttrpg.network

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At some point in the past, I noticed that I had a strong tendency to make NPCs male, even though there wasn't any good story or setting-specific reason to do so. From gods to villains to random shopkeepers - most of these were assigned male without me even realizing that I have been doing it.

Thus, I started to assign genders by the roll of a dice - and I am fairly pleased with the results as this made the world significantly more diverse.

How about you? Have you noticed any similar biases in your own NPCs - and if so, what did you do about this?

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[-] Chaosmeister@ttrpg.network 4 points 1 day ago

Yes, when prepare NPC I always have dice determine gender/species/culture/etc to avoid my own biases. On the spot I atleast try to determine gender randomly.

[-] Alzai@ttrpg.network 2 points 1 day ago

Though I understand for gender, I think a lot of those depend a lot on the setting.

this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2025

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